Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 127:507 (Jul 1970)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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BSac 127:507 (Jul 70) p. 257

Periodical Reviews

“The Future Of Theology (And The Theology Of The Future),” Vernon C. Grounds, Moody Monthly February, 1970, pp. 50-57, and March, 1970, pp. 37, 78-80, 91–92.

After reading Dr. Grounds’ survey of the atheism and irreligion and unbelief which parade as Christian theology today (outside of evangelicalism, of course), I am tempted with pessimism to conclude, “The future of theology is past.” If what these contemporary church leaders teach is to be called Christian theology, then Mark Twain’s indictment of Christian Science can be applied to Christian theology—”It is neither Christian nor science.”

Grounds identifies six structural principles of what he calls the theology of the future—an unbiblical evolutionism, an unbiblical pantheism, and unbiblical relativism, an unbiblical secularism, an unbiblical autosoterism, and an unbiblical romanticism. These principles are all illustrated by quotations and summations of the theological views of contemporary religious leaders such as Bishop Robinson, Paul Tillich, Schubert Ogden, and Charles Hartshorne. The series, therefore, is an excellent survey and critique of contemporary theology.

This is perhaps the major complaint against the series—the content does not live up to the title. Grounds of course is operating on the principle that the avant garde theology of the present will be the dominant theology of the future. This principle is valid. But Grounds does comparatively little projecting into the future on the basis of his analysis of the present. In addition, I think Grounds misses one vital indicator in the present of the shape of theology in the future. This is the unbiblical eclecticism of men like Nels Ferre, which carries ecumenism to the extreme of the amalgamation doctrinally and organizationally of all religions.

“Can Evangelicals Travel The New Ecumenical Road?” David Kucharsky, Tempo, February 15, 1970, pp. 4-5.

The question Kucharsky asks in this article as expressed in the title is raised by the proposal for a general ecumenical council as a successor to the National Council of Churches. This new council would embrace the National Council, of course, plus “the Roman Catholic Church in the United States as well as several of the big evangelically-oriented denominations which have thus far resisted the conciliar movement” p. 4).

The very presentation of such a proposal (made by Dr. R. H. Edwin Espy, general secretary of the National Council) is another piece of evidence that the National Council of Churches is in serious

BSac 127:507 (Jul 70) p. 258

trouble. In the minds of many Christians the supplanting of the Nat...

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