Carl on Coolness, Culture and the Spiritual Oedipus Syndrome

The more I read from Carl Trueman the more I like him. Writing here for Reformation 21, he says,

D A Carson comments in The Gagging of God that much of the trendy theology which characterized the neo-evangelicalism of the eighties and nineties had more than a whiff of the kind of rebellion exhibited by spoiled children whose immature self-image depends on their vocal repudiation of everything which their parents held dear. What is theologically true of the trendy evangelical left seems to be practically true of the trendy Reformed right. Here, legitimate criticism of a legalistic pietism too frequently degenerates into illegitimate rubbishing of appropriate piety. Thus, the F-bomb and other casual obscenities and profanities have become for some the trendy hallmarks of mature Christianity. Strange to tell, talking like sexually insecure thirteen years olds has become the way we Christians show how grown up we are. We embrace what the older generation rejected in order to show that we have come of age and to show the world that, hey, we’re not as weird as we used to be; we can be as rough ‘n’ tumble, as hip, savvy, cool and gritty as the rest.

Yet there are several problems with this. First, Christianity just isn’t cool, savvy or hip. As my sons repeatedly tell me, `Dad, you’re a balding middle aged guy; you listen to rock dinosaurs from the land that time forgot; you still call male hairdressers “barbers;” and you’re a member of the OPC; you can never, ever be cool; and the more you try to be so, the more embarrassing you become.’ And the same applies to evangelical Christianity – evangelicalism just isn’t cool or hip or avant-garde, and attempts to make it appear so, whether theologically or culturally, always end up as self-defeating, rather sad and pitiful. It doesn’t matter whether you sport a ponytail, spout postmodern gobbledygook, wear a Kurt Cobain teeshirt, or have a strong opinion on which U2 album is the best – if you’re an evangelical Christian, there’s something ineradicably uncool about you. Anyone out there remember `The Rock Gospel Show’ from the mid-eighties? I rest my case.

Read the whole post, it's pretty good.