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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Serie: The Great Theologians
- Sprache: Englisch
Captures the multiple voices of Christian theology in a diverse and interconnected world through in-depth studies of representative figures and overviews of key movements Providing an unparalleled overview of the subject, The Modern Theologians provides an indispensable guide to the diverse approaches and perspectives within Christian theology from the early twentieth century to the present. Each chapter is written by a leading scholar and explores the development and trajectory of modern theology while presenting critical accounts of a broad range of relevant topics and representative thinkers. The fourth edition of The Modern Theologians is fully updated to provide readers with a clear picture of the broad spectrum and core concerns of modern Christian theology worldwide. It offers new perspectives on key twentieth-century figures and movements from different geographical and ecclesial contexts. There are expanded sections on theological dialogue with non-Christian traditions, and on Christian theology's engagement with the arts and sciences. A new section explores theological responses to urgent global challenges - such as nationalism, racism, and the environmental crisis. Providing the next generation of theologians with the tools needed to take theological conversations forward, The Modern Theologians: * Explores Christian theology's engagement with multiple ways of knowing across diverse approaches and traditions * Combines introductions to key modern theologians and coverage of the major movements within contemporary theology * Identifies common dynamics found across theologies to enable cross-contextual comparisons * Positions individual theologians in geographical regions, trans-local movements, and ecclesial contexts * Features new and revised chapters written by experts in particular movements, topics, and individuals Providing in-depth critical evaluation and extensive references to further readings and research, Ford's The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology since 1918, Fourth Edition, remains an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in Theology and Religious Studies, such as Introduction to Christian Theology, Systematic Theology, Modern Theology, and Modern Theologians. It is also an invaluable resource for researchers, those involved in various forms of Christian ministry, teachers of religious studies, and general readers engaged in independent study.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
List of Modern Theologians
Introduction
Why “Modern” Theologians?
Engaging Modernity Theologically
A Proposal for Reading Contemporary Theology: Five Dynamics
Putting “The Modern Theologians” Together
Notes
section A: The Modern Theologians in Their Contexts
part I: Geographical Contexts
chapter 1: African Theology
Introduction
Survey
New Theoretical Debates on Interdisciplinary Sources
Conclusion
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 2: African Women’s Theology
Introduction
Survey
Content
Achievement and Agenda: Teaching Circle Theology
Conclusion
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 3: Latin American Liberation Theology
Introduction: Character, Origins, and Influences
Survey
Three Liberation Theologians
Debate
Achievement and Agenda: The Future of Liberation Theology
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 4: Gustavo Gutiérrez
Introduction
Survey
Content
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 5: Twentieth‐Century Theology in North America
Introduction
Survey and Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 6: James H. Cone
Introduction
Survey and Major Themes
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Conclusion: Cone’s Achievement
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 7: Rosemary Radford Ruether
Introduction
Survey
Content
Debate/Critique
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 8: Paul Tillich
Introduction
Survey
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 9: The Niebuhrs
Introduction
Survey: Reinhold Niebuhr
Survey: H. Richard Niebuhr
Radical Monotheism and Responsibility
Influence and Achievement: The Niebuhrian Legacy
Debate: Common Causes, Differences, and Reception of the Niebuhrs
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 10: Western Europe
Introduction
Survey and Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 11: Karl Barth
Introduction
Survey
Content
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 12: Karl Rahner
Introduction: Life
Survey
Content
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 13: Hans Urs von Balthasar
Introduction
Survey of Approach, Works, and Themes
Content
The Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 14: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Introduction
Survey
Debate
Influence and Achievement
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 15: South Asia
Introduction
Survey of Theology and South Asian Religious Traditions
Theology of Religions
Understanding the Church – Casting the Net Wider
Reconceptualization of Mission
South Asian Liberation Theology
Some South Asian Theologians
Debates, Influence, Achievements, and Agenda
Conclusion
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 16: Korea
Introduction
Survey
Key Figures
Debate, Achievement, and Agendas
Conclusion
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 17: China
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
part II: Ecclesial Contexts
chapter 18: Catholic Theology after Vatican II
Introduction
The Stories of Modern Catholicism
Survey (I) – Changes in the Institutional Contexts of Catholic Theology
Survey (II) – Changes in Understanding of the Task, Scope, Methods, and Sources of Catholic Theology
Survey (III) – Changes in Substantive Theological Understanding
Assessment: A Still Unfolding Story
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 19: Pentecostal Theology
Introduction
Survey and Debate: Origins and Theological Development
Named Theologians: Veli‐Matti Kärkkäinen, Amos Yong, Wolfgang Vondey, Frank D. Macchia
Debates
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 20: Ecumenical Theology
Introduction
Survey
Agenda: The Challenge of World Christianity and Moral Issues
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 21: Evangelical Theology
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate
Conclusion: Achievement and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 22: Anglican Theology
Introduction
Survey and Debate: Anglicanism, a Global Movement
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Named Theologians
Conclusion
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 23: Orthodox Theology
Introduction: Orthodoxy’s Search for an Alternate Modernity
Survey
Named Theologians
Achievement and Agenda: Orthodox Theology in the Twenty‐First Century
Recommended Reading
Notes
part III: Theological Movements
chapter 24: Feminist Theology
Introduction
Survey of the Movement
Named Theologians
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 25: Postcolonial Theologies
Introduction: Postcolonial Theology of the Ampersand
Survey
Achievement and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 26: Queer Theology
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 27: Postliberal Theology
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
part IV: Practices of Engagement
chapter 28: Practical and Pastoral Theology
Introduction
History
Survey: What Is Practical and Pastoral Theology?
