Notes

1. The published volumes are: Stanley J. Grenz, The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001); and Stanley J. Grenz, The Named God and the Question of Being: A Trinitarian Theo-ontology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005).

2. Stanley J. Grenz, What Christians Really Believe & Why (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998); William C. Placher, “The Next C. S. Lewis?,” Christian Century (August 12–19, 1998): 759–61.

1. Frank Whaling, “The Development of the Word ‘Theology,’” Scottish Journal of Theology 34 (1981): 292–300.

2. Friedrich Schleiermacher, A Brief Outline of the Study of Theology (Atlanta: John Knox, 1966).

3. Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of God (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1950), 93–96.

4. E.g., Transcendental Meditation, Divine Light, New Age, the Unification Church, Raëlism, Scientology, and countless other cults.

5. For a more detailed discussion, see Stanley J. Grenz, Revisioning Evangelical Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1993), 87–108. See also Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson, Who Needs Theology? (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996); Stanley J. Grenz, Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000); and Stanley J. Grenz and John R. Franke, Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000).

6. For a similar delineation, see Gabriel Fackre, The Christian Story (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 40.

7. The Westminster Confession of Faith, which formed the apex of Puritan efforts to delineate a proper recounting of biblical doctrine, declares that the final authority in the church is “the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures.” See “The Westminster Confession of Faith,” 1/10, in Creeds of the Churches, 3rd ed., ed. John H. Leith (Atlanta: John Knox, 1982), 196.

8. For a discussion of theological use and study of culture, see Robert J. Schreiter, Constructing Local Theologies (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985), 39–74.

9. For a lengthier discussion, see Grenz, Revisioning Evangelical Theology, 137–64.

10. Mark Pendergrass, “The Greatest Thing,” 1977. Contemporary Christian music as a whole reflects this pattern—to know, to love, and to serve. For example, see the worship music of Darlene Zschech, David Crowder, and Chris Tomlin, among many others.

1. See the work of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others.

2. Anselm, Proslogion, in St. Anselm: Basic Writings, 2nd ed., trans. S. N. Deane (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1962), 7.

3. Ibid., 8.

4. René Descartes, Discourse on Method and the Meditations, trans. Laurence J. Lafleur, Library of Liberal Arts ed. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960), 120.

5. G. W. F. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Mind, trans. J. B. Baillie, Harper Torchbooks/The Academy Library ed. (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), 207–13. For a discussion of Hegel’s thinking, see Wolfhart Pannenberg, Basic Questions in Theology, 3 vols., trans. George H. Kehm (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970), 3:84–86.

6. Norman Malcolm, “Anselm’s Ontological Arguments,” in Knowledge and Certainty: Essays and Lectures (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1963), 20–27.

7. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 1.2.3, in Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas, ed. Anton C. Pegis (New York: Modern Library, 1948), 24–27.

8. William Paley, Natural Theology (New York: American Tract Society, n.d.), chaps. 1–6.

9. F. R. Tennant, Philosophical Theology, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928–30), 2:78–104.

10. Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (New York: Norton, 1978).

11. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, trans. Lewis White Beck (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956), 114–15, 126–39.

12. Hastings Rashdall, The Theory of Good and Evil, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1907), 2:189–246.

13. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Macmillan Paperbacks ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1960), 17–39.

14. See Alister E. McGrath, Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2012).

15. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.1.2, in vol. 20 of the Library of Christian Classics, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, ed. John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 37.

16. For a discussion of the development of the Israelite concept of monotheism, see Walther Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, 2 vols., trans. J. A. Baker (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961), 1:220–27.

17. Elmer A. Martens, God’s Design: A Focus on Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 43.

18. Ibid., 41.

19. Ibid., 197.

20. Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, 1:226–27.

21. Ibid., 219–21.

22. John Baillie, The Idea of Revelation (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956), 19–40. See also Grenz, Social God. Grenz understands revelation proper ultimately as a trinitarian accomplishment.

23. J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1973), 37.

24. For a discussion of history as the focus of divine revelation, see Wolfhart Pannenberg, “Hermeneutic and Universal History,” in Basic Questions in Theology, 1:96–136; and Wolfhart Pannenberg, ed., Revelation as History, trans. David Granskou (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 3–21, 125–35.

1. As Jason Sexton posits in his recent thesis, the central doctrinal concern in all of Grenz’s theology is the doctrine of the Trinity (Jason S. Sexton, The Trinitarian Theology of Stanley J. Grenz [New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013]). For the inquiring student, Grenz explicitly engages the doctrine in his last three books. See Social God; Rediscovering the Triune God: The Trinity in Contemporary Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004); and Named God.

