Sorry if I am posting this in the wrong forum...

A friend of mine teaches at a reformed seminary and he said that there were 10 lanes of reformed theology with which one could classify different lines of thought. On one side was theonomy and the other side was neo-barthianism. He did not elaborate on the others.

Can anyone venture to guess what the other classifications could be? I know it will vary per person, but any suggestions would welcomed.

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PMBrooks
Southern Baptist Pastor
New Orleans, LA
PhD Theology

Nope. There's only three lanes. The two you mentioned -- and then the correct lane in the middle.

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Jim
1689 LBCF
Independent Bible Church
North Texas, USA

I would venture to guess that there's been more than 10 lanes of Reformed theology.

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Jonathan
Audio Engineer
Reformed Anabaptist
Ohio

Moroni's magical glasses of proper interpretation:

I never thought of Barth as reformed? Is he considered reformed?

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Aaron Josh Wright
Deerbrook Baptist Church, Humble Tx
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Pseudo-reformed.

I'm not sure whether he's generally even considered as within the pale of orthodoxy.

He comes from the Swiss Reformed tradition. It's probably similar to calling Robert Schuler 'reformed.'

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Carl Gobelman
Long Grove Community Church (Evangelical)
Vernon Hills, IL
Blog: http://newcreationperson.wordpress.com

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

I have always been hesitant to call him reformed. Some of his beliefs about the place of Scripture and experience and his bent toward universalism may make it hard to classify him "reformed"

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Keith Gorman
Seminary student / ABA
Garland, TX

A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more. ~ JOHN OWEN

If you are using the term in an historical sense (e.g., Lutheran, Baptist, Reformed, etc.), then he is Reformed. If you are speaking of a confessionally Reformed, orthodox, conservative . . . of course not.

He disagreed with Calvin on any number of issues (e.g., election and predestination), belittled Carl F.H. Henry as being with "Christianity Yesterday" when CT's editor asked Barth a question during his American tour, and scoffed at much of what people on the PB believe.

However, inasmuch as he is not a Methodist, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Menonite, Independent, etc., what else would you call him? BTW, any quick bio of Barth will refer to him in about this way: "a towering 20th Century Reformed Swiss theologian."

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Dennis E. McFadden, Ex Mainline Baptist (in Remission)
Atherton Baptist Homes, CEO
First Baptist Church of Alhambra, Member, Transformation Ministries (CA)

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Yes, and leagues are forming now, but you have to rent those special shoes.


There's the Calvin league [continental]--they specialize in bocce ball.
The Tulip league favors five-pin bowling.
The Huguenots are into Pétanque.
That pretty much leaves seven lanes for the rest of us.

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Wayne Sparkman, Th.M.
Director, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO
Blogs: The Continuing Story and PCA History Blog

ARGH!!! I was going to make the bowling joke, but you beat me to it!!!

It gives me great comfort to know there are so many comedians on the PB.

I am surprised no one used a "holybowler" pun!

-----Added 10/30/2009 at 12:26:14 EST-----

As for Barth, he actually challenged much of the liberalism of his day and provided much needed correctives. Compared to the other well known theologians of his day, he would have been considered quite conservative (certainly not in our sense of the term today). Nevertheless, he certainly did not go far enough in his correctives!

Your friend may be familiar with the book "Reformed Theology In America",edited by David Wells?

According to Wells, the 3 main streams in America are:
-Old Princeton
-Dutch
-Southern Presbyterian

He also acknowledges that there are many other streams and classifying them is not simple.

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Allan
attending CPC (PCA)
St. Louis, MO

What made him so great? I've looked through some of his stuff and have not found anything great about it. What did he do that was so magnanimous.

Besides writing a 9,000 pg. sytematic theology and a bunch of other books and turning liberalism on its head . . . not much I guess.

[Don't get me wrong. His writing driving me bonkers. I even gave my hardback set of Church Dogmatics away and paid the postage to get them off my shelf. But, the man was a pretty big deal in the history of theology, certainly in most people's lists of the top something or other names of luminaries in Christian history.]

One must understand that, regretfully, in academics one's influence in not based upon faithfulness to orthodoxy. Barth did indeed write a great deal, and as I posted earlier, was a great challenge to the liberalism of his day. Also, remnants of his theology is still floating around in many churches and seminaries today. Barth was a prolific writer and his writings are hard to understand. Much of how we as orthodox theologians and preachers react to the non-orthodox theology of our day is based upon what Barth wrote back then and how it influences our liberalism today.

All this is what made Barth such a "giant" in theological circles.