20th-Century Theology: God and the World in a Transitional Age

Written in the early 1990's, one would think that after nearly 20 years Grenz and Olson's book would have been supplanted numerous times, either by new editions from the authors themselves, or by others. And while other volumes with the same purpose have been published with varying degrees of success (one thinks for example, of Hans Schwarz's magisterial Theology in a Global Context: The Last Two Hundred Years, which in many ways is an excellent companion volume to Grenz and Olson's book), 20th Century Theology remains a bastion for those who are looking for a (relatively sympathetic) survey of modern theology from Kant, Hegel, and Schliermacher, through the recent rise of the so-called Narrative and Post-Liberal Theologies. The chapters are in depth enough to get a good "read," on each theologian or theological "school," in question, but not so long as to lead the reader to miss the forest for the trees. In fact the organizational "heuristic," used by Grenz and Olson, namely analyzing the wax and wane of contemporary theology by analyzing how theologians balance the Transcendence and Immanence of God is not only useful as a rubric to understand theological positions, but is in its own right a brilliant theological observation. The only complaint of the book is the strange omission of several thinkers (though of course you have to draw the line somewhere). Already mentioned is the lack of Catholic theologians Hans Urs von Balthasar (perhaps one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century with around 80 books) though Grenz later makes up for this relative lack by adding von Balthasar to his summary Trinitarian volume "Rediscovering the Triune God." Also missing is Edward Schillebeeckx among Catholic theologians of note, and perhaps even Catherine LaCugna, though her work became popular around the time that this book was published so the omission is completely understandable. A section on Eastern Orthodox theologians would have been appreciated as well (e.g. amongst a number of possibilities Dimitru Staniloae, Vladimir Lossky, and John Zizioulas). Another interesting omission is the many so called quests for the Historical Jesus (most likely due to their rubric of transcendence and immanence relegating most of their choices to explicitly theological discussions). And I would have also enjoyed a section on Eberhard Jungel, and a more extensive section on more conservative evangelical theologies. All in all however I cannot recommend highly enough this book. Everyone interested in theology would do well to purchase it and get an overall glimpse of the strange and complex world that is the theological landscape of the 20th century.

If anyone studies Historical Theology, then this is a good place to start for the 20th Century. I must admit from the start that I agree with very little which 20th Century Theologians espouse (I am a confessional, Reformed Protestant who adheres to the Westminster Confession), but that does not stop me from enjoying things written by them and about them. Grenz and Olson write from a sympathetic, yet critical standpoint. Their main analysis is over the transcendance/immanence tension throughout the history of Christian Philosophy. The 20th century theologians are a reaction to the classical liberalism of the 19th century, but in my opinion, they do not go far enough. The theologians they survey that I enjoy the most are Karl Barth, Karl Rahner and Wolfhart Pannenberg. The ones I dislike the most are Jurgen Moltmann, Paul Tillich and Hans Kung. I also enjoyed reading about Narrative Theology, too, because I think some of it is similar to Reformed Biblical Theology (see Geerhardus Vos, Herman Ridderbos or Richard Gaffin for an example). Reformed Biblical Theology places its emphasis on the outwork of the Redemptive and the Christotelic nature of scripture, much as Narrative Theology places its emphasis on the developing story or narrative of scripture. The big issue I have with 20th century theology is its doctrine of God. The big theological move is more toward a panentheism, rather than the distinct creator/creature distinction. They see God's transcendance/immanence in temporal rather than spatial categories. This has led to the questioning and denial of the Immutability, Impassibility and Foreknowledge of God. The logical conclusion, in my mind, is process theology, which holds that God is Di-Polar. His pole of being is finite but his pole of becomming is infinite. My biggest problem with the book itself is that the authors are very open to this possiblity, but personally I am not, and see it as nothing but Hegelianism. Other than this caveat, however, it was a good introduction to the subject and I would recommend it to anyone studying the theological landscape of the 20th Century.

This book provides a comprehensive review on various theological thoughts and movements in the past centuries. Although the authors are evangelists themselves, I think their comments on other schools of thoughts are accurate and fair. The authors use the co-presence of transcendence and immanence of God as a central line in theology, and argue that many theological thoughts are shifted to either side from the central line. I agree with this. One minor problem is that this book may be too difficult for layman. Especially in Chapter 2, their treatment on Kant and Hegel is not clear enough. Readers are required to have a basic background on philosophy and theology in order to understand this book.

If you are seriously interested in understanding the current theological diversity within Christianity and how it came to be, then this book is for you. Grenz and Olson diligently present the major theological ideas that have shaped theological discourse for the past one hundred years. The book provides a detailed survey of the ideas put forth by the great theologians of the past century and the movements that they founded: Neo-Orthodoxy, Existential Theology, Secular Theology, Process Theology, Liberation Movements, Neo-Catholicism, and American Evangelicalism. The "critical evaluations" of various theologians often reflect the authors' personal biases, but on the whole, this book is a very fair presentation of the many ways in which Christianity has attempted to speak to the modern world.

This book is a great introduction for bible students trying to understand the diversity of theological interpretation which has sprung up in the last 100 years or so. The benchmark themes of transcedence and immanence is cleverly concieved and well spun into the chapters.