Interrupting Tradition

Interrupting Tradition
Author: Lieven Boeve
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2003-06-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780802826671

Not so long ago it would have been fair to say that the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith determined human life and social existence, more or less unquestioned, in Flanders and in a large part of Western Europe. The Catholic faith community in Flanders today, however, is struggling with the fact that the transmission of the Christian tradition has been flagging in recent years. This has not only led to diminished faith engagement and a massive decline in church attendance, it has also had its effects in the cultural domain: culture has become de-traditionalised; 'traditional' Christian culture is worn out. Even convinced Christians are having problems reflecting on the plausibility of their faith, precisely because of the chasm that has opened up between faith and culture. The author of the present study argues that every new context challenges the Christian tradition to recontextualise its presentation of meaning and purpose in a cogent and credible fashion. Christians today do themselves a disservice when they withdraw into a world of absolute self-justification. At the same time, however, the author avoids any form of appeal for an extensive adaptation to the postmodern context. Only a new dialogue between tradition and culture, respectful of (and indeed thanks to) the growing division between both, can claim to offer a future. In the first part of the book the author provides a pithy description of the vicissitudes of the Christian tradition in modernity and postmodernity. Against this background, he attempts to clarify the situation in which the Christian tradition finds itself today. The second part of the book is devoted to an analysis of the actual context with a view to establishing points of intersection on the basis of which the dialogue between faith and culture may be revivified. The third part of the book endeavours to provide this dialogue with concrete form. The reader is introduced to a challenging image of Jesus, an image that is contextual and theologically motivated, prior to being invited by the author into a reopened reflection on God. The volume concludes by drawing renewed attention to the place of the Christian faith in relation to the other world religions. The results of Boeve's study reveal that Christians do indeed have the capacity to reflect on their faith in a credible and relevant manner in relation to the actual context in which they find themselves and without relapsing into the extremes of traditionalism or relativism. Lieven Boeve is professor of Fundamental Theology at the Faculty of Theology, K.U.Leuven (Belgium). He is also co-ordinator of the research group Theology in a postmodern context.

Beyond Foundationalism

Beyond Foundationalism
Author: Stanley James Grenz
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664257699

Grenz and Franke provide a methodological approach for doing theology in the postmodern world. They call for a theological method that moves beyond the Enlightenment way of ordering and understanding information (foundationalism). They propose a theological method that takes seriously the Spirit, tradition and contemporary culture, while stressing trinitarian structure, community and eschatology.

Christianity and the Postmodern Turn

Christianity and the Postmodern Turn
Author: Myron B. Penner
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2005-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1587431084

Addresses the promises and perils of postmodernity for the church today.

Essays in Postfoundationalist Theology

Essays in Postfoundationalist Theology
Author: Jacobus Wentzel Van Huyssteen
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1997
Genre: Philosophical theology
ISBN: 0802843093

This collection of essays boldly addresses many of the challenges faced by Christian theology in the context of contemporary postmodern thought. Handling abstract topics in a remarkably clear and concise way, J. Wentzel van Huyssteen presses the case for a "postfoundationalist theology" as a viable third option beyond the extremes of foundationalism and nonfoundationalism. Van Huyssteen discusses themes related to rationality, epistemology, and philosophy of science. In the process he critically engages the work of such thinkers as Wolfhart Pannenberg, Nancey Murphy, Jerome Stone, and Gerd Theissen. The result is a convincing argument that only a truly accessible and philosophically credible notion of interdisciplinarity will be able to pave the way for a plausible public theology that can play an important intellectual role in our fragmented culture today.

The Blackwell Companion to Postmodern Theology

The Blackwell Companion to Postmodern Theology
Author: Graham Ward
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0470998342

This Companion provides a definitive collection of essays on postmodern theology, drawing on the work of those individuals who have made a distinctive contribution to the field, and whose work will be significant for the theologies written in the new millennium. The definitive collection of essays on postmodern theology, drawing on the work of those individuals who have made a distinctive contribution to the field. Each essay is introduced with a short account of the writer's previous work, enabling the reader to view it in context. Discusses the following desciplines: Aesthetics, Ethics, Gender, Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, Heideggerians, and Derrideans. Edited by Graham Ward, one of the most outstanding and original theologians working in the field today.

