Diana Butler Bass’ book, Christianity for the Rest of Us, has three parts: description of the collapse of mainline liberalism and the renewal of the “village church” in America, a sketch of ten signposts of renewal, and then a section about the shift from pilgrims to tourists in which she focuses on the transformations occurring in the renewal she is finding in mainline churches — churches that are neither old-fashioned Protestant liberalism nor Protestant evangelicalism.
She studies in depth 10 churches, and she finds the renewal of these churches can be found in ten disciplines — and for each she has ample evidence with clear description — and not a little jabbing by these “rest of us” Christians of conservative evangelicals. Tournabout, one must admit, is fair play: if evangelicals routinely jab liberals, the mainlines are entitled to jab back — unless of course one wants to pave another way.
I can’t possibly detail each one, but a few comments are in order for each, and I must emphasize that the chps are highly readable, knitted together with nice vignettes and stories, and gentle to the reader:
1. Hospitality: it is about welcoming strangers — not just tea and cakes — into the heart of God’s transformative love.
2. Discernment: this begins by asking “God-questions” and not “I-questions.”
3. Healing: no kidding. Prayers for healing.
4. Contemplation: all the stuff that has been developing throughout the church — centering prayer, etc.
5. Testimony: getting mainliners to tell their spiritual autobiography is not easy, but the practice is growing. These are stories, not of arrival, but of pilgrimage.
6. Diversity: “A church full of difference but not a lot of division” (146). This is not secular relativism but a sense of diversity inherent to the transformative power of the gospel. Leading to God’s shalom.
7. Justice: though I’d have liked a robust theological definition of justice, this chp clearly worked away from the secular rights-for-all-of-us sense of justice. She says “fairness, equality and human rights … are primarily secular ideals” (159). “Justice is spirituality.”
8. Worship: creative stuff here; but her focus is on practices that lead to encountering God.
9. Reflection: a good chp on the rise of theological education among mainliners congregants and not just the clergy. Clearly a statement of generous orthodoxy.
10. Beauty: to be expected of mainliners, but the chp showed innovation as well as the importance of beauty in the theology of “the rest of us.”
I don’t agree with plenty of stuff that comes up in these chps, but I know of no better way to see the innovative developments among mainliners when it comes to what might be called a “renewal of spirituality.”