Fabric of Theology: A Prolegomenon to Evangelical Theology, The

Trinity Journal, Fall 1997 by Green, Brad

Richard Lints. The Fabric of Theology: A Prolegomenon to Evangelical Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993. 359 pp. $20.00 paper.

Richard Lints teaches theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Lints's work is just what its title says, a prolegomenon. He is offering a word to evangelicals, both a positive and a negative word as to how evangelical theology can move ahead in largely postmodern times. Lints posits that evangelicals have too often ignored important methodological questions, and evangelical theology will be crippled until such questions are faced squarely (pp. 8-12). Lints posits that fundamental questions of theological method must be engaged:

What is theology after all? What is a theological vision? How do theology and culture relate? How does the construction of dogma relate to the biblical text? Where does one's religious tradition fit in? What principles of organization (e.g., historical, philosophical, cultural) ought to be used in theology? How might one go about finding principles to determine which principles ought to be employed (the metamethodological question)? (p. 8)

Of these methodological questions, the central question for Lints concerns one's "theological matrix" or "theological framework" (p. 19). By this he means something like one's "conceptual framework," frame of reference, or one's "way to think about the world" (p. 17). The theological matrix is the same as one's theological framework. Lints writes: My driving concern in this volume is to elucidate the process by which the theistic matrix is derived and to illuminate the significance of that matrix for the remaining matrices [vocational, leisure, etc.] of a person's noetic structure.... [I]t is to ask how one should construct a theological framework and how a theological vision ought to arise from that framework. (p. 19)

While one may have many "matrixes," Lints is concerned with one's "theological matrix." Lints wishes to emphasize the fabric of theology, the overarching framework of the theological task. He laments that "evangelical theology tends to deal with each component part individually, at best stitching things together after the fashion of a patchwork quilt" (p. 261). Indeed,

There is no pattern that holds the quilt together overall, other than its diversity. Evangelical theology tends to be as hap-hazard in assembling individual doctrines as television is in assembling individual images: there is no encompassing framework or intrinsic consistency. (p. 261)

Lints affirms two principles: (1) the "realism principle" ("Individuals normally know the world pretty much as it really is"); and (2) the "bias principle" ("Individuals never know the world apart from biases that influence their view of what really is the case") (p. 20). Unless one recognizes both of these principles one's theology will be skewed. It is necessary to affirm that one can know things (the realism principle), but that at the same time one's knowledge is influenced by one's background and culture (the bias principle) (if this is all the more destructive postmodernists were after, there would be little to argue about, but this is not the case). Lints is particularly concerned to relate these principles to the interaction of theology and culture. In short, evangelicals must recognize that theology shapes culture and culture shapes theology. They both impact the other. If only the realism principle is recognized one will be blind to the harmful effects of one's own biases (ironically, one's own biases will come to prevail as if they were "the truth"). If only the bias principle is affirmed, all quickly becomes relative, and there is no ultimate truth accessible to human knowledge (pp. 20-8).

Lints' work is divided into three parts: (1) "Theology: Texts and Contexts"; (2) "Theology: Past and Present"; and (3) "Theology: Frameworks and Visions." Part 1, "Theology: Texts and Contexts" contains prolegomena (chap. 1); a brief survey of evangelicalism (chap. 2); an introduction to Lints' own suggested theological matrix-the Bible presents the history of redemption, and this history of redemption should be the overarching framework for the theological task (chap. 3); and an exposition discussing how the Scriptures-"the divine witness to and interpretation of God's redemptive activity in history"-are appropriated by the believer through the three "filters" of tradition, culture, and reason (chap. 4).

Part 2, "Theology: Past and Present," contains a brief summary and recommendation of the theological "frameworks" of the past-the Magisterial Reformation (Luther and Calvin), the Reformed Scholastics, Jonathan Edwards, and Geerhardus Vos (chap. 5); and an introduction to postmodern theology and the relation between evangelical theology and postmodern theology (chap. 6).

In Part 3, "Theology: Frameworks and Visions," Lints offers some preliminary suggestions "for constructing a theological framework and appropriating a theological vision" (p. 259). This part contains a detailed discussion of the theological nature of the Bible, specifically the redemptive nature of the Bible, both in the sense of what the Bible accomplishes and what it witnesses to (chap. 7); a discussion of how to move from the biblical text to a theological framework, a move that focuses on three horizons-(1) the textual horizon ("the immediate context of the book [or passage]"); (2) the epochal horizon ("the context of the period of revelation in which the book [or passage] falls"); and (3) the canonical horizon ("the context of the entirety of revelation") (chap. 8); a discussion of how a theological framework (which is constant) might be turned into a theological vision (which changes with the culture), a task that requires theology to enter into a rigorous discussion with the church, popular culture, and the academy (chap. 9).