Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Introduction to Modern Christian Theology
Part 1: Classics of the Twentieth Century
Chapter 1: Karl Barth
Approaching Karl Barth
Biography
Content: Barth’s Major Works
Beginnings, to the 1919 Commentary on Romans
Dialectical theology to Christian Dogmatics in Outline, 1927
Dogmatic theology and the Church Dogmatics
The Church Dogmatics
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 2: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Introduction
Biography and Context
Major Writings
Debate and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 3: Paul Tillich
Introduction: Life
Survey: Work, Approach, and Themes
Content: Essential nature, existential disruption, and actuality
Influence and Controversies
Notes
Chapter 4: Henri de Lubac
Introduction
The Life and Writings of Henri de Lubac
The Surnaturel of 1946
Around Humani Generis
The Limit and the Renown of Henri de Lubac
Notes
Chapter 5: Karl Rahner
Introduction: Life
Survey
Content
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 6: Hans Urs von Balthasar
Introduction and Survey
Content
Debate
Achievement and Agenda
Acknowledgment
Notes
Part 2: Theological Responses to Modernity in Europe and the USA
GERMANY
Chapter 7: Wolfhart Pannenberg
Introduction
Survey
Systematic Theology
Achievement and Debate
Notes
Chapter 8: Jürgen Moltmann
Introduction: Life and Influences
Survey: Works, Key Ideas, Method
Content
Debate
Achievement
BRITAIN
Chapter 9: T. F. Torrance
Introduction
A Survey of Torrance’s Work
Content
Debate
Achievement, Influence, Agenda
Notes
Chapter 10: Anglican Theology
Introduction
Survey
Agenda
Notes
USA
Chapter 11: H. Richard Niebuhr
Introduction
Background and Development
H. Richard Niebuhr’s “Ethics”
Responding to H. R. Niebuhr
Notes
Chapter 12: Reinhold Niebuhr
Introduction
Survey
Content
Debate
Influence, Achievement, Agenda
Notes
Chapter 13: Revisionists and Liberals
Introduction, History, and Influences
Survey
Representatives
The Debate
Achievement and Questions for the Future
Notes
THE CONTEMPORARY SCENE: REAPPROPRIATING TRADITIONS
Chapter 14: Postliberal Theology
Introduction
Survey
Debate
Achievement, Influence, and Agenda
Extension and Supplementation of Postliberal Theology
Notes
Chapter 15: Systematic Theology after Barth: Jüngel, Jenson, and Gunton
Introduction: The Legacy of Barth
Eberhard Jüngel
Robert Jenson
Colin Gunton
Conclusion
Chapter 16: Roman Catholic Theology after Vatican II
Introduction
The Stories of Modern Catholicism
Survey 1: Changes in the Institutional Context of Catholic Theology Since Vatican II
Survey 2: Changes in Understanding of the Task, Scope, Methods, and Sources of Catholic Theology Since Vatican II
Survey 3: Changes in Substantive Theological Understanding Since Vatican II
Assessment and Conclusion: Anticipating the Future
Acknowledgments
Notes
TEXTS, TRUTH, AND SIGNIFICATION
Chapter 17: Biblical Interpretation
Introduction: Context and Influences
Survey: Biblical Interpretation in Theologians of the Word after 1919
Developing the Cambridge Tradition: British Exegetical Scholarship
Re-enter Hermeneutics: Gadamer, Ricoeur, and American Literary Approaches
Achievements, Agenda, and Debate
Chapter 18: Philosophical Theology
Introduction
Survey
Content, Agendas, and Debates
A Future Agenda?
Notes
Chapter 19: Postmodern Theology
Varieties of Postmodernism
Liberal Postmodern Theologies
Conservative Postmodern Theologies
Conclusion
Notes
Part 3: Theology and the Sciences
Chapter 20: Theology and the Physical Sciences
The Downgrading of the Theology of Nature in Modern Thought
The Collapse of the Reductionist Program
Divine Action and the Theology of Nature
Key Themes in the Theology–Science Debate
Achievement and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 21: Theology and the Biological Sciences
Introduction
Survey
Key Representatives
Theology and the Biological Sciences: A Tentative Agenda
Notes
Chapter 22: Theology and the Social Sciences
Introduction
Theologians and the Social Sciences: Survey and Typology
Theology and the Social and Human Sciences: An Agenda
Notes
Part 4: Theology, Prayer, and Practice
Chapter 23: Theology and Spirituality
Introduction: Rediscovering a Relationship
Survey: Return to the Sources
Two Key Figures
Debate and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 24: Pastoral and Practical Theology
Introduction
Survey: What is Pastoral and Practical Theology?
