by Scot McKnight
Mr. McKnight, I would like to echo a question that someone asked above, and I don’t think you replied to it (unless I missed the answer, in which case I apologize.) The question is: why are you still an evangelical, and not Catholic or Orthodox?
The reason I ask is this: much of what you say resonates with me big time. About being connected to the history of the church, of the inadequate ecclesiology of low-church evangelicals, etc. But the solutions you seem to be offering seem more superficial than anything else to me. You seem to be saying: “Let’s try and imitate all these traditional, liturgical things, without joining them. Let’s dress up like them, without joining them.” But how does that get us anywhere? How is that a better ecclesiology than low-church evangelicalism? How is that not simply everyone doing what they please? [letter continued below]
Dear Friend,
I’ve been asked this before, and I’m not sure I have ever sat down to write it out. I’d like you to know that I don’t write this as a piece of polemics, but neither do I want you to think that whether or not one is Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant doesn’t matter. It does. So, what I write comes out of respect for the good of the RCC and EO traditions, but I have to say that I’m not either nor can I be in good conscience.
First, I’ve never been tempted to become either Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. Never. Perhaps this surprises you and others, since it is true that I have plenty of appreciation of both communions — along with the Anglican and Lutheran churches. Sure, I grew up Protestant, and that has lots to do with what is instinctually natural for me, but I’d like to think that enough exposure to the other traditions has led me not to convert to either.
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