2. Grenz’s recovery of trinitarian thinking, specifically evidenced in his understanding of the indwelling of the Spirit in the life of Jesus’s followers and as the font of biblical inspiration and the nexus of biblical authority, is Grenz’s innovation for the renaissance of neoevangelical thought and the germination of the post-conservative evangelical movement today.

3. J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, rev. ed. (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978), 258.

4. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought, ed. Carl Braaten (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968), 77.

5. Augustine, The Trinity 6.5.7, trans. Vernon J. Bourke, vol. 45 of The Fathers of the Church, ed. Hermigild Dressler (Washington: Catholic University of American Press, 1963), 206–7; see also 15.17.27 (491–92); 5.11.12 (189–90); 15.19.37 (503–4). For the connection of this Augustinian idea to the Greek tradition, see Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit, 3 vols., trans. David Smith (New York: Seabury, 1983), 3:88–89, 147–48. For a contemporary delineation of this position, see David Coffey, “The Holy Spirit as the Mutual Love of the Father and the Son,” Theological Studies 51 (1990): 193–229. (See also Grenz’s Social God and Rediscovering the Triune God for his own adaptation of the Augustinian understanding of the nature and role of the Spirit in the relationship between the Father and the Son.)

6. Packer, Knowing God, 154.

7. Edwin Hatch, “Breathe on Me, Breath of God,” 1878.

8. See Grenz’s elaboration of this concept in Social God.

9. Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk (Boston: Beacon, 1983), 258. (Although reminiscent of the Wachowski brothers’ “Matrix” in the movie series of the same name, Grenz is simply referring to Ruether’s language here as “the seminal environment in which something develops.”)

10. Wolfhart Pannenberg, “The Question of God,” in Basic Questions in Theology, 2:226–33; Wolfhart Pannenberg, “Speaking about God in the Face of Atheist Criticism,” in The Idea of God and Human Freedom (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1973), 112.

11. Jacques Guillet and E. M. Stewart, “Yahweh,” in the Dictionary of Biblical Theology, 2nd ed., ed. Xavier Leon-Dufour, trans. P. Joseph Cahill et al. (New York: Seabury, 1973), 690; Alexander Harkavy, Students’ Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary to the Old Testament (New York: Hebrew Publishing, 1914), 122; J. Philip Hyatt, Exodus, in the New Century Bible, ed. Ronald E. Clements (London: Oliphants, 1971), 76; Martin Noth, Exodus: A Commentary, trans. J. S. Bowden (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962), 45.

12. For a more thorough elucidation of Grenz’s view of the divine name, see Named God.

13. Paul Fiddes, The Creative Suffering of God (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).

14. For a further discussion of this theme, see Stanley J. Grenz, Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1988). Interestingly, the contemporary charismatic church movement is taking Grenz’s understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit seriously. Christian ministers such as Todd White and Robby Dawkins are teaching and exercising a fully trinitarian approach to ministry in which the manifestation of the power of God through the Holy Spirit, in the name of Son, and by the will of the Father is seeing a positive response from a skeptical postmodern generation. For an outline of this ministry, see Robby Dawkins, Do What Jesus Did: A Real-Life Field Guide to Healing the Sick, Routing Demons, and Changing Lives Forever (Bloomington, MN: Chosen, 2013). See also the documentaries by Darren Wilson: Furious Love: This Time Love Fights Back (Wanderlust Productions, 2010) and The Father of Lights (Wanderlust Productions, 2012).

15. H. Kleinknecht, “lego,” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols., ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), 4:80–86.

1. The Bourne Identity, Universal Pictures, 2002.

2. Ashley Montagu, Man in Process (New York: Mentor, 1961), 17–18.

3. Wolfhart Pannenberg, What Is Man?, trans. Duane A. Priebe (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970), 3.

4. Augustine, Confessions 1.1, trans. Vernon J. Bourke, vol. 21 of The Fathers of the Church, ed. Roy Joseph Deferrari (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1953), 4.

5. “The Westminster Shorter Catechism,” question 1, in Creeds of Christendom, ed. Philip Schaff, 3 vols. (1877; repr., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977), 3:676.

6. For a more detailed discussion, see Stanley J. Grenz, “Abortion: A Christian Response,” Conrad Grebel Review 2, no. 1 (Winter 1984): 21–30. See also Stanley J. Grenz, Sexual Ethics (Dallas: Word, 1990), 135–41.

7. See, e.g., Phyllis A. Bird, “‘Male and Female He Created Them’: Gen. 1:27b in the Context of the Priestly Account of Creation,” Harvard Theological Review 74 (April 1981): 137–44.

8. Gerhard von Rad, “eikon,” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols., ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 2:392. See also Henri Blocher, In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis, trans. David G. Preston (Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity, 1984), 81.

9. Gerhard von Rad, Genesis, trans. John H. Marks, in the Old Testament Library, ed. G. Ernest Wright (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1972), 58.

