My reading of Introducing Radical Orthodoxy (IRO) has been a bit on the defensive. But I think that is a good tool for really engaging with the subject. Here, it has been James A.K. Smith’s article he wrote after Wallis visited the Calvin College campus (I’ve said this earlier, but I wanted to re-state it a little differently now that I’ve read a little more than a quarter of IRO.

The title of JKA Smith’s post (he signs his blog posts as Jamie, so I’ll start calling him Jamie, too, since I’m starting to forgive him for what I took personally from that article. (Part of that forgiveness is that I still want to know WHY he thinks Wallis may be guilty of Constantinianism of the Left, which is what he names the article with a Question mark ( Constantinianism of the Left?) . I want to know because from what I’ve read he’s got to have a good reason for it, although I’m expecting to disagree with it. I have suggested several angles , based on what I’ve read (since in my reading I can’t help but notice something that I feel Wallis does well, or opposes within the Sojo or Call to Renewal movements, and so I challenge some of the “accusations” of this RO proponent with the values and emphases of the RO movement itself.

So, after intially getting a little hesitant to keep returning to the argument about Wallis, I have decided that it’s been a good place to stand to observe the RO survey as a skeptic, but certainly a sympathetic skeptic, who has seen prior signs of some theological insights that may gell and flourish within my “pre-existing” but “radically open” theological self-identity. Jonathan’s interview with Smith, Eric’s pointing to that, and Eric’s own enthusiasm for the intense RO class he is taking (taught by his pastor at a university), brought me to buy this book, which I did just prior to realizing that “Jamie”, who wrote “Constantinianism of the Left?” was James K.A.Smith. My reacton to that was shock , surprise, and then eventually, curiositt, as well as the sheer intellectual/spiritual/theological thrill of the prospect of playing my hand (in relation to what the part of me that is “Wallis influence”) alongside what I read.