Fieldwork in Theology

Fieldwork in Theology
Author: Christian Scharen
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-08-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780801049309

In this addition to the acclaimed The Church and Postmodern Culture series, leading practical theologian Christian Scharen examines the relationship between theology and its social context. He engages with social theorist Pierre Bourdieu to offer helpful theoretical and theological grounding to those who want to reflect critically on the faith and practice of the church, particularly for those undertaking ministry internships or fieldwork assignments. As Scharen helps a wide array of readers to understand the social context of doing theology, he articulates a vision for the church's involvement with what God is doing in the world and provides concrete examples of churches living out God's mission.

Christian Apologetics in the Postmodern World

Christian Apologetics in the Postmodern World
Author: Timothy R. Phillips
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2009-09-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780830874729

Evangelicals are beginning to provide analyses of our postmodern society, but little has been done to suggest an effective apologetic strategy for reaching a culture that is pluralistic, consumer-oriented, and infatuated with managerial and therapeutic approaches to life. This, then, is the first book to address that vital task. In these pages some of evangelicalism's most stimulating thinkers consider three possible apologetic responses to postmodernity. William Lane Craig argues that traditional evidentialist apologetics remains viable and preferable. Roger Lundin, Nicola Creegan and James Sire find the postmodern critique of Christianity and Western culture more challenging, but reject central features of it. Philip Kenneson, Brian Walsh and J. Richard Middleton, on the other hand, argue that key aspects of postmodernity can be appropriated to defend orthodox Christianity. An essential feature are trenchent chapters by Ronald Clifton Potter, Dennis Hollinger and Douglas Webster considering issues facing the local church in light of postmodernity. The volumes editors and John Stackhouse also add important introductory essays that orient the reader to postmodernity and various apologetic strategies. All this makes for a book indispensable for theologians, a wide range of students and reflective pastors.

Essays on Philosophy and Religious Studies

Essays on Philosophy and Religious Studies
Author: LIT Verlag
Publisher: LIT Verlag
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2022-11-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3643964625

Analecta Bruxellensia has been since 1996 the annual review of the Protestant Faculties of Theology and Religious Studies (FUTP (French) and FPTR (Dutch)) in Brussels. Analecta 21 is a varied number. Three themes are developed covering exegetical, historical, sociological, theological and philosophical fields. The first explores hermeneutics related to the understanding and assimilation of the biblical text; the second addresses the weight of ideology in the construction of narratives invoked in the representation of the Other; the third pursues this theme of encounter and otherness in various historical perspectives. From a queer exegesis of the narrative of Acts 8 to the question of the extent of Christ's salvation in the hypothesis of inhabited worlds in science fiction literature, the eclecticism of these academic contributions, as well as their relevance to contemporary debates, promise the reader multiple changes of scenery and genuinely new thinking. This issue also includes a previously unpublished contribution by Paul Ricœur, a restitution of a three-speaker conference given in January 2000 on the theme of justice between ethics and law.

Witness to Dispossession

Witness to Dispossession
Author: Tom Beaudoin
Publisher: Orbis Books
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1570757852

Tom Beaudoin's first book, Virtual Faith, celebrated the spiritual quest of Generation X and established his reputation as one of the most astute critics of contemporary faith and culture. In this collection of essays he reflects on the task and purpose of theology in a post-modern age. Beaudoin sketches a view of the theologian as a "witness to dispossession." This dispossession involves the letting go of status and power, but also the comfortable certainties of the past. Book jacket.

A Primer on Postmodernism

A Primer on Postmodernism
Author: Stanley J. Grenz
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 220
Release: 1996-02-06
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780802808646

Grenz examines the topography of postmodernism, a phenomenon everyone acknowledges, but has difficulty describing with precision. Of particular significance is his discussion of the challenges this cultural shift presents to the church.