Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

evangelicalism

Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism

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This book comes out this month:

Andrew David Naselli and Collin Hansen, eds. Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism. Counterpoints. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.

[Read more…] about Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism

Essential vs. Peripheral Doctrine

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Erik Thoennes, Life’s Biggest Questions: What the Bible Says About the Things That Matter Most, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 35–37 (formatting added):

Essential vs. Peripheral Doctrine

The ability to discern the relative importance of theological beliefs is vital for effective Christian life and ministry. Both the purity and unity of the church are at stake in this matter. The relative importance of theological issues can fall within four categories:

  1. absolutes define the core beliefs of the Christian faith;
  2. convictions, while not core beliefs, may have significant impact on the health and effectiveness of the church;
  3. opinions are views or personal judgments that generally are not worth dividing over; and
  4. questions are currently unsettled issues.

These categories can be best visualized as concentric circles, similar to those on a dart board, with the absolutes as the “bull’s eye” (see fig. 3.4).

Into which category an issue falls should be determined by the cumulative force of at least eight considerations: [Read more…] about Essential vs. Peripheral Doctrine

Sympathetic Evangelicalism

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Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 15–19 (numbering added):

[Th]e most strategic decision we ever make is the decision of what to emphasize.

Evangelicalism has always been concerned to underline certain elements of the Christian message.

  1. We have a lot to say about God’s revelation, but we emphasize the business end of it, where God’s voice is heard normatively: the Bible.
  2. We know that everything Jesus did has power for salvation in it, but we emphasize the one event that is literally crucial: the cross.
  3. We know that God is at work on his people through the full journey of their lives, from the earliest glimmers of awareness to the ups and downs of the spiritual life, but we emphasize the hinge of all spiritual experience: conversion.
  4. We know there are countless benefits that flow from being joined to Christ, but we emphasize the big one: heaven.

Bible, cross, conversion, heaven. These are the right things to emphasize. But in order to emphasize anything, you must presuppose a larger body of truth to select from. . . . [Read more…] about Sympathetic Evangelicalism

Why Drawing Lines Is Utterly Crucial

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D. A. Carson, “On Drawing Lines, When Drawing Lines Is Rude,” ch. 8 in The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 347–67 (numbering added):

[The point of this chapter is] to ponder briefly some of the reasons why drawing lines is utterly crucial at the moment.

  1. Truth demands it.
  2. The distinction between orthodoxy and heresy models it.
  3. The plurality of errors calls for it.
  4. The entailments of the gospel confront our culture—and must be lived out.

Doctrinal Boundaries

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Dave Doran recalls six books or articles by evangelicals “about the need to formulate doctrinal boundaries” and “the question of separation”:

1. Carson, D. A. Love in Hard Places. Wheaton: Crossway, 2002.

2. Mohler Jr., R. Albert. “Reformist Evangelicalism: A Center without a Circumference.” Page 131–50 in A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times. Edited by Michael S. Horton. Wheaton: Crossway, 2000.

3. Grudem, Wayne. “Why, When, and for What Should We Draw New Boundaries?” Page 339–70 in Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity. Edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. Wheaton: Crossway, 2003. [Read more…] about Doctrinal Boundaries

Cultural Differences

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Christopher Catherwood, Church History: A Crash Course for the Curious (2nd ed.; Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 196:

I think it fair to say that the main difference between Fundamentalism and what we would now call historic Evangelicalism is as much cultural as anything else and is particularly an American phenomenon.

(It’s valuable to hear the perspectives of others—in this case a British evangelical historian who is the grandson of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones.)

Related: Cultural and Theological Conservatism

Dever, Doran, Bauder, and Others Dialogue

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Calvary Baptist Seminary hosted the Advancing the Church Conference a few weeks ago, and the conference audio is now available.

Mark Dever was the keynote speaker, and he interacted with Dave Doran, Kevin Bauder, and other fundamentalist leaders in two panels:

Kevin Bauder shares his perspective on the conference in “Reflections after the Encounter: Considering the Current Situation of Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism; or, Why I Am Still a Fundamentalist (And How I Am Not).”