Purpose-Directed Theology

Getting Our Priorities Right in Evangelical Conversations

When the stakes are high, evangelicals don’t often engage each other well.  How should evangelicals grapple with controversial issues?  What methods and principles should direct theological conversations, especially when evangelicals from various backgrounds come together?

These are the questions Darrell Bock addresses in this important and thoughtful book.  Setting his discussion “somewhere between modernism and postmodernism,” Bock proposes a way through the philosophical maze.  He addresses the concern for theological boundaries but also emphasises the need to take into account the differing purposes for evangelical denominational and interdenominational institutions, especially scholarly organizations such as the Evangelical Theological Society.  Most important, Bock recalls the church’s scholars to their mandate for cultural engagement.  He warns against diverting our efforts by putting too much energy into intramural controversies and identifies areas of potential cultural impact now opening up to evangelical scholarship.  Written by a concerned, informed and visionary leader, this is a book for all those concerned about evangelical theology, scholarship, and the church with its missional mandate.