Is Eric Metaxas the next Chuck Colson?

Good journalism should be absolutely clear. When you say “credited with keeping Christians engaged in politics and culture through books, radio and other outlets,” what you mean is, “credited with keeping . . . politically conservative, evangelical Christians . . . engaged in politics and culture. . . ” Metaxas does not speak to or for all segments of Christian America. This is clear in the rest of the article, but one can no more make a blanket statement about “Christians” than about any other large demographic.

I tend to find that X is the new X articles less than useful. Why can’t Metaxas just be Metaxas. We don’t need a new Billy Graham. We don’t need a new Chuck Colson. God made one of those already.

What the article fails to mention is just who published the Christian Century article. While I understand that Christian Century can be a little daft usually and that they have their own ax to grind, the criticism of Metaxas’ biography was pretty sound. In addition, it is most important to note that it was written by Clifford Green. He is considered one of (if not the) top Bonhoeffer expert in the English language. He is the editor of the multi-volume Fortress Press editions. Obviously the Liberals are not happy with Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer, and Green’s assessment is spot on. But conservatives too have trouble with Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer as Richard Weikart demonstrates by listing the areas of divergence between Bonhoeffer and “American Evangelicals” (read: fundamentalist Evangelicals). But Bonhoeffer is more complex than any cardboard cut-out Bonhoeffer; just as American Evangelicals are more complex than they are often painted.

As a Lutheran myself, I began to read Bonhoeffer in high school. Ethics changed my life. It helped me understand “the fall” and wrestle with the great sin in my life: pride. Bonhoeffer was a mentor to me and perhaps I feel kind of like the hipster who sees a beloved underground band suddenly catapulted to fame. The more I read Bonhoeffer the more orthodox he sounds and the more there seems to be a desire to make him less orthodox and more American (be it right or left). Can we just allow a Christian to be a Christian? That is my problem with Metaxes, he writes well and edits poorly. I would recommend learning from Bonhoeffer and not people trying to sell him as “one of us.”

Jake, I don’t believe we are to assume that he was “faking” it in the Greek Orthodox church, although I have read other interviews with Metaxas where he touches more completely on his attitude of non-devotion and complacency while attending as a child and young adult. He also had a period while at Yale where he essentially fell away from any sort of belief in God and basically became agnostic, so there is room for at least a re-dedication experience there. However, I think the main point is the difference between the Orthodox beliefs and the Evangelical stance. Whereas evangelicals believe that scripture alone can stand upon its own authority and can be interpreted by the individual, the Orthodox church trusts in the combo of the scriptures as defined by the first seven ecumenical councils and the concept of Holy Traditions. In addition there is the orthodox practice of the Eucharist, and etc. Orthodoxy rejects predestination, immaculate conception, and differ on other doctrinal issues like the idea of gradual salvation. Now if I’m wrong on any of these details feel free to correct me, but the point is not whether or not Greek Orthodox Christians are “saved”, or classified as Christians, the point is that there is a vast difference of doctrine between the two groups. As a result of Metaxas’ luke-warm, at best, belief in the Greek Orthodox faith as a child (such belief being noted as worse than unbelief in Revelation 3), he sites his conversion experience as occurring later in life, at which time he “converted”, or decided to align himself based upon scriptural examination, with the Evangelical Christian doctrine. There is no disconnect here, just as you would not claim a disconnect if a Shia Muslim became a Sunni Muslim. The question is not whether or not they were previously followed a brand of “Islam.” The question is that of doctrinal correctness. In this case doctrinal correctness regarding salvation.