Renewing the Center,: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era

From the Back Cover "Certainly Renewing the Center marks a milestone in Grenz's work and may, if found plausible, constitute a landmark in evangelical reflection."--Theology Today "This account of where evangelical theology has been and where it is going bears all the virtues that one expects from a book by Stanley Grenz: clarity, fair-mindedness, thoughtfulness, comprehension, and faithfulness."--Gary Dorrien, Union Theological Seminary "Perhaps Renewing the Center wasn't the best title for this book. Perhaps this book reaches toward a new center, a new vantage point, a new floor that must be discovered (or constructed) for the first time, so that words beginning with "re-" don't apply. Perhaps the ultimate center--Jesus--is actually a moving center, moving and always on the move, so that our faith centers less in an old position we claim and defend and more in a set of fresh footprints we track and follow. But then again, recalling the best sense of evangelical, the newest thing is also the oldest thing: the ever-new good news is also the original story of Jesus, continuing through history and stretching through today into a vast future that is full of danger, yet even more full of hope."--Brian McLaren (from the foreword) "Stanley Grenz presses the question of whether evangelicalism can embrace a doctrine of the church that is believably universal and comprehensive. Evangelicals, Catholics, and other Christians have a very big stake in how that question is answered in the years ahead."--Richard John Neuhaus, editor in chief, First Things "Stanley Grenz urges a re-forming of evangelical theology in a coherent apologetic, churchly, missional, forward-looking world so as to interface effectively with the intellectual thoughts of postmodern and postchristian culture. His exposition is a tour de force that commands our attention, and merits our gratitude."--J. I. Packer, Regent College About the Author Stanley J. Grenz (DTheol, University of Munich) was the Pioneer McDonald Professor of Theology and Ethics at Carey Theological College in Vancouver, British Columbia. A leading voice on the North American theological scene, he wrote or cowrote over twenty-five books, including A Primer on Postmodernism, Created for Community, and Revisioning Evangelical Theology. Foreword (Brian McLaren) / 7 Preface / 15 Introduction: Evangelicalism in a Time of Transition / 19 1. The Gospel and Awakening Evangelicalism / 33 2. Scripture and the Genesis of the New Evangelicalism / 61 3. The Shaping of Neo-Evangelical Apologetic Theology / 93 4. The Expansion of Neo-Evangelical Theology / 125 5. Evangelical Theology in Transition / 159 6. Evangelical Theological Method after the Demise of Foundationalism / 192 7. Theology and Science after the Demise of Realism / 226 8. Evangelical Theology and the Religions / 257 9. Evangelical Theology and the Ecclesiological Center / 295 10. Renewing the Evangelical "Center" / 333 Afterword: An Agenda for the Future of Evangelical Theology (John R. Franke) / 361 Scripture Index / 371 Author Index / 373 Subject Index / 379

Renewing the Center is an important foundational book for the emerging church. The second edition includes a new foreword by Brian McLaren and a new afterword from John Franke updating the book for the contemporary church scene.

Praise for the first edition:
"Grenz has written a lively and engaging work that should help American evangelicals chart the challenging course of their theological future. He offers a balanced, carefully-argued, and lucid prescription for the way ahead. Accordingly, I highly recommend this book and hope that it receives the wide reading that it so richly deserves."—Kenneth J. Collins, author of The Evangelical Moment

In this book, Grenz challenges evangelical Christians to take stock of their faith and its relationship to the world around them. According to the author, "The postmodern condition calls Christians to move beyond a polarity that knows only the categories of 'liberal' and 'conservative' and thus pits so-called conservatives against loosely-defined liberals. The way forward is for evangelicals to take the lead in renewing a theological 'center' that can meet the challenges of the postmodern--and in some sense post-theological--situation in which the church now finds itself."--Publisher description