Perhaps the surprise of this book is not so much its title, but the fact that such a proposal is being made by … a Protestant!
Peter Leithart, president of Theopolis Institute in Alabama, intends to shake up his own Protestant heritage by claiming that the causes of the original Protestant Reformation have been resolved. They simply aren’t an issue any more.
So … what are we Protest-ing?
But this is not a dry academic look at theological history. The opening of the book show Leithart’s heart for Jesus’ prayer for the church to be answered:
This (John 17:21) is what Jesus wants for his church. It is not what his church is.
The church is divided. It is not that the church has remained united while groups falsely calling themselves churches have split off. It is not that we are spiritually united while empirically divided.
The church is a unique society, the body of Christ and the temple of the Spirit. But it is a visible society that exists among other societies.
That visible society is divided, and that means the church is divided. This is not as it should be. This is not the church that Jesus desires. So long as we remain divided, we grieve the Spirit of Jesus, who is the living Passion of the Father and Son.
Leithart proceeds from there in three “Movements”: Church United, Church Divided, and Divided Church Dissolving. The last movement looks into American denominationalism - since our nation has the unfortunate distinction of representing the fracturing of Protestantism, to the max.
The book finishes with a presentation of “A Way Forward” - including these words which should be an encouragement to our calling at Christ the Reconciler:
Reunion, when it comes, will be a gift of God, a work of the Spirit. Yet we must act, and our actions will either preserve current divisions, make them worse, or move towards the unity for which Jesus prays. The way of reunion is the way of prayer. We are called to act in accord with the future unity that God has promised to his people.
Read The End of Protestantism, be challenged by the division of our current institutions, and take courage to pray and act for unity in the body of Christ!