For some time now, it has become clear that the Church is closer to Babylon than it is to Jerusalem. We recognize that we are in our post-modern, post-Christian culture, a Church in exile, not unlike the exiles that included Daniel and his three companions. This is also the impetus for the AAC’s restatement of our founding principles of Christian faith in the Daniel Declaration: A Call to Mission, a place to stand. We are not alone. Carl Trueman concludes his encyclopedic Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism and the Road to Sexual Revolution with this trenchant observation: “In the second century, the church was a marginal sect within a dominant, pluralist society . . . The second century world is, in a sense, our world, where Christianity is a choice—and a choice likely at some point to run afoul of authorities.” (emphasis added)

As followers of Jesus Christ and the Gospel, how do we engage a pagan world like that of the second century? Is it by fight (culture war) or flight (withdrawal and isolated/parallel development)? Is it by political engagement or social engagement? Is Natural Law a useful apologetic that can supplement Scripture and the Great Tradition to argue for a benevolent Creator and Intelligent Design? Was it helpful to the apologies the second century Church fathers, and, if so, how? These are the questions that our AAC next-generation leaders, The Anderson-Trane Fellows, addressed with their second in-person gathering at Epworth-by-the-Sea Conference Center on St Simons Island this past week. Like their time in Wittenberg, Germany, it was an opportunity to learn theology and apologetics, as well as to fellowship, discuss, and pray together. 

In preparation, our Fellows read theological works like Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, Oliver O’Donovan’s Christian Moral Reasoning, Peter Leithart’s The Ten Commandments: A Guide to the Perfect Law of Liberty, and Gilbert Meilaender’s Bioethics: A Primer for Christians. For early Christian cultural engagement, they read the Letter to Diognetus, Justin Martyr’s First Apology, and Hippolytus of Rome’s Commentary on Daniel.

The Fellows spent the first two days summarizing these works and their own thoughts about them and facilitating discussion about how Anglicans can and should engage our culture. Among the questions and topics addressed were the following:

• The Letter to Diognetus suggests Christians are to the culture as the soul is to the body, inseparable from it and yet distinct in our way of life. As pastors, how do we lead our congregations to be such salt and light and fulfill such an extraordinary vision?
•  Justyn Martyr’s First Apology states that it is the extraordinary Christian quality of life that is the greatest apologetic. How can we prepare the local church to have such good character so that it is a light to the world?
• Hippolytus’ Commentary on Daniel teaches that resistance is the fundamental posture that Christians have towards pagan authorities challenging our faith. How can we engage our 21^st century culture from other postures besides just resistance, and is this even possible?
• They discussed the relationship between moral law and moral reasoning based on some of this theological reading. How can we talk about “personal rights” without a corresponding discussion of moral duties? How does Aquinas help us understand all discussions of justice as requiring the inclusion of the biblical values of love and charity? How should we think about the Ten Commandments in relation to grace, moral obligation, and the vision of maturity in Christ?
• O’Donovan’s essay on moral reasoning can help us see moral reasoning as requiring both biblical reflection and biblical action. How do we address the moral issues of our day: life and death, prenatal screening, IVF, end-of-life issues, living wills, religious freedom, etc, in preaching and in our local church membership classes?

To add more fuel to these discussions, we were honored to have Dr. Stephen Pressley address us on the Church in the Second Century. Dr Pressley earned his doctorate in Patristics at Edinburgh and currently serves as a Fellow at the First Liberty Institute Center for Culture, Religion, and Democracy. He is the author of the recent bestseller Cultural Sanctification. For the next two days, Dr. Pressley engaged us with examples from the second century Church, followed with robust and lively discussions on the theology and practice of cultural engagement by the early Christians and how we can glean from them today.

For the last day and a half, we had AAC Advisor Adam MacLeod, Esq., Professor of Law at St Mary’s University Law School in San Antonio TX, who is the author of four books, hundreds of articles and essays, and is soon to have his textbook on Natural Law published. Adam shared with our Fellows on the basics of Natural Law as the self-evident and unavoidable evidence of creation, the first principles of natural and practical reason, the ethics of Natural law in contrast to “ethical determinism” (including Darwinism, Marxism, and current secular Critical theories), and the obligations of Natural Law with regards to specific current issues such as abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, marriage, transgenderism, and freedom of religion. 

Now our Fellows are ready for their next assignment. In Wittenberg they received the “theological guardrails” of the Continental Reformation and Reformational Anglicanism from the outstanding scholarship of Dr. Andreas Stegman of the Wittenberg Studies Center and Dr. Ashley Null. With this biblical and theological foundation beyond seminary education, they have now received the challenge of how to think as missionaries to a pagan culture, called to share the transforming love of Jesus Christ. Our Fellows have been charged with designing our next Formed Conference, geared towards equipping laity to engage the culture, so that every person in the local Church can share Gospel clarity with Gospel charity.

God willing, we hope to announce our next Formed Conference for somewhere on the West Coast in the Fall of 2025. Stay tuned! And please continue to keep our Anderson Trane Fellows and the American Anglican Council in your prayers as we move into the next season of our ministry!