This December will mark a decade since Methodism’s loss of Tom Oden, a theologian and churchman who was a giant in the theological world. Tom was a colleague to many of us and a friend to the renewal and confessing movements within Methodism. In fact, he was a friend of Wesleyans around the world.
G. K. Chesterton spoke about the “democracy of the dead,” his famous words reminding us that the voices and wisdom of our ancestors should still hold value in whatever age. I smile at his caution about yielding power and influence to a “small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.” How timely when we think of the monumental legacy of Thomas C. Oden.
I was reminded of this recently while leafing through his lesser-known work Turning Around the Mainline: How Renewal Movements are Changing the Church (Baker, 2006). I was struck again by the depth of the man’s historical wisdom and massive theological understanding.
His Turning Around the Mainline…