Remaking of Evangelical Theology, The

The Remaking of Evangelical Theology. By Gary Dorrien. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998, 262 pp., $24.00 paper.

Evangelical theology has not generally commanded the attention of those from mainline theological traditions. Theologians and historians who narrate the intellectual and social history of the movement have usually been evangelicals themselves. However, there is a ferment within the movement that outsiders are beginning to notice. One of those is Gary Dorrien, a professor and the Chair of Religious Studies at Kalamazoo College, who tells the captivating story of a growing movement within the movement. The Remaking of Evangelical Theology is not just another chronicle of the history of evangelical thought; it is a sobering account of the unrest, questioning, and probing by leading evangelical theologians into the fundamental issues and assumptions that have shaped their own tradition.

Dorrien distinguishes three strands of evangelicalism: (a) classical (or Puritan), (b) pietistic, and (c) fundamentalist. In view of the diversity within evangelicalism, Dorrien finds it ironic that evangelicalism has been "poorly suited to affirm pluralism of any kind" (p. 3). In addition to the three basic types of evangelicalism, Dorrien argues for a fourth type, which he calls "postconservative" or "progressive." He contends that while modern evangelical theology has been dominated by the third type, "some of the most creative and promising developments in contemporary evangelicalism" are coming from the fourth type (p. 6). He views the creative ferment taking place as a "sign of health and vitality in a postmodern situation" (p. 11).

Dorrien notes that the process of self criticism is inherent within the tradition. Carl Henry and Edward Carnell both sought to make "evangelical fundamentalism" worthy of intellectual respect by returning to a classical Protestantism without separatism and millennialism. The self criticism that Henry and Carnell set in motion has opened up various critical evangelical options that continue to question the presuppositions of doctrinal fundamentalism. Some are rethinking and appropriating the insights of Karl Barth (e.g. Donald Bloesch). Some are questioning the Reformed orientation of much of evangelical theology (e.g. William J. Abraham, Clark Pinnock). Others are attempting to reconstruct evangelical theology in light of the postmodern critique of epistemological foundationalism (e.g. Stanley Grenz, Nancey Murphy).

Dorrien's story of the evangelical movement begins with the development of fundamentalism in which he covers such topics as the Old Princeton theology, dispensationalism, the heresy trials, separationism, and the fundamentalist-modernist controversy. He then moves the discussion to the efforts of neoevangelicals beginning in the 1940s to make evangelicalism academically credible. Dorrien leads the reader through the intriguing story of Fuller Seminary with detailed accounts of Carnell, Henry, and Bernard Ramm. Dorrien comments, "In the process of working out what it means to be evangelical but not fundamentalist, the Fuller theologians and other evangelicals of their generation opened the door to religious currents that today are raising the prospect of a paradigmatically different kind of evangelicalism" (p. 47).

In the process of telling the story, Dorrien touches on various concerns such as feminism, social involvement, politics, evolution, hell, and inclusivism. However, his major focus throughout is on inerrancy and the nature of Scripture. Dorrien realizes that rethinking the doctrine of Scripture is essential to the remaking of evangelical theology. While many evangelicals still make inerrancy the litmus test for being an evangelical, he notes that prominent evangelical theologians of the past, such as James Orr, have repudiated this claim. Even inerrantists such as Carl Henry denounce making inerrancy the "superbadge of evangelical orthodoxy" (p. 119). For Henry, inerrancy is a logical deduction from the nature of God rather than an explicit teaching of Scripture (pp. 114, 121). Because of this, he is willing to embrace such non-inerrantists as G. C. Berkouwer, George Ladd, and F. F. Bruce as evangelicals (p. 119). Dorrien notes that theologians who maintain a strong inerrancy position are forced to qualify what they mean. The lists of endless qualifications lead others to redefine the term, making inerrancy refer only to salvation, the intent of Scripture, or the like. Dorrien comments that "the trend in evangelical theology is clearly away from strict-inerrancy doctrine" (p. 205).

Dorrien also recounts the pilgrimage of Clark Pinnock, who has now joined the new generation of postmodern-oriented evangelicals, "to rethink the epistemological assumptions of evangelical orthodoxy" (p. 145). He also discusses the work of William J. Abraham, who is one of the key figures in what Robert Brow calls the "evangelical megashift" (Christianity Today, 2/19/90). Dorrien has hopes that through the effort of these and other theologians a new kind of evangelicalism will emerge that will rethink how to express the evangelical tradition of antimodernism in a postmodern context (p. 183). He concludes that a significant segment of evangelical theology is turning away from "theology as polemic" to what Hans Frei called a "generous orthodoxy" (p. 209).