Post Series

1–Introduction
2–On the Human Condition
3–On the Person and Work of Jesus Christ
4–On Salvation
5–Conclusion

In his book, The Story of Christian Theology, Roger Olson argues that “The story of Christian theology is the story of Christian reflection on salvation.” ((Roger Olson, The Story of Christian Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1999), 13.)) The same is true today. The first decade of the twenty-first century has seen a wave of new reflections on salvation, especially among contemporary evangelical pastors frustrated with contemporary evangelical reflection’s on salvation. Such pastor-theologians as Brian McLaren and Rob Bell represent such reflections and re-interpretive efforts of classical Christian theology. In reflecting on the nature of Jesus in his newest book, A New Kind of Christianity, for instance, McLaren says Jesus “brings us to a new evolutionary level in our understanding of God…the experience of God in Jesus requires a brand-new definition or understanding of God,” because He “gives us the highest, deepest, and most mature view of the character of the living God.” ((Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2010), 114, 115.)) Here Brian does not say Jesus is God, simply that he represents God in his character.

In his first book, Velvet Elvis, Bell insists that “the greatest truth of the story of Adam and Eve isn’t that it happened, but that it happens. We all make choices to live outside of how God created us to live.” ((Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 139.)) Here Bell seems to interpret the Fall symbolically, rather than literally. Like McLaren, in his newest book, Love Wins, of Jesus Bell says he is “the very movement of God in flesh and blood;” “The insistence of the first Christians was that when you saw Jesus…you were seeing the divine in skin and bones, the word in flesh and bones;” and “Jesus for the first Christians was the ultimate exposing of what God has been up to all along.” ((Rob Bell, Love Wins (New York: HarperOne, 2011), 78, 146, 148.)) Furthermore, in a recent interview about his book in The Grand Rapids Press Bell describes God by saying, “God is love. Love is the ground of our being. Jesus came to give us and show us this love.” ((Charles Honey, “Some Believers Reject Bell’s Idea of Heaven,” The Grand Rapids Press, Saturday, March 29, 2011, final edition.)) What is especially noteworthy about this and the other descriptions of Jesus and the Fall is we have seen this language before.

Interestingly, the type of language such pastor-theologians as McLaren and Bell use in their theological re-interpretations reflect that of Paul Tillich, a German existentialist theologian who taught at Union Theological Seminary at the height of existential reflections on salvation. Of Tillich, James C. Livingston says his “existentialist reinterpretation of the themes of classical Christian theology is one of the monumental intellectual achievements” of the middle of the twentieth century. ((James C. Livingston, Modern Christian Thought: From the Enlightenment to Vatican II (New York: Macmillian Publishing Co., 1971), 370.)) This re-interpretive effort marks the height of the existentialist movement between 1920 and 1960. Livingston goes on to explain that “the events of two monstrous world wars and the appearance of several totalitarian powers within a period of two decades were important factors in the re-emergence of Existentialism and its predominant position in European philosophy between 1920 and 1950.” ((Livingston, Modern Christian Thought, 346.)) Tillich himself said that Existentialism was a “natural ally of Christianity.” ((Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, (3 vols.: Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957), 2:27.)) Thus humanity’s place in the chaos of existence forms the center of Tillich’s questions and concerns, stemming from both his fascination with Existentialism and his context.

Like Tillich in his day, such thinkers are reinterpreting classical Christianity for a new day, a postmodern day. In many respects this postmodern day is similar to the day of Tillich: many are wrestling with the same existential angst the two world wars presented during the time he wrote. Postmoderns wonder if anything can speak into the meaninglessness, carnage, poverty, and anxiety that plagues twenty-first century existence. Furthermore, given the radical pluralistic posture of postmodernism, the idea that one single metanarrative and faith-story can solve our existential crises is patently dismissed. Into this postmodern cultural malaise are Christian academics and pastors who seek to connect the Christian faith to humanity’s deepest anxieties by sketching a new narrative that describes our postmodern problem, the solution, and its solution’s bearer. In so doing they borrow, unwittingly or not, from existential philosophers and theologians such as Tillich to define sin, salvation, and the Savior.

The goal of this examination is to understand the gospel according to Tillich in order to understand the theological trajectory of contemporary postmodern innovators such as McLaren and Bell. Classical Christian theology usually frames the gospel in terms of problem, solution, and the bearer of that solution: our human problem is sin; the one who bore our solution is Jesus Christ; and our solution is salvation by grace through faith in Him. Therefore, this examination will invite Tillich’s gospel to answer the same questions: What is our problem? What is the solution to our problem? And what is the nature and work of the one who bore the solution to our problem?

In the end, we will see that Tillich’s gospel says our problem is simply the anxiety, despair, and meaninglessness of our human existence; Jesus was a man who overcame meaningless existence and brought in a new reality through his words, deeds, and suffering; and our solution is found in the urgent plea for people to “accept that they are accepted” in order to overcome their separation from that which is of ultimate meaning in life, which is love. Better understanding Tillich’s gospel will help guide our response to contemporary re-interpretations of the gospel that fall short of the Holy Scripture and historic Christian faith.