APOSTLES OF REASON
The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism
Molly Worthen
Here is a critical examination of American evangelicalism that urges secular intellectuals to recognize the seriousness with which evangelicals take ideas. Worthen seeks to explain the irony of anti-intellectual strains within a community that believes so strongly in the power of ideas.
The secular reader who believes evangelicalism is built on authoritarian personalities will be challenged by Worthen’s thesis: it’s an “ongoing crisis of authority—their struggle to reconcile reason with revelation, heart with head, and private piety with the public square—that best explains their anxiety and their animosity toward intellectual life.” The evangelical reader will receive a critique from someone outside of the movement, a talented writer who offers us a brief overview of our history while seeking to understand what motivates evangelical belief and action.
In some places, Worthen is spot on. In others, way off. Regardless, this is an author who has her finger on the pulse of a “thriving” and “embattled” movement. (I’ll be interacting with Worthen’s book in more detail soon.)
GRASSROOTS ASIAN THEOLOGY
Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up
Simon Chan
If you want to see what Asian believers across the world believe, you might have to bypass some of the “elitist” theologies that have come from the academy in recent decades (and bear a strange resemblance to Western liberalism) and go to the grassroots pastors, teachers, and writers. Chan believes “theology is first a lived experience of the church before it is a set of ideas formulated by church theologians.” As such, it is important to watch how believers in China, India, and other Asian contexts are worshipping.
What are their questions? Why are so many adopting Pentecostal beliefs and practices? What do these believers have in common with the rest of the global church? What role does the church play? How do other Christians engage in intra-religious dialogue? Chan works through a series of theological questions, showing how these believers at the grassroots level are experiencing the faith in ways that challenge both Western evangelicalism and classic liberalism.
PERSPECTIVES ON THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT
3 Views
Carl Trueman, Grant Osborne, John Hammett
For centuries, Christians have debated the extent of the atonement. This book, part of the Perspectives series, stands out to me because of the excellent case each author makes for their view. Trueman argues for definite atonement (that Christ came to die only for the elect), Osborne for general atonement (that Christ came to die for all), and Hammett for the multiple-intentions view (that Christ had three intentions: universal, particular, and cosmic).
If you wonder what the debate over the extent of the atonement is all about, you can’t go wrong with this book. This is a charitable, forthright, and accessible volume that shows how the Calvinist and Arminian frameworks (and positions in between) interpret the relevant biblical texts on Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
