The Vanhoozer Essays

These essays contain my thoughts and critiques of Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s works titled First Theology: God, Scripture & Hermeneutics, 2002 (FT) and Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship, 2010 (RT). My reflections here presuppose a certain familiarity with these works, but I try to quote him extensively, not only to support my arguments, but to familiarize the reader with Vanhoozer’s thinking and theses. I intend to introduce you to some significant lines of thought in Vanhoozer’s theology and raise hermeneutical questions regarding the interpretive coherence and validity of his theology, given his Reformed Calvinist position. My primary concerns center on several issues:

• The problematic definition and nature of the Calvinist understanding of God’s sovereignty.
• The problematic Calvinist doctrine of the “effectual call” and its deterministic doctrinal presuppositions.
• The problems with Vanhoozer’s use of contemporary linguistic theory, “speech-act theory,” and literary authorship analogies to understand how God works the “effectual call” in human persons.
• The necessity of logical, moral, epistemic, and biblical coherence as essential to a sound biblical hermeneutic in contrast to Calvinism’s interpretive incoherence.
• The incoherence and implications of Calvinist “compatibilism.”
• Theistic determinism and libertarian freedom. The nature of man as created in the image of God and hence, as a genuine self, requires a definition of human freedom that includes being the sole author of his actions with the ability of contrary choice.
• Calvinism and the problem of evil.

Many of these essays are somewhat self-contained, that is, they deal with various subjects from the above texts – First Theology (FT) and Remythologizing Theology (RT). The first three essays help set the stage for the others, but the others don’t need to be read in any order. You may skip to those of interest, and I think you will find them understandable in and of themselves, although the more you read, the more you will become familiar with Vanhoozer’s theology.

Given the extensive amount of material here (78 essays), I have divided it up into Four Parts. All the titles of the critiques are labeled with “Vanhoozer” followed by the Part they are in and the number of the essay. For instance, the third essay in Part 1 is labeled, “Vanhoozer Pt. 1.3 – His Thesis and His God.” This helps me to organize the essays and will assist the reader in referencing them.

Also note that there is some repetition in the material among different essays. There are points in various essays that are repeated in others, although somewhat differently expressed. Hopefully that will not create monotony but reinforce the knowledge of my critiques. Again, you can pick a topic of interest and just read that essay. Thanks again for reading on my site!

I hope you will see that at major points Calvinism is not a biblical theology and is especially destructive of the biblical message of the gospel which contains the “good news” of salvation for all sinners. In light of the apostle Paul’s intense concern that the truth of the gospel be preserved and not perverted (Gal. 1), we too should be concerned that the true biblical gospel is being preserved and proclaimed in the evangelical church against the errors of Calvinism.

Here are the titles of the major parts and the essays contained therein. Just click on the essay title to be taken there.

Part 1 – Kevin Vanhoozer: A Calvinist’s Search for a Personal God and Theological Coherence

Part 2 – The Incoherencies, Inconsistencies, and Contradictions of Vanhoozer’s Reformed Calvinist Interpretations and Theological Statements

Part 3 – Vanhoozer’s Problematic Doctrine of an “Effectual Call”

Part 4 – Vanhoozer’s Problematic Rationale of Reformed Compatibilism

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