Journalist's account of the new Calvinist - what its roots are - the strength of the movement and ties between the key leaders. ( )

Collin Hansen has written some of my favorite feature articles in Christianity Today, and his thoughtfulness and gentle wit met my expectations in this book. It supplies a good corrective, I think, to some of the dubious journalism I've read recently on so-called neo-Calvinism. I certainly understand far more about the movement and its role within wider evangelicalism/Protestantism than I did before.

I found his keen analysis a bit blunted toward the end of the book, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. ( )

Calvinism is finding a foothold in places that one might not expect: Minneapolis, home of the Lutherans; Louisville, home of the Baptists; and even Seattle, home of New Age spirituality. Through the influential teaching and writing of John Piper, Al Mohler, and Mark Driscoll (just to name a few) a New Calvinism is finding expression and influence across America. What's more, this New Calvinism is often mixing with unlikely theological bedfellows: Baptists and Charismatics, for example. Hansen spends time in the some of the major outposts (churches, seminaries, universities, conferences) of this New Calvinism, telling the story and having conversations with the major players. Hansens work is engaging and well-written. ( )

Check out Collin Hansen's new book Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists. I've read through most of this short book in the last day or so. Hansen lets us accompany him on his tour of the Reformed hotspots in the young evangelical culture, reporting on his face-to-face interviews with both the grandfathers in the movement like John Piper and younger bloggers and campus ministry pastors. His journey spans East coast (Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland) to the West (Mars Hill Church in Seattle) with some significant stops in the Midwest (Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis) and South (Southern Seminary and Together for the Gospel in Louisville, Kentucky and the Passion Conference in Atlanta, Georgia).

Hansen interviews both proponents of the New Calvinism and critics (such as Roger Olson and Jerry Vines). While his sympathies seem to lie with the young Reformed crowd, he doesn't hesitate to discuss some of the problems with the movement. His writing is lucid and often humorous. I think the most exciting thing about this book is reading the many conversion stories. So many of the new Calvinists are former druggies, atheists, or atheological Evangelicals who wouldn't have known theology if it bit them on the nose. Then they encountered Reformed theology in some form or another and got angry. Then they read their Bibles and met a God bigger than they ever could have imagined. Now they are engaging in serious study, passionate worship, and daring evangelism.

Wherever you might fall on the theological spectrum, this is a book worth reading for those who care about the Church and its future. ( )

A pretty decent overview of the resurgence of the doctrines of grace. I would like to have seen a broader treatment of the subject. ( )