GOLDILOCKS PROTESTANTISM
The article "Goldilocks Protestantism" in the March 31, 2025 issue of First Things magazine excellently portrays the current state of Christianity. Brad East, the author, is an associate professor of theology at Abiline Christian University, which is associated with the Churches of Christ movement.
This movement is an attempt to restore New Testament Christianity. I'm familiar with this "Restoration Movement" because my wife and I began our missionary service in it. The Churches of Christ attempt to restore some of the basic elements of early Christianity, including baptism performed immediately after confession of faith in Christ as a necessary part of salvation, and celebrating the Lord's Supper every Sunday.
But this is just one of the many flavors of of post-Reformation religious bodies. Our own lives illustrate the current state of Christianity because we have sampled several flavors, moving somewhat painlessly from one to another as if there were only minor, non-essential differences between them. However, this points to the fatal flaw of relativism: any flavor will do, Christianity's current state.
The "Goldilocks Protestantism" article divides current Christianity into two categories: the "catholic" (in the sense of one true and universal Church including Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican), and the other group being the "evangelicals." The former has authoritative Saints, the Creed, liturgy, bishops, ordained priests. icons, sacraments, and infant baptism. In 2007, my wife and I finally found our spiritual home in Orthodoxy. The evangelicals have none of those, just the Bible: "sola Scriptura." What then of today's Lutherans and Calvinists – heirs of the earlier "Majesterial Reformation" that rejected Rome's purgatory doctrine and selling indulgences, but retained much of the former traits? Sadly, those Majesterial heirs are less than 10% of global Christianity and are fading fast, often taking up the traits of the evangelical majority which is descended from the "Radical Reformation" that rejects all of the "catholic" traits. The article raises four issues:
First, as described in The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan Hatch, the leveling or democratizing effect the Age of "Enlightenment" or "Reason" that placed human intellect over the authority of revelation and Church. Second, evangelicals will not adopt the Majesterial traits: "They believe in populist biblicism.... The lack of tradition is a feature, not a bug" per the article.
More from this article: "Third, there is a structural instability at the heart of the Reformation vision that undermines any attempt to strike a durable middle path between catholic and evangelical Christianities. My term for this problem is Goldilocks Protestantism. Heirs of Calvin and Luther don’t want to give up, for instance, Nicaea or infant baptism or the necessity of ordination for the administration of the Supper. Neither, though, do they want a magisterium or bishops, saints or icons. Not too high, not too low. Just right. This approach is finally unsustainable."
Fourth, the Majesterial Protestants view themselves more aligned with the Radical evangelicals, even if they wished the Radicals to be more Traditional. They can't go back to the Roman Catholics whose Majesterium they have rejected. It just will not happen, so they are withering.
The basic issue is the rejection of the primary authority of "the Church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), and instead placing the New Testament as the sole canon ("measuring rod" or "yardstick") of the truth. No, the Church, the foundation, existed for nearly 400 years before the New Testament canon was recognized. The problem with the latter view is the question of interpretation: who decides how to interpret, how to give the meaning, of the New Testament Scriptures? Since the Reformation, the idea has spread that "any cowherd or milkmaid" can correctly interpret the Scriptures. Once you reject the Church's authority and accept democratization, you're on the slippery slope of no return.
But the New Testament itself gives the clue to solve this puzzle: "knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation, just as no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21). "Holy men of God," in other words, the Saints of the Church. Notice the words "just as" – they indicate a connection between the previous phrase and the next phrase: in the same way that holy men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit to write the Old Testament Scriptures, so also now it takes holy men of God to interpret the Bible for us, not a private interpretation by any Tom, Dick, or Harry who might or might not have even a two-year Bible School education.
So if there is just one true Church, what about the moral and ethical problems in it? And what about all the post-Reformation denominations? We must acknowledge that the Church, like the denominations, is populated by human beings who retain the sin-stained fallen nature. It is not yet the "glorious church without spot or wrinkle" (Ephesians 5:27), but will be. The truth will come out, and evil will be expunged. So we must distinguish between doctrine and practice: the Church's doctrines that have been decided by Councils of saintly bishops of the Church over the centuries, including doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation of God in Christ, His rising from the dead, the Creed followed by the formation of the New Testament canon, etc., and on the other hand the errors of sinful and sometimes heretical humans.
"Heresy" is from the Greek word for "choice" – once you place the idea of choice and democratization above all else, your individual freedom of choice becomes the reigning principle over against any established truth and authority, and thus today we have tens of thousands of denominations and un-denominations, each with its own flavor of doctrines and practices. As the saying goes – "I'm not a complete idiot, there are some parts missing!" Some denominations just have a few parts missing but are fairly close to the true Church and converts can be received by Chrismation (annointing with holy oil) and renunciation of former errors. Other denominations are sects that may deny the Trinity, the pre-eternal deity of Christ, His sacrificial death and resurrection, etc.: such converts must be baptized in the name of the Trinity and then be Chrismated to join the Body of Christ, the true Church.
So many times these days I've heard people say – "I have my own religion" or "I have my own beliefs and practices." This is the "Goldilocks" approach: a little of this and a little of that, not too hot and not too cold, choosing beliefs that simply justify one's own ideas and behavior, leaving the door open to all sorts of wierd sectarianism and justifying a selfish, immoral lifestyle. There's no need for humble repentance because "I'm OK, you're OK" – anything goes. The most important thing for such people is self-realization, rather than self-denial and taking up one's cross to follow Christ, crucifying our little egos. During this time of preparation for celebrating the greatest event in human history – the Resurrection of Christ – let us turn from these self-centered beliefs and behaviors, and turn in humble repentance before the crucified and resurrected One!
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