The evangelical quarrel with the modern fashion of radical theology, which boasts of a ‘new reformation’, a ‘new theology’, a ‘new morality’, even a ‘new Christianity’ is precisely this that, alas, it is what it claims to be! It is ‘new’. It is not a legitimate reinterpretation of old first-century Christianity, for from this it deviates at many vital points. It is an invention of the twentieth century.
—Christ the Controversialist (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1970), p. 41.
Interesting Stott is willing to exclude his “annhilationist” view of Hell from his own criticism of “radical theology.” If he were to try to peddle his vision of the afterlife to the imaginary first-century Christian most fundamentalists like to conjure up when they are claiming the theological high ground he’d be branded a heretic.