Content and Debate: Three Styles of Pastoral and Practical Theology
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Notes
Part 5: Particularizing Theology
Chapter 25: Feminism, Gender, and Theology
Introduction
Survey
Some Significant Figures
Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Theologies
Debate
Achievement and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 26: Black Theology of Liberation
Introduction
Survey 1: Origins
Survey 2: Founding Generation
Survey 3: Later Generations
Agenda
Chapter 27: Latin American Liberation Theology
Introduction: Character, Origins, and Influences
Survey
Two Liberation Theologians
Debate
Achievement and Agenda: The Future of Liberation Theology
Notes
Chapter 28: African Theology
Introduction
Africa, African Theology, and Black Theology
The Agenda and Tasks of African Theology
The Place of African Religion in African Theological Debate
Beyond Christian Theology
The Bible
The Present and the Future: Rethinking Distinctions within African Theologies
Theologies of the African Independent Churches (AICs)
African Charismatic/Evangelical Theology
Translation Theologies
African Feminist/Womanist Theologies
Theologies of Reconstruction
Conclusion: Dynamism and Innovation
Notes
Chapter 29: Theologies of South Asia
Theology and South Asian Religious Traditions
Theology of Religions
Theology of Mission
South Asian Liberation Theology
Some South Asian Theologians
Issues for Debate and Discussion
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 30: Contextual Theology in East Asia
East Asian Theology: An Overview
Choan-Seng Song (1929–) and Kosuke Koyama (1929–)
Japanese Theology
Korean Minjung Theology
Chinese Theology
Taiwanese Theology
Feminist Theology in East Asia
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 31: Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation
Introduction: Background, Influences
Survey
Key Figures
Debate
Achievement and Future Agenda
Notes
Part 6: Global Engagements
Chapter 32: Ecumenical Theology
Introduction
Ecumenical Theology within the International Community of the World Council of Churches
Ecumenical Theological Conversations
Reception
Future Agenda
Notes
Chapter 33: Eastern Orthodox Theology
Introduction: Background
Three Orthodox Theologians
Survey and Assessment of Current Orthodox Theology
Acknowledgment
Chapter 34: Pentecostal and Charismatic Theology
Introduction
The Experience of the Spirit
Pentecostals and the Bible
Premillennial and “Realized” Eschatology
Healing and Exorcism
Pentecostal Women
Achievement and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 35: Evangelical Theology
Sola Scriptura
Solus Christus
Global Connections
Notes
Part 7: Theology Between Faiths
Chapter 36: Theology of Religions
Introduction
Survey
Debate
Achievement and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 37: Judaism and Christian Theology
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Acknowledgments
Notes
Chapter 38: Islam and Christian Theology
Survey
More Detailed Study
Nostra Aetate, Lumen Gentium, and Islam
Assessment
Achievement and Agenda
Notes
Chapter 39: Buddhism and Christian Theology
Introduction
Survey
Socially Engaged Dialogue
Interior Dialogue
Assessment
Notes
Part 8: Theology in Many Media
Chapter 40: Theology and the Visual Arts
Introduction
Historical Survey
Contemporary Theology and the Visual Arts
Issues and an Agenda
Notes
Chapter 41: Theology and Music
Introduction: A Notable Silence
Two Recent Contributions
Two Musical Theologians
Musical Theology
Coda
Notes
Chapter 42: Theology and Film
Introduction
Survey: Theological Criticism of Film
Cinematic Figures: Directorial Theology
Influence, Debate, and Agenda
Notes
Epilogue: Twelve Theses for Christian Theology in the Twenty-first Century
Glossary
Index
The Great Theologians
A comprehensive series devoted to highlighting the major theologians of different periods. Each theologian is presented by a world-renowned scholar.
Published
The Modern Theologians, Third Edition
An Introduction to Christian Theology since 1918
David F. Ford with Rachel Muers
The Medieval Theologians
An Introduction to Theology in the Medieval Period
G. R. Evans
The Reformation Theologians
An Introduction to Theology in the Early Modern Period
Carter Lindberg
The First Christian Theologians
An Introduction to Theology in the Early Church
G. R. Evans
The Pietist Theologians
An Introduction to Theology in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Carter Lindberg
© 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
except for editorial material and organization © 2005 by David F. Ford
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
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First published 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
1 2005
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The modern theologians : an introduction to Christian theology since 1918.— 3rd ed. / edited by David F. Ford with Rachel Muers.
p. cm—(The great theologians)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0276-6 (hard cover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4051-0276-4 (hard cover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0277-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4051-0277-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Theology, Doctrinal—History—20th century. 2. Theology, Doctrinal—History—21st century. I. Ford, David, 1948– II. Muers, Rachel. III. Series.
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The main aim of this volume is to introduce the thought of most leading Christian theologians and movements in theology since the end of World War I (1914–18). Two criteria of selection were that the theologians should have written constructively on a broad range of theological issues, and that they should be widely studied at present, especially in universities, seminaries, and by others at the third level. There were also the more controversial criteria of quality and significance, and in some cases these have been decisive for inclusion.
