Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Historical Theology

Dave Doran on Fundamentalism

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Last Friday I referenced Collin Hansen’s CT article “The Crisis of Modern Fundamentalism.” This led to an interesting exchange in the comments section, particularly seven posts by Dr. Dave Doran (“Dave” in the comments) as he interacted with Tim Baylor.

  1. Dr. Dave Doran is president of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and senior pastor of Inter-City Baptist Church in Allen Park, MI. He wrote the foreword to Rolland McCune’s Promise Unfulfilled (part of which is reproduced here).
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  2. Tim Baylor grew up in fundamentalism, including a pastoral internship under Dr. Doran. He is currently working on an M.Div. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. (He is quoted in Collin Hansen’s CT article.)
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I’ve found this exchange to be helpful, especially how Dr. Doran articulates his understanding of fundamentalism.

  1. One of the major questions on the table here is whether fundamentalists can embrace a wider social involvement than some of them have traditionally embraced.
  2. Coming at the issue from another angle: Is secondary separation the crucial difference between fundamentalism and evangelicalism?

Update: Harold J. Ockenga’s foreword to Harold Lindsell’s The Battle for the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976) suggests that I asked the right two questions: “The ringing call for [1] a repudiation of separatism and [2] the summons to social involvement” were the two key notes of the address for which Ockenga coined the term “neo-evangelicalism” in 1948 (p. 11). HT: Brian Collins.

John Piper: “Praise God for Fundamentalists”

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John Piper just posted an article on his blog entitled “Praise God for Fundamentalists.” He responds to the 2005 FBF resolution “On the Ministry of John Piper.” He concludes,

“What I want to say about Fundamentalism is that its great gift to the church is precisely the backbone to resist compromise and to make standing for truth and principle a means of love rather than an alternative to it. I am helped by the call for biblical separation, because almost no evangelicals even think about the doctrine.

“So I thank God for fundamentalism, and I think that some of the whining about its ill effects would have to also be directed against the black-and-white bluntness of Jesus.”

Update:

  1. Mike Riley, “On the Ministry of John Piper” (published on the FBF site). Riley wrote this for the FBF.
  2. Mike Riley, “Piper and the FBF Resolution” (published on Riley’s blog). Riley wrote this today in response to Piper’s blog post referenced above.
  3. Michael Bird, “Praise God for Fundamentalists?” Bird lists six reasons that he “cannot praise God for them.”
  4. Will Pareja, “John Piper on Fundamentalism.” Pareja begins, “Dr. Piper: You have no idea how far words like these go, my brother.”

Collin Hansen in CT: “The Crisis of Modern Fundamentalism”

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Collin Hansen writes a bi-weekly “theology in the news” column for Christianity Today, and his article published today highlights fundamentalism: “The Crisis of Modern Fundamentalism: Defections threaten a proud movement.” Hansen concludes:

“The difference between evangelicals and fundamentalists hasn’t been theology, though some fundamentalists would refuse to compromise on dispensationalism, for example. Fundamentalists have a strategy problem: Do they clamp down on these youngsters, risking a deeper generation gap? Or do they reconsider strict separation and cultural isolation? By choosing the latter, they may save their youth and lose their cause.”

Update: Cf. Michael Bird’s reaction to Hansen’s article, which begins, “All I can say is that if you think that John Piper is a dubious or dangerous character then your theology is about as messed up as can be imagined.”

Related:

  1. Review of McCune’s Promise Unfulfilled with a Response from McCune
  2. Review of Iain Murray’s Evangelicalism Divided

Collin Hansen’s CT Article on The Gospel Coalition

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This morning Christianity Today posted Collin Hansen’s article on The Gospel Coalition: “Tethered to the Center: The Gospel Coalition is committed to core evangelical beliefs and wide-ranging cultural engagement.”

Related links (listed in the “theological writings” section of my recommended resources):

The Gospel Coalition (D. A. Carson, Tim Keller): articles, audio/video (plenary talks, interviews, workshops, and a panel discussion), foundational documents

Review of McCune’s “Promise Unfulfilled” with a Response from McCune

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The following review and rejoinder is available as a twelve-page PDF.

[I prepared the following book review for John Woodbridge’s “History of Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism” course in fall 2007 at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Special thanks to Rolland McCune for reading my review and providing a lengthy response at such short notice. His rejoinder is included below with his permission. –Andy Naselli]

McCune, Rolland D. Promise Unfulfilled: The Failed Strategy of Modern Evangelicalism. Greenville, S.C.: Ambassador International, 2004. xvii + 398 pp.

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Promise Unfulfilled is the most penetrating book-length evaluation of the “new evangelicalism” (about fifty years after its genesis) by a self-identified fundamentalist. McCune (b. 1934) is former president and current professor of systematic theology at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. He testifies, “I first heard that there was such a movement called ‘new evangelicalism’ when I entered Grace Theological Seminary in the fall of 1957. . . . In 1967 I began teaching on the seminary level and annually lectured on the new evangelicalism. This book”—McCune’s first—“is a partial harvest of all my years of research, study, and teaching on the subject” (p. xv).
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Review of Yarbrough’s “The Salvation Historical Fallacy?”

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Yarbrough, Robert Wayne. The Salvation Historical Fallacy? Reassessing the History of New Testament Theology. Edited by Robert Morgan. History of Biblical Interpretation Series 2. Leiden: Deo, 2004. xiv + 402 pp.

1. Introduction

Yarbrough is a NT professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he serves as chair of the NT department. The Salvation Historical Fallacy? (henceforth SHF) builds on Yarbrough’s “The heilsgeschichtliche Perspective in Modern New Testament Theology” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Aberdeen, 1985; xiii + 520 pp.), incorporating two additional decades of research (cf. many of the articles in Yarbrough’s Curriculum Vitae).

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