Grenz begins his call for renewal with a historical survey of the roots of evangelicalism, and a look at the important components of evangelicalism. He asserts that for evangelicals, it is the evangel, the gospel which is central. Grenz traces evangelicalism, and this concern for gospel, back to the Reformation. Luther, with his emphasis on justification and sola fide, provides an important part of the evangelical heritage, and an important anchor for evangelical theology. He also notes the importance of Calvin, and the addition of sanctification to a theological understanding. Evangelicalism inherited this reformation theology through the Puritan and Pietist movements. These two groups emphasized not only justification and sanctification, but also discipline, and living a reformed life. Thus, evangelicalism is fundamentally a movement spawned by the reformation, and mediated by the Puritan and Pietist understandings of regeneration and holy living.
The role of scripture is the second area to which Grenz gives his attention as he looks to the historical roots of evangelicalism, because Scripture plays a central role in the evangelical self-understanding, and has been a defining mark and a point of conflict with other theologies. For evangelicals, the Bible is understood as the Word of God, and is authoritative as a norm for matters of doctrine. Grenz notes that Pietists reacted against the Lutheran elevation of the Formula of Concord as doctrinal norm with appeals to Scripture as a norm above these formulations, and this is certainly a thrust of evangelicalism which continues. Yet, simply stating that the Bible is normative is only part of the issue. The nature of Scripture has proved to be a very important and divisive issue. In the early 19th century, the Princeton theology sought to utilize scientific methodology and empirical reasoning in their study of the Bible. In seeking out a foundation upon which to build theology, and in response to a liberal appeal to experience, they asserted the Bible to provide the source of theological facts, which could be found through inductive study. This appeal led, especially with B.B. Warfield, to the appeal to the inerrancy of Scripture, asserting that if the Bible was �God-breathed,� it would then be trustworthy in all its particulars, and thus without error. While there have been numerous discussions of the nature and role of the Bible within evangelicalism since the days of the Princeton theologians, inerrancy is still a common and central tenant of much of evangelical theology, even if the term �inerrancy� is defined in different ways.
In the next two chapters, Grenz looks to prominent evangelical theologians, who have been formative of evangelical thinking, and who have embodied its major trends. He begins with Carl Henry and Bernard Ramm, two �first generation� neo-evangelicals who helped bring evangelicalism into its modern form. Henry, seeking to adhere to the �fundamentals� of the faith, but also to distance himself from fundamentalism, with its �harsh tempermant� and �lovelessness,� worked to formulate a theology that could obtain intellectual respectability, while also engaging with society. Henry focused on revelation and apologetics. He is very rational in his approach, even asserting that the fall effected the will, but not reason, which is thus useful in theological endeavors. Henry asserted that theology is based solely on God�s self-disclosure, found in Scripture, and also asserted inerrancy as a logical consequence of its inspiration, even if it isn�t explicitly taught in the Bible. Bernard Ramm represents a different stream within evangelicalism, for although he also shared a strong emphasis on revelation with Henry, Ramm saw revelation as being contained in the units of meaning of the text, rather than in the actual words themselves. Along with this went a strong critique of the fundamentalist position, as he asserted that they had lost the instrumental function of Scripture. He instead focused on Christ as the center of a doctrine of inspiration, and utilized a Barthian distinction between Word and Scripture.
In the next generations of theologians, Grenz looks to Millard Erickson and Clark Pinnock, and to Wayne Grudem and John Sanders, as people who exemplify trends in theology. Erickson followed in Henry�s footsteps, as the standard-bearer of the movement, in his attention to the central issues of evangelicalism, and his prominence as a writer and a theologian in the center of the evangelical spectrum. Pinnock, on the other hand, although starting as a quite �traditional� evangelical, begun to break with some of the more widely held theological beliefs, starting with the doctrine of scripture, as he took Arminian insights into understanding inspiration. He also carried these Arminian/Wesleyan views of human freedom into other areas of theology, which led him to the Openness of God movement, of which he is a prominent leader. Thus, Erickson and Pinnock demonstrate the divergent strains within the evangelical world. Likewise, Grudem and Sanders carry this trend through to the next generation. Grudem has published a systematic theology which is explicitly based on scripture, essentially mining theological truths out of the text by putting together everything scripture has to say on a topic and then forming doctrines based on this. Sanders, while certainly not anti-Biblical, follows in Pinnock�s footsteps, in seeking to root out Hellenistic influences in Christian thought, and seeks to pay special attention to �key models� and �root metaphors� within the Scripture.
Grenz pays special attention to the postmodern setting in which evangelical theology now finds itself. He pays special attention to the demise of �foundationalism� and the emergence of �postfoundationalism.� For theology, this means that truth is no longer understood as being a set of unassailable propositions which provide the foundation upon which further truths can be constructed, but the postmodern situation has basically rejected this as an impossible dream. Instead, pragmatism and coherentism have emerged. Pragmatism asserts that truths are judged by �the way they function in the context of reasonable inquiry.� Coherentism, another strand of postmodernism that has brought a critique of foundationalism, asserts that truths are a network, and that beliefs are interconnected, thus giving rise to Kuhn�s ideas of paradigms and paradigm shifts. Another related change from the modern context to the postmodern one is from the embracing of a meta-narrative to the rejection of claims for universality. Thus, Grenz asserts that theology must be cognizant of these changes in society, and look at theology anew in light of them.