10. For Grenz’s most thorough elucidation of the imago Dei, see Grenz, Social God.

11. For a development of the philosophical basis for the social understanding of personhood, see Alistair I. McFadyen, The Call to Personhood: A Christian Theory of the Individual in Social Relationships (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

12. For a fuller discussion of the relationship of sexuality and community, see Grenz, Sexual Ethics, 35–37; and Grenz, Social God.

13. The Twilight Saga consists of four movies based on the novels by Stephenie Meyer, written between 2005 and 2009 and published by Little, Brown. Supernatural (2005–present) is televised by the CW Network.

14. Hendrik Berkhof, Christ and the Powers, trans. John H. Yoder (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1962), 30, 33.

15. John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 145.

16. Berkhof, Christ and the Powers, 22, 37.

1. Changing Lanes, Paramount, 2002.

2. Gottfried Quell, “hamartano,” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols., ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 1:271.

3. Karl Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin? (New York: Hawthorn, 1973).

4. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1956), 4/1:358–413.

5. Isaac Watts, “At the Cross,” 1707.

6. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953), 215.

7. The idea of a primordial covenant of works has been a controversial thesis within Reformed theology. It was articulated at length by the great Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck. It has been defended in North America by many of the leading lights of the old Princeton school. See, e.g., Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (New York: Charles Scribner, 1871), 2:117–22; William G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology (1888; repr., Grand Rapids: Zondervan, n.d.), 2:152–53; Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 211–18. Several proponents have proposed substituting the designation “covenant of creation.” E.g., Meredith Kline, By Oath Consigned (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 27–29, 32, 37. For a rebuttal of the viewpoint, see Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 119–21.

8. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 215.

9. Friedrich Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, ed. H. R. MacKintosh and J. S. Steward (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 296, 299–304; Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 1:255–56; Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Dread, trans. Walter Lowrie (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957); Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1941), 1:269.

10. Donald G. Bloesch, Essentials of Evangelical Theology, 2 vols. (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978), 1:107–8, 118n63.

11. Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Griffith and Rowland, 1907), 2:661.

1. Schleiermacher, Christian Faith, 362, 385; Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce A. Demarest, Integrative Theology, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 2:336–38.

2. Adolf von Harnack, What Is Christianity?, trans. Thomas Bailey Saunders (New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1901), 55.

3. Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God, trans. R. A. Wilson and John Bowden (New York: SCM, 1974), 243–44.

4. Strong, Systematic Theology, 2:681–82; Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 689–93.

5. John R. W. Stott, Basic Christianity, 2nd ed. (London: Inter-Varsity, 1971), 21–34.

6. Quilboloy leads a restorationist church in the Philippines, claiming that he is the appointed son of God (http://www.apolloquiboloy.com). Miller leads the Australia-based Divine Truth movement and claims to be Jesus Christ reincarnated (“Inside Australia’s Chilling New Cult,” Yahoo News, September 18, 2011, http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/transcripts/article/-/10309969/australia-s-chilling-cult-transcript/). Shayler is a former MI5 agent who, in 2007, claimed to be the Messiah (Jane Fryer, “The MI5 Messiah,” Daily Mail, August 15, 2007, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-475616/The-MI5-Messiah-Why-David-Shayler-believes-hes-son-God.html). When Ortega-Hernandez fired on the White House in 2011, he claimed that he was Jesus Christ and US President Barack Obama was the antichrist (Jessie L. Bonner and Jessica Gresko, “Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez Thought He Was Jesus, Obama Was Antichrist,” Huffington Post, November 18, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/18/oscar-ortega-hernandez-jesus_n_1101222.html).

7. Schleiermacher, Christian Faith, 417; Rudolf Bultmann, “New Testament and Mythology,” in Kerygma and Myth: A Theological Debate, ed. Hans Werner Bartsch (New York: Harper and Row, 1961), 39–42.

8. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus—God and Man, 2nd ed., trans. Lewis L. Wilkins and Duane A. Priebe (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977), 88–106.

9. Hugh J. Schonfield, The Passover Plot (New York: Bantam Books, 1967), 151–62; “Christ Could Have Faked Death on Cross, Article Purports,” Vancouver Sun, April 27, 1991, sec. A3.

10. For a concise discussion of the prayer life of Jesus, see Grenz, Prayer, 11–18.

11. Lewis and Demarest, Integrative Theology, 2:336–38.

12. Erickson, Christian Theology, 737. Erickson cites Leon Morris, The Lord from Heaven: A Study of the New Testament Teaching on the Deity and Humanity of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958), 51–52.

13. H. Kleinknecht, “logos,” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols., ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), 4:80–81.

14. See, e.g., E. W. Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament and a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, 2 vols. (1854–56; repr., Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1970).

