3 of 3

What picture emerges from this guided tour of organizational and occasional faith statements? The authors describe the key features of the evangelical physiognomy. And plain as the nose on that face is evangelicalism's "cohesive account of the canonical Scriptures and their integral canonical interpretation"—fancy language for our ingrained habit of looking to the whole Bible and recognizing the same voice as we trace the inner links between its various parts. Other features on the evangelical face: "the Christ-centered story of redemption," the call to "wholehearted discipleship," and "continuity with what faithful Christians have always believed."

They also point to signs of growth. The evangelicalism of 50 years ago was narrowly focused on issues that emerged from the confrontation with modernism. Over the decades, it has grown in its appreciation for the full range of theological concerns. It has become "an ecumenically significant reality," providing interdenominational and cross-confessional opportunities for witness, protest, fellowship, evangelism, and service. And it has demonstrated the kind of long-term thinking that no longer concerns itself merely with the big, the flashy, and the shallow. This movement has shown that it can follow through. It not only starts new projects, but builds and tends institutions and congregations with proper attention to individuals and to daily details.

Oden and Packer sum up their optimism for evangelicalism by saying the movement "is poised to be blessed by God as the wave of the future because of the truth and life that it brings. Today's church, and today's world, need both." I pray they're right.

• • •

One Faith will be published in May 2003. The book can be preordered at InterVarsity Press's web site.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

J.I. Packer and Thomas C. Oden's One Faith: The Evangelical Consensus is this month's selection for CT's Editor's Bookshelf. Elsewhere on our site you can:

Read a review of One Faith

Read an extended interview with the authors

The publisher has more information on its web site.

first page |  3 of 3

share this page

January (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48