The Eclipse of God at Century’s End: Evangelicals Attempt Theology Without Theism R. Albert Mohler, Jr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is President of The sense of an ending is not a fact of na- are not safe territory for the supernatural The Southern Baptist Theological Semi- ture, observed Frank Kermode, it is a fea- claims of Scripture, or for the doctrinal nary. He is the author of numerous schol- ture of human consciousness.1 We ascribe foundations of classical orthodoxy. arly articles and recently edited meaning to the turn of a new century, and What about the evangelicals? The sec- Theological Education in the Evangelical feel a sense of ending as the twentieth cen- ond half of the twentieth century began Tradition (Baker, 1997) with D. G. Hart. tury comes to a close. If a sense of ending with great promise. The newly resurgent This article was given as part of a series is not a fact of nature, it is certainly a fact evangelical movement quickly produced of lectures at First Baptist Church, of our experience. a credible body of theological literature in Wheaton, Illinois in April 1997. It will ap- As the last century closed, Friedrich the defense of Christianity’s historic doc- pear in the forthcoming The Future of Neitzsche proclaimed that God was dead, trines. Alarmed by the massive theologi- Evangelical Theology (Crossway). and that we had killed him. The twenti- cal accommodation of the age, the eth century has not been an era of great evangelicals contended for biblical truth theological achievements. The romantic and claimed an intentional continuity liberalism of the early decades gave way with the classical Christian tradition of or- to the unstable half-way house of neo-or- thodox doctrine. thodoxy, which in turn surrendered to a The closing years of the century have host of radical and revisionist theologies, demonstrated a very different pattern, united only in their denial of classical however. The ideological acids of moder- orthodoxy. nity, the theological accommodationism of The century also saw the development the age, and the temptations of the larger of a resurgent evangelicalism in English- academic culture have infected speaking Protestantism. Matured and evangelicalism to the point that the theo- chastened by the theological controversies logical integrity of the movement is clearly of the century’s first fifty years, the at stake. Having debated issues ranging evangelicals coalesced into a formidable from biblical inerrancy to the reality of intellectual, evangelistic, and cultural hell, evangelicals are now openly debat- movement. If the radical and revisionist ing the traditional doctrine of God repre- theologians were united in their rejection sented by classical theism. of classical orthodoxy, the evangelicals My argument is that the integrity of were defined and recognized by their fer- evangelicalism as a theological move- vent commitment to the classical, evan- ment, indeed the very coherence of evan- gelical, orthodox, and biblical convictions gelical theology is threatened by the rise of historic Christianity. of the various new “theisms” of the evan- As the century draws to a close, the gelical revisionists. Unless these trends are radical theologians have been even fur- reversed and evangelicals return to an ther radicalized, and the revisionists con- unapologetic embrace of biblical theism, tinue their program of eviscerating the evangelical theology will represent noth- historic claims of Christianity. The declin- ing less than the eclipse of God at ing precincts of “mainline” Protestantism century’s end. 6 The Doctrine of God in Crisis clear that there is no objective view of The very concept of God is among the ‘God:’ each generation has to create the most contested issues in contemporary image of God that works for it.”5 If this be thought and culture. To some, the notion true, we should shudder to think of what of God in this postmodern culture is a to- doctrine of God would “work” for this talizing and oppressive concept. To oth- generation. ers, the concept of God is merely a matter We see the eclipse of the God of the Bible of emotivism and sentiment. Clearly, to at century’s end. In the wake of the Enlight- suggest that the doctrine of God is in cri- enment, the prophets of extremity and the sis is not to suggest a fading interest in high priests of suspicion (Freud, Neitzsche, spirituality. To the contrary, few cultures and Marx), and those who followed them could exceed the sheer variety of variant have led the onward march of secularism spiritualities found in modern America. and protest atheism. Modern culture com- God, in fact, seems to have become a monly denies God as God, as well as the commercially popular topic of interest. In very notion of God as an objective referent. just