If you spend any amount of time listening to or reading stuff on the Emergent Church, you will soon hear a reference to "foundationalism," usually in the context that "foundationalism" must be abandoned, that it's passe, and that the evangelical church today is in bondage to it. In my view, few people truly understand what foundationalism is or is not. Proponents of Emergent usually don't understand it. And the receipients of their criticisms often don't understand it, either?
In this article published a few years ago in The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Millard Erickson gives concise definitions and a helpful overview of the issues. If you're engaged in the Emergent discussions, I'd encourage you to read this article. Then the next time you see someone bemoan "foundationalism," you'll have some definitions and distinctions available to evaluate what they are talking about.
(A more technical discussion may be found in chapter 2 of Reclaiming the Center, in a chapter co-authored by J.P. Moreland and Garry DeWeese).