Named Theologians: The Creative Challenges of Heather Walton and Courtney Goto
Practical and Pastoral Theology: The Debates
Achievement and Agenda: The Future of Practical and Pastoral Theology
Conclusion
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 29: Philosophy and Theology
Introduction
Survey
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 30: Biblical Interpretation
Introduction
Survey
Debate: A Case Study of Christian Relations with Jews
Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 31: Spirituality and Theology
Introduction: Rethinking the Standard Story
Survey: Diverse Senses of “Spirituality”
Named Theologian: Howard Thurman
Debate: Questions of Gender
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda: Seeking the Living God
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 32: Liturgical Theology
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate
Recommended Reading
Notes
section B: Contemporary Theology and Its Challenges
part V: Theology, Arts, and Sciences
chapter 33: Theology and Music
Introduction
Survey and Representative Figures
Debate and Agenda
Fresh Voices
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 34: Theology and Literature
Introduction
Survey
Named Thinkers
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 35: Theology and Popular Culture
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Conclusion: A Systematic Theology of Popular Culture?
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 36: Theology and Film
Introduction
Survey: Theological Criticism of Film
“Named Theologians”: Directorial Theology
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 37: Theology and the Visual Arts
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
The Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 38: Theology and the Physical Sciences
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 39: Theology and the Biological Sciences
Introduction
Named Theologians
The Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 40: Theology and the Social Sciences
Introduction: What Is Social Science?
Overview: Overlapping Stories
Main Approaches and Key Figures
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
part VI: Theology Between Faiths
chapter 41: Judaism
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Ongoing Debates
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 42: Islam
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 43: Buddhism
Introduction
The Dialogue: Theology and Theologians
Shifts of Perception – Learning from Dialogue
Conceptual Dialogue: Silence and the Language of “Ultimates”
Interior Dialogue and the Spiritual Imagination
Engaged Dialogue: Fidelity and Responsibility
Achievement and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 44: Hinduism
Introduction
Survey
Key Approaches and Key Figures
Debate, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 45: Theology and Religious Plurality
Introduction
Survey: Four Moments for Theology and Religious Diversity Since 1918
Named Theologians
Debate
Influence, Achievement, and Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
part VII: Theology Facing Contemporary Challenges
chapter 46: Theology and Capitalism
Introduction
Survey
Named Theologians
Debate
Agenda
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 47: Theology and Race
Introduction
Survey
African American Responses: Howard Thurman, James Cone, Kelly Brown Douglas, Shawn Copeland
Agenda: Decolonial Approaches in a Globalized World
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 48: Theology and (Neo)Nationalism
Introduction
Survey
Debate
Agenda
Conclusion
Recommended Reading
Notes
chapter 49: Theology and Ecological Destruction
Introduction
Overview
Debate: Achievements and Contestations within Ecotheology
Achievements and Agenda: Current Paths and Emerging Horizons in Ecotheology
Recommended Reading
Notes
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 36
Figure 36.1 Front cover of
The Devil’s Camera: Menace of a Film‐ridden World
...
Figure 36.2 Advertisement promoting
The Gospel According to St Matthew
(Dir....
Figure 36.3
The Seventh Seal
(Dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957), Svensk Filmindustr...
Chapter 37
Figure 37.1 Jesus and the cloud of butterflies.
Figure 37.2 Figures hunched in darkness.
Figure 37.3 Figures looking toward Jesus. Thomas Denny, details from a tripl...
Figure 37.4 Woman giving bread to a man.
Figure 37.5 Men helping people into a boat with a lantern. Thomas Denny, det...