The contributors are mostly based in Europe or North America and come from a wide range of institutions, denominational backgrounds, and countries. Most are themselves constructively engaged in modern theology, and their purpose has been both to produce a scholarly account of their subject and also to carry further the theological dialogue in each case. So the aim has been partly “historical theology” but also the sort of engaged discussion that comes from those who are practitioners in the field. We have been acutely aware of the impossibility of trying to look at this vast field from every angle and of the limitations in our chosen way of trying to do some justice to it.
The chapters try to help readers to think in a way appropriate to a theologian or movement while also encouraging dialogue and argument. The only way this can happen adequately is by close study of a theologian’s writings, and it is to these above all that we aim to introduce readers. The main intended use of this volume is therefore to prepare for, accompany, and aid reflection on the study of texts. Yet few will be able to read all these theologies, so the complementary intention is to give some grasp of the rest of the field, beyond what any particular person has read.
There is a common pattern followed by most of the contributors: introduction, survey, content (concentrating on the main issues of a theology, or on particular members of movements), the debate about the content, an assessment of the theology’s influence, achievement, and agenda for the future, and a short bibliography. Yet contributors have been allowed considerable freedom to adapt this pattern to their topic. In addition, each part of the book has a brief introduction. At the end of the volume there is a glossary of key words and phrases which a student entering the field might not have met already.
The grouping of theologians and movements into parts and sections should not have too much read into it. The arrangement has not been arrived at easily, because other schemes had almost equal advantages, and students of the two previous editions will notice the changes. Our brief introductions try to explain the selections, but the overriding concern has been for the particularity of each theology as understood by another theologian.
Part I concentrates on six theologians who are considered as classics of the twentieth century: Barth, Bonhoeffer, Tillich, de Lubac, Rahner, and Balthasar. (Bultmann probably deserves a place here too, but he is discussed under the heading of biblical interpretation in chapter 17.) None of those chosen is now living, three are Protestant, three Roman Catholic, and all except de Lubac are from Germanspeaking Europe (three Germans, two Swiss). That German-language tradition of academic theology perhaps deserves its prominence in this volume because, for all its problems and peculiarities, it is, as the Introduction explains, the most sustained and intensive example of engagement in the enterprise of modern theology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. To know that tradition is to be acquainted with a range of paradigmatic attempts to tackle key issues of modernity and religion in theology. It is not by any means all-inclusive, but it has the diversity, the coherence, and the thinkers of genius that make it educationally the best single tradition through which to be introduced to what it means to do Christian theology in intelligent engagement with modern disciplines, societies, churches, and traumatic events.
Part II on Theological Responses to Modernity in Europe and the USA shows how theology in those regions continues to be deeply indebted to the modern German-language tradition. In addition, it includes not only very different traditions rooted in Britain and the US (and there are others too, such as the Dutch and Scandinavian, not covered here) but also a range of new theological initiatives around which a good deal of early twenty-first century discussion revolves. Two innovations in this edition are the magisterial accounts of philosophical theology and of Roman Catholic theology after Vatican II.
Part III expands the treatment of theology’s engagement with the natural sciences, in light of the enormous impact of recent developments, particularly in the biological sciences. Part IV on Theology, Prayer, and Practice is entirely new, reflecting both the huge interest in spirituality and pastoral practice and also the maturing of theological engagement with them in academic settings.
Part V on Particularizing Theology engages more extensively than the second edition with some of the deepest and most controversial issues of our times – race, gender, colonialism, liberation – and also with the continents of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Distinctive theologies have been developing there that are closely involved with a huge variety of peoples, cultures, and religions but are often underrepresented in academic discussion outside their local contexts.
Part VI on Global Engagements looks at the theology of the ecumenical movement that so transformed twentieth-century relations between many churches, and also at the thinking going on within three of the most numerous strands of Christianity: Eastern Orthodoxy, Pentecostalism, and Evangelicalism. Pentecostalism, which has perhaps become the largest religious movement in history, is new to this edition.
Part VII on Theology Between Faiths has also moved beyond the second edition to include Islam and Buddhism as well as Judaism. It may well be that the peace of the twenty-first century depends more on relations between religions (and, inseparably, between religions and secular forces) than anything else, yet there is a sense of it being still “early days” in theological engagement with this sphere.
Finally, Part VIII on Theology in Many Media has added film to the visual arts and music, including a globally controversial film about the passion of Christ as a symbol both of the broad significance of this medium at present and also of its capacity to provoke intensive theological discussion.
In studying these 42 chapters one can glimpse the global scope of Christian theology, its diversity amounting often to fragmentation, and the immense intellectual energy with which it has accompanied or challenged or been knitted into major Christian, interreligious, and secular movements. At every point we have been painfully aware of having to omit theologies which would, given more space, have merited inclusion. Whole regions with rich theological traditions have been passed over. The scope for further “Theology and…” studies is limitless – we have added biological sciences, spirituality, Islam, Buddhism, and film, but the list of desirable candidates is far longer, including psychology, information technology, economics, management, social anthropology, medicine, education, criminology, and architecture.
