The Holy Spirit and the Southern Baptist Convention Today (XVIII): A Review of J. P. Moreland’s ‘Kingdom Triangle’ (I)

I have written over 50 published reviews of books for theology or psychology journals or other Christian periodicals.  It is something I have enjoyed doing a great deal for two reasons: 1) You always learn more from a book when you are forced to organize your thoughts for others who are dependent on your thinking for their first impression of a book; and 2) When you’re a book lover and don’t have a lot of discretionary funds to spend on books, it’s fun to get free volumes!

When I heard that J.P. Moreland had written a book called Kingdom Triangle, I have to admit that I had a mixed reaction.  On the one hand, J.P., who I have known since 1971 (initially through Campus Crusade for Christ), is one of the most brilliant thinkers I have ever encountered in any field of study.  So, there was no doubt that he had something to say worth hearing.  However, I am not a philosopher–my brain just doesn’t work that way, which made me think that my eyes might well glaze over and my mind lock up from trying to grasp his points.  (That, in fact, is pretty much what happened in one doctoral seminar I took under philosopher Norman Geisler).

And, I am not going to lie to you.  Kingdom Triangle, though significantly more down-to-earth than J.P.’s other works I have waded through, in my opinion, still is not easy sledding at all, especially in several of the chapters (as I will explain later).  However, without question, it is worth whatever effort you as a reader have to expend.

Why do I say that?  Because this book does an absolutely magnificent job of both piercingly critiquing the spiritual state of affairs of our culture and offering a hopeful and completely biblically balanced plan for its treatment.  Frankly, I was amazed at the breadth of the intellectual and spiritual terrain that J.P. skillfully covers in about 225 pages.  It is a book that is remarkably dense in wisdom.

Let me stop at this point and backtrack to where most academic book reviews start, with an introduction to the author and an overview of the book’s contents.  The first will provide you with the personal “context” behind the book, much like understanding who the author of a Bible book is.  The second will give you “the big picture”–the skeletal framework–of Kingdom Triangle.

J.P. Moreland is a graduate of Dallas Seminary (ThM in theology), the University of California at Riverside (MA in philosophy) and the University of Southern California (PhD in philosophy), where he studied under the well-known evangelical philosopher and writer, Dallas Willard.  Moreland has taught at Campus Crusade’s International School of Theology, Liberty Theological Seminary and currently is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, where we taught together for several years.

Kingdom Triangle is organized as follows.  After the fairly standard prefatory material (including a Foreword by Dallas Willard), Part 1 focuses on ‘Assessing the Crisis of Our Age.’  Part 2 (as could be expected from the title of Part 1) develops ‘Charting a Way Out: The Kingdom Triangle.’  That is followed by a Conclusion chapter entitled ‘Confronting the Crisis of Our Age.’  There is also a brief Postscript and a very helpful Annotated Bibliography.

Within Part 1, chapter 1 is called ‘The Hunger for Drama in a Thin World.’ By “drama,” Moreland is speaking of a having a sense of significance and meaningfulness in lving life.  By his terminology “thin world,” Moreland means a world “with no objective value, purpose or meaning.  It is a world that is just there” (p. 26).  I will discuss this–along with each of the following chapters–in more depth in my next installment.

In chapters 2 and 3, Moreland critiques the views of scientific naturalism and postmodernism, the two dominant secular worldviews in our culture today.  I predict that Moreland’s analysis at this point will prove troubling to many evangelicals, who will, if honest, be forced to admit that the inroads of these viewpoints in purportedly solid evangelical circles is much more than previously realized.

The final chapter of Part 1 is ‘From Drama to Deadness in Five Steps.’  Here, Moreland shows how five changes in the way our wider culture looks at certain key conceptions have virtually killed off the “drama” (i.e., sense of purpose and meaning) that was formerly present. 

Part 2 is, of course, where the title of the book, Kingdom Triangle, comes from, with each chapter expounding one leg of the triangle.  Chapter 5 is called ‘The Recovery of Knowledge.’  It also very much has to do with changes in our thinking that need to be made if Christians are to love the Lord our God with all our minds.

Chapter 6 is ‘Renovation of the Soul.’  It deals with a range of issues, from the need for a robust evangelical approach to spiritual formation to the helpfulness of solid, balanced Christian therapy (a point with which I wholeheartedly agree, having profited greatly from such counseling in recent times in my life!).

Chapter 7, ‘Restoration of the Kingdom’s Miraculous Power,’ will probably prove to be the most controversial part of the book.  In recent years, J.P. Moreland, like myself, has become a continuationist.  In that regard, he has seen first-hand many mighty workings of the Holy Spirit.  In this chapter, among other things, he passionately seeks to persuade his many cessationist friends (as do I, since we both graduated from Dallas Seminary, a cessationist school) that the Spirit is indeed alive and well and doing great works all over the globe–though less so among significant segments of the North American evangelical sector.  And, as I will explain next time, I find his argument in this area quite compelling.

In closing this post, I would just like to briefly apply a couple of things about the dominant secular worldviews Moreland discusses in Part 1, that virtually jumped off the pages as I was reading, to the current state of affairs in the Southern Baptist Convention.  I admit the parallels I will draw are far more intuitive than based on substantial research.  But, I believe they represent possible serious concerns which should at least be carefully considered.

The first has to do with what you could call the semi-naturalistic wing of the SBC.  As cessationism is making its concerted move to establish an unquestioned dominance in our midst, through certain trustee board and state convention decisions, a tragic “quenching” of the Spirit seems to be an unconsidered, yet very real, consequence. 

Please don’t misunderstand: The cessationist wing of the SBC has not embraced full-blown naturalism.  They simply don’t expect much of anything beyond the purely naturalistic to take place, which turns out to be virtually practical naturalism.  So, as several readers of this blog have commented from time to time, you have to wonder if, before long, the Spirit will be welcome to do anything in our Convention beyond convicting unbelievers (John 16:7-11) and bringing them to initial saving faith in Christ.

My other application has to do with postmodernism.  Though the Resurgence leadership of the Convention would disavow any connection, or even similarity, to anything postmodern, there are a couple of areas in which eerie parallels do exist to some extent.  For example, the current CR push on narrower and narrower ‘Baptist distinctives’ sounds a whole lot like the “community truth” understanding of the postmodern mindset. 

Also, as Moreland points out, with the postmodern worldview, “The public square, along with debates about religion, ethics and politics, turns out to be about power (the ability to enforce compliance) and not about authority (the right to be believed and followed based on possession of the relevant knowledge)” (p. 65).  It is now being realized more and more by their fellow SBC conservatives that the Resurgence was every bit as much, if not more, about a select few leaders gaining–then hanging onto, by whatever means necessary–power in the SBC, so that they could force their positions on the denomination at large.  For a long time, they were very successful at doing so without what they were doing being noticed for what it is.  But, since there is more to biblical Christianity than raw brute human power, it was only a matter of time before it was noticed and called to the attention of God’s people in the SBC.

Coming Friday: “Fridays are for Newpaper Articles”