Guide
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
List of Modern Theologians
Begin Reading
Index
WILEY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
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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
Ford's The Modern Theologians, Fourth EditionAn Introduction to Christian Theology since 1918Rachel Muers and Ashley Cocksworth
The Modern Theologians, Third EditionAn Introduction to Christian Theology since 1918David F. Ford with Rachel Muers
The Medieval TheologiansAn Introduction to Theology in the Medieval PeriodG. R. Evans
The Reformation TheologiansAn Introduction to Theology in the Early Modern PeriodCarter Lindberg
The First Christian TheologiansAn Introduction to Theology in the Early ChurchG. R. Evans
The Pietist TheologiansAn Introduction to Theology in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth CenturiesCarter Lindberg
Ford's The Modern Theologians
An Introduction to Christian Theology since 1918
Fourth Edition
Edited by
Rachel Muers and Ashley Cocksworth
This edition first published 2024© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Edition History[Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 1e, 1989], [Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2e, 1997], [Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 3e, 2005]
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Muers, Rachel, editor. | Cocksworth, Ashley, editor. | John Wiley & Sons, publisher.Title: Ford’s The modern theologians : an introduction to christian theology since 1918 / edited by Rachel Muers, Ashley Cocksworth.Other titles: Great theologians.Description: Fourth edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2024. | Series: The great theologians | Includes index.Identifiers: LCCN 2023050166 (print) | LCCN 2023050167 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119746744 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119746768 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119746782 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Theology, Doctrinal–History–20th century. | Theology, Doctrinal–History–21st century. | Theologians–History–20th century.Classification: LCC BT28 .F665 2024 (print) | LCC BT28 (ebook) | DDC 230.09/04–dc23/eng/20231206 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023050166LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023050167
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Notes on Contributors
Susan Abraham is Professor of Theology and Postcolonial Cultures, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA
Nicholas Adams is Professor of Philosophical Theology, University of Birmingham, UK
Sammy Alfaro is Professor of Theology, Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, AZ
Rachel Sophia Baard is Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA
Brian Bantum is Neil F. and Ila A. Fisher Professor of Theology, Garrett‐Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL
Lilian Calles Barger is an independent historian based in New Mexico
Michael Barnes is Emeritus Professor of Interreligious Relations, University of Roehampton, and Research Associate, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK
Jeremy S. Begbie is Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC
Elias Kifon Bongmba is Harry and Hazel Chavanne Chair in Christian Theology, Rice University, Houston, TX
Luke Bretherton is Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC
Stephen Burns is Professor of Liturgical and Practical Theology at Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity, Melbourne
Patrick S. Cheng is Visiting Professor of Anglican Studies, Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY
Alexander Chow is Senior Lecturer in Theology and World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, UK
Sung Wook Chung is Professor of Christian Theology, Denver Seminary, Littleton, CO
Ashley Cocksworth is Reader in Theology and Practice, University of Roehampton, UK
Ernst M. Conradie is Senior Professor, Department of Religion and Theology, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Katie Cross is Christ’s College Lecturer in Practical Theology, University of Aberdeen, UK
Jenny Daggers is Honorary Fellow in the Department of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Celia Deane‐Drummond is Director of the Laudato Si’ Research Institute and Senior Research Fellow in Theology at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, UK, and Visiting Professor in Theology, Durham University, UK
David F. Ford is Emeritus Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge, UK
Ben Fulford is Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology, University of Chester, UK
Joseph D. Galgalo is Assistant Bishop of All Saints Cathedral Diocese, Nairobi and the Provincial Secretary of the Anglican Church of Kenya and former Vice‐Chancellor of St Paul’s University, Limuru
Brandon Gallaher is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Exeter, UK
K. Healan Gaston is Lecturer in American Religious History and Ethics, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA
Kevin Hart is Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Karen Kilby is Bede Professor of Catholic Theology, Durham University, UK
Paul Ladouceur is Adjunct Professor at the Orthodox School of Theology at Trinity College, University of Toronto, and Professeur associé, Faculté de théologie et de sciences religieuses, Université Laval, Canada
Jenny Leith is Lecturer in Christian Ethics, Westcott House, Cambridge, UK
Julius Lipner is Emeritus Professor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion, University of Cambridge, UK
Clive Marsh is Principal of the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham, UK
Joshua Mauldin is Associate Director of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, NJ
Mark McInroy is Founding Co‐Director of the Claritas Initiative on Beauty, Goodness, and Truth and Associate Professor of Theology at the University of St Thomas, St Paul, MN
Eleanor McLaughlin is Lecturer in Theology, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK
Jolyon Mitchell is Principal of St John’s College and Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, UK
Esther Mombo is Lecturer in the Faculty of Theology, St Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya
Rachel Muers is Professor of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, UK
Paul D. Murray is Professor of Systematic Theology in the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, UK
Karen O’Donnell is Academic Dean and Lecturer in Worship and Community, Westcott House, Cambridge, UK
Odair Pedroso Mateus was until 2022 the Director of the Commission on Faith and Order, World Council of Churches
Andrew Prevot is the Joseph and Winifred Amaturo Chair in Catholic Studies and Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Joshua Ralston is Reader in Christian‐Muslim Relations, University of Edinburgh, UK
Randi Rashkover is Nathan and Sofia Gumenick Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Chloë Reddaway is McDonald Agape Research Fellow in Theology and the Visual Arts and Deputy Director, Centre for Arts and the Sacred, King’s College London, UK
Anthony G. Reddie is Professor of Black Theology at the University of Oxford, UK. He is also Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, and an Extraordinary Professor of Theological Ethics, University of South Africa
Hanna Reichel is Associate Professor of Reformed Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ
Ulrich Schmiedel is Senior Lecturer in Theology, Politics and Ethics, University of Edinburgh, UK
Devin Singh is Associate Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Susannah Ticciati is Professor of Christian Doctrine, King’s College London, UK
David Tombs is Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago
O. Ernesto Valiente is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Brighton, MA
Felix Wilfred is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought, State University of Madras, India
David Wilkinson is Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, UK
Sung Bihn Yim is Professor of Christianity and Culture, Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary, Seoul
Philip G. Ziegler is Professor of Christian Dogmatics, University of Aberdeen, UK
Acknowledgments
With its fourth edition, The Modern Theologians – now Ford’s The Modern Theologians – has moved to a new stage with a new editorial team. David F. Ford, who shaped, developed, and carried through the groundbreaking and field‐shaping project that was The Modern Theologians in its first three editions (1989, 1997, 2005), has remained involved as a consulting editor. We are deeply grateful to David, not only for making The Modern Theologians a vital part of the theological landscape but also for his unfailing support and encouragement as the fourth edition took shape. It is a tribute to David’s vision, and its enduring significance, that succeeding academic generations have been able to take The Modern Theologians forward.
