Throughout this century, evangelicals have steadfastly defended propositional truths founded upon an inerrant Bible. Yet, in the practice of their faith, Wells suggests, many evangelicals today have much in common with the liberalism that their parents and grandparents rejected. Ironically, Bible-believing evangelicals who claim full allegiance to the authority and inspiration of the Bible are living practically like their modernist opponents. Wells stresses that the threat today is much more subtle. Modernity has pushed theology to the margins of the church s life.
Theological reflection is largely absent, both from the pulpit and the pew.
Therapy has replaced morality, and technique has replaced conviction. Stripped of doctrinal substance and rendered unreflective about and uncritical of the culture, theology now transforms virtue into a set of everyday skills for finding success in a world of technology and affluence. Just as experience triumphed in liberalism, so we see experience triumphing in evangelicalism. Theological reflection no longer guides evangelical worship. Instead, the norms of experience determine what is acceptable and appropriate in worship.