Nevertheless, we hope that the changes in this volume are an improvement on the first two editions. They are in large part a response to many comments from readers and from fellow academics whose courses require an expanded coverage, and we are grateful to the respondents to a survey conducted by Blackwell among those using the second edition. For those accustomed to the second edition, the main differences (including those mentioned above) are: new chapters (some on topics treated in other ways in previous editions) on de Lubac, T. F. Torrance, Anglican Theology, H. Richard Niebuhr, Reinhold Niebuhr, Systematic Theology after Barth, Roman Catholic Theology after Vatican II, Philosophical Theology, Theology and the Biological Sciences, Theology and Spirituality, Pastoral Theology, Feminism, Gender and Theology, Theologies of South and of East Asia, Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation, Pentecostal Theology, Islam and Christian Theology, Buddhism and Christian Theology, and Theology and Film; new authors of previous chapters on Barth, Bonhoeffer, Rahner, Postliberal Theology, Theology and the Physical Sciences, Black Theology, African Theology, Ecumenical Theology, and Theology and the Visual Arts; no separate chapters on Bultmann (see chapter 17), Jüngel (see chapter 15), French Theology (see chapter 4), Schillebeeckx (see chapter 16), Küng (see chapter 16), British theologies (see chapters 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, and Parts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), Theological Ethics in the USA (see chapters 11, 12, 14), Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American Theologies in the USA (see chapters 25, 26), Feminist and Womanist Theologies in the USA (see chapter 25), Asian Theology (see chapters 29, 30), Theology of Mission (see chapters 34, 35), and transregional feminist theology (see chapter 25). Many chapters whose titles and authors remain the same or similar have undergone substantial revision since the second edition.
Finally, the Epilogue risks offering some theses that add up to a manifesto for Christian theology in the twenty-first century.
David F. Ford
Cambridge
Rachel Muers
Exeter
September 2004
Editing this volume for the third time has been immeasurably more enjoyable and less work because the labor has been shared with a fellow editor, Rachel Muers. My gratitude to her is immense, not only for the many hours she has put in, but also for her tracking of the various aspects of a considerably larger edition, and above all for her wise advice and judgment. She has accompanied this edition from its inception, and it has been a continual stimulation to look at The Modern Theologians through her eyes, and to discuss each contribution, her own not least.
The other people who have helped with this edition are numerous. First, there is each contributor. It seems amazing to us that all 42 chapters were actually produced, and I know that for many it was a considerable extra demand in already busy lives. I am most grateful for the quality of what has been written and for the patience shown to the editors when they demanded sometimes extensive changes. Then there is Ben Fulford, who has done such a thorough job on revising and updating the glossary. A special word of thanks is due to those who collaborated with contributors to previous editions who could not revise their contributions themselves: Ethna Regan, A. M. Allchin, and Peter C. Bouteneff. Rebecca Harkin, Laura Barry, Sophie Gibson, and others at Blackwell have been continually helpful and responded promptly to inquiries. There have been valuable conversations with a large number of colleagues in this fascinating field. Doreen Kunze has been a source of unfailing and encouragingly cheerful assistance in the office of the Faculty of Divinity in Cambridge. And the debts of gratitude to my family and friends continue to mount: to my wife Deborah, my mother Phyllis Ford, Dan and Perrin Hardy, my brother Alan Ford, Ben Quash, and Micheal O’Siadhail.
The first edition was dedicated to the memory of Hans W. Frei, teacher and friend to me and many others. The second edition was dedicated to my friend, co-author, and colleague for many years, Frances Young, Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham. During the course of preparing this edition, Colin Gunton, who had agreed to contribute the chapter on T. F. Torrance, died suddenly. It is hard to do justice to what Colin meant to generations of theologians in Britain (and increasingly from abroad, too). John Webster was, at the time of Colin’s death, already writing chapter 15 of this edition, in which his work is discussed and his considerable achievement acknowledged. The chapter on Torrance was taken over by Dan Hardy, my friend, father-in-law, and collaborator in much writing and other activity. Dan was a friend of Colin over several decades, and has contributed pervasively to all three editions of The Modern Theologians – the first edition was inspired largely by the course on modern theological thought that Dan devised and later co-taught with me at the University of Birmingham. So it seems deeply appropriate to dedicate this edition jointly to both Colin Gunton and Dan Hardy.
David F. Ford
Allan Anderson is Reader in Pentecostal Studies in the Department of Theology at the University of Birmingham. He has a D.Th. from the University of South Africa, where he worked for 23 years as a Pentecostal/Charismatic minister and theological educator. He has written numerous articles and five books on African Pentecostalism and Independentism and has edited two books on global Pentecostalism. His latest books are African Reformation (2001) and An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2004).
