Abstract
Gary Tyra, who earned the D.Min. from Fuller Theological Seminary, is an associate professor of biblical and practical theology at Vanguard University of Southern California. This book, his fifth, is quite scholarly but also quite accessible to non-academic readers. It is a work that could profitably be read by seminary students (and their professors) as well as by missionaries on the field.
While this fine work needs most to be read by non-conservatives, it will likely find its widest audience among fairly conservative Evangelicals, which is Tyra’s background and current context. The author, however, has extensively read liberal theologians, especially Marcus Borg and Brian McLaren, his two main conversation partners. Those who have been greatly influenced by those two prolific and appealing authors need to take very seriously Tyra’s insightful criticisms, always made in an irenic spirit.
On the other hand, for those who lean toward the right end of the theological spectrum, careful reading of this book would perhaps move such persons toward a more centrist position.
One of Tyra’s recurring assertions is that “post-Christian” authors such as Borg and McLaren are guilty of “overcorrecting” legitimate problems found in conservative/fundamentalist Christian theology. In that connection, he also charges that they often present “false antitheses.” That is a fair, and helpful, analysis.
Tyra contends that there is always a better position than that presented by the false antitheses and that it is generally better to seek a “both/and” position. This is similar to what I call for in the last chapter of my book Limits to Liberalism (2010): seeking the “radiant center” between the extremes of fundamentalism and liberalism. Tyra doesn’t use that term, and is more to the right side of that center than I, but he advocates that sort of position in an appealing manner.
In pursuing the desired missional orthodoxy that is to be found between the extremes, or between the various false antitheses, Tyra repeatedly emphasizes the need “to be faithful to both the biblical text and the missional task.” Even though it would have been more difficult, perhaps it would have been better for him to have emphasized the central biblical “message” and not just the text.
In conclusion, Tyra declares that “it is not necessary to choose between a fighting fundamentalism and a new liberalism” (p. 362). Indeed! He has, accordingly, presented a viable missional orthodoxy for the radiant center.