Book Review: A Generous Orthodoxy Part 2 of ??

The Foreword

The book starts with a foreword written by John R. Franke, nothing is mentioned about him except that he is an Associate Professor of Theology at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield Pennsylvania.

Franke begins by saying that many Christians in North America sense a change occurring and that this has produced talks between groups that normally wouldn't have much to do with each other, such as conservative and liberal Christian scholars and "Evangelicals and Catholics Together".

Second, Franke mentions that changes are taking place as the shift (has shifted? is shifting? will shift?) from modernism to post-modernism continues. In the modern philosophic age - which I think is normally considered from about the 16th century till sometime within the last 40 years or so (or still holding on) - Christian intellectuals depended on an underlying philosophy of Foundationalism to express and defend their faith. Basically, I think Foundationalism is the idea that absolute truth can be known solely through rational thought and scientific inquiry.

Franke then mentions what he sees as the three virtues of the book. These are: that it maintains a focus on Christ as the center of Christian faith, that it combines the centrality of Christ with a needed openness, and that it admits to not having all the answers and attempts to make and/or keep conversations on between different styles of Christians going.

Closing quote from Hans Frei, a "post-liberal" scholar - "Generosity without orthodoxy is nothing, but orthodoxy without generosity is less than nothing."