Richard Bauckham is Professor of New Testament Studies and Bishop Wardlaw Professor at the University of St. Andrews. He was born and educated in England. His many publications include Moltmann: Messianic Theology in the Making (1987), The Bible in Politics: How to Read the Bible Politically (1990), The Theology of Jürgen Moltmann (1995), God and the Crisis of Freedom: Biblical and Contemporary Perspectives (2002), Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World (2003), and (with Trevor Hart) Hope against Hope: Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium (1999).
Jeremy S. Begbie is Associate Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Honorary Professor at the University of St. Andrews, and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He directs an international research project, “Theology Through the Arts,” and his publications include Music in God’s Purposes (1988), Voicing Creation’s Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts (1991), Theology, Music and Time (2000), and (ed.) Sounding the Depths: Theology Through the Arts (2002).
James J. Buckley is Professor of Theology and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola College, Baltimore. He was born and educated in the United States, with his doctorate in religious studies from Yale University. He has written Seeking the Humanity of God: Practices, Doctrines, and Catholic Theology (1992) as well as articles in contemporary theology. He is on the editorial boards of Modern Theology and Pro Ecclesia.
Rebecca S. Chopp is President of Colgate University, having previously served as Dean of Yale Divinity School and taught theology at Emory and Chicago. She is a past president of the American Academy of Religion. Her publications include Saving Work: Feminist Practices of Theological Education (1995), The Power to Speak: Feminism, Language, God (1989), and The Praxis of Suffering: An Interpretation of Liberation and Political Theologies (1986).
Philip Clayton is Professor of Theology at the Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the Claremont Graduate University. He holds a PhD in both Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University and has held Humboldt, Fulbright, and visiting professorships at the University of Munich and Harvard Divinity School. He is the author or editor of 12 books, including The Problem of God in Modern Thought (2000), God and Contemporary Science (1998), Evolution and Ethics (2004), In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being (2004), and Science and the Spiritual Quest (2002). His work on the theology of emergence, The Emergence of Spirit, was published in 2004.
Ingolf U. Dalferth is Director of the Institute for Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion in Zurich, where he lectures in systematic theology and the philosophy of religion. He was educated in Tübingen, Edinburgh, Vienna, and Cambridge. His publications include Der auferweckte Gekreuzigte. Zur Grammatik der Christologie (1994), Gedeutete Gegenwart. Zur Wahrnehmung Gottes in den Erfahrungen der Zeit (1997) , Theology and Philosophy (2002), and Die Wirklichkeit des Möglichen. Hermeneutische Religionsphilosophie (2003).
Gavin D’Costa is Reader and Head of Department in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol. He is an Indian Roman Catholic who was educated at the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge. His publications include Theology and Religious Pluralism (1986), The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity (2000), Sexing the Trinity (2000), and The Virtue of Theology in a Secular Society (2004). He is involved in interfaith dialogue and is an advisor to the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales and a consultant to the Pontifical Commission for Interreligious Dialogue.
Celia Deane-Drummond qualified originally as a plant scientist, and held several research and teaching posts in that field. She later studied theology at Manchester University, and is now Professor of Theology and the Biological Sciences at Chester College. Her publications include A Handbook in Theology and Ecology (1996), Theology and Biotechnology: Implications for a New Science (1997), Creation Through Wisdom: Theology and the New Biology (2000), Biology and Theology Today: Exploring the Boundaries (2001), and The Ethics of Nature (2003).
Wayne Whitson Floyd is the General Editor and Project Director of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English edition (DBWE). He is the former Canon Theologian of the Cathedral Church of St. Stephen in Harrisburg, PA, and later of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, where he also served as founder and director of the Anglican Center for Theology and Spirituality. Besides serving as editor for two DBWE volumes – Act and Being and Letters and Papers from Prison – he is the author of Theology and the Dialectics of Otherness: On Reading Bonhoeffer and Adorno (1988) and The Wisdom and Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2000), and the editor (with Charles Marsh) of Theology and the Practice of Responsibility: Essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1994).
James Fodor is Associate Professor of Theological Ethics/Moral Theology at St. Bonaventure University. He is the author of Christian Hermeneutics: Paul Ricoeur and the Refiguring of Theology (1995) and is co-editor of the journal Modern Theology.
David F. Ford is Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Theology: A Very Short Introduction (2000), Self and Salvation: Being Transformed (1999), The Shape of Living (1997), Meaning and Truth in 2 Corinthians (1988, with Frances M. Young), Jubilate: Theology in Praise (1984, with Daniel W. Hardy), and Barth and God’s Story: Biblical Narrative and the Theological Method of Karl Barth in the Church Dogmatics (1981). He also directs the Cambridge Interfaith Programme and is a member of the editorial board of a number of journals, including Modern Theology and Scottish Journal of Theology.
