Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction Chapter 4: The Modern Period, c.1750 to the Present Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Theology and Cultural Developments in the West The Enlightenment critique of traditional theology –The rationality of Christian beliefs –The basic ideas of Christianity can be derived from reason –Reason can judge revelation –Conflicts with traditional Christian theology The notion of revelation The status and interpretation of the Bible The identity and significance of Jesus Christ The doctrine of the Trinity The critique of miracles The rejection of original sin The problem of evil Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Romanticism and the renewal of the theological imagination –Appeals to human intuition and imagination –Friedrich Schleiermacher ( ), The Christian Faith Marxism: an intellectual rival to Christianity –Karl Marx ( ) –Marxism in Russia and Europe –Marxism and Latin American liberation theology The crisis of faith in Victorian England –George Eliot (AKA Mary Ann Evans, ) –Matthew Arnold ( ) Darwinism: a new theory of human origins –Charles Darwin ( ), Origin of the Species –William Paley; Charles Kingsley Postmodernism and a new theological agenda –Abandonment of centralizing narratives (metanarratives) –Deconstructionism –Impact on biblical interpretation and systematic theology Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Key Theologians F.D.E. Schleiermacher ( ) –Christian Faith: defense of the faith to its “cultural despisers” John Henry Newman ( ) –From the Oxford Movement to the Catholic Church Karl Barth ( ) –God’s self-revelation Paul Tillich ( ) –Correlation of culture and faith Karl Rahner ( ) –“transcendental method” Hans Urs von Balthasar ( ) –Theodramatics Jürgen Moltmann (b.1926) –A suffering God Wolfhart Pannenberg (b.1928) –Revelation as history Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Denominational Developments in Theology Catholicism –Second Vatican Council (1962-5) –Catholic Tübingen School (1830s) –Hans Urs von Balthasar and Karl Rahner Orthodoxy –Russian Orthodoxy –Greek Orthodoxy Protestantism –Liberal Protestantism –Neo-orthodoxy –Postliberalism –Fundamentalism Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Evangelicalism –Four central assumptions: The authority and sufficiency of Scripture The uniqueness of redemption through Christ’s death on the cross The need for personal conversion The necessity and urgency of evangelism –Adiaphora Pentecostal and charismatic movements –Three “waves”: Classic Pentecostalism (early 1900s) 1960s and 1970s in mainline denominations and Catholicism The “signs and wonders” movement (e.g., John Wimber) Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Some Recent Western Theological Movements and Trends Liberal Protestantism –Friedrich Schleiermacher –In light of modern culture and knowledge, Christian beliefs were: abandoned (e.g., doctrine of original sin) reinterpreted (e.g., divinity of Christ) –Optimistic view of human nature –Middle road between traditionalism and rejection –Paul Tillich ( ) –Critiques Universal human religious experience? Reliant on transient, secular cultural developments Willing to abandon Christian distinctives to be acceptable to culture Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Modernism –Catholic theologians and the Enlightenment –Alfred Loisy ( ) –George Tyrrell ( ) –Modernism in mainstream Protestant denominations England United States Neo-orthodoxy –Karl Barth ( ), Church Dogmatics –The self-revelation of God in Christ through Scripture –Dialectical theology –Neo-orthodoxy –Critiques: Emphasis on the trascendence and “otherness” of God No external criteria to verify claims - fideism No account of other religions Wiley-Blackwell 2010

La ressourcement, or La nouvelle théologie –Catholic theological revival in France –Jean Daniélou, “The Present Orientations of Religious Thought” (1946) –Rediscovering and reappropriating original sources of theology –“Primacy of the pastoral” (Yves Congar) Feminism –Conflict with Christianity –Reappraisal of the Christian past (Sarah Coakley) –Challenges to traditional theology The maleness of God The nature of sin Pastoral theology The person of Christ Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Liberation theology –Latin American context, 1960s and 1970s –CELAM II (1968 gathering of Catholic bishops at Medellín, Colombia) –Basic themes: Oriented toward the poor and oppressed Critical reflection on practice –Use of Marxist theory for social analysis –Key theological issues Biblical hermeneutics The nature of salvation Black theology –North American context, 1960s and 1970s –Joseph Washington, Black Religion; Albert Cleage, Black Messiah –The “Black Manifesto,” Detroit, 1969 –James H. Cone (b.1938), Black Theology of Liberation Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Postliberalism –Rejection of “universal rationality” and common religious experience; particularity of the Christian faith –Antifoundational: rejects universal foundation of knowledge –Communitarian: appeal to values and language of a community –Historicist: importance of traditions and historical communities –George Lindbeck, Nature of Doctrine (1984) –Paul Holmer, Grammar of Faith (1978) –Theology as descriptive, intrasystematic discipline –Christian ethics in communities (Stanley Hauerwas, b.1940) Radical orthodoxy –1990s movement in Anglican theology –John Milbank (b.1952) Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Theologies of the Developing World India –Christianity indigenous to India by the fourth century –European colonizers –Resentment of westernization –Keshub Chunder Sen ( ) –Indian independence, 1947 –Christianity and Hinduism The cosmic Christ includes all pluralities of religious experience Christ is the goal of the quest of