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What's neo-Constantinianism?

In a blog post, Travis Stanley hit the highlights of a lecture given by Lynn Anderson at the ACU Graduate School of Theology Alumni Luncheon in February. The full text of the speech is available on Anderson's web site. Anderson highlighted three dangers he sees for American Christianity:

CONSTANTINIANISM
I am feeling troubled over a new rising tide of what some dub "neo-Constatinianism": that is the current unholy marriage between "the conservative Christian cause" and American Nationalism, more specifically the right wing view of American economic and political interests. CONSUMERISM Add to Constantinianism the cultural drift into Consumerism. Rugged Individualism expects its inalienable rights - "Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness." But consumerism turns these into demands for "affluence, license and the pursuit of gratification." Surely it takes no Solomon to recognize that the culture can shape the church rather than the other way around. CERTAINTY Then stir another ingredient into the mix of Constantinianism and Consumerism: Certainty - the hubris that trusts its own ability to understand - and thus to "get things right, absolutely right." (In churches of Christ we know a thing or two about certainty.) This kind of Certainty stands unbowed before the ever expanding mystery of God's majesty and Holiness. And it naively reduces the rich texture of scripture down to a few rigid moral and doctrinal bullet points. In addition it seems oblivious to the baffling mystery of human persons - let alone the overwhelming complexity of global social issues.

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