Thus existential theology is guilty of taking the Scriptures for less than what they are-the constitutive words from God to the covenant community. Before these documents of the covenant Suzerain the covenant servants are to be subject, receptive, and thereby analogical in their thinking and living. What is right in their own autonomous thinking is rejected. They desire to think God's thoughts after Him. Existentialism has flourished in this atmosphere.
Distortion can result when elements congenial to the philosophy are overemphasized.
Ideas foreign to Christianity may slip in under the guise of Christian terminology. The Christian faith may be outrightly accommodated to the prevailing philosophical fashion of the age. Although Macquarrie would not agree, I believe that all three dangers have materialized in the absorption of theology by existentialism. Paul did not adjust the gospel to the philosophical motifs of Athens. It is a tragic observation, but the history of the church shows that often the gospel must be dephilosophized.