Healing Fractures In Contemporary Theology

Since Vatican II, the key question that has developed in Catholic theology, often unstated or unrecognized, is, what is theology? The thesis presented here is that contemporary theologizing is “fractured” in many places and to varying degrees. These fractures can vary in seriousness between theologians, and a particular theologian may suffer from some fractures but not others. The fractures addressed here are between •theology and spirituality •theology and philosophy •theology and liturgy •the literal and spiritual senses of sacred scripture •theology, preaching, and apologetics •theology and ethics •theology and social theory •dogmatic and pastoral theology •theology and the “koinonial” Christian life •theologians and non-theologians • the generation gap between Gen X and Millennial/Post-Millennial Catholics, and •theology and the Magisterium. For each of these, an attempt is made to examine the symptoms, give a diagnosis, and write a prescription.

Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council so that the Church’s doctrine might be “more widely known, more deeply understood, and more penetrating in its effects.” However, since the close of the Council in 1965, the results are wanting. Rather than announcing the gospel boldly in the present age, the Church has been seemingly reduced to silence. How did she lose her voice? How did the structures of proclamation, intended to hand on the Catholic faith, devolve and even contribute to vaporizing a Catholic culture? Because He Has Spoken to Us traces such developments from fixed points drawn from the fluid theology of Karl Rahner to their postmodern condition—successive steps that usher in the crisis by subduing, dismissing, and silencing the tradition. This postconciliar anthropocentric structure can now be better understood, critiqued, and displaced by a Ratzingerian approach. Rather than embracing a “given” demanded by contemporary context, Ratzinger proposes the revelation of the Logos in Jesus Christ as the “given,” the true object of Christian faith. His alternate proposal requires the courage to face the full scope of the Christian structure, accessed through the Church’s tradition, and a willingness to proclaim the gospel personally and with humble confidence.

The Holy Spirit who worked on the first Christian Pentecost continues to work in the church and the world today. This being so, the field of pneumatology—the theology of the Holy Spirit—should pique the interest of both the “average” Christian and the academic theologian, perhaps more than it has in recent times. This collection of chapters brings pneumatology into conversation with a wide variety of disciplines, including scripture, patristic and medieval theology, and history. The result is a scholarly monograph that enriches both pneumatology and the fields with which each contributor engages. Furthermore, with its attention on the work of the Spirit in the sacraments and the life of the church, Pneumatology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium will help pastors and catechists in their ministries to understand more deeply the riches of the theology of the Third Person of the Trinity.

Since Vatican II, the key question that has developed in Catholic theology, often unstated or unrecognized, is, what is theology? The thesis presented here is that contemporary theologizing is "fractured" in many places and to varying degrees. These fractures can vary in seriousness between theologians, and a particular theologian may suffer from some fractures but not others. The fractures addressed here are between -theology and spirituality -theology and philosophy -theology and liturgy -the literal and spiritual senses of sacred scripture -theology, preaching, and apologetics -theology and ethics -theology and social theory -dogmatic and pastoral theology -theology and the "koinonial" Christian life -theologians and non-theologians - the generation gap between Gen X and Millennial/Post-Millennial Catholics, and -theology and the Magisterium. For each of these, an attempt is made to examine the symptoms, give a diagnosis, and write a prescription.

This book offers in style and content an exciting new perspective on contemporary theology and its future in post-modern times. I welcome this new perspective. The style is agreeable, unpolemical, and enages in dialogue with the best of Barth and Bultmann, Ricoeur and Pannenberg, Cobb and Moltmann, showing what they havea to offer to the larger theological community and transferring it like a ferry boat into the post-modern age. The purpose is to offer an evangelical theology which is at the same time genuinely evangelical and relevant for post-modern ways of thinking. Wood writes with admirable clarity." --Jürgen Moltmann, University of Tübingen

Coordinated by Serene Jones of Yale Divinity School and Paul Lakeland of Fairfield University, fifty of North America's top teaching theologians (members of the Workgroup on Constructive Christian Theology) have devised a text that allows students to experience the deeper point of theological questions, to delve into the fractures and disagreements that figured in the development of traditional Christian doctrines, and to sample the diverse and conflicting theological voices that vie for allegiance today.