It’s hard to imagine actual Christian heroes of the twentieth century wanting their legacy to be insulted by theologically liberal teachers, but that is what The Gospel Coalition and Covenant Theological Seminary are teaming up to accomplish with their upcoming conference featuring Jake Meador and Gavin Ortlund.
Covenant Theological Seminary hosts the Francis Schaeffer Institute and its conference. The purpose of the conference is listed as follows:
Many people today don’t understand why the Christian faith is necessary. The modern age allows us to live in a buffered way, cut off from the spiritual realities of our own existence and the world.
In such a context, Christianity seems to come from an entirely foreign world that makes no practical or emotional sense. The core claims of Christian theology are often met with a shrug, while some of its moral claims are met with outrage. Rarely are Christianity’s claims met with a sense of intrigue or curiosity. How can believers engage a disenchanted people to portray a dynamic experience of Christ that breaks through the buffered self? This conference will address the cultural hardening to Christian revelation and the unique evangelistic challenges and opportunities it creates, drawing on the work of Charles Taylor.
Choosing Ortlund and Meador is an odd choice to address these issues.
Gavin Ortlund serves at the same church as Russell Moore, has a liberal view on the flood, and doesn’t seem to think that universalism amounts to heresy. His comments pushing Christians to engage in climate change struggle sessions, chiding them to “hit the books” while failing basic earth science went viral in Megan Basham’s book Shepherds For Sale.
Jake Meador is the editor and chief of the liberal blog, Mere Orthodoxy. He’s been featured on The Gospel Coalition’s faith debate series where he chimed in on Christian involvement over climate change. Meador wrote a book on how adopting a derisive definition of whiteness was a way to delineate “racial justice” from sodomy and transgenderism.
In an interview with TGC’s Collin Hanson he said this (credit Woke Preacher Clips)
Francis Schaeffer, an Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor, held strong views on the topic of creation versus evolution. He was a staunch advocate for the biblical account of creation, known as Young Earth Creationism. This view posits that the Earth was created by God in six literal 24-hour days, and the universe is not that old.
Schaeffer believed that the theory of evolution was incompatible with the Bible and Christian teachings. He argued that accepting evolution would undermine the authority of Scripture, as it contradicts the biblical account of creation. He also believed that evolution was a philosophical worldview that denied the existence of God and the divine nature of humanity.
Schaeffer’s views on this subject were influential in the development of the modern Creationist movement. His writings, such as “Genesis in Space and Time” and “No Final Conflict,” served as a basis for many Creationist arguments and helped to shape the debate surrounding the origins of life and the universe within the Christian community.
So the irony of having Ortlund speak is not lost.
