I’m probably a few days off, but about a year ago from today, theologian Stan Grenz quietly passed away and joined his Lord. Grenz was very influential on many young theologians (and older ones too!) who were trying to make sense of theology in a postmodern context. He put into words what many of us felt. He provided categories, the very building blocks we have been using to form theology in today’s context.

The Princeton Theology Review has been accepting papers over the past few months related to Stan Grenz and his influence on the world of theology. I submitted my own paper yesterday. I’m not worrying about it being accepted. It was fun to write it. There may be a large number of excellent papers accepted by those with more experience who can pay Stan a better tribute than I. And so I’ll just cross my fingers and be thankful for either outcome.

As a little teaser, I thought that Iwould share my introduction paragraph to give an idea of where I took this paper. I’ll try to post a link to the issue with these papers when it is released. It should be a great read. Here’s a peek at my article:

Among the many mourners of Stanley Grenz’s
passing was a large, faceless group who rarely, if ever appeared in the news
headlines. Most did not attend the funeral, take a class with him, or even meet
him. Their names, if you can find them, are not recognizable to many in the
theological community and carry little authoritative weight when cited. And yet this faceless group that operates
under the radar was profoundly impacted by the work of Stanley Grenz and
carries on his legacy in a subtle, yet very real manner. This group is the
online community of Christian bloggers.