J.P. Moreland has written an important new book. In his post announcing this important development, he points out that it is “pitched” mainly at Evangelicals.
This book is vital for high-Church Christians as well . . . and I hope all traditional Christians can acknowledge this fact, over look obvious areas of disagreement, and read it.
First, Moreland is part of a general and genuine intellectual renaissance in Christendom. He represents the Evangelical wing of that movement just as Pope Benedict is indicative of the Catholic side of the equation. Moreland is a good scholar, a careful philosopher, and has tried to engage the big ideas of modernity and post-modernity with care.
This intellectual renaissance has an activist and populist side . . . both Pope Benedict and Moreland (to make a first time comparison) love the academy, but they are Churchmen first. The products of their minds are in service to the men and women who sit in the pews or who kneel at the alter rail and are not just for fellow intellectuals.
This book brings together all the sides of this encouraging phenomenon in one readable text. While there are details (even important ones) that will provoke dissent and discussion in the book, the demand in it for passionate, Spirit-led, intellectual activity is utterly positive.
Second, Moreland’s book has missionary zeal. Other Christian communities have much to learn from the Evangelical passion to win those who are lost in despair and in danger of hell-fire. Evangelicals don’t just talk about missions with fond memories of Cyril and Methodius, they go out and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Finally, Moreland is not a naturalist. He wants to see the power of the Holy Ghost at work in the daily lives of people. If the history of the Church is any indication, sanctity should bring with it real power. It was not (after all) an Evangelical who pointed out that if the Church no longer needs to say that it has no silver or gold, it also cannot say “rise up and walk.”
Evangelicals have been firm on a Bible without error, justification by faith through grace in the face of the Pelegianism of modernity, and on the need for a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. On those fronts, all of us need to be Evangelical with the humility to learn what we can.
