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seem out of step with Scripture’s call to Christian charity and unity. In John 17:20–26, Jesus prays that unity and love will exemplify his disciples and thereby display to the world that they are the community of the redeemed. The Apostle Paul instructs that diversity within the body of Christ is the source of its unity (Eph. 4:1–7 and 1 Cor. 12–14). To be sure, doctrinal differences are important and should not be swept aside, but Scripture’s admonition to love and unity recommend ecumenical postures rather than divisive line-drawing ones. Thus, ecumenical theology, in that it discerns areas of mutuality and seeks to unite Christians, remains a perennial and biblical agenda for theology.
In order to carry on the ecumenical task, this book draws a central figure of the evangelical tradition into a constructive ecumenical dialogue with a leading contemporary Catholic theologian. Admittedly, as one who identified the Pope as the antichrist, Edwards hardly seems a viable resource for building ecumenical bridges.5 Moreover, Evangelicals have at times felt comfortable linking arms with Catholics on social and moral issues, but they have been less enthusiastic about doing so on theological ones.6 Nevertheless, deep affinity characterizes Edwards’s and Coffey’s doctrines of the Trinity, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and redemption. The points of correspondence in their thought provide a basis for theological rapprochement between Evangelicals and Catholics. Their common vision of the Trinity and redemption also helps to overcome the confessional tribalism that is fostered by postmodernism. In this respect, the project is countercultural.
Before treating the constructive nature of this project, let me address the suitability of Edwards and Coffey as representatives of their respective traditions and as dialogue partners. In respect to Edwards, he is widely regarded as the most significant and innovative Reformed evangelical theologian in North America. Gerald R. McDermott noted that “Evangelicals often consider Jonathan Edwards…to be ‘their’ theologian, the one thinker in the history of Christian thought who probably ‘got it right.’ ”7 The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University describes Edwards as the most influential religious thinker in American history and further remarks that “he is the subject of intense scholarly