The End of Evangelicalism: Discerning a New Faithfulness for Mission by David E. Fitch (review)

Does evangelicalism have a future in North America? Sensationalist title of his book notwithstanding, David Fitch actually thinks so. Instead of celebrating its demise, the aim of The End of Evangelicalism is to “provide an opening for evangelicalism to be renewed and to flourish into the missional calling that lies before us in the new post-Christendom West” (xvii). Fitch cites the antagonistic character of current evangelical public presence, the failed order of its common life, as rationale for recovering a political theology that puts corporate witness at the fore.

Fitch’s first chapter describes the crises. He argues that in the years following the second Bush administration the “evangelical” identifier accrued mostly negative connotations. New ecclesial movements have simultaneously given organized character to criticisms of the evangelical legacy. What is left of the evangelical community lacks purposeful footing and risks being overcome by a pervasive malaise. Fitch’s second chapter introduces the cultural and political theory of Slavoj Žižek. The psychoanalytic tenor of Žižek’s analysis allows Fitch to unmask the hollowness of evangelical politics, as he demonstrates in three subsequent chapters that carry out a sort of therapy, engaging in turn “The Inerrant Bible,” “The Decision for Christ,” and “The Christian Nation.” These function as “master-signifiers,” windows into the empty core of evangelical politics.

In “The Decision for Christ” Fitch traces the history of this central evangelical tenet and the genealogy of its cognitivist construal of salvation. Despite data showing that these commitments are basically meaningless, evangelicals keep on counting “decisions.” One sign of the emptiness of this tenet is the holiness codes used by evangelical colleges. Why are such codes needed if students have made “decisions” for Christ? Similarly, Fitch references the odd story of the pop singer Jessica Simpson, who grew up in an evangelical community but was driven to seek a secular venue for her musical ability because the Church found her shapeliness too distracting. Despite the fact that its members had made “decisions,” they risked being overtaken by lust. The contemporary evangelical understanding of salvation has “no way to deal with desire” (92). Seeking an outlet for their frustrations, Fitch theorizes, evangelicals have created an objet petit a—Lacan’s unattainable object of desire—in gays and lesbians and find perverse enjoyment in opposing them. Thus Miss California becomes an overnight evangelical celebrity for publicly condemning homosexuals.

At first glance The End of Evangelicalism seems to set up an uneven match, Fitch employing the sophisticated cultural theory of Žižek, taking on a theologically anemic movement. And yet, I think Fitch is working in the correct domain. To engage evangelical political theology on biblical or theological grounds directly would leave unanalyzed the psychological and cultural pressures that drive the evangelical imagination. It is in the realm of imagination where the real issues are addressed. For this task, Žižek’s theory is well suited. The book is intriguing as well because Fitch identifies with the community he critiques. He parts ways with Žižek in that he believes a political theology ought to be one of “fullness” overflowing from God’s gift of life and gospel. Fitch constructively addresses each of the three master-signifiers and points a salutary finger toward the work of scholars like Henri de Lubac, John Milbank, and John Howard Yoder.

It’s evident that Fitch wants evangelical communities to thrive, yet this particular book is strong medicine. His analysis of evangelical culture is so prescient and so specific—Fitch isn’t shy about naming names—that it cannot help but divide. Or more properly put, the book will be received divisively. Here’s what I mean: The End of Evangelicalism indirectly highlights differences between the neo-Christendom of the American Bible belt and regions beyond where the Church experiences something more akin to post-Christendom. The theological voices Fitch commends tend to be Catholic, Anglican, and...