15. For an example, see Jerry Falwell, “The Revelation of the Incarnation,” Fundamentalist Journal 7, no. 11 (December 1988): 10.

16. “Fairest Lord Jesus,” from the German, seventeenth century.

1. Phillips Brooks, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” 1865.

2. J. Ramsey Michaels, Servant and Son (Atlanta: John Knox, 1981), 285.

3. Ibid., 289.

4. Sigmund Mowinckel, He That Cometh, trans. G. W. Anderson (New York: Abingdon, 1954), 187.

5. For a helpful survey of the atonement in theological history, see Robert S. Paul, The Atonement and the Sacraments (Nashville: Abingdon, 1960), 35–281.

6. Ibid., 47.

7. Ibid., 52.

8. Origen, “An Address on Religious Instruction” [Oratio Catechetical] 24, in The Christology of the Later Fathers, vol. 3 of the Library of Christian Classics, ed. Edward Rochie Hardy and Cyril C. Richardson (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1954), 300–302.

9. For an important exception, see Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor, trans. A. G. Hebert (New York: Macmillan, 1969).

10. Julia Johnston, “Jesus Ransomed Me,” 1916.

11. Eugene M. Bartlett Sr., “Victory in Jesus,” 1939.

12. See Paul, Atonement and the Sacraments, 74; Aulén, Christus Victor, 84–92.

13. See Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, book 1, chaps. 13–25, for this delineation of atonement theory.

14. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.12.3, in vol. 20 of the Library of Christian Classics, 466–67.

15. Paul, Atonement and the Sacraments, 109.

16. See, e.g., Erickson, Christian Theology, 2:815.

17. Many interpreters set Abelard’s interpretation of the atonement against that of Anselm. See, e.g., Paul, Atonement and the Sacraments, 80. See also Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1953), 504.

18. Peter Abelard, “Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans” 2, in A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham, vol. 10 of the Library of Christian Classics, trans. Eugene R. Fairweather (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1956), 283.

19. Ibid.

20. Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” 1707.

21. Moltmann, Crucified God, 145–53.

1. Friedrich Baumgaertel, “pneuma. . . . Spirit in the OT,” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols., ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 6:359–62.

2. The orthodox teaching became dogma at the Council of Constantinople (AD 381). See J. W. C. Wand, The Four Great Heresies (London: Mowbray, 1955), 78.

3. Following Pannenberg, Grenz spent a considerable amount of time delineating the Spirit’s place in the Trinity and in human life. See, e.g., Social God and Named God.

4. Frank Bottome, “The Comforter Has Come,” 1890.

5. Reginald Heber, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” n.d.; music by John Dykes, 1861.

6. According to Ramm, the “Protestant principle of authority” is “the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures, which are the product of the Spirit’s revelatory and inspiring action.” Bernard Ramm, The Pattern of Religious Authority (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 28. See also “The Westminster Confession of Faith,” 1/10, in Creeds of the Churches, 196.

7. For a more detailed discussion of the Spirit and Scripture, see Grenz, Revisioning Evangelical Theology, 109–36.

8. Strong, Systematic Theology, 1:196.

9. C. H. Dodd, The Authority of the Bible (1929; repr., New York: Harper and Brothers, 1958), 36.

10. Edgar V. McKnight, “Errantry and Inerrancy: Baptists and the Bible,” Perspectives in Religious Studies 12, no. 2 (Summer 1985): 146.

11. Thomas A. Hoffman, “Inspiration, Normativeness, Canonicity, and the Unique Sacred Character of the Bible,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 44 (1982): 457.

12. C. John Weborg, “Pietism: Theology in Service of Living toward God,” in The Variety of American Evangelicalism, ed. Robert K. Johnson and Donald W. Dayton (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1991), 176.

13. Mary A. Lathbury, “Break Thou the Bread of Life,” 1877.

14. David Kelsey, The Uses of Scripture in Recent Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975), 214.

15. Robert N. Bellah et al., Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (New York: Harper and Row, 1986), 81.

16. James Barr, The Scope and Authority of the Bible (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980), 126–27; William R. Herzog II, “Interpretation as Discovery and Creation: Sociological Dimensions of Biblical Hermeneutics,” American Baptist Quarterly 2, no. 2 (June 1983): 116.

17. Donald Bloesch, “In Defense of Biblical Authority,” Reformed Journal 34, no. 9 (September 1984): 30.

18. Kate B. Wilkinson, “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior,” 1925.

19. John Rippon, A Selection of Hymns, 1787.

1. John Newton, “Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound,” 1779.

2. William D. Chamberlain, The Meaning of Repentance (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1943), 41; J. Goetzmann, “metanoia,” in “Conversion, Penitence, Repentance, Proselyte,” The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. Colin Brown (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981), 1:357–59.

3. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871; New York: Random House, 1946), 76.

