Re: [asa] An Evangelical Manifesto

Dick said: I also noticed that only about three of a rather short list of
committee members had any credentials to speak of.

I respond: You need to read that list again. When you have Richar Mouw,
Timothy George, Os Guiness, and Dallas Willard on the steering committee,
and Miroslav Volf, Mark Noll, Alvin Plantinga, J.P. Moreland, David Gushee,
Darrell Bock, Justo Gonzalez, Kevin Vanhoozer, Amos Yong, Ron Sider, and Jim
Wallis as charter signatories, you've got some major credentials floating
around.

Again -- is anyone likely to agree with the whole thing? No. Do all of the
people above even agree on exactly what it means? Probably not. But jeesh,
if we can't recognize some positive affirmations when they happen, what are
we doing here but grumbling and whining to each other?

On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:46 AM, Dick Fischer <dickfischer@verizon.net>
wrote:

> It struck me as an overly condemning opinion as to what liberalism can
> lead to as opposed to a more benign characterization of liberal theology as
> an honest attempt by sincere Christians to divide the word with a view
> toward reconciling the words of Scripture with what is now an abundance of
> scientific evidence. I also noticed that only about three of a rather
> short list of committee members had any credentials to speak of. And
> where is their feedback form to allow for refinements from critics? Any
> "kissing Judases" got anything to add, you "sorry capitulators," you :>).
>
>
>
> Dick Fischer, author, lecturer
>
> Historical Genesis from Adam to Abraham
>
> www.historicalgenesis.com
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] *On
> Behalf Of *Merv
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 08, 2008 8:01 AM
> *To:* Dick Fischer; asa@calvin.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [asa] An Evangelical Manifesto
>
>
>
> Dick Fischer wrote:
>
> Any comments on this part?
>
>
>
> Evangelicalism should be distinguished from two opposite tendencies to
> which Protestantism has been prone: liberal revisionism and conservative
> fundamentalism. Called by Jesus to be ―in the world, but not of it, Christians,
> especially in modern society, have been pulled toward two extremes. Those
> more liberal have tended so to accommodate the world that they reflect the
> thinking and lifestyles of the day, to the point where they are unfaithful
> to Christ; whereas those more conservative have tended so to defy the world
> that they resist it in ways that also become unfaithful to Christ. The
> liberal revisionist tendency was first seen in the eighteenth century and
> has become more pronounced today, reaching a climax in versions of the
> Christian faith that are characterized by such weaknesses as an exaggerated
> estimate of human capacities, a shallow view of evil, an inadequate view of
> truth, and a deficient view of God. In the end, they are sometimes no longer
> recognizably Christian. As this sorry capitulation occurs, such ―alternative
> gospels represent a series of severe losses that eventually seal their
> demise:
>
>
>
> First, a loss of authority, as sola Scriptura (―by Scripture alone‖) is
> replaced by sola cultura (―by culture alone); Second, a loss of community
> and continuity, as ―the faith once delivered becomes the faith of merely
> one people and one time, and cuts itself off from believers across the world
> and down the generations; Third, a loss of stability, as in Dean Inge's apt
> phrase, the person ―who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a
> widower; Fourth, a loss of credibility, as ―the new kind of faith‖ turns
> out to be what the skeptic believes already, and there is no longer anything
> solidly, decisively Christian for seekers to examine and believe; Fifth, a
> loss of identity, as the revised version of the faith loses more and more
> resemblance to the historic Christian faith that is true to Jesus. In short,
> for all their purported sincerity and attempts to be relevant, extreme
> proponents of liberal revisionism run the risk of becoming what Søren
> Kierkegaard called ―kissing Judases – Christians who betray Jesus with an
> interpretation.
>
>
>
> Dick Fischer, author, lecturer
>
> Historical Genesis from Adam to Abraham
>
> www.historicalgenesis.com
>
> While the general concern seems sound enough, it is still ... very
> general. The criticized extremes are not specified. They are only labeled
> as "exaggerated", "shallow", "inadequate", and "deficient". So of course
> then, by definition, they are not where a Christian should be, but we are
> still left wide open to decide what views or camps merit those words and to
> apply them to whatever other category of thought we wish to criticize.
>
> Also, do participants here advocate "sola Scriptura" ---or do we rather,
> as it seems to me, advocate more of a Scripture interpreted by the help of
> other tools such as the wider body (the Church), and even nature (the two
> book model)? Which is NOT, to my thinking, the same as diminishing the
> authority of Scripture to a level below those other things, but rather,
> recognizing that our interpretation of it can never happen in a vacuum, and
> it is unhealthy to try and pretend so.
>
> --Merv
>

-- 
David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology
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