An Introduction to Neo-Orthodoxy

During the Enlightenment the spirit of rationalism swept through Christianity and created Liberal Protestantism. Liberal Protestantism changed many of the religious principles of Christianity and changed them to represent moral ideals. Scripture was ignored and seen as symbolic or mythical. Being a rationalist movement a symbolic text meant little more then being fake or fiction. The only important thing to salvage of Christianity was a moral ideal.

Liberal Protestantism lost its hold on most during the Great Awakenings. In an ironic fashion Liberal Protestantism forced many Christians and secular to reconsider their spiritual orientation and the movement which began led people back to a more fundamental orientation, rather then embrace the cold rationalism of the Enlightenment.

But the one thing fundamentalism has always lacked was an intellectual backbone. This was revealed early in the twentieth century during the Scopes Trial. This epic trial pitted religion against the secular, and religion lost. It was a famous case that decided if evolution would be taught in schools and the fundamentalists came out with their fists raised high. In the end they were shown to be inferior to the bulwark of science and logic.

In the cauldron of conservative vs liberal there was another system which arose during the 19th century which began to take off into the twentieth century as well. The fires of this movement carry on in our modern times, but many of the terms have changed and it seems most are afraid to name it for what it is. Today, we call it the Emergent movement, but a century and a half ago it was called Neo-Orthodoxy.

The first traces of Neo-Orthodox theology can be found in the Jewish faith by a man named, Rabbi Samson Hirsch. As the world was being changed by such men as Newton and Darwin a growing need arose to reframe the world's religions. Judaism and Christianity both faced this. Many think that Darwin changed the course of Christianity, but the reality is that upon its inception most Christians were unconcerned about the theory of evolution. It caused controversy, to be sure, but there was another book that was published that same year which caused more controversy among Christians and out sold Darwin's "Origin of Species" and that is the book, "Essays and Reviews". This book was for the most part a creation of liberal theology. It undercut just about all the main themes important to religious devotion. It was written by seven different authors. Each author contributed an essay concerning such topics as prophecy, miracles, Biblical interpretation, and hell. It was a groundbreaking piece of work.

There was an accurate and growing concern among many Christians who believed that liberal protestantism was missing the point and that the fundamentalists were going down the wrong path as well. Some found that they could accept the higher criticism of the Bible which came from the liberal camp, but still retain the essence of their religious devotion. This is where Neo-Orthodoxy begins. Neo-Orthodoxy can be seen as a combination of two elements. The theology of Bultmann plus the philosophy of existentialism. Now many neo-orthodox theologians reject many of Bultmann's teachings. He is considered to be quite a liberal theologian, which neo-orthodoxy opposed, but Bultmann was a watershed for Christian academia. The greatness of Bultmann's work was that he was able to reshape the NT as a narrative that did not contain any supernatural elements, including the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Edward Schillebeeckx, Karl Rahner, Emil Brunner, and Deitrich Bonhoffer have all been considered as neo-orthodox in one way or another. For Bonhoffer this came late in his life. The key to understanding neo-orthodoxy comes from its acceptance of modern science and higher criticism while finding creative and authentic ways of retaining religious devotion and theological integrity. Many on the conservative side rejected Neo-Orthodoxy, but it did have a rather popular heyday during the middle of the twentieth century. Once it was fully realized that Neo-Orthodoxy embraced the same liberal methods of reading the Bible it was pretty much abandoned by the devout, but there was a time when many neo-orthodox scholars had positions in the Evangelical schools we know today. There was hardly any ecumenical support for neo-orthodoxy, except from some Anglican and Lutheran churches.

The reason Neo-Orthodoxy is important for today is because it is a great candidate for a current ecumenical movement which has recently become just as notorious and controversial as Neo-Orthodoxy was in its heyday and that is the Emergent Church movement. Plus, for all intents and purposes Neo-Orthodoxy resolves the conflicts between science and religion, morality and religion, and philosophy and religion. The primary set backs for Neo-Orthodoxy is that is weakens the strength of fundamentalism. It has an emphasis on inclusion rather then exclusion. And it loosens the moral constraints bound to typical religious devotion.

BUT! Neo-Orthodoxy is not a rejection or compromise of religion. The Neo-Orthodox are able to stay true to the Bible and their faith, while maintaining many of the Christian doctrines, like the Trinity, Christology, Pneumatology, and Soteriology. The justifications and explanations of Neo-Orthodoxy will follow on this blog.