1.    Background

a.    Pietism [seeking deeper spiritual experience]

revolt against formalism of church life, lack of spiritual daily life, and the absence of evangelism

Spencer [protesting the formalism of religion]: suggests greater use of the Word of God, practice spiritual gifts, spread the gospel, defend the truth, more spiritual devotions, practice holy living

Evaluation: influenced spiritual revivals of the Wesleys and Jonathan Edwards in U.S., but overemphasis of subjective feelings, lack of knowledge in doctrines and non-participation in the society, legalism in daily life; the emphasis on experience underlies liberal theology

b.    Biblical Criticism [reevaluating the trustworthiness of the Bible]

• 18th. and 19th. century in Europe, mostly Germany
• Types:

• Textual C -- recovery of the original text (Lower Criticism, all others called Higher Criticism)
• Form C -- study of different forms of literature (development, style, and meaning of Scripture)
• Redaction C -- study of the purposes and perspectives (motives and concerns behind Scripture)
• Literary or source C -- study of source of Scripture (e.g. Q source)
• Tradition or midrash C -- study of the history of the tradition (e.g. Jewish Midrash) behind the Scripture
• Historical C -- study of historical setting of the Scripture, time and place in which it was written, nature of events that it describes
• Structural C -- study of structure of language to which the particular linguistic expressions the Scripture belong
• Rhetorical C -- study of devices of speech that reveal the personal character of a writer's thought

• Evaluation: causing doubts about authenticity and truthfulness of the Bible and consequently the Christian faith, resulting widespread attitude of knowledge above the Bible, and the rejection of the supernatural. However, the work can be channelled to good use in studying the Bible if the humanistic assumptions are filtered out.

a.    Main points [trusting the moral capability of man]

• a reaction to the formalism of church life and the non-involvement attitude of the church
• accepts concepts of Darwinian social evolution (Huxley) of increasing knowledge of the good and upward human progress (perfectible man)
• prepared to sacrifice many elements of traditional Christian beliefs in search for contemporary relevance (modernization of theology)
• emancipation from the authority of religion -- all beliefs must be validated by rationalization and experience
• Jesus as a moral model, revealing to the disciples only the way to practice a life of love, refuting the deity of Jesus -- "no Christ but Jesus"
• no original sin, man has the wisdom and power to build paradise
• emphasizes personal character development, cultivation of God-consciousness, salvation through education, psychological wholeness, social revolution

b.    Schleiermacher [romantic religion]

• pietist upbringing: religion more than theology and ethics (knowing and doing the right thing), but also feeling
• theology is knowledge about religion, not religion; religion is religious experience
• importance of doctrines only in terms of contribution to religious experience
• Jesus came not to atone but to set an example and to arouse in us the consciousness of God
• doctrines of resurrection and ascension irrelevant

c.    Ritschl [Jesus the perfect man]

• opposes individualism and subjectivism of Schleiermacher, Christian salvation to be experienced only in the fellowship of the church
• denies original sin, no wrath of God against sin, reconciliation brought by Jesus Christ is a change in our attitude to God
• Jesus' deity only means his perfect humanity
• Kingdom of God is the moral unification of the human race through love, human race is evolving towards perfection

d.    Harnack [quest of historical Christianity]

• expert on early church Fathers, believes the gospel had been corrupted by Greek philosophy
• Jesus did not preach about Himself but the message of brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God

e.    Fosdick [religion to serve the society]

• Bible to be explained according to modern needs
• religion to lead society in ethics
• education and social action would create an ideal social order
• criticizes the weaknesses of liberalism in 1935 and re-emphasize ethics, sin, and the existence of God

f.    Evaluation: inadequate view of man's sinfulness and God's wrath, diverted from the basic elements of salvation, deviates from traditional Biblical beliefs by conforming to the perceived needs (not real needs) of the world, disputes the deity of Jesus, disruption of the dream of human paradise by the First World War

a.    Main points [crusading for a Kingdom of social justice]

• gospel to the individual not as important as the salvation of the mass
• sin of man as a result of the deteriorating society, thus the society must be changed first
• perfect society to be built by cooperation and love among mankind
• emphasizes peace and racial equality
• faith in the potential of man (humanism)

b.    Rauschenbusch [sin is selfishness]

• felt a need to minister to the victims of social indifference, political corruption, and economic greed
• Christian life devoted to reign of God on earth, in individual hearts and in all society
• sin is selfishness and greed that result social ills
• Jesus was killed by the forces of corporate sins (such as religious bigotry and corruption of justice). His death is redemptive because it reveals those sins in all their horror, sets perfect love over against them, and summons us now to the prophetic mission of working against them for the Kingdom of God.

c.    Evaluation: a reaction to the social injustice, with good intentions but trust too much in the goodness in man, the gospel message of salvation is changed to a message of social justice, partial origin of liberation theology