In getting at how truth is understood in the modern context, he then looks to the relationship between science and theology, theology and the religions, and theology and ecclesiology, as he appraises the situation of evangelical theology and the possibility of truth claims. In analyzing science, he charts the relationship through three different paradigms, the medieval paradigm where theology is the queen of sciences, the modern paradigm where theology is like a science, and the postmodern paradigm where science is theology. He is led to assert that as science has come to question the ability to make �objective� claims about reality, biblical Christianity makes claims to �eschatological realism,� based on the lense of the Gospel, which gives us the objectivity of the world as God sees it. Thus, our formulations about the world are reflective of the biblical narrative, and we seek to live out this truth in the world today, which is but an � �embryo� of the eschatological new creation.�
In his chapter on evangelical theology and the religions, he approaches the question of truth claims in reference to claims made by other religions. He asserts that the function of other faiths is to foster community, which is an aim of God for creation, and is also a central function of Christianity. Thus, he asserts that while Christianity is at the center of the trajectory of salvation history, we must acknowledge the divine activity that goes on outside of our own tradition. Yet, we also conclude that in Christ we have a more complete appraisal of the human situation, and of God�s identity and intentions, than is found in other faiths.
Grenz also looks at ecclesiology and evangelical theology. He notes that although many of the early sources of evangelicalism, such as the Reformation, Pietism and Puritainsm, had a inherent focus on church, ecclesiology has been relatively underdeveloped within evangelical theology. Grenz extends a call to remedy this situation by formulating a renewed ecclesiology, because in the postmodern situation, people look to the church to embody its message. Thus, we must reclaim the true marks of the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Central to his focus is �community,� a term which he believes is helpful in understanding church. It acknowledges both the individual and communal elements of church, as well as the priesthood of all believers which is so essential to a Reformation understanding of church. This community is to be a community in the image of the triune God, and should understand itself as participating in the mission of God to the world.
He concludes his book with a call for �generous orthodoxy� in a renewing of the center. This means that we need to get past the falsely linear distinction of liberal/mainline and fundamentalist/evangelical. Instead, we need to reclaim the �center� of the faith, the gospel itself, as our focus, and this is fundamentally a theological center. He also asserts that evangelicals should be a renewal movement within the whole church. To do this, evangelicals must be focused on the Gospel, attentive to right doctrine (thus the orthodox of generous orthodoxy) while taking the postmodern context into consideration, and finally evangelicals must be catholic in vision, as they take a universal scope in their vision.
I find Grenz�s book to be an extremely helpful and insightful offering concerning the past, present and future of evangelical theology. I benefited a great deal from his historical survey of the sources of evangelicalism, and the development of its theology. He was not caught up with defining who was in and who was out of the movement (nor is he caught up with making such distinctions today), but instead he helpfully outlines major themes and developments that help to define what evangelicalism is. I believe that as we are attentive to evangelicalism�s history, we will be more aware of its strengths, and also its shortcomings. For example, revivals and the Great Awakenings provide a very important part of the development of the movement, and have contributed to the centrality of the focus on convertive piety in the movement. Yet, we must realize that it is not a certain type of experience that constitutes a Christian. Even as we acknowledge the reality of conversion, and the need for it, we must be careful not to create a false gospel centered around one particular experience.
A second critique of Grenz�s work is concerns his treatment of Christianity and the religions. I do find his position on Christianity and the religions extremely insightful, and think that his focus on the role of community formation is a helpful way to look at other faiths. Yet, I believe he does not develop enough an understanding that Christian theology may have something to learn from these other religions. Yes, we embrace Jesus Christ as the only Way, but we can also gain deeper insight into God�s will for creation and God�s will for community by dialoguing with other communities of faith, as we acknowledge the presence of God�s general revelation, and the working of God�s Spirit outside Christianity. This element is clearly present, but his focus seems to be on the benefit of other religions in forming community. The value of other faiths is not purely instrumental/ethical, although they do serve that purpose. I think he could develop this further, as a practical element for the encounter of other faiths, and also as a necessary element to understanding Christian truth claims with reference to other claims to truth.
Finally, I believe that Grenz makes an important call for renewal of evangelical theology. It is imperative that we seek to get beyond the distinctions of liberal/conservative as we move forward. Yet, we must also continue to be helped by the limited insight that these distinctions can give us into theological methods and understandings, even as we acknowledge their oversimplification. I find this especially interesting since I constantly have trouble placing myself on this particular scale of liberal and conservative. I often find myself aligned with many liberal understandings, and often with conservative understandings. I do not necessarily think this betrays a total incoherence in my theology, but points to the fact that the landscape of theology is much more complex than can be portrayed in a linear distinction.
I believe evangelical theology will be well-positioned to move into the future if it follows Grenz�s proposals. A focus on the gospel must continue to be central, and we must seek right doctrine, but in so doing, we must also always be reforming and reclaiming doctrine, formulating it anew for an ever-changing situation.
