How to Be Evangelical Without Being Conservative Pt. 1

I’ve been reading Roger Olson’s latest book entitled “How to Be Evangelical Without Being Conservative.” I heard Olson speak at three separate workshops last week at the National Pastors Convention and I left impressed and encouraged. I honestly wish he were one of my professors for a few reasons.

1. He’s an intellectually respectable Arminian. Last time I checked at Western there are no Arminians and no one who respects them (note broad sweeping statement, this is just how I feel sometimes). Many Seminaries seem entrenched in staunch Calvinism and unable to see anything else and unfortunately buy into the system so much they mistake it for the gospel. So in any case when I hear a well-articulated and very intelligent Arminian (which is my background) I get excited.

Another reason I was excited to hear Roger is because the guy takes a lot of crap in the Ultra-Conservative world (which this book won’t help). If you have read Reclaiming the Center, then you know that Olson is a constant target because of his willingness to entertain new ideas and not accept that every theological issue has been worked out in the first eight centuries. So in that way, I figure if all of these guys dislike his thoughts then there is a good chance I will enjoy them. (the most prevalent example of this is an article entitled “Postconservative Evangelicals Greet the Postmodern Age.”)

In the line of Stan Grenz, Olson is not convinced that we have discovered with certainty all there is to know about God (sounds obvious doesn’t it?). He is also not comfortable signing his name to human made, faulty creeds without mental reservation (which he admits there is nothing in the world in which he does not hold some sort of “mental reservation” (again, pretty obvious right?). Creeds can be helpful to our faith as a guide and especially show us how we have gotten where we are at in theological history, but once we start adhering to creeds without questioning the truth behind them in a Biblical sense then we have created an idol and have privileged tradition as if people had a special kind of knowledge “back then” to be able to create a creed that was perfect, accurate, and infallible. In this sense, my Restoration heritage has gotten it sort of right with one of their mottos, "No Creeds But Christ". I agree that our allegiance should not lie in creeds, but this statement has led many "disciples" to ignore important creeds throughout our history that we may have found helpful.

I appreciate Roger Olson’s new book as I have already consumed about half of it and will surely comment more on some of his chapters. This is a very readable, accessible and thought provoking book that I recommend reading and thinking through. Plus I was excited that Roger Olson never said, "I have three angels around me at all times, I have verifiable proof to this." I am also impressed at the face Olson made when JP Moreland said this in the theological panel. The face showed bafflement, a little shock, and utter astonishment at such a statement. I can get behind that kind of face :)