American Protestant Christianity is often described as a two-party system divided into liberals and conservatives. This book clarifies differences between the intellectual positions of these two groups by advancing the thesis that the philosophy of the modern period is largely responsible for the polarity of Protestant Christian thought.A second thesis is that the modern philosophical positions driving the division between liberals and conservatives have themselves been called into question. It therefore becomes opportune to ask how theology ought to be done in a postmodern era, and to envision a rapprochement between theologians of the left and right.A concluding chapter speculates specifically on the era now dawning and the likelihood that the compulsion to separate the spectrum into two distinct camps will be precluded by the coexistence of a wide range of theological positions from left to right.Nancey C. Murphy is Associate Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, and the author of Reasoning and Rhetoric in Religion, also published by Trinity Press. Her book Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning earned the American Academy of Religion’s Award for Excellence.
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Review
"Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism placed 8th in the "Top 25 list" of the 1997 Christianity Today Book Awards" — Your Church ( The Catholic Historical Review )
"This is a helpful book. Murphy writes clearly and summarizes a great deal of material...(a) bold effort to survey so much of where Christian theology has been and make proposals for where it should go next." —William C. Placher, Theology Today ( Theology Today )
"This book...will be of particular in seminary theology courses." — Religious Studies Review, July 1997 ( Religious Studies Review )
"The central question asked by Nancey Murphy's book is this: Why is it that conservative Christian theologians and liberal Christian theologians are so far apart that we can say they operate out of incompatible paradigms? Murphy offers a descriptive answer to this question along with a prescriptive recommendation for connecting the right and left wings together into one body." —Dialog, Fall 1997 ( Dialog: A Journal Of Theology )
From the Back Cover
This book clarifies differences between the intellectual positions of the so-called two-party system of liberals and conservatives in American Protestant Christianity. Nancey Murphy advances the thesis that the philosophy of the modern period is largely responsible for the polarity of Protestant Christian thought. A second thesis is that the modern philosophical positions driving the division between liberals and conservatives have themselves been called into question. This, then, presents the opportunity to ask how theology ought to be done in a postmodern era and to envision a rapprochement between theologians of the left and right. The book concludes by speculating on the future and the likelihood that the compulsion to separate into two distinct camps will be precluded by the coexistence of a wide range of theological positions from left to right.
American Protestant Christianity is often described as a two-party system divided into liberals and conservatives. This book clarifies differences between the intellectual positions of these two groups by advancing the thesis that the philosophy of the modern period is largely responsible for the polarity of Protestant Christian thought.A second thesis is that the modern philosophical positions driving the division between liberals and conservatives have themselves been called into question. It therefore becomes opportune to ask how theology ought to be done in a postmodern era, and to envision a rapprochement between theologians of the left and right.A concluding chapter speculates specifically on the era now dawning and the likelihood that the compulsion to separate the spectrum into two distinct camps will be precluded by the coexistence of a wide range of theological positions from left to right.Nancey C. Murphy is Associate Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, and the author of Reasoning and Rhetoric in Religion, also published by Trinity Press. Her book Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning earned the American Academy of Religion’s Award for Excellence.
**
Review
"Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism placed 8th in the "Top 25 list" of the 1997 Christianity Today Book Awards" — Your Church ( The Catholic Historical Review )
"This is a helpful book. Murphy writes clearly and summarizes a great deal of material...(a) bold effort to survey so much of where Christian theology has been and make proposals for where it should go next." —William C. Placher, Theology Today ( Theology Today )
"This book...will be of particular in seminary theology courses." — Religious Studies Review, July 1997 ( Religious Studies Review )
"The central question asked by Nancey Murphy's book is this: Why is it that conservative Christian theologians and liberal Christian theologians are so far apart that we can say they operate out of incompatible paradigms? Murphy offers a descriptive answer to this question along with a prescriptive recommendation for connecting the right and left wings together into one body." —Dialog, Fall 1997 ( Dialog: A Journal Of Theology )
From the Back Cover
This book clarifies differences between the intellectual positions of the so-called two-party system of liberals and conservatives in American Protestant Christianity. Nancey Murphy advances the thesis that the philosophy of the modern period is largely responsible for the polarity of Protestant Christian thought. A second thesis is that the modern philosophical positions driving the division between liberals and conservatives have themselves been called into question. This, then, presents the opportunity to ask how theology ought to be done in a postmodern era and to envision a rapprochement between theologians of the left and right. The book concludes by speculating on the future and the likelihood that the compulsion to separate into two distinct camps will be precluded by the coexistence of a wide range of theological positions from left to right.