The Bayview Review

I'm two weeks late getting in this plug for a new venture that three of my faculty colleagues from Tyndale and I have started. It is a group blog called "The Bayview Review" and the purpose is stated on the blog as follows:

"The Bayview Review is an online magazine that attempts to be a resource for historic Chrisitan thought in relation to culture, government, philosophy, politics, and theology. While the authors of The Bayview Review agree on many things it would be a mistake to think we agree on them all and even when there is an agreement that some particular conclusion is correct it is very likely there will be widespread disagreement as to why that conclusion is correct. At The Bayview Review one should expect to see a broad diversity of views that all remain within the boundaries of historically orthodox Christianity.

In sum, the aim of The Bayview Review is to demonstrate that the conservative mindset is not only intellectually defendable against attacks from the Left (whether Secular, Liberal-Protestant, or Evangelical) but it is actually intellectually preferable to those alternatives."

Contemporary Evangelicalism arose out of the Fundamentalist movement in the 1940s and at first all Evangelicalism was Conservative Evangelicalism. Over the past few decades, however, as Evangelicalism has experienced numerical, financial, intellectual and institutional success, it has also become very diverse. Today there are many kinds of Evangelicals on a left-center-right spectrum plus many diverse sub-cultures within the overall movement.

Theological diversity within Evangelicalism is of two kinds. On the one hand, there is diversity in denominational traditions such as Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal and other traditions but with all of these being rooted in historic Christian orthodoxy. On the other hand, there is also a developing Evangelical Left which crosses denominational lines and consists of those who are on a journey similar to that taken by the mainline denominations a century ago.

So, Conservative Evangelicalism is not a particular denominational or regional branch of Evangelicalism, but simply a continuing movement that believes what the Fundamentalists and the later Evangelicals have believed from the beginning of the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy in the 19th century. The Bayview Review is designed to promote an intellectual version of a Conservative Evangelicalism that desires not to live in the 1940s so much as it desires to be in communion with the 1500s and the 400s. What others may consider to be "out-of-date" we consider to be "grounded in historic orthodoxy." That which some may see as "progressive" we see as "lame cultural captivity". We want to be both Evangelical and Catholic because we believe this is the only way to be Biblical and because we believe that this is the future of Christianity.

In the future, I'll be cross-posting some of my posts there as well as here. Also, I'll be posting some of the best of my posts here at The Politics of the Cross Resurrected over there from time to time. The first of these is available now and is called "In Praise of the Lecture."

I hope you take time to visit The Bayview Review.