Theology and the Present-Day Revival

The current upsurge of interest in religion in the United States is two-fold: popular and theological. The locus of religious thought has shifted in the twentieth century from Europe to the United States, and the present religious revival is distinguished from earlier ones by the activity of a significant number of first-rate intellectuals contributing to a renewed theology and a fresh philosophy of religion. Neo-orthodoxy among theologians, ecumenicalism among churches, and a religious curiosity on all levels are major aspects of the contemporary situation. The reinvigoration of theology now underway in the United States represents a confluence of many streams of religious thought: an existential idealism begun in Europe; the philosophical and ethical lessons of Plato, Aristotle, and the classic Stoics; a concept of creative dialogue with the world, society, and culture springing from nineteenth-century liberalism; the demythologizing of the Scriptures; an approach to dogmatics which does not dismiss philosophical issues; and an insistence upon an ethic which is Christocentric, theologically oriented, and biblically grounded but also relevant to the situation of the contemporary individual.—Ed.