Here are, according to Roger Olson, the ‘hallmarks’ of modern liberal theology:
1) A tendency to reduce the Bible to “the Christian classic” that is “inspired” insofar as it is inspiring;
2) A tendency to reduce Christianity itself to ethics such that doctrine is an expression of collective opinion always open to revision in light of changing cultural conditions;
3) A tendency to embrace and promote individualism in spirituality and doctrine while insisting on certain controversial ethical positions as matters of justice and therefore beyond debate; Continue reading “Roger Olson – What is Liberal Theology?”
An article by Bob Allen, from Baptist News Global.
A quarter century after forming to resist fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist Convention, theology professor Roger Olson says the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is increasingly polarizing over liberal views gaining ground in the originally moderate group.
A professor at a moderate Baptist seminary says some individuals within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are starting to sound more liberal than moderate, prompting others to worry the quasi-denomination is drifting leftward and away from its evangelical roots.
Roger Olson, professor of theology and Christian ethics at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, said in a Patheos blog Feb. 22 that a division is developing in the 1,800-church network founded in 1990.
On one hand, he said, there are those who want to elevate the Baptist concept of “soul competency” to question traditional orthodoxy. Others “want to hold to basic Christian orthodox and evangelical commitments while avoiding rigid, narrow dogmatism over secondary matters.”
Olson said Cecil Sherman, the founding coordinator of the CBF who died in 2010, was by all accounts the figurehead leader of the moderate Baptist party that left the Southern Baptist Convention to establish a truly moderate — neither liberal nor fundamentalist — Baptist group in the South. Continue reading “Roger Olson Asks CBF Liberals to Drop ‘Moderate’ Label”
7.2 ‘God is neither a Democrat nor a Republican’
While visiting the States I was shocked to observe that the majority of Evangelical Christians traditionally voted for the Republicans and accused those who voted for the Democrats of being liberals and crypto-socialists. Now it may be true that the Republican Party in the US is closer to the conservative values that are so dear to Evangelicals; yet at the same time I was astonished to observe that: Continue reading “40 Years in the Desert – 7. A Christian Critique of Capitalism 2”
Richard Niebuhr, in Christ and Culture, presents five possible models for the engagement of the church with the surrounding culture. These are:
Each of these models has its own strengths and limitations, and each may be more effective in a certain given context and at a certain given time than in others.
Persona 