4. See “Fides,” in Richard A. Muller, Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985), 115–16.

5. For a reputable account of Blondin’s exploits, see Karen Abbott, “The Daredevil of Niagara Falls,” Smithsonian.com, October 18, 2011, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-daredevil-of-niagara-falls-110492884/?no-ist.

6. It is here that Grenz and fellow evangelical theologian Clark Pinnock agree in regards to the role of the Spirit in the life of individual believers as well as the church as a whole. Pinnock calls this the “charismatic presence” of the Holy Spirit in the church. See Clark H. Pinnock, Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), 131–47.

7. Karl Kertelge, “dikaiosune,” in the Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 3 vols., ed. Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 2:331.

8. Gottlob Schlenk, “dikaioo,” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols., ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 2:215.

9. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 517.

10. Grenz called this “power to live” “convertive piety” in his early works, which he later recast as “trinitarian participation.” This understanding of the Spirit’s work in our lives and the outworking of the trinitarian purpose in our lives is at the heart of Grenz’s theology. See Jay T. Smith, A Generous Theology: Reinterpreting Convertive Piety as Trinitarian Participation in the Work of Stanley J. Grenz. PhD diss., Trinity College, University of Bristol, 2013.

11. George A. Lindbeck, “Confession and Community: An Israel-like View of the Church,” Christian Century 107, no. 16 (May 9, 1990): 495.

12. Bellah et al., Habits of the Heart, 81.

13. Alisdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, 2nd ed. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984), 221.

14. For a more detailed discussion, see Grenz, Revisioning Evangelical Theology, 33–35.

15. Otto Procksch, “hagiazo,” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols., ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963), 1:111.

16. For a discussion of Wesleyan perfectionism, see Melvin E. Dieter, “The Wesleyan Perspective,” in Five Views on Sanctification (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 15–32.

17. Newton, “Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound,” 1779.

1. Jürgen Roloff, “ekklesia,” in Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 1:411; Karl L. Schmidt, “ekklesia,” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols., ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–76), 3:513.

2. For a discussion of the adoption of the term by the early community, see Roloff, “ekklesia,” in Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 1:412.

3. According to Kenneth Cauthen (Systematic Theology [Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1986], 296), the implicit trinitarianism of the choice of these metaphors and their significance as the three major motifs in the history of Christian thought dates to a book by Lesslie Newbigin: The Household of Faith (New York: Friendship, 1954). Millard Erickson, who employs them in his ecclesiology (Christian Theology, 1044–51) cites as the source of the idea, Arthur W. Wainwright, The Trinity in the New Testament (London: SPCK, 1962). An earlier exemplar of this elucidation of the church belongs to Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God (London: SCM Press, 1953).

4. Alex T. M. Cheung, “The Priest as the Redeemed Man: A Biblical-Theological Study of the Priesthood,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 29, no. 3 (September 1986): 265–75.

5. Andrew Perriman, “‘His Body Which Is the Church. . . .’ Coming to Terms with Metaphor,” Evangelical Quarterly 62, no. 2 (1990): 123–42; Barbara Field, “The Discourses behind the Metaphor ‘the Church Is the Body of Christ’ as Used by S. Paul and the ‘Post-Paulines,’” Asia Journal of Theology 6, no. 1 (April 1992): 88–107.

6. John D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985), 148.

7. Augustine, The City of God, 20.9, trans. Marcus Dods (New York: Random House, 1950), 725.

8. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 7 vols. (Dallas: Dallas Seminary, 1948), 4:385–86.

9. C. Rene Padilla, “The Mission of the Church in the Light of the Kingdom of God,” Transformation 1, no. 2 (April–June 1984): 17.

10. For a discussion of this point, see Grenz, Sexual Ethics, 21–23.

11. Zizioulas, Being as Communion, 140.

12. Miroslav Volf, “Kirche als Gemeinschaft: Ekklesiologische Ueberlegungen aus freikirchlicher Perspektive,” Evangelische Theologie 49, no. 1 (1989): 70–76; Kilian McDonnell, “Vatican II (1962–1964), Puebla (1979), Synod (1985): Koinonia/Communio as an Integral Ecclesiology,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 25, no. 3 (Summer 1988): 414.

13. Grenz expounds greatly on this concept in Social God.

14. J. M. R. Tillard, “What Is the Church of God?,” Mid-stream 23 (October 1984): 372–73.

15. Aristotle, Metaphysics, 12:1–10 (1069a18–1076a4), in Great Books of the Western World, ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins (Chicago: William Berton; Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 598–606.

16. “To pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration; to perform religious service to; to adore; to idolize.” New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.: Delair, 1971), 1148.

17. Ralph Martin, The Worship of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 4.

18. For an interesting, although overstated, discussion of the significance of praise for spiritual living, see Paul E. Billheimer, Destined for the Throne (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1975), 115–26.

