In the first three installments, I’ve noted liberals’ (and liberal evangelicals’) enthronement of experience, their war on certainty, and their preference for pre-redemptive-era interpretations of Jesus rather than post-redemptive-era interpretations (Paul versus Jesus). We can’t go forward without touching on the liberal view of science. Liberalism emerged at a time (the 19th century) when scientific [...]
Month: July 2012
Liberal Evangelicalism (Part 3): We Love Jesus; Paul? Not So Much
I’ve already addressed liberals’ and (liberal evangelicals’) enthronement of experience and war on certainty. They claim to be Christians, so what do they say about Jesus Christ? In liberal theology, “[t]he core of Christianity is to be found in the personality of Jesus and in his teaching,” write Dillenberger and Welch (p. 209). In this [...]
Liberal Evangelicalism (Part 2): The War on Certainty
I already observed in part 1 of this series that liberalism reengineers the Faith, and creates theology, in terms of man's experience and feelings. The objective dimensions of Christianity (Bible, doctrine, church) become nothing other than a projection of man's subjectivity. This means that when man's experience changes, his religion changes. This is also why [...]
Liberal Evangelicalism (Part 1): Experience Creates the Faith
An increasing number of evangelicals are becoming liberal evangelicals, which is to say, they are becoming liberal. Liberalism narrowly considered is identified with a movement in Europe and American in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but its theological impulse — to conform the Faith to the spirit of the age — has been [...]
The Evangelicals Are Catching Up
The late Harold O. J. Brown noted that theology is no longer a hot topic with theological [!] liberals. It's social and political issues that animate them. A theologically apostate agenda is passé. Today they're really about social and political apostasy: homosexuality, abortion, socialism, radical feminism and environmentalism, college co-ed egg harvesting, etc. Today, by [...]
Punctiliar Sanctification
The most significant theological contribution by the late John Murray was his configuration of what he termed “definitive sanctification” (Collected Writings, 2:277-293). Murray doesn’t deny the validity of the traditional definition of sanctification (the Christian’s progressive conformity to the image of Jesus Christ [pp. 294-304]); but he holds that “definitive sanctification” is anterior, and “is [...]
Beware Under-Realized Soteriologies
I was inspired by a comment by my colleague Dr. Brian G. Mattson to devise the monikers over-realized and under-realized soteriologies (if, unbeknownst to me, someone has beat me to the punch, I hereby grant full credit). I borrow the concept from 20th century debates concerning realized eschatologies (views of the future): to what degree [...]