John W. de Gruchy, educated in South Africa and the USA, taught for thirty years at the University of Cape Town, where he was the first incumbent of the Robert Selby Taylor Chair of Christian Studies. He was the founder of the Journal of Theology for Southern Africa. His many books include Christianity, Art and Transformation: Theological Aesthetics in the Struggle for Justice (2001), Reconciliation: Restoring Justice (2003), Theology and Ministry in Context and Crisis: A South African Perspective (1987), and (edited with Ralf K. Wustenberg and Lyn Holness) Theology in Dialogue: The Impact of the Arts, Humanities and Science on Contemporary Religious Thought (2002).
Daniel W. Hardy is a senior member of the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, having previously been Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at Durham and the Director of the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton. His publications include God’s Ways With the World: Thinking and Practicing Christian Faith (1996), Finding the Church: The Dynamic Truth of Anglicanism (2001), and Jubilate: Theology as Praise (with David F. Ford, 1984).
Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University. Among his many publications are The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (2003), Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics (1994), and Sanctify Them in the Truth: Holiness Exemplified (1998). His 2000–1 Gifford lectures were published as With the Grain of the Universe (2001).
Dwight N. Hopkins, Professor of Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, received a PhD from Union Theological Seminary (New York) and a second PhD from the University of Cape Town. His works include Shoes That Fit Our Feet: Sources for a Constructive Black Theology (1994), Down, Up and Over: Slave Religion and Black Theology (2000), Introducing Black Theology of Liberation (1999), Heart and Head: Black Theology Past, Present and Future (2003), and On Being Human: Black Theology Looks at Culture, Self, and Race (2004).
Paul O. Ingram is Professor of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University. He has published widely in the field of history of religions, focusing on Japanese religious history, as well as Buddhist–Christian dialogue. His most recent books are The Modern Buddhist–Christian Dialogue (1988) and Wrestling With the Ox: A Theology of Religious Experience (1997). His current research interest and publications are in the area of interreligious dialogue with the natural sciences.
David H. Kelsey is Luther Weigle Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School. He studied philosophy and theology at Haverford and Yale. His many books include The Fabric of Paul Tillich’s Theology (1967), The Uses of Scripture in Recent Theology (1975), and Between Athens and Berlin: The Theological Education Debate (1993).
Karen Kilby is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of Nottingham, having studied theology at Yale and held posts at St. Andrews and Birmingham. She is the author of Karl Rahner: Theology and Philosophy (2004) and Karl Rahner (1987), as well as of numerous articles and reviews in systematic theology.
Archie Chi Chung Lee is Professor in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His main research interests are the Hebrew Bible and Christianity in Asia. He has published widely in these areas, as well as in cross-textual hermeneutics and Chinese classics. His publications include Discourse and Identity: A Study of the Hebrew Megilloth (in Chinese). He is one of the associate editors of the Global Bible Commentary.
Gordon Lynch is Lecturer in Practical Theology in the Department of Theology at the University of Birmingham. His recent publications include After Religion: “Generation X” and the Search for Meaning (2002) and Pastoral Care and Counselling (2002). He is currently working on practical theological engagements with popular culture.
Mark A. McIntosh, Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago, is an Episcopal priest, currently serving as Chaplain to the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church and Canon Theologian to the Presiding Bishop and Primate. He holds degrees in history and theology from Yale, Oxford, and the University of Chicago, and has published several works at the intersection of theology and spirituality, most recently Discerning Truth: The Spirituality and Theology of Knowledge (2004), and the Blackwell Guide to Christian Theology (2006).
Tinyiko Sam Maluleke holds the Chair of Black and African Theology in the departments of Missiology and Systematic Theology at the Pretoria-based University of South Africa. He is currently serving as Deputy Executive Dean (College of Human Sciences) at the same university. He has published more than sixty book chapters and scientific essays in the area of African studies, missiology, African theology, and Black theology. He is a frequent theological consultant and speaker at the All Africa Conference of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the South African Council of Churches, and is the current General Secretary of the Southern Africa Missiological Society.
John Milbank is Professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics at the University of Nottingham, having previously held posts at the Universities of Lancaster, Cambridge, and Virginia. He was educated at Oxford, Cambridge, and Birmingham. His books include Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (1990), The Word Made Strange (1997), Being Reconciled: Ontology and Pardon (2002), and (coedited with Graham Ward and Catherine Pickstock) Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology (1999).
Jolyon Mitchell is Senior Lecturer at New College, Edinburgh University, and also a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He was educated at Cambridge, Durham, and Edinburgh Universities. He is the author of Visually Speaking: Radio and the Renaissance of Preaching (1999) and co-editor of Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture (2003). He was formerly a producer and journalist with the BBC World Service, and is currently working on Media and Christian Ethics (forthcoming).