19. See, e.g., Grenz, Prayer.

20. Lukas Vischer, Intercession (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1980), 25–27, 48–49.

21. In The Problem of Christianity, Josiah Royce (1855–1916) explored the idea of one vast “community of interpretation,” not so much as a present reality but as a task to which we ought to be loyal. Anticipating contemporary writers such as Robert Bellah, he spoke of community in religious terms, as a community of memory and hope, faith, and redeeming grace. Josiah Royce, The Problem of Christianity (1913; repr., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 325–29. For a short overview, see “Josiah Royce,” in the Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, ed. William L. Reese (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities, 1980), 498–99. Drawing from the work of earlier thinkers, including Royce, contemporary secular communalists acknowledge the presence in the wider society of such communities. For an example, see Bellah et al., Habits of the Heart.

22. William Fischer and Kate Hankey, “I Love to Tell the Story,” 1866.

23. The World Literature Crusade, which has as its goal the blanketing of the earth with the gospel of Christ, suggests seven petitions appropriate for Christians to offer with respect to world leaders. See Dick Eastman, “The Sevenfold World Leaders Prayer Focus,” in the pamphlet “Kings and Presidents” (n.p.: World Literature Crusade, n.d.).

24. Eastman offers an alternate list of proper requests: workers for the harvest, open doors, abiding fruit, and strong support base. See Dick Eastman, The Hour That Changes the World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978), 153–57.

25. Vernon Grounds, Evangelicalism and Social Responsibility (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1969), 8.

26. See Grenz, Prayer.

27. Mary A. Thomson, “O Zion, Haste,” 1868. Although Grenz draws from Thomson’s older hymnody, another more-contemporary representation of Grenz’s thought is Brian Doerksen’s “Come, Now is the Time to Worship,” 1998.

1. For an overview, see J. G. Davies, The Early Christian Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), 103–4. For a description of early church practices, see Didache 7; Justin Martyr, Apology 1.61.

2. The architects of the early Reformed tradition appealed to this understanding of the church in setting themselves apart from the Anabaptists. See the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), 20, in Leith, ed., Creeds of the Churches, 169.

3. For a discussion of this from a believer’s baptist position, see Marlin Jeschke, Believer’s Baptism for Children of the Church (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1983).

4. Stanley Grenz often referred to himself as a “Christian, Baptist, and evangelical.” Reared in the Baptist free-church tradition, the concept of believer’s baptism was integral to his theological disposition. For insight into Grenz’s personal theological orientation see Stanley J. Grenz, “Concerns of a Pietist with a PhD,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 37:2 (Fall 2002): 58–76.

5. Bellah et al., Habits of the Heart, 152–54.

6. Alasdair I. C. Heron, Table and Tradition: Toward an Ecumenical Understanding of the Eucharist (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983), 69.

7. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 422–23.

8. As Calvin rightly declared, “They have been instituted by the Lord to the end that they may serve to establish and increase faith.” Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.14.9, in vol. 21 of the Library of Christian Classics, 1284.

9. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.14.4, in vol. 21 of the Library of Christian Classics, 1279.

10. See Bo Reicke, The Epistles of James, Peter, and Jude, vol. 37 of The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964), 106–7, 139.

11. For the development of this idea, see, e.g., L. Gregory Jones, Transformed Judgment: Toward a Trinitarian Account of the Moral Life (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990), 137–39.

12. Although Grenz affirmed believer’s baptism theologically, he affirmed baptism in general as an important ordinance for the universal church. Baptism, infant or believer’s, is a community-creating act of primary import for every believer and is a primary ordinance with sacramental import for all churches everywhere. For a closer study of Grenz’s position see Stanley J. Grenz, “Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as Community Acts: Toward a Sacramental Understanding of the Ordinances,” in Baptist Sacramentalism, vol. 5, Studies in Baptist History and Thought, edited by Anthony Cross and Philip Thompson (Cumbria, UK: Paternoster Press, 2003), 76–95.

13. “Eucharist” dates to the patristic era. E.g., Didache 6.5, trans. James A. Kleist, Ancient Christian Fathers (New York: Paulist, 1948), 6:20; Justin Martyr, First Apology, trans. Thomas B. Falls, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1948), 6:105–6.

14. “Mass” may originally have been derived from the closing words of the Latin liturgy. See Heron, Table and Tradition, xii.

15. For a discussion grounding the Lord’s Supper in the Jewish Passover celebration, see Markus Barth, Rediscovering the Lord’s Supper (Atlanta: John Knox, 1988), 7–27.

16. Ragan Courtney, “In Remembrance,” 1972.

17. “Strong emphasis should be placed on the active participation of all members in the life and the decision-making of the community.” Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper no. 111 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982), 26.