the past few years, God has received Furthermore, discussion of God, at least the a full-length biography which reached the God of the Bible, has been evacuated from best seller’s lists. The volume, God: A Bi- the public square. This official atheism, ography, treated God as a narrative char- often masked by banal spirituality, is the acter who, though not the God of the result of a century of increased secularism 2 Bible, was a significant literary figure. In and secularization. addition, God is the subject of a recent 400- Inside the church, atheism has been page history. played out in a myriad of forms. Modern- Karen Armstrong, whose various writ- ism reduced God to a kindly, if incompe- ings on spiritual issues have catapulted tent cosmic grandfather. Stripped of her to fame, recently released A History of supernaturalism, God has been rendered 3 God. Nevertheless, Armstrong is not con- a mere concept in most liberal theology. cerned with the creator God who is sov- A myriad of secularizing theologies, rang- ereign and transcendent, but only with ing from Modern to Postmodern, has God as a cultural artifact, a literary char- made the doctrine of God a matter of ideo- acter, or a religious symbol. Armstrong logical controversy. Analytical philosophy claims as her warrant the decline of the reduced God to a symbol, and other philo- classical and biblical doctrine of God as a sophical trends have reduced deity to a culturally binding symbol. As she states, linguistic referent. Process Theology re- “When one conception of God has ceased duced God to a force within a pantheistic to have meaning or relevance, it has been cosmos, struggling with creation. Libera- quietly discarded and replaced by a new tion theology presented God as the Great 4 theology.” Thus, according to Armstrong, Emancipator, yet clearly with much work a doctrine of God reveals very little about to do. Revisionist theologies of various God, and very much about those who for- forms present God as a concept to be mulate the doctrine. molded and transformed at will. Feminist Indeed, Armstrong seems to have little theology has treated God as a patriarchal confidence that we can know much about oppressor, or transformed the concept of God himself. She explains that “it becomes God to include the feminine. In the wake 7 of modern feminism, the title “Lord” has tional and very much one of us, and we been rejected as oppressive and mascu- ask Him to help us when we’re in trouble line, and the Trinity has been reconstituted and look to Him to watch over us when on egalitarian terms. we’re asleep. The God of the modern The God of classical theism is out. What evangelical isn’t a God I could have much Vanderbilt Divinity School theologian Ed- respect for.”7 ward Farley calls, “the classical, catholic the- Though certainly true decades ago, ology of God” must be surrendered, he Tozer’s statement is even more clearly argues. As John A. T. Robinson said during warranted today. In popular evangelical the 1960s, “Our image of God must go.” piety we find a confusion of anthropomor- Various forms of protest atheism have phisms and feel-good conceptions of God. become commonplace. Karen Armstrong In many circles, God is merely a therapeu- rejects the classical doctrine of God as ab- tic category. Many evangelicals are now horrent: “An omnipresent, all-knowing mostly concerned about what good this tyrant is not so different from earthly dic- God will do for us, how well this God may tators who made everything and every- make us feel, and how much self-esteem body mere cogs in the machine which they this God may give us as His gift. control. An atheism that rejects such a God is amply justified.”6 Yet, protest atheism God in the Hands of Evangelical Theologians is not a force exclusively external to the The bankruptcy of modern evangelical church. To the contrary, the temptation of piety is both a symptom and a reflection protest atheism has been the driving force of the breakdown of the classical doctrine in much mainline Protestant theology. As of God among many evangelical theolo- we look to the end of this century, the God gians. This doctrinal shift reveals deep fis- of the Bible has been abandoned by many sures in the evangelical movement. of the Church’s theologians. The new developments among those What about evangelicalism? Surely we who call themselves evangelicals are strik- would be assured that within ingly similar to the pattern of the early evangelicalism the God of the Bible is wor- modernists and liberals. As the century shiped, recognized, and confessed. But a now draws to a close, some evangelicals look at popular evangelicalism reveals a have adopted the language and the cat- God of sentimentality not unlike the God egories of the liberalism which began the of the early modernists.