Abstract
Mark Young's book, The Hope of the Gospel, is part of the book series “Theological Education between the Times” and takes evangelical theological education as its particular focus. Young is the president at Denver Seminary, a large evangelical seminary with students from over fifty different denominations. Before taking up his current post, he taught at Dallas Theological Seminary and served as an academic dean at an evangelical seminary in Poland. Over four decades of experience in theological education from the classroom to the boardroom put him in a strong position to assess its evangelical iterations.
He expresses deep gratitude and fulfillment for the ways in which evangelical theological education has had a transforming effect on generations of students and his hope for the future of the enterprise. In spite of this gratitude for the past and hope for the future, he writes “from a place of uneasiness about the future of evangelical theological education” and says that the book “likely betrays the weight of wondering if evangelical seminaries can become what they need to be to help evangelicalism become what it claims it want to be” (ix).
He writes the book for five diverse leaders he identifies as representing the “next evangelicalism” and addresses four letters to this group, which are interspersed throughout the book. In some ways, these brief letters represent the heart of Young's concern about the present and his hope for the future. Readers would do well to start with these letters before moving onto the major sections of the book which cover three areas: (1) “What Matters”; (2) “Past Matters”; and (3) “Future Matters.” Throughout, Young urges evangelicals to move beyond their current identity crisis by returning to core theological commitments and letting go of the “misguided, quixotic, and idolatrous quest” to win culture wars thorough political ascendency (15).
He provides a brief overview of the major traditions that have shaped evangelicalism—the Protestant Reformation, Puritanism and Pietism, Revivalism, Fundamentalism, and Neo-Evangelicalism—before turning his attention to the four commitments that he sees as running through each of these iterations of evangelical faith and practice—the Bible, the cross, conversion, and mission. In this way Young offers a compact sketch of his conception of the historical forces and theological commitments that shape evangelicalism and evangelical theological education as it moves into the future.
From my perspective, Young capably overviews the historical and theological terrain of evangelicalism. What I don’t find in the book is sharp proposals for the future of evangelical theological education. Instead, it merely offers general assertions regarding future requirements, such as the “next evangelicalism must be grounded theologically and hermeneutically or it simply cannot claim to be evangelical” (68). Doubtless this is true, but what does it really mean? Does the author see places where that is not the case in current practice? Where are the current problems in evangelical theological education in this regard? What does it mean to be theologically and hermeneutically grounded in practice? Concrete examples, both positive and negative, would help the book to move beyond these less helpful generalities to a richer and more substantive proposal.
But perhaps this is the best one can do when trying to address evangelical theological education. As Young acknowledges, for all of the influence of evangelicalism in our culture, it “has never been a cohesive movement” (48). Its self-identified adherents come from all over the theological and ecclesial map such that specific proposals cannot possibly find resonance with the movement as a whole.
This brings me back to the letters Young writes to the leaders of the next evangelicalism. Their backgrounds, sensibilities, and perspectives will shape the future more than any detailed biblical, theological, and practical agendas. The future rests with the people who inhabit particular ideas and convictions more than with the ideas and convictions themselves. It has ever been thus, in evangelicalism or any other religious tradition.