Re-Forming the Center

This volume of 35 essays from from contributors looking for points of engagement across denominational lines orbits around a central challenge of testing the fundamentalist-modernist dichotomy that frames most 20th century histories. Lutheran Mark Granquist challenges the grasp of the ecumenical movement in assuming only one legitimate historical course championed by another contributor, his doktorvater Martin Marty. Granquist points out similarities between the confessionalism of Lutherans and that of OPC/Machen in that they sought an internal adjudication of questions of authority, not that framed by ecumenism. He boxes out the Lutheran embrace of language around biblical authority as chiefly the sublimation of their confessional principles. My only critique would be to suggest history shows more of a genuine two-way interaction, not necessarily that Lutherans used evangelical language around biblical theology as a weapon in a deeper internal discussion around a theology of the Word.