Much of the distinctive value of The Modern Theologians lies in the breadth and depth of scholarship that its authors bring. Every author in this volume contributes a unique and essential voice – and every author has also had to fit this work around a unique set of commitments and challenges. We thank all the authors for their time, dedication, and enthusiasm. With any project on this scale, and even without the challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic, there are bound to be unforeseen problems. We extend particular gratitude to those authors who joined the project at a late stage, or who took on additional and unexpected work to enable us to complete the volume.
Behind the editors named on the cover stand many others, without whose work the book would never have reached the press. We are grateful to Declan Kelly for his thorough, well‐informed, and highly professional work as our specialist editorial assistant. We thank the team at Wiley‐Blackwell for all their efforts and for their exemplary patience with the shifting timescales involved in a complex project. In particular, Juliet Booker was involved with the development of this fourth edition at the crucial early stages and we gratefully acknowledge her input. We thank the anonymous readers who offered us both challenge and encouragement during our planning process.
We are indebted to our wider communities of colleagues and friends for numerous forms of support throughout the project. We thank our families for living with The Modern Theologians as well as with their own modern theologians. Ash is especially grateful to Hannah, and to Lucy and Maisie who were both born during the production of this book. Rachel is especially grateful to Gavin – who probably thought that he would never have to hear about “TMT” again after the third edition – and to Matthew and Peter.
As we have worked on this volume, correspondents have frequently told us about their fond memories of The Modern Theologians and about its significance for their formation. We have seen how much The Modern Theologians matters to current and former students of theology, around the world, at many levels, and in many contexts. While this has made us all the more aware of the scale of the responsibility we have taken on, it has also reminded us of the strength and vitality of the intergenerational community of theologians. We hope that readers of this new edition will be inspired to join that community.
List of Modern Theologians
Chapter
Abhishiktananda
44
Marcella Althaus‐Reid
24, 26
Hans Urs von Balthasar
13, 34, 37
Karl Barth
11, 33, 37, 40
Gregory Baum
41
Robert Beckford
35
Teresa Berger
32
Ingmar Bergman
36
G. C. Berkouwer
21
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
14, 33, 40
José Míguez Bonino
3
David Brown
33
Sergius Bulgakov
23
Rudolf Bultmann
29
Heidi Campbell
35
Cláudio Carvalhaes
32
William Cavanaugh
46
T. C. Chao (Zhao Zichen)
17
Yonggi Cho
16
Francis X. Clooney
44
Kelton Cobb
35
James H. Cone
6, 40, 47
Shawn Copeland
47
Kenneth Cragg
42
Gavin D’Costa
45
Keri Day
46
Kelly Brown Douglas
24, 47
Ignacio Ellacuría
3
Heidi Epstein
33
Noel Leo Erskine
35
Georges Florovsky
23
Hans W. Frei
27
The “Fuller School”
35
Philip Goodchild
46
Courtney Goto
28
Gustavo Gutiérrez
4
Daniel W. Hardy
22
Stanley Hauerwas
27
Martin Heidegger
34
Carl Henry
21
Carter Heyward
26
John Hick
44, 45
Mary Hirschfeld
46
Gavin Hopps
33
Ada María Isasi‐Díaz
40
John Paul II
40
Mark D. Jordan
26
Veli‐Matti Kärkkäinen
19
George Khodr
42
Cheryl Kirk‐Duggan
35
Charlotte von Kirschbaum
29
Paul Knitter
45
Hendrik Kraemer
44
Hans Küng
44
George A. Lindbeck
27
Ann Loades
32
Vladimir Lossky
23
Gordon Lynch
35
Frank D. Macchia
19
Daniel Madigan
42
Jacques Maritain
37
Clive Marsh
35
Louis Massignon
42
Alister McGrath
21
Wang Mingdao
17
Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
26
Jürgen Moltmann
29
Youakim Moubarac
42
Ik‐hwan Mun
16
John Courtney Murray
5
H. Richard Niebuhr
5, 9
Reinhold Niebuhr
5, 9
Peter Ochs
41
Paul Oslington
46
Rene Padilla
21
Raimon Panikkar
15, 44
Wolfhart Pannenberg
38
Hyung‐Ryong Park
16
Soon‐Kyung Park
16
Arthur Peacocke
39
Aloysius Pieris
15
Anthony Pinn
35
John Polkinghorne
38
Kwok Pui‐lan
22, 24, 45
Karl Rahner
12, 29, 34
Pandita Ramabai
15
Gail Ramshaw
32
Walter Rauschenbusch
5
Rosemary Radford Ruether
7
Tong‐shik Ryu
16
Stanley Samartha
45
Alexander Schmemann
23
Perry Schmidt‐Leukel
44
Robert E. Shore‐Goss
26
Maria Skobtsova (St Maria of Paris)
23
Nicola Slee
24
Jon Sobrino
3
Klaus von Stosch
42
John Stott
21
Kathryn Tanner
46
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
39
William Temple
22
Helmut Thielicke
21
Madathilparampil Mammen Thomas
15
Howard Thurman
31, 47
Susannah Ticciati
41
Paul Tillich
5, 8, 37, 40
K. H. Ting (Ding Guangxun)
17
David Tracy
40
Jonathan Tran
46
P. S. Tseng (Zeng Baosun)
17
Brahmabandhab Upadhyay
44
Wolfgang Vondey
19
Heather Walton
28
Nimi Wariboko
46
Amos Yong
19
Paul Yu Pin (Yu Bin)
17
John Zizioulas
23, 39
Introduction
Rachel Muers and Ashley Cocksworth
In the epilogue to the second edition of The Modern Theologians, published in 1996, David Ford referred to the “global upsurge” of diverse theological voices in the twentieth century and proposed that this diversity should be read as “testimony to the polyphonic abundance of God.” Three decades later, this new edition captures some of the multiple voices of Christian theology, in a diverse and intensely interconnected world – and again invites readers to find a testimony to “polyphonic abundance” in this multiplicity. Our introduction seeks to draw out connections and resonances between the theologies presented here, and to point to the common enterprise in which they are engaged.