18. Millard Erickson rightly notes that the epistles addressed to individuals—Philemon, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus—were intended primarily for these persons and not for congregations under their care. Erickson, Christian Theology, 1092, citing Edward T. Hiscox, The New Directory for Baptist Churches (Philadelphia: Judson, 1894), 155ff.

19. In certain New Testament texts, we find “bishop” and “elder” used interchangeably (Acts 20:17–28; Titus 1:5, 7). This suggests that in the early church they were likely not two offices but merely alternate designations for the same position. See Joachim Rohde, “episkopos,” in Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 2:36. Milne writes, “It is now generally accepted among scholars of all traditions that the Greek words episkopos (bishop) and presbyteros (elder) are equivalents in the NT.” Bruce Milne, Know the Truth (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1982), 241.

20. Rohde, “episkopos,” in Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 2:36.

21. Alfons Weiser, “diakonos,” in Balz and Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, 1:302.

22. The consensus document put the point well: “Ordained ministers must not be autocrats or impersonal functionaries.” Rather, they are to “manifest and exercise the authority of Christ in the way Christ himself revealed God’s authority to the world, by committing their life to the community.” See Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, 23.

1. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind, 16 vols. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1995–2007). The series has sold millions of copies and has been consistently on the New York Times Best Seller list.

2. Cameron starred in a series of three Left Behind movies from 2002 to 2005 by Namesake Entertainment.

3. Left Behind: The End Begins, Samuel Goldwyn Films, 2014.

4. For a concise overview of dispensationalism, see Stanley J. Grenz, The Millennial Maze: Sorting Out Evangelical Options (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992), 91–125.

5. Gareth G. Cook and David Makovsky, “Radio Preacher Foresees Doom Soon,” U.S. News & World Report, December 19, 1994, 71.

6. Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “Harold Camping, Radio Host Who Predicted World’s End, Dies at 92,” Religion News Service, December 17, 2013, http://www.religionnews.com/2013/12/17/report-harold-camping-radio-host-predicted-worlds-end-dies-92/.

7. Christopher Lasch writes, “Storm warnings, portents, hints of catastrophe haunt our times. The ‘sense of ending,’ which has given shape to so much of twentieth century literature, now pervades the popular imagination as well.” The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (New York: Norton, 1978), 3.

8. Karl Loewith, Meaning in History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950), 19.

9. Hans-Joachim Kraus, Worship in Israel: A Cultic History of the Old Testament, trans. G. Bushwell (Richmond: John Knox, 1966), 38–43.

10. For a discussion of the development of this historical shift, see Hans Schwarz, On the Way to the Future, rev. ed. (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1979), 19–23.

11. For a fuller delineation and discussion, see Grenz, Millennial Maze.

12. J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come (Findlay, OH: Dunham, 1958), 547–83.

13. Historic premillennialist writings include Clarence Bass, Backgrounds to Dispensationalism (1960; repr., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977); Millard Erickson, Contemporary Options in Eschatology: A Study of the Millennium (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977); and D. H. Kromminga, The Millennium (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948).

14. Some dispensationalists, however, argue that the rapture is midtribulational—that is, that the first three and one-half years of the tribulation precede the rapture. For a presentation of this position, see Gleason L. Archer, “The Case for the Mid-seventieth-week Rapture Position,” in Gleason L. Archer et al., The Rapture: Pre-, Mid-, or Post-Tribulational (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 113–45.

15. See Pentecost, Things to Come, 219–28.

16. The classical dispensationalist scenario is summarized by Dallas Seminary theologian Robert P. Lightner in the column “Dallas Seminary Faculty Answer Your Questions,” Kindred Spirit 15, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 3.

17. Pentecost, Things to Come, 358. For detailed dispensationalist descriptions of the military intrigue at the end of the tribulation, see Pentecost, Things to Come, 318–58; see also Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth (New York: Bantam, 1973). For an update of Lindsey’s thought, see Planet Earth—2000 AD (Palos Verdes, CA: Western Front, 1994) and The Final Battle (Palos Verdes, CA: Western Front, 1995).

18. See, e.g., Pentecost, Things to Come, 508–11.

19. Hence, e.g., Strong, Systematic Theology, 3:1008.

20. Ibid., 3:1009. For a lengthier discussion of this question, see Loraine Boettner, The Millennium (Philadelphia: P&R, 1957), 67–76. The expectation of a final apostasy is not universally held among postmillennialists.

21. It is no historical accident that by and large the great thrusts toward worldwide evangelistic outreach and social concern in the modern era were launched by a church imbued with the optimism that characterizes postmillennial thinking. See, e.g., the discussion of Puritan missions in Iain H. Murray, The Puritan Hope (London: Banner of Truth, 1971), 131–83, esp. 149–51, 178. See also John Jefferson Davis, Christ’s Victorious Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986), 118–19.

