Emptied theology has heard the diagnosis of our cultural situation but has drawn the wrong conclusion. If the eternal categories no longer communicate, then jettison the eternal. Instead, reduce the gospel to what is immediately accessible; namely, therapeutic comfort, moral encouragement, and social solidarity (“the creative impulse of the universe”).

The problem is not that this is offensive. The problem is that it is redundant. It has nothing to say that psychology, progressive politics, or a competent nonprofit does not already say and say better. The provision of community, progressive political identity, and the warm feeling that the universe is on your side— these are not nothing. They are also not news.