Why “Modern” Theologians?
In titling this book “The Modern Theologians,” we foreground modernity as the determining context for Christian theology since 1918 – and theology in this era has indeed been shaped by ongoing debates about the legacy of modernity. To quote the introduction to an earlier edition of this volume:
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.1
Modernity, of course, has its origins long before the period discussed in this book – perhaps with the Renaissance, with the Enlightenment, with industrialization, with the beginning of Western European colonial movements, with scientific and political revolutions, or with one of the many other large‐scale transformations of social conditions and contexts since the late 1400s.2 This list of possible points of origin already indicates that we should be cautious about taking “modernity” as the sole frame for theology since 1918. Modernity generally refers to social and intellectual developments originating from Europe, and its global impact and implications are bound up with European power and influence.
Thus, although all the theologians considered in this volume are affected by modernity, it is still the case that allowing a narrow concept of modernity to set the agenda for theology risks allowing that agenda to be dominated by European elite perspectives. We can say that all these theologians are engaging to differing extents with the challenges of modernity – but we should be careful about telling too simple a story of what those challenges are; we may need, in Christian theology as elsewhere, to think in terms of multiple modernities.3 More than this, recognizing modernity’s complexity also enables us to take a fresh look at the history of modern theology – rereading twentieth‐century classics (such as, in this volume, Karl Barth or the Niebuhrs) in relation to a new set of questions.
Engaging Modernity Theologically
What features of “modernity” remain significant for understanding Christian theology since 1918? Among the key intellectual moves characteristic of modernity that appear across this volume in many different ways are the turn to the subject, the turn to history, and the turn to suspicion.
First, modernity – from the Renaissance onwards – is often associated with a new focus on the human subject as knower and agent. Theologically, this modern turn is associated with questions about knowledge of God in relation to knowledge more generally, and about the practical and moral import of Christian faith in relation to morality more generally – and is represented, at least in theologies influenced by Western European modernity, by the long and ongoing history of theological responses to Kant. When we look at the broader picture of Christian theology since 1918, however, we also see an extended and many‐faceted theological interrogation of the very idea of the human subject. What does it mean to speak of, and as, humanity in relation to God when humanity is irreducibly plural? Who has been included in, and who excluded from, the normative vision of humanity, and how can Christian theology name and challenge the exclusions? How does the figure of Jesus Christ confront and transform the various understandings of humanity – implicit or explicit, theoretical or practical – that operate in modernity? Thus, for example, theologies of liberation (for example, the chapters on Gustavo Gutiérrez and on Latin America), theologies engaging directly with human embodiment (for example, the chapter on queer theology), and theologies considering humanity’s place among other creatures (for example, the chapter on the environmental crisis) all deepen and complexify the modern turn to the human subject.
Furthermore, the essays in this volume show Christian theology engaging with multiple ways of knowing. There are obvious reasons – going back much further than the modern era – to see Christian theology as having particularly close connections with philosophy (see Chapter 29). However, knowledge in modernity is most obviously dominated, not by philosophy but by the sciences – and theologians have responded critically and constructively both to scientific paradigms of knowledge and to the ever‐changing understandings of the world that emerge from scientific research (see Chapters 38 and 39). Meanwhile, theology’s inextricable links to the life and practice of Christian communities opens up engagement with ways of knowing that were sometimes neglected in the modern academy – for example, knowledge connected with spirituality, liturgy, and practice in general (Chapters 28, 31, and 32). Theological engagements with the arts and with culture, besides pointing to still more ways of knowing to which theology can attend, are of particular interest in modernity because they often raise questions about the boundary between the religious and the secular – as well as about what kinds of intellectual production can count as theology. As Chapters 33–37 demonstrate in different ways, the arts and culture often enable engagement with theological issues – with or without the explicit recognition of theological frameworks or concepts.
