Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 17:3 (Summer 1974)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

The Young Evangelicals. By Richard Quebedeaux. New York: Harper and Row, 1974. 150 pages, Paperback, $2.50. Reviewed by Boyd Reese, Associate Editor of Post American, Chicago, Illinois.

The Young Evangelicals is mainly an intellectual history. Quebedeaux begins with an overview of the history of Christianity in the United States as that history relates to contemporary Evangelicalism. He deals briefly with the Great Awakening, Revivalism, and the Social Gospel as preludes to the conflicts between the Fundamentalists and Modernists in the early part of the twentieth century. He then gives a brief history of the schism that resulted from the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy, and the four postures that have characterized the descendants of the Fundamentalists. It is interesting, in light of his concern with the social dimension of the Gospel, that Quebedeaux omits discussion of the social actions of Evangelicals before the coming of the Social Gospel controversy.

Quebedeaux sees little hope for renewal coming from the “separatist Fundamentalists,” represented by Bob Jones University, Carl Mcintyre, and others, or from the “open Fundamentalists,” represented by such groups and individuals as Dallas Theological Seminary, Bible schools as Moody, and Hal Lindsey and his The Late Great Planet Earth. Both brands of Fundamentalism he sees to be so heavily influenced by their Dispensational theology, their cultural separation, and their political conservatism that they are deprived of a meaningful social ethic.

He is more positive in his outlook for “Establishment Evangelicalism” and the “young Evangelicals.” Establishment Evangelicals are represented by a number of individuals and institutions: Quebedeaux’s prime examples are Billy Graham, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Christianity Today. I feel that an assessment of the major individuals and institutions in Establishment Evangelicalism cannot overlook Bill Gothard and his Institute for Basic Youth Conflicts, and Campus Crusade for Christ.

Quebedeaux sees the emergence in the 1940’s of what has become Establishment Evangelicalism in a very positive light. His treatment of the inadequacies of both Neo-orthodoxy and Fundamentalism are helpful and enlightening. The adherence to Biblical revelation in the light of the distortions of Neo-orthodoxy and what Quebedeaux terms Liberal Ecumenism is one of the main strengths of the Evangelical Establishment.

In spite of the strengths and the growth of Establishment Evangelicalism and Evangelical churches, a new breed of young Evangelicals has emerged in the last few years in response to the inadequacies of the Evangelical Establishment—primarily the lack ...

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