Michael Horton is fast becoming my favorite Calvinist or at the least the one I respect the most. I know I'm late to the game, but Relevant Magazine recently published an interview with him online that was in their January/Febuary issue.  I thought this response was appropriately gentle and equally critical.  

What do you think about the so-called “Neo-Reformed” movement, embodied by people like Mark Driscoll and Kevin DeYoung?

Horton: I recognize my own journey in the lives of many (especially younger) Christians who are embracing the label “Calvinist.” In any paradigm shift, the profound changes lead to excitement about the new discoveries and disillusionment with the old paradigm. This happens with all sorts of conversions: political, cultural and religious. We call this the “cage phase”—when new Calvinists need to be quarantined from society for a while! When a large number of people are entering this phase simultaneously, there’s excitement but also the danger of uncharitable and arrogant engagement with other believers.

It’s amazing—a theology that says we only know God because He has revealed and given Himself to us by grace, can be turned into a self-righteous assertion of our own discovery. It’s something we all have to guard against. This investigation isn’t about an ideology or a party label, but about diving together as brothers and sisters into the vast ocean of grace that is the common playground of all the saints.

I also hope that the “New Calvinism” movement will get beyond acronyms. Many of us come out of “fundamentalism”: the tendency to reduce everything to a few slogans and points. However, Reformed theology is just as interested in how we worship and live out our callings, the role of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the kingdom of God and other marvelous truths. As important as the “five points of Calvinism” are, they are part of a broader and richer confession.