Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 25:2 (Fall 2021)
Article: The Rise And Fall Of The Biblical Theology Movement
Author: John Wivell

JMAT 25:2 (Fall 2021) p. 74

The Rise And Fall Of The Biblical Theology Movement

John Wivell

Abstract: The Biblical Theology Movement was a Post-World War Two Neo-orthodox trend by nonconservative Biblical Scholars that attempted to solve the problems inherent in classic Liberalism. In its late 19th and early 20th Century form, theological liberalism was inextricably wedded to a historical criticism that focused unduly on the process of the development of Scripture and avoided the theological significance of the Biblical message. It assumed an antisupernaturalism that made hearing a genuine Word from God impossible, and therefore left liberal preachers with no message that could heal a hurting world. Scholars turned to Barthianism to obtain the spiritual power present in orthodox theology, but without what they saw as the anti-intellectualism of fundamentalism. Genuine intentions to hear God’s supernatural voice failed because they refused to adopt the worldview that made the language of traditional orthodoxy authentic.

Key Words: Biblical Theology, Fundamentalism, Liberalism, Neo-orthodoxy, Special Revelation, Biblical Languages

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Ιn Hollywood, once the story is completed it ends. The bad guys lose, and the good guys live happily ever after. But in real life, the story is still in process, moving forward to the eternal state. God has guaranteed the ultimate triumph of his sovereign will. But until it does, sometimes the bad guys win. Such is the story of the Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy, as told by conservatives. The Liberals won, the Fundamentalists

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lost, and by the 1940s, virtually all of them had been driven out of the mainline denominations. In the aftermath, the Fundamentalists rebuilt and slowly acquired power. They changed into the modern evangelical movement. But what happened to the Liberals? They too changed. The winds of Barthianism swept into the US in the 1930s, along with the evident failure of classic Liberalism to account for the World Wars and the Great Depression. People were desperate to hear a word from God to heal their broken and shattered world. Conservatives were providing this word; Liberalism could not. A return to orthodoxy was unthinkable, but something had to be done. The solution was an attempt to provide a word from God while maintaining the historical critical assumptions of Liberalism. Childs labeled this attempt the Biblical Theology Movement.2

I. What Was The Biblical Theology Movement?

Ask an average Christian to define biblical theology and one is quite likely to get some variation of “theology that is biblical.” In this sense ...