Rachel Muers is Lecturer in Theology at the University of Exeter. She was educated at Cambridge and held a research fellowship at Girton College. She is the author of Keeping God’s Silence: Towards a Theological Ethics of Communication (2004), and of several articles and reviews in feminist theology and theological ethics.
Paul D. Murray is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of Durham. He has previously held lecturing posts at St. Cuthbert’s Seminary, Ushaw College, Durham, and Newman College of Higher Education, Birmingham and has worked as an Adult Christian Educator within the Department of Pastoral Formation of the Archdiocese of Liverpool. He is the author of Reason, Truth and Theology in Pragmatist Perspective (2004) and of several articles and essays in the areas of science and theology and philosophical theology.
Peter Ochs is the Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia and co-founder of the Society for Textual Reasoning, the Society for Scriptural Reasoning, and the Children of Abraham Institute. He was co-author/editor of “Dabru Emet (A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity)” and the accompanying book Christianity in Jewish Terms (2002). Among his books are Peirce, Pragmatism and the Logic of Scripture (1998), Reasoning after Revelation: Dialogues in Postmodern Jewish Philosophy (with Robert Gibbs and Steven Kepnes, 1998), and Textual Reasonings (edited with Nancy Levene, 2002).
Stephen Pattison is head of the School of Religious and Theological Studies at Cardiff University and was formerly a senior lecturer in the School of Health and Social Welfare at the Open University. Educated at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Open Universities, he is the author of Pastoral Care and Liberation Theology (1997), The Faith of the Managers (1997), A Critique of Pastoral Care (2000), and Shame: Theory, Therapy, Theology (2000) and editor, with others, of The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology (2000) and Values in Professional Practice (2004).
Ben Quash is Dean and Fellow of Peterhouse and teaches Christian theology in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Tübingen. He is co-author (with Lucy Gardner, David Moss, and Graham Ward) of Balthasar at the End of Modernity (1999), and his publications include contributions to Conversing With Barth (2004, ed. John C. McDowell and Mike Higton), The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar (2004, ed. David Moss and Edward T. Oakes), and Sounding the Depths: Theology Through the Arts (2002, ed. Jeremy Begbie).
Ethna Regan is Lecturer in Theology at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad, and Chair of the Credo Foundation for Justice in Port of Spain. She was born in Ireland and educated in Dublin, at Fordham University, and at the University of Cambridge. A Holy Faith Sister, she has worked in Samoa and the Caribbean.
Richard H. Roberts is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Lancaster University and Honorary Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Stirling. He studied at the universities of Lancaster, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Tübingen. He was Professor of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews and then held a Chair in Religious Studies at Lancaster University. He has written or edited books on Karl Barth, Ernst Bloch, rhetoric and interdisciplinarity, religion and the transformations of capitalism, time and value, contemporary “nature religion,” and space and time in the modern/postmodern matrix. His most recent book is Religion, Theology and the Human Sciences (2002).
Christoph Schwöbel is Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion, and Director of the Institute of Hermeneutics, at the University of Tübingen. He was born and educated in Germany, and has held posts at King’s College London, the University of Kiel, and the University of Heidelberg, where he was Director of the Ecumenical Institute. He is the author of Martin Rade (1980), God, Action, and Revelation (1992), Gott in Beziehung (2002), and Christlicher Glaube im Pluralismus (2003).
Peter Sedgwick is Principal of St. Michael’s College, Llandaff, Wales. Until 2004 he was Policy Officer on Criminal Justice for the Church of England Public Affairs Unit. He previously lectured in modern theology and Christian ethics at the Universities of Hull and Birmingham. He has degrees in theology and history from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate in Anglican historical theology from the University of Durham. He is the author of several works in social ethics, including Economic Theory and Christian Belief (with Andrew Britton, 2003), The Market Economy and Christian Ethics (1999), and The Enterprise Culture (1992), and has edited The Future of Criminal Justice (with C. Jones, 2002), God in the City (1996), and The Weight of Glory: The Future of Liberal Theology (with D. W. Hardy, 1992).
Ataullah Siddiqui is a Senior Research Fellow at the Islamic Foundation, Leicester and Assistant Director of the Markfield Institute of Higher Education. He is also Visiting Fellow in the Centre for the History of Religious and Political Pluralism, University of Leicester, and co-editor of Encounters: Journal of Inter-Cultural Perspectives. His publications include Christian–Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth Century (1997), Islam and Other Faiths, a collection of Ismail Raji Al Faruqi’s articles (1998), and Christians and Muslims in the Commonwealth: A Dynamic Role in the Future (co-edited, 2001).
R. S. Sugirtharajah is Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics, University of Birmingham. He was born in Sri Lanka and was educated in Bangalore and Birmingham. His publications include Postcolonial Reconfigurations: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology (2003), Postcolonial Criticism and Biblical Interpretation (2002), and The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters (2001).
