In Quest of a Vital Protestant Center: An Ecumenical Evangelical Perspective

In Quest of a Vital Protestant Center probes the relationship between Scripture and culture in twentieth-century US theology and biblical studies. It points to the necessity of turning to what Karl Barth has referred to as the strange new world within the Bible for any revitalization of mainline Protestantism in the tradition of the Protestant Reformers in critical dialogue with serious evangelical theology. The study includes a historical overview underlying what Demetrion refers to as the fundamentalist/modernist great divide which continues to resonate powerfully in contemporary US Protestant thought and culture. Demetrion offers an in-depth exploration of four representative twentieth-century Protestant theologians and biblical scholars spanning from the conservative evangelical theology of J. I. Packer to the postliberal dialectical theology of Walter Brueggemann. The book includes a chapter on the neo-orthodox legacy as a mediating resource in bringing evangelical and postliberal theology into dialogue with the core issues of theology biblical hermeneutics and religious culture. Demetrion concludes with a critically empathetic review of the postliberal dialectical theology of Douglas J. Hall and the evangelical narrative theology of Richard Lints. In linking evangelical postliberal and neo-orthodox theology to a common search for a vital Protestant center this book will facilitate fruitful dialogue among divergent schools of Protestant thought and culture. A big thank you to George Demetrion for helping readers see that the center does hold. A wise and winsome work. --Gabriel Fackre Samuel Abbot Professor of Christian Theology Emeritus Andover Newton Theological School Newton MA George Demetrion is gathering up the theological foundation stones on which a new kind of church can be constructed one that is truly ecumenical truly evangelical and generously orthodox. --Richard L. Floyd pastor emeritus First Church of Christ Pittsfield MA For centuries biblical texts have given reformers the power to rupture the unity of the church. The author believes that biblical texts can be the bridge to unity for moderate liberal and conservative churches to form a new theological coalition. This is an exciting venture in finding common ground between J. I. Packer and Walter Brueggemann. The passion of the writer is rooted in his lifelong study of Scripture and his life together with Assembly of God United Church of Christ and Methodist congregations. --Herb Davis pastor emeritus Eliot Church United Church of Christ (UCC) Newton MA Superficial categories in music have not allowed Bob Dylan to join one of his heroes Hank Williams Sr. in the Country Music Hall of Fame. George Demetrion has broken down similar walls in theology by bringing together a wide diversity of theologians in this book. Bravo. --F. Christopher Anderson editor of The New Mercersburg Review George Demetrion is a self-educated Christian scholar who has audited courses at Hartford and Bethel Seminaries. He is an adult education program coordinator at the Saint Vincent de Paul Village in San Diego California and teaches courses in the Online Adult Literacy Certification Program at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of Conflicting Paradigms in Adult Literacy Education: In Quest of a US Democratic Politics of Literacy (2005).