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

&quotAmong evangelicals one can count numerous scholars of wide learning but only a handful with original ideas. Grenz [was] one of the few who combine depth of scholarship with genuine originality.&quot--Theology Today Renewing the Center has been an influential catalyst for many in the emerging and missional church scenes. With a new foreword by Brian McLaren and a new afterword from John Franke, the second edition updates the book for the contemporary church scene and shows how Stanley Grenz’s theological insights continue to shape postmodern church movements.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, &quotThe 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.&quotGrenz begins with a historical survey, considering the influence of two major strands within evangelicalism. He goes on to sketch a creative vision for a renewed evangelical theology that faces the intellectual challenges of its time. He further envisions an &quotevangelical center&quot through the establishment of a &quotgenerous orthodoxy&quot that enables the church to fulfill its mission in the world.Renewing the Center is an important book for professors and students of theology, pastors, and church leaders. From the foreword: &quotPerhaps 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 &quotre-&quot do not 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.&quot--Brian McLaren