The very naming of “modernity” points to the emergence of historical consciousness and the foregrounding of questions of continuity, change, and the relationship to the past. Christian theology, by its nature, cannot escape questions of meaning in history – as Ford puts it, “Christianity … cannot do without the authority of the past in some form.”4 This also means that Christian theology is of necessity a hermeneutical enterprise. Since the emergence of modern biblical criticism, engagement with biblical scholarship has been one of the contexts in which Christian theology has wrestled with questions of meaning in history (see Chapter 30) – and, as with the other academic disciplines with which theology engages, it is important to recognize that biblical scholarship as a practice of engagement itself is self‐critical and ever changing.
To recognize theologies as shaped by distinctive contexts – as this volume does, by locating individual theologians in geographical regions, in translocal movements and in ecclesial contexts – is already to locate oneself in the modern turn to history. Beyond this, key strands of Christian theology since 1918 have been decisively shaped by new engagements with history and tradition, both methodologically and substantively. The Second Vatican Council (see Chapter 18), with its emphases on both aggiornamento (“bringing up to date”) and ressourcement (recovery of living tradition), represents a clear turning point in the middle of the period covered by this volume, opening up new approaches to history and historicity in Roman Catholic theology. Another crucial turning point for modern theologies of history – as well as modern theology more generally – occurred just before the period of this volume, at the origins of Pentecostalism. The Pentecostal emphasis on the present activity of the Holy Spirit, bringing about a new thing in history, provokes new questions about how to interpret and respond to this historical moment – and how to relate present experience of the Spirit to scripture and tradition (see Chapter 19). More broadly, however, all of theology’s ecclesial contexts invite theologians to engage with specific strands of Christian history (see, for example, Chapter 22 on Anglican theology and Chapter 21 on evangelical theology).
Saying that Christian theology raises questions of meaning in history and involves hermeneutical work, however, also points to Christian theology’s encounter in modernity with the hermeneutics of suspicion. Notoriously, in the work of the nineteenth‐ and early twentieth‐century “masters of suspicion,” Christian theology is read in ways that call into question, or claim to debunk, its claims to knowledge.5 Relatedly but differently, from both within and outside the Christian community, Christian theology is read in ways that interrogate its character as ideology and its implication in structures of power, including oppressive or unjust power. In many of the contexts and movements covered in this book, particularly from the second half of the twentieth century onwards, this movement of suspicion and critique is incorporated into theology’s self‐understanding as something that must be reckoned with. Theologians are less likely, toward the end of this volume’s time period, to think they have to reject or accept a “suspicious” reading tout court – and more likely to recognize the suspicious reading, particularly where it comes as ideology critique, as a contribution to theology’s perennial task of anti‐idolatry. Having said that, it is again important to recognize contextual differences – much theology is done in contexts where Christianity is not allied with power (see, for example, Chapter 17 on Chinese theology).
One further, contested, aspect of “modernity” needs to be acknowledged. Modernity is frequently associated with secularization – with the marginalization of Christianity in the public square and the associated marginalization of theology in the academy and other spaces of public reason. In the North and the West, it makes sense to tell the story of modern theology, at least in part, as a story of engagement with the challenges of universalizing secular rationality – a rationality that itself emerges from a Christian cultural and intellectual heritage. Chapters in this volume on North American (5) and Western European (10) theology tell parts of that story. However, the picture looks very different in contexts where Christianity has not historically been culturally dominant, or where modernization has not been associated with the retreat of religion from the public realm – as is shown, for example, in the chapters on African theology. Indeed, even in supposedly “secular” post‐Enlightenment contexts, it has become impossible in the twenty‐first century to ignore the public and political role of religion. Even in countries not affected by the much‐studied “resurgence of religion” in the early twenty‐first century, that same period saw a turn to religion in the academy and a wider public recognition of the political and social significance of religion.6
A Proposal for Reading Contemporary Theology: Five Dynamics
Introductions to earlier editions of this book picked up Hans Frei’s typology of Christian theology’s engagements with universalizing secular rationality, in its relation to Christian particularity.7 Frei’s typology, developed in the late twentieth century, already demonstrates the variety of different ways in which theology can be both modern and Christian – different ways of performing the relationship between the Christian community’s traditioned claims, on the one hand, and the questions and intellectual approaches arising in a modern context, on the other. For Frei and for many of the theologians discussed in this volume, the institutional context where this relationship was worked through was the modern university, and one of the key background questions for Christian theology since 1918 is that of theology’s place among the academic disciplines.
To engage fully with the diversity of Christian theology since 1918, however, we must recognize that the modern university is only one of the many institutional contexts for disciplined intellectual work on Christian faith in relation to contemporary thought – and thus that theology has a wider set of questions to answer than just “how is what you are doing a respectable academic enterprise?” Broader questions arise as to what theologians think they are doing. For example: What makes a particular theological debate worth having? What genres or forms are best for theology? What is the mission or the vocation of a theologian in a particular context? Questions like this invite a switch of focus, from purportedly universal criteria according to which theology can be judged, to more pragmatic and contexualized judgments about how and why theologians are engaging with specific tasks. Indeed, in shaping this volume, we have sought authors from a range of different contexts, with different theological experiences and vocations, to offer their judgments about aspects of modern theology.