22. See G. C. Berkouwer, The Return of Christ, trans. James Van Oosterom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 314–15.

23. See, e.g., William Cox, In These Last Days (Philadelphia: P&R, 1964), 68–71.

24. For a discussion of this position, see Oswald T. Allis, Prophecy and the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1972), 5. See also Benjamin B. Warfield, Biblical Doctrines (1929; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1988), 649.

25. For the typical amillennial scenario, see Floyd Hamilton, The Basis of Millennial Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), 35–37.

26. See, e.g., Cox, In These Last Days, 59–67.

27. Louis Berkhof, The Second Coming of Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953), 83.

28. This is the consensus reached by the newer research into the kingdom of God in the teaching of Jesus. See Bruce Chilton, “Introduction,” in The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus, ed. Bruce Chilton, Issues in Religion and Theology 5 (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 25–26.

29. George Eldon Ladd, The Last Things (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 32.

30. God can save the righteous from the power of death and bring them into his own presence (Ps. 49:15; see also 86:13). Hence, when Hosea voiced God’s promise, “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave [sheol]; I will redeem them from death,” he burst forth in praise: “Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?” (Hosea 13:14).

Similarly, Job confidently asserted: “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25–27).

And Daniel pointed to the resurrection as the means whereby death is overcome (Dan. 12:2).

31. The ancient Greek philosophers were imbued with this vision. Perhaps the classic statement is Plato’s description of Socrates’s death in the Phaedo. His thesis is that death merely completes the liberation begun through philosophical reflection. It frees the soul from the contaminating imperfections of the body so that it might penetrate the world of the eternal ideas to which it belongs. See Plato, Phaedo, 64a–67b, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), 46–49.

32. Ladd, Last Things, 83.

33. Constitutio Benedictina, in The Church Teaches: Documents of the Church in English Tradition, trans. John F. Clarkson et al. (St. Louis: Herder, 1955), 349–51.

34. For a delineation of this view, see Zachary J. Hayes, “The Purgatorial View,” in Four Views on Hell, ed. William Crockett (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 93.

35. Helmut Thielicke noted, “The emphasis here is not on some quality of mine that outlasts death, but on the quality of my Lord not to desert me.” Death and Life, trans. Edward H. Schroeder (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970), 215.

36. Schwarz declared, “Eternity is . . . the fulfillment of time in perfection.” Way to the Future, 229.

37. Traditional Scottish folk song, “I Know Where I’m Going,” n.d. Recorded by Burl Ives in 1941.

1. For a summary of the threefold apologetic universalists devise, see Stephen Travis, I Believe in the Second Coming of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 200.

2. Nels Ferré, Christ and the Christian (New York: Harper, 1958), 247; Ferré, The Universal World: A Theology for a Universal Faith (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969), 258.

3. John Hick, Death and Eternal Life (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1976).

4. For the significance of this as an argument against universalism, see John Sanders, No Other Name: An Investigation into the Destiny of the Unevangelized (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 107–8.

5. Travis, I Believe in the Second Coming, 203; Schwarz, Way to the Future, 262.

6. Clark Pinnock, “The Conditional View,” in Crockett, Four Views on Hell, 147; Travis, I Believe in the Second Coming, 198.

7. Pinnock, “Conditional View,” 154–55.

8. Ibid., 149–54.

9. See, e.g., ibid., 145–46.

10. Travis, I Believe in the Second Coming, 199.

11. For a helpful discussion of the biblical materials, see Larry Dixon, The Other Side of the Good News, BridgePoint (Wheaton: Victor, 1992), 74–95.

12. For a discussion of the relevant texts, see ibid., 121–47.

13. For this information see http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/mid/1508/ArticleId/1353/Default.aspx.

14. See, e.g., John Walvoord, “The Literal View,” in Crockett, Four Views on Hell, 28.

15. For a statement of this position, see William Crockett, “The Metaphorical View,” in Crockett, Four Views on Hell, 44–76.

16. This tendency is visible in the title of a “history of the images Christians use to describe what happens after death.” Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang, Heaven: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988).

17. For a critic of the proponents of this disjunctive view, see Berkouwer, Return of Christ, 291–95.

18. Wolfhart Pannenberg, “The Significance of the Categories ‘Part’ and ‘Whole’ for the Epistemology of Theology,” Journal of Religion 66 (1986): 385.

19. Wolfhart Pannenberg, “Constructive and Critical Functions of Christian Eschatology,” Harvard Theological Review 77 (1984): 135–36.

20. Berkouwer, Return of Christ, 234.

21. Robert Lowry, “Shall We Gather at the River?,” 1864.

1. Susan B. Warner, “Jesus Bids Us Shine,” 1868.