Requiem: A Lament in Three Movements is a post-liberal critique of the mainline liberal ecclesiastical establishment, especially the theological seminaries and church bureaucracies. Thomas C. Oden identifies the failure of contemporary theological education and its accompanying ideology, maps out the ultra-liberalization of church bureaucracies and special-interest politics, and calls for a return to classical Christian theological roots and categories.

Broadly ecumenical in the truest sense of the word, and written from the perspective of a former fellow traveling liberal, Oden's direct, frank, and provocative approach articulates concerns many church people - leaders, pastors, teachers, seminarians, and the faithful in the pews - hold. Requiem promises to be one of the most controversial and important contributions to the debate about the nature and calling of the church in the last half of the last decade of this millennium.