Jesus Cropped from the Picture

The Traditional Method

as the root of original sin, but revivalists used it as motivation for conversion. Michael Horton contended, “Liberals and revivalists both de-emphasize God’s transcendence and tend to see God’s Word as something that wells up within a person rather than as something that comes to a person from the outside.” 78 In some ways, the American fixation with introspection can be traced to Frontier Revivalism. The Third Shaping Force: Common Antagonist The Traditional Method has three primary antagonists. One is the Roman Catholic Church, against whom the Protestant Reformers reacted. Many Traditionals continue to have a negative view of Roman Catholicism. In fact, some Traditionals speak as though the Reformation were still in process today. This general suspicion of the Roman Catholic Church extends to the devotional writings of non-Protestants throughout the ages, leaving Traditionals without the treasured wisdom of Aquinas, John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, and Teresa of Avila. The second antagonist is liberal Christianity, or its non-Christian counterpart, secular humanism. Since the Traditional Method was born out of conflict with liberal views of Scripture, it is easy to understand why liberalism is an antagonist. Even today, conflicts continue over the trustworthiness of the Bible, and much energy is directed to developing answers to skeptics’ questions.

In recent years, the Emerging Method (with its embrace of Post- modernity) has become a bewildering antagonist to some Traditionals. Although Emergings come from a Traditional background, they are

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