b&c: postmodern apologetics? (review)
Lauren Winner reviews Debra Rienstra’s So Much More : An Invitation to Christian Spirituality in Books & Culture, in an article titled Tell Me the Old, Old Story - and Make It New - Books & Culture. A tasty tidbit from her review…
Her discussion of universalism strikes me as balanced and honest, though it may rub some evangelical readers the wrong way. “Christianity maintains that salvation comes through Jesus Christ,” she writes, “but different strains of Christianity mean different things by that.” She suggests that Scripture has universalistic impulses (such as Paul’s assurance to the Corinthians that God will reconcile himself through Jesus to “all things”), but that many other passages of Scripture point to something starker, fiercer—the separation of the wheat from the chaff, the outer darkness and gnashing of teeth. Rienstra says that “The universalist strand and the outer darkness strand are in the Bible for good reason”: one strand reminds us that God extends an invitation to everyone (TULIP Calvinists, gird your loins), the other strand works against a lazy arrogance about salvation. “Some confusion about who’s in and who’s out is probably quite healthy.”
Hear, hear. –JA