A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and the Rehabilitation of Evangelical Scholarship in America

by John A. D'Elia

Overview

George Eldon Ladd was a pivotal figure in the resurgence of evangelical scholarship in America during the years after the Second World War. Ladd's career as a biblical scholar can be seen as a quest to rehabilitate evangelical thought both in content and image, a task he pursued at great personal cost. Best known for his work on the doctrine of the Kingdom of God, Ladd moved from critiquing his own movement to engaging many of the important theological and exegetical issues of his day.

Ladd was a strong critic of dispensationalism, the dominant theological system in conservative evangelicalism and fundamentalism, challenging what he perceived to be its anti-intellectualism and uncritical approach to the Bible. In his impressive career at Fuller Theological Seminary, Ladd participated in scholarly debates on the relationship between faith and historical understanding, arguing that modern critical methodologies need not preclude orthodox Christian belief. Ladd also engaged the thought of Rudolf Bultmann, the dominant theological figure of his day. Ladd's main focus, however, was to create a work of scholarship from an evangelical perspective that the broader academic world would accept. When he was unsuccessful in this effort, he descended into depression, bitterness, and alcoholism. But Ladd played an important part in opening doors for later generations of evangelical scholars, both by validating and using critical methods in his own scholarly work, and also by entering into dialogue with theologians and theologies outside the evangelical world.

It is a central theme of this book that Ladd's achievement, at least in part, can be measured in the number of evangelical scholars who are today active participants in academic life across a broad range of disciplines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195341676
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/16/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	717,346
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

John A. D'Elia is the Senior Minister of the American Church in London. He is a graduate of UCLA, Fuller Theological Seminary, and the University of Stirling in Scotland. He is from Burbank, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction     xi
Early Life and Academic Preparation (1911-1950)     1
The Emergence of a Strategy (1950-1954)     33
Old Battles and Partial Victories (1954-1959)     61
Beyond the Borders (1959-1963)     91
The Costs of Engagement (1963-1966)     121
Surrendering the Quest (1966-1982)     149
Conclusion     175
Notes     183
Bibliography     233
Index     263

Editorial Reviews

"George Ladd was arguably the leading 'new evangelical' biblical scholar in the mid-decades of the twentieth century. He was also a person whose life and work were filled with intriguing tensions and contrasts. John D'Elia tells this poignant and fascinating story well." —George M. Marsden, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, and author of Fundamentalism and American Culture

"In this poignant and gracefully written account, John D'Elia unflinchingly but sympathetically recounts the personal and professional torments of George Eldon Ladd. Making extensive use of Ladd's own files, D'Elia sketches the twin paradoxes of Ladd's life: although eager to find 'a place at the table' of the larger scholarly community, Ladd deemed his own efforts towards that end a failure, and although he wrote extensively of the presence of the kingdom, he struggled to taste its fruits in his own life. Ironically, Ladd never truly understood his greatest legacy — his crucial role in the development of evangelical biblical scholarship. D'Elia offers a welcome tribute to Ladd's legacy." —Marianne Meye Thompson, George Eldon Ladd Professor of New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary

"D'Elia's biography of George Eldon Ladd is powerful and perceptive. He introduces us to a person who is spiritual and ambitious, intelligent and insecure, bold and troubled all at the same time. This is compelling reading for anyone interested in either the intellectual history of Evangelicalism or the movement's continuing struggle to secure and maintain 'a place at the table' of the mainstream scholarship." —Douglas Jacobsen, Distinguished Professor of Church History and Theology at Messiah College, and author of Thinking in the Spirit: Theologies of the Early Pentecostal Movement

"A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and the Rehabilitation of Evangelical Scholarship in America is a gripping account of a man who was an integral part of the renaissance of postwar evangelical scholarship. ...John D'Elia has done all of us a service in this biography. A rising generation of young evangelical scholars should particularly profit from it. The book raises important questions. How can evangelicals engage the academic community? How does one judge the "success" of that engagement? Is the evangelical world mature enough to allow its scholarship to face the real and pressing issues of our society? Biographies of this caliber are an excellent entry-point into the discussion, because they incarnate the issues.—Books & Culture

"The coming of age and acceptance of Evangelical scholarship such as that produced by the Fuller faculty and students has been glacial but noticeable. ...The book is well worth the time of anyone interested in that story and Ladd's contribution to it." —Theological Studies

"The most insightful and interesting biography of an academic that this reviewer has ever read. ...a thoroughly researched work that does justice to Ladd's great contributions while not engaging in the hero-worship that marks that type of biography termed a 'hagiography'." —The Master's Seminary Journal

"A gripping account of a man who was an integral part of the renaissance of postwar evangelical scholarship. ...John D'Elia has done all of us a service in this biography." —Books & Culture

"With an amazing trove of personal letters and memoranda at his disposal, D'Elia relates with journalistic panache Ladd's debates with John Walvoord, his support of the Revised Standard Version translation of the Bible, and his explication of Rudolf Bultmann's theology for conservative readers...D'Elia supplies a vivid sidebar to the sweeping histories of modern Christian intellectuals." —Church History

"A Place at the Table is not an ordinary biographical sketch, but a composite of Ladd's life and a critical analysis of the theological issues of the time. Thus those who read this book will have a clearer picture of the current theological perspectives of the time. D'Elia did an excellent work of presenting Ladd's legacy of intellectual and spiritual benefits."—Seminary Studies

"D'Elia's scholarship is excellent and this book deserves to be on the shelves of every theological library. . . Ladd single-handedly reinvigorated evangelical scholarship and D'Elia tells that very story. . . We are in debt to this very fine and judicious study . . ."—Jesus Creed blog

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