Theology

Traces a radical shift in the history of Christian theology from the canon of scripture as a list of books to that of a criterion of truth in theology. The argument takes the form of a narrative showing how epistemology won out over soteriology in the conception of the bible. Within this development, theologians were upstaged by philosophers when scripture as a criterion failed to resolve critical material issues in Christian theology. The middle section of the narrative shows that the epistemology of the Enlightenment was deeply indebted both historically and formally to the foundationalism first worked out within theology. The net result was the collapse of the internal content of Christian theology in the modern period and its ongoing replacement by speculative exercises in epistemology. The cure for this state of affairs is the retrieval of the canonical heritage of the patristic Church and a resolution to develop rigorous solutions to problems in the epistemology of theology. The Church needs a wider canon of materials, practices, and persons than that supplied by scripture for her spiritual health. All epistemological proposals related to theology need to be treated as significant Midrash that are deployed when appropriate, but that should not be canonized.

After two chapters on the rise and history of Catholic Christianity, the authors explain systematically how the beliefs and practices of Catholicism came to be what they are. A chapter on revelation, tradition, and scripture introduces six chapters, which set out Catholic doctrines in the order in which they developed: the Trinity and the Incarnation; sin, the life of grace, and the promise of glory; the seven sacraments; the nature of the Church and its mission; and Catholic moral life and teaching. The book ends by drawing together major characteristics of Catholic Christianity and setting out some central challenges, that the Catholic Church now faces. The central aim of the book is to present, with ecumenical sensitivity, the world’s oldest and largest institution, the Roman Catholic Church.

For decades, theologians and philosophers of religion have been engaged in vigorous debate about the status and nature of ecclesiology, hence of community. In that discussion, theologians have found resources in political philosophy, particularly communitarianism and political liberalism. This book turns instead to Stanley Cavell to show how his work illuminates that discussion, in particular, how his understanding of companionship and friendship might usefully complicate the communitarian‐liberal divide. Since the 1960s, Cavell has been the most category‐defying philosopher in North America as well as one of the least understood. In part, this is because philosophers are not sure what to do with Cavell's extensive engagements with literature and film or, stranger yet, Cavell's openness to theological concerns. This book, the first on Cavell and theology, places Cavell in conversation with some of the philosophers most influential in contemporary theology (Alasdair MacIntyre, Martha Nussbaum, and John Rawls). It then takes up Cavell's relationship to Christian theology, shows how the figure of Christ appears repeatedly in his work, and illustrates how Cavell's account of skepticism and acknowledgment is a profoundly illuminating and transformative resource for theological discussions, not just of ecclesiology, but of sin, salvation, and the existence of God.

This book presents a detailed study of the theological concept (divine mediation) that was central to the Christological controversy of the early 4th century. The subject of this study is the access to God provided through the divine Word, as seen in the theologies of Eusebius of Caesarea, Marcellus of Ancyra, and Athanasius of Alexandria during the early years of the ‘Arian’ controversy. By analysing the views of three participants at the Council of Nicaea (325), this book demonstrates the variety of perspectives in a way that questions popular approaches to the period that see the controversy as having only two sides. This analysis constitutes a new approach to the early Arian controversy, as well as showing the theological backdrop of Athanasius' insight on Christ as mediator. It further demonstrates the contemporary relevance of the issue by giving an Athanasian critique of the modern Christology of Roger Haight.

This book studies the earliest biblical reading practices of Augustine of Hippo (354–430), the greatest of the Latin Church Fathers. As a Manichee he had dismissed the Scriptures of ancient Israel as crudely written and unspiritual. But when Ambrose of Milan suggested that familiar rhetorical devices were at work in them, he began to read the Old and New Testaments together figuratively as a single Book. That breakthrough catalyzed his return to Catholicism. Augustine's earliest works searched Scripture for a philosophically oriented spiritual understanding. But when surprise ordination made him responsible for the welfare of ordinary people, Augustine became more concerned with Scripture's ongoing function in the Christian life. With help from the Apostle Paul, Augustine read the old Scriptures differently, especially certain Psalms that became words of the crucified Christ impersonating the voice of his people. His insight into Christ's “astounding exchange” provided not only a way to articulate Christian redemption but also a way to practice Christian reading. This book examines works from the first fifteen years of Augustine's Christian life in order to follow the course of his development. His reflections on the craft of hermeneutics advanced not only specifically theological reading practices but also the humane art of textual interpretation. Augustine's rationale for figurative reading in the tens of thousands of Scripture references that filled hundreds of sermons, letters, and treatises made him the most widely read commentator on the Christian Scriptures in the west for more than a thousand years.

Can Christians continue to worship Jesus Christ as the full, final, and ‘absolute’ revelation of God in an age of historical relativism, an expanding universe, and the impinging of other world faiths on Western Culture? To the great German liberal theologian Ernst Troeltsch, the answer was no; but so vehemently negative was the ‘neo-orthodox’ reaction to his viewpoint that, until now, no full exposition of his Christology has been available. This study includes a close analytical account of the nature of Troeltsch's relativism in the light of current debates in the social sciences. It assesses the strength of his case against traditional incarnationalism, and argues that Troeltsch's Christological method, far from marking the ‘collapse’ of liberal theology, opens new possibilities for the future.

At the root of concerns about consumerism and its social, spiritual, and environmental impact is a fundamental confusion about consumption itself. Consumption, the physical throughput of materials through human lives, is essential for life. A robust model of ethical consumption provides an effective antidote for the excesses of consumerism. This book provides one such model, drawn from the Christian tradition. Rather than looking to ethical theory, conclusions arise from the lived practice and theological reflections of exemplary Christians throughout history (among them, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, John Woolman, Ellen G. White, Sergei Bulgakov, Dorothy Day, L. Shannon Jung, and Ronald Sider). Thinkers throughout the Christian tradition agree that good consumption avoids sin, embraces creation, loves the neighbor, and anticipates the eschaton. This set of four considerations can inform the discernment of everyday consumer choices and longer-term lifestyle decisions. The book includes discussions of Christian practices such as fasting, gratitude, solidarity, gift giving, Sabbath keeping, and the Eucharist. Insights from the Christian tradition equip consumers with tools and models to help them pursue considered, ethical consumption in a consumerist context.

Though understandably overshadowed by Augustine’s preeminence in the West, Ambrose is a doctor of the Catholic Church and an important patristic authority for the Middle Ages and Reformation, especially in moral theology. Christian Grace and Pagan Virtue argues that Ambrose of Milan’s theological commitments, particularly his understanding of the Christian’s participation in God’s saving economy through baptism, are foundational for his virtue theory laid out in his catechetical and other pastoral writings. While he holds a high regard for classical and Hellenistic views of virtue, Ambrose insists that the Christian is able to attain the highest ideal of virtue taught by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. This is possible because the Christian has received the transformative grace of baptism that allows the Christian to participate in the new creation inaugurated by Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection. This book explores Ambrose’s understanding of this grace and how it frees the Christian to live the virtuous life. The argument is laid out in two parts. In Part I, the book examines Ambrose’s understanding of human nature and the effects of sin upon that nature. Central to this Part is the question of Ambrose’s understanding of the right relationship of soul and body as presented in Ambrose’s repeated appeal to Paul’s words, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Part II lays out Ambrose’s account of baptism as the sacrament of justification and regeneration (sacramental and proleptic participation in the renewal of human nature in the resurrection). Ultimately, Ambrose’s account of the efficacy of baptism rests upon his Christology and pneumatology. The final chapters explain how Ambrose’s accounts of Christ and the Holy Spirit are foundational to his view of the grace that liberates the soul from the corruption of concupiscence.