The Twentieth Century: A Theological Overview

T.D. Regehr is a professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan.
He is the author of Mennonites in Canada, 1939–1970: A People
Transformed, The Beauharnois Scandal: A Story of Canadian
Entrepreneurship and Politics, and Remembering Saskatchewan:

Theologians were greatly influenced by historical events in the 20th
century. This book contains the thoughts and reflections of 18
contemporary Christian theologians. The collection is ecumenical, in the
sense that the contributors represent various Christian denominations
and also in the range of liberal and conservative approaches taken.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 contains essays in which the
authors examine the impact of major historical events on theological
interpretations of the Christian message. World War I, the Russian
Revolution, the Great Depression, the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust,
socialist and capitalist developments after World War II, Christian
ecumenism, and globalization of the free-market economies are some of
the events examined. In addition, this section includes an essay on the
impact of the papal condemnation of modernism on Roman Catholic
theology. Part 2 offers contemporary theological reflections and
perspectives on important 20th-century cultural and religious
developments. Secularism, ecumenism, the women’s movement, ecological
concerns, postmodern debates, the voices of marginalized people, and the
impact of Vatican II, are examined.

The editor candidly admits that many other topics could have been
included. No theologians from eastern Europe are included. Nor is there
an essay or serious discussion of liberation theology in Latin America.
Issues of particular interest to the evangelical and fundamentalist
branches of Christianity also receive only limited attention. The book,
in short, covers many, but not all, major 20th-century developments in
Christian theology.

The authors, with only one or two exceptions, are academics, and the
essays are of a scholarly nature. Most, however, are written for both a
general readership and for scholars. In his concluding reflections, the
editor skilfully ties together the various themes and issues, and ends
on a positive and encouraging note. Collectively, these essays, in
Gregory Baum’s words, “offer their readers hope because they
document the intellectual creativity, the rich imagination, and the
passion of the heart that moved the theologians of the 20th century to
wrestle with the troubling events of their day and to issues posed by
new historical developments—all in order to uncover the contemporary
meaning and power of the Christian gospel.”