Gavin Ortlund’s Empty Defense Of Third Wayism

Gavin Ortlund is Russell Moore’s prodigy, as Moore has played a major role in advancing the career of the nepo-pastor’s kid turned prominent YouTuber. Moore awarded Ortlund’s book last year at Christianity Today in a glaring conflict of interest as they even go to the same church. Additionally, Gavin Ortlund is a theological liberal in the vein of Tim Keller.

Invoking Keller’s legacy, Gavin Ortlund put out a video titled, “Before Dunking on Keller … Consider This” which provides yet another defense of Keller’s Third Wayism, a political Third Wayism popularized by Tim Keller whereby he would argue that the Bible stood somewhere in the middle between the left and the right, calling this the “Third Way.” The premise is flawed as the Bible is to the right of the current Republican Party, on moral issues.

In the past, Ortlund has defended the merits of Third Wayism by arguing that the truth is not exactly in the middle of the right and left. In this video, he pleads with critics to address Third Wayism as argued by its proponents and argues against “No Enemies On The Right” (NEOTR), claiming that both are threats, but only the liberals want to flood my nation with the third world and use the power of the state to persecute Christians.

Gavin Ortlund’s vapid argument climaxes with a call for historic perspective. The (only tangible example in the entire video) is CS Lewis, whom Ortlund lauds as a theological liberal but a political conservative.

But even the usage of CS Lewis as an example of historic perspective reveals a weak argument. The problem in postmodern Christianity is that the Reformers would be excommunicated from the faith traditions they founded. This hypothetical injustice, most perfectly exemplified through Martin Luther, is the perspective Christians need to have. CS Lewis, having only died in 1963, is not far enough removed for a perspective, just popular and prominent to the Christian everyman.

Ultimately, what’s missing from Ortlund’s video is a positive example of the effectiveness of Third Wayism. Gavin Ortlund can argue platitudes about charity in discourse (which he doesn’t practice anyway), but Christians want a political model that works, not just one that can be vaguely argued from Scripture.