Lindbeck writes that "anti-doctrinalism will reverse itself, I suspect, when Constantinian mass Christianity finally collapses and is replaced by a Christian diaspora" (p. 39). Lindbeck saw accurately the demise of American mainline Christianity in the United States, although he did not see it replaced by the Constantinian rise of the evangelical American right. This coalition, however, may be trembling -- Frank Schaeffer, son of Francis Shaeffer, wrote an editorial this week speaking about how he was turning in his Republican Party Card. A recent book on the "faith-based programs" spoke how evangelicals heard themselves ridiculed by Karl Rove et al. The unfortunate fall of Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, with admitted "indiscretions" that are still "coming out" will make this Constantinian coalition shake even more. American evangelicalism has built itself in the past 25 years through a Constantinian alliance. If it falls, there will be a rapid secularization of the US; mega-churches will tremble; churches that existed to chaplain American exceptionalism will find out that American exceptionalism doesn't really need them. NPR this morning asked, "Will the Republican base, evangelicals, come out next Tuesday?"

If this evangelical Constantinian coalition falls, the church will find itself in the diaspora existence that has happened within mainline Protestants who nevertheless yearn for their old Constantinian days of influence. But a return to a Constantinian "activism" and "pluralism" represented by the old mainline churches and their bureaucracies and educational institutions will not be an option.

Thus the importance of "sectarian" movements. But they have their own problems. Lindbeck rightly states that "Small groups are particularly susceptible to all kinds of distortions. They need to be linked together in local and regional bodies. But these bodies, if they themselves are small minorities without special cultural prestige, are also particularly vulnerable to alien pressures" (p. 41). One can see this in the history of the Church of the Nazarene in the 20th century merely by looking at some strange statements in the doctrines in the Manual.

Invoking pre-Constantinian Christianity, he also rightly notes that "the many Christian groups in the Empire which did not emphasize unity, which were isolated and fragmented, tended to disappear one by one even in the early centuries before the power of the state was brought to bear against them. Only the catholic or ecumenical Christians -- i.e., those who stressed universality and unity--persisted and prevailed" (p. 41).

But a problem: "the groups which have the most sectarian intensity and therefore the greatest potential for survival in unpleasantly minority situations are in our day generally anti-ecumenical" (p. 41). The future "belongs to those groups, however small or unfashionable they may be at the moment, which take doctrine seriously. And it is only by breaking down the dogmatic barriers between them in a way which does not destroy their concern with correct belief that the future will be ecumenical" (pp. 41-2). Lindbeck looked to a future of highly committed persons to the Christian faith in the present, but saw that simultaneously, it must also see itself as connected to the past and the future transmission of the faith in concert with a commitment to universality and unity.

I think that Lindbeck is spot on, and even predictive of where we are living -- and will increasingly live in the coming years. As Lindbeck noted, "while the theologians of the great tradition were devoted to making the faith relevant and meaninful, they were not in the least concerned about whether this made it more palatable. Often, indeed, they sharpened the offense of the cross by transforming Christian claims from peripheral archaisms into contemporary realities. They insisted that Christ is the Lord of all and therefore cannot be confined to the sphere of private piety and explicitly religious practices. . . . On the other side, however, it is also true that one does not effectively acknowledge Christ as Lord if one is unconcerned about the church and its worship and its structures. . . . This was clearly recognized by the theologians we have mentioned. For them, religion was both intense and all-embracing, and therefore highly suitable for a minority diaspora" (p. 50).

This is why the preaching of the gospel -- with strong calls to repentance and faith; the celebration of the sacraments -- with joy and gladness and vitality; and deep engagement in the works of mercy in friendship with the poor for everyone's sanctification, must all stay together. We must allow any grounds for our life as Christians and the church outside the faith given to the saints itself, although we can always find wisdom in others whose work might look the same. We must also engage in conversations and friendships to sustain the catholicity of our faith -- in word and deed -- particularly with others who are willing to accept their role as diaspora within an evangelical, catholic, and orthodox faith. It is why I think that it is indispensable that evangelical Protestants who distance themselves from the American Constantinianism of the left and the right must engage in friendship, common prayer and task, with contemporary post-Vatican II renewal movements within Roman Catholicism. We have much to offer and much to learn.

And if Professor Lindbeck is correct, there is much at stake for the future witness of the church that goes far beyond us.