Mary Tanner taught Hebrew and Old Testament for twenty years in the Universities of Hull and Bristol and at Westcott House, Cambridge. In 1982 she joined the staff of the Board for Mission and Unity of the General Synod of the Church of England and when the Board divided became the first General Secretary of the Council for Christian Unity. She served on the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and was its Moderator from 1991 to 1998. She served on the International Anglican–Roman Catholic Commission and is currently a member of the Special Commission on Orthodox Relations set up by the World Council of Churches.
Anthony C. Thiselton is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology at the University of Nottingham, Research Professor at University College Chester, and Canon Theologian of Leicester Cathedral and of Southwell Minster. He has a PhD from the University of Sheffield and honorary doctorates from Durham and from the Archbishop of Canterbury. He has published over seventy articles and books, including The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (2000), Interpreting God and the Postmodern Self (1995), New Horizons in Hermeneutics (1992), and The Two Horizons (1980).
Graham Ward is Professor of Contextual Theology at the University of Manchester, and was previously Dean of Peterhouse, Cambridge. His books include Theology and Contemporary Critical Theory (1996), Cities of God (2000), and True Religion (2002), and he edited the Blackwell Companion to Postmodern Theology (2001). He is editor of the journal Literature and Theology.
John Webster is Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Aberdeen. He is the author of Barth’s Ethics of Reconciliation (1995), Barth’s Moral Theology (1998), and Barth (2000), and he edited The Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth (2000). More recently he has written Word and Church (2001), Holiness (2002), and Holy Scripture (2003).
David F. Wells is the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. He was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and was educated at the Universities of Cape Town, London, and Manchester and was a post-doctoral fellow at Yale. His publications include The Person of Christ: A Biblical and Historical Analysis of the Incarnation (1984), No Place for Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (1993), God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (1994), and Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (2004).
William Werpehowski is Professor of Christian Ethics at Villanova University, and also Director of Villanova’s Center for Peace and Justice Education. He studied theology and religious ethics at Princeton and Yale. He has published American Protestant Ethics and the Legacy of H. Richard Niebuhr (2003).
Felix Wilfred is Professor and Head of the Department of Christian Studies at the University of Madras, Chennai. He has been President of the Indian Theological Association and a member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, and is a member of the board of directors of Concilium. His publications include Leave the Temple: Indian Paths to Human Liberation (1992), On the Banks of Ganges: Doing Contextual Theology (2002), and Beyond Settled Foundations: The Journey of Indian Theology (1993).
Rowan Williams is Archbishop of Canterbury. Born in Wales, he studied theology at Cambridge and Oxford. His previous positions include Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford and Dean of Clare College, Cambridge. He became Archbishop of Wales in 2000 and Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002. A Fellow of the British Academy, he has published widely; his books include Arius: Heresy and Tradition (second edition 2001), Sergei Bulgakov (1999), and On Christian Theology (2000).
Christian theology since 1918 has been immensely varied. This has not just been a matter of diverse approaches and conclusions, but also of fundamental differences about what theology is, what modernity is, and what Christianity is, and which questions within these areas are to be given priority. This makes an overview difficult, all the more so because many of the theologians are still alive and producing new works, and some of the movements are still young. This introduction attempts to give, not an integrating picture, but sufficient background and general understanding of the field to help readers approaching it for the first time to find their bearings, and to assist more experienced readers to explore it further. The Epilogue gives a more forward-looking set of theses for the start of the twenty-first century.
Between the European Middle Ages and the end of the nineteenth century there were many major events and transformations of life and thought, often originating in Europe but with global consequences. Chief among these have been the Renaissance and Reformation, the colonization of the Americas, the Enlightenment, the American and French Revolutions, the rise of nationalism, the Industrial Revolution, and the development of the natural sciences, technologies, medical science, and the human sciences. There has also been the combined impact of bureaucracies, constitutional democracy, new means of warfare and of communication, mass education and public health programs, and new movements in the arts and in philosophy and religion. Theologians have been members of societies, churches, and academic institutions through this innovative, traumatic period, and their theology has inevitably been influenced by it. That is how, in a minimal sense, their theology is modern: by taking account of such developments, even if sometimes in order to dismiss, criticize, resist, or try to reverse them.
Some may wish to repeat a past theology, but this is not possible. The context has changed, and what is actually communicated and understood today can be very far from the original meaning. Yet Christian theology always requires some continuity with the past, so the question is how there can be appropriate continuity without simple repetition.
What is the significance of modernity for the content and method of theology? What is the importance of Christianity for a proper appreciation and response to modernity? And might it be that a religion with the discontinuity of the crucifixion at its heart enables a creative way of coping with the novelty and disruption of modernity? Such questions, which are broadly in the area of interpretation or hermeneutics, are inextricable from others about the nature of Christianity and of theology. All the theologians treated in this volume have to handle them, and it might be helpful to note some of the main strategies they use.
Imagine a line punctuated by five types of theology. 1