Scholars Challenge Religious Pluralism and Postmodernism

Four outstanding Christian thinkers countered religious pluralism and postmodernism in defense of the biblical doctrine that Jesus Christ as the only way in the latest issue of Midwestern Journal of Theology, released on March 22.

Four outstanding Christian thinkers countered religious pluralism and postmodernism in defense of the biblical doctrine that Jesus Christ as the only way in the latest issue of Midwestern Journal of Theology, released on March 22.

The four scholars who had contributed their insight into the spring release of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS)’s publication are J.P. Moreland of Talbot School of Theology, Ronald Nash of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Win Corduan of Taylor University, and Steve Lemke of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Midwestern President Dr. R. Philip Roberts described the issues addressed in the journal’s four featured articles to be of “enormous significance.”

The first article titled “Pluralism and Four Grades of Postmodern Involvement” is authored by Moreland, a noted philosopher and apologist, who expounds on four different forms of postmodernism.

In the second article, Nash, who has written a number of books including “Is Jesus the Only Savior?,” talks about famous religious pluralist John Hick.

Nash notes Hick as a“self-professed‘Christian’ intellectual” whose “ideas are having a far greater influence than they deserve” as his Christian viewpoint and religious perspectives are being spread across many colleges and seminaries as something “brilliant, compassionate, and tolerant.”

Nash concludes by saying that“pluralism is hardly an intellectually responsible place to find an alternative to the Christian faith.”
Two kinds of modern day pluralism are discussed in the Journal’s third article by Corduan, -congenial and aggressive – titled “Congenial Pluralism: Why It Does Not Work.”

“Neither option, however, does justice to the reality of the world of religions.”

In the fourth article, Lemke challenges Richard Rorty, one of the nation’s highest postmodernist, who wrote “Pluralism and Relativism in Richard Rorty’s Liberal Utopia.”

According to Lemke, “his relativist thought has provided a conceptual framework that is foundational for many contemporary religious pluralists and relativists.”

The journal features one additional article, “James W. Fowler’s Stages of Faith and Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Gefuehl as Spiritual Transcendance: An Evangelical Rethinking of Fowler’s Model of Faith Development” where Pastor Timothy Jones, of First Baptist Church of Rolling Hills in Tulsa, Okla., examines a biblical and evangelical developmental model of Christian formation.

According to the managing editor Dr. Terry Wilder, the Journal is designed
“In our day the biblical doctrine that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation is under fierce attack,” said the managing editor Dr. Terry Wilder, who is also associate professor of New Testament and Greek at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“The articles in this issue expose some of the theological underpinning - or lack thereof - of religious pluralism and thus arm readers with information to better contend for the faith and proclaim the biblical teaching that Jesus is indeed the only Savior.”