Constantinople, the new Canterbury

Via Commonweal, pretty good piece in TNR about the trend of evangelical-to-Orthodox conversion. Author Jason Zengerle knows the U.S. religious landscape fairly well, but he misses some important points.

Zengerle situates his story in Wheaton, Illinois, making for an odd juxtaposition when he brings up the anti-intellectual strain of evangelical heritage. It's not clear if Zengerle's aware that, at this point, Wheaton is not so much the center of evangelicalism itself--Colorado Springs holds that title--as of specifically intellectually rigorous evangelicalism. This overlooked fact troubles his idea that the converts he talks to in Wheaton are motivated largely by their own tradition's intellectual shallowness--that stereotype ends up being (even) less true in Wheaton than elsewhere. (Zengerle even quotes Mark Noll, but without mentioning that, before his recent move to Notre Dame, Noll was for years a high-profile and beloved Wheaton College professor.)

While this may seem a rather fussy objection, it's important because, had Zengerle noted the highly intellectual nature of Wheaton evangelicalism, it might have led him to conclude that the conversion phenomenon must be about something very different from (or at least in addition to) a desire for "smarter" church. Seems to me that many folks who leave the evangelical fold for more traditional practice are seeking not a deeper intellectual setting so much as one that is not defined exclusively or even primarily on intellectual terms at all.

In other words, the goal is not smarter but rather more mystical. After all, U.S. evangelicalism, even outside the Wheaton world, is in general not lacking in developed doctrine so much as in an appreciation for the limits of doctrine of any kind. One's hard pressed to find a significant appreciation for mysticism in the modernist-rationalist evangelical world; even the emergent movement has tended to be more about an intellectual faith with a vaguely postmodern flavor and quasi-mystical trappings than actual mystical spiritual experience. But there's much mysticism to be found in a variety of traditions that pre-date the U.S.--whether Lutheran, Anglican, Catholic, or certainly Orthodox. The more learned and rigorous your evangelical context--the more Wheaton (or Calvin or Westmont) profs in the pews--the more you might feel this utter lack of anything right-brained, non-verbal, etc.

Yes, the subject of renewalism (Pentecostal/charismatic movements) throws a whole additional factor into this subject, but I think I'll lay off for now, as this post is getting quite long...

(Okay, one more thing: Zengerle also situates this conversion phenomenon within the worship wars, which strikes me as odd--whatever the best strategy is for those who seek to protect the Great Hymns of White Europe from the play-the-God-Rock-and-the-kids-will-dig-it crowd, I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with...chucking both options in favor of hours of choral chant.)