One way to approach questions about “what theologians are doing,” in a way that enables cross‐contextual comparisons, is to identify common dynamics that may be found across theologies with different main foci, institutional locations, or genres. In this section, we discuss a set of five dynamics of theology, loosely drawn from the story of Jacob at the Jabbok ford (Gen 32:24–41): wrestling with the given, asking the name, following the community, demanding a blessing, and crossing the border.8
Wrestling with the given
Wrestling with the given refers to engagement with the complex specifics of Christian scripture and traditions, taking “traditions” in the broadest possible sense. Givenness – beginning “in the middle of things,” relying on testimony, recognizing the indissoluble connection between theology and hermeneutics – is easy to identify in many strands of twentieth and early‐twenty‐first‐century theology. It appears, for example, in the turn to ressourcement in post‐Second Vatican Council theology (Chapter 18), or in contemporary evangelical theology’s revisiting of classic debates (Chapter 21), as much as in the rereading of scripture and in the givens of practice. Beyond this, however, readers might consider what the crucial “given” might be in each theological project. Where, for this theologian or this group of theologians, is God encountered, and on what specific given material should our reasoning about God do its work? Consider, for example, the central importance of African women’s religious experience in the theologies discussed in Chapter 2, or of specific formative histories of racial oppression in James Cone’s work (Chapter 6). Moreover, a wide range of philosophical and other scholarly methods borrowed and put to work in theology may facilitate “wrestling with the given” – as demonstrated, for example, in the discussions of the social sciences, of philosophy and of the arts in this volume.
Asking the name
Our second dynamic, asking the name, refers to that point in the story of Jacob’s wrestling when he puts a wider question about what is going on. As part of its work with the given, theology puts questions that might be put in comparable or analogous situations and that thereby relate just this given to a wider context. In the classic “modern” framing of theology’s task, this move of putting wider questions might be understood as a move, through philosophy, to relate theology to a supposedly universal secular horizon. Within this volume, however, we see a more diverse range of questions that relate theology’s particular “given” to its wider horizon. To give two contrasting examples, postcolonial theologies (Chapter 25) relate theology to a theoretical horizon that is decidedly not claiming to be universal or secular; and pastoral and practical theologies relate to a “horizon” of multiple theories concerning human flourishing (Chapter 24).
Following the community
Following the community points to a core issue for contemporary theological work, helpfully framed by Ada María Isasi‐Díaz in terms of a theologian’s “communities of accountability.”9 It is important to note in this regard that a community of accountability as Isasi‐Díaz understands it is not simply the community to whom this has to make intellectual sense; it is also the community whose lives set the theological agenda. Everyone speaks from somewhere, but a distinctive dynamic is set up where a theologian thematizes and locates a community of accountability – be that community geographical, confessional, based on gender or race or some other aspect of identity, or specified in some other way. One of the questions that is worth asking in many of the chapters of this volume – perhaps especially of the geographically‐focused chapters in the first section – is whether and to what extent the theologians who are grouped under a specific heading explicitly regard themselves as answerable to, or responding to, the community designated in that way. For example, in any of the geographically‐focused chapters we find many theologians who are explicitly developing their work in response to the specific concerns of a particular nation or region – but also strands of theology that, whatever their geographical location, look to the concerns of one or another international audience.
Demanding a blessing
Demanding a blessing points to theological engagement with the needs, concerns, and desires emerging in a particular time and place. We would argue that it is important to distinguish this from the idea of communities of accountability, especially given the global and cross‐contextual nature of many of the most urgent concerns of contemporary theology. It is important to ask not only “who you are doing this theology with and for?” but “why you are doing it?” We might consider, for example, the wealth of theological work emerging from reflection on the many dimensions of the environmental crisis – from multiple geographical and confessional locations and with the wider global horizon that the subject matter necessitates (Chapter 49); or those theologies that engage from all sides with the formations and deformations of human worlds in the conditions of late capitalism (Chapter 46); or the flourishing, in our period, of science‐engaged theology, engaging with the needs and the open questions of a science‐dominated and science‐anxious age. Theology hears, voices, and responds to “cries,” the existentially affecting demands for response that are not even fully formed questions10 – and as many of our chapters make clear, it is important to remember that Christianity and Christian theology are quite often a background cause of the problem.
Crossing the border
The final dynamic of twenty‐first century theology to which we draw attention here is crossing the border. It is now very common to describe theology as inherently interdisciplinary – and sometimes to experience anxiety about that interdisciplinarity, asking whether the subject is at risk of dissolving into its disparate constituent parts. This volume suggests that theology’s border crossings – between theory and practices of engagement, disciplines, between religious traditions, between geographical and ecclesial contexts – are a strength rather than a weakness; every section of the book bears witness to different informed and informing encounters between Christian theology and its neighbors. Indeed, in practice and in history, Christian theology has been formed in dialogue, not only asserting a preformed identity over against an other but rather discovering and shaping an identity through the negotiation of difference. Thus, for example, Christian theology in the twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries has been transformed on many levels by a deep rethinking of Christianity’s relations to Judaism (Chapter 41), and chapters in this volume on Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism suggest the potential for comparable transformations (Chapters 42–44); moreover, as Jenny Daggers suggests (Chapter 45), all of these exercises in “theology between faiths” need to be read in the context of rethinking the imperialist impulses that relegated all kinds of “others” to the margins of Christian self‐understanding.
Putting “The Modern Theologians” Together
The fourth edition of The Modern Theologians is in an important sense beginning in the middle of things. Successive editions have seen significant shifts in content and organization. This edition could fruitfully be read in dialogue with previous editions; it is a fascinating exercise in itself to see how different authors over the course of the series have approached the same named theologian and found new things to say.
One of the most noticeable shifts for this fourth edition is the decision not to begin with a list of named individual theologians (from Western Europe and North America). Extended engagement with a range of individual thinkers has been a hallmark of this volume since its inception; we study the modern theologians, not (just) modern theology. Although this is no longer the principal way in which chapters are organized, it is no accident that named theologians are still a feature across the volume. Thinking about theologians, not just theology, allows us to do justice to the systematic character of Christian theology – each theologian engages in a distinctive way with the whole picture. It also allows us to indicate how confessional belonging, geographical context, historical time period, political commitments, positioning in terms of gender and race, and other dimensions of identity and belonging contribute to, but do not determine, a theologian’s distinctive work. Most important, perhaps, it thus enables us to recognize that good theology is a creative enterprise.
The risk with a focus on individuals, and even with the selection of more than one named theologian within most of the thematic chapters, is that it can reinforce the – rather modern – myth of the individual creative genius standing alone, and downplay the extent to which theology is a shared and relational endeavor. Still, bringing theologians together into various groupings, as this volume has tended to do, carries its own risks. It might be taken to represent a “postmodern condition” of theology, fragmented into its various factions that operate according to different norms and speak in mutually unintelligible terms. Such factionalism is indeed a risk for Christian theology as it enters the twenty‐first century, especially as wider discursive environments are affected by polarization and extremism (as acknowledged, for example, by Ulrich Schmiedel in Chapter 48).
Our hope, however, is that this volume also indicates modern Christian theology’s resistance to polarization. The various chapters show both the internal debates within, and the multiple connections between, “groupings” of theologians; and the central concerns of Christian theology, often summed up as doctrinal loci, recur across contexts and groupings. Indeed, it may be more helpful to read the groupings of theologians in this volume, not as markers of theological identity but rather as conversations or “publics” – along the lines of David Tracy’s influential characterization of theology as addressed to “three publics,” the academy, the churches, and society. Christian theology as a whole, and each individual theologian, relates to academic norms, from the lofty (and theologically weighted) imperative to seek truth and test everything, to the messy everyday politics of academic institutions. Likewise, all Christian theology relates to ecclesial, confessional, and interconfessional norms, whether or not it is subject to ecclesial authorization or carries ecclesial authority. Beyond this, all Christian theology, just by being published and read in some context, relates to some wider public spaces and debates, each with its own norms and concerns. This plurality of publics, inherent in the theological task, makes theology hard to confine to any of the boxes into which its readers or authors might try to fit it. This volume includes chapters organized along lines set mainly by the academy (such as the interdisciplinary conversations in Part 4), by the churches (especially in Part 2), and by wider society – but a study of the richness of any of the individual chapters shows that a theologian’s significance or influence cannot be confined to just one “public.” Moreover, and importantly, as can be seen already in the reception of many of the modern theologians featured in this volume, theological work is read and used far beyond its original publics or audiences. Theologians may identify and prioritize specific publics or “communities of accountability,” but the reading, reception, and use of their work take it beyond their original audiences or intentions.
This volume has, inevitably, gaps and omissions. Some geographical regions are not specifically represented or are underrepresented in the volume as a whole – so, for example, there is very little here from Oceania and very little from the Middle East, and Eastern Europe is treated only under the heading of Orthodox theology (Chapter 23). Orthodoxy as a whole, it could plausibly be argued, is underrepresented, in an age when more and more of the earlier obstacles to dialogue between Eastern and Western churches are being removed (see, for example, Chapter 20 on ecumenical theology). The selection of individual theologians for chapter‐length studies is still biased toward European and North American men, partly because of the need to select thinkers whose work has already – at the time of writing – had broad and lasting influence. The decision to reduce the number of chapters devoted to individual theologians made the selection for this part of the book even more difficult, and several theologians treated at length in previous editions now appear only within broader thematic chapters. Partly in response to the concern about factionalism described here, we have chosen not to focus many chapters on theological “schools” – but this might in turn mean that we have missed opportunities to highlight significant areas of shared intellectual endeavor. Future editions of this work will undoubtedly continue the dialogue, seeing further shifts and course corrections, responding to changes in the theological communities both “behind” and “in front of” the text – the theologians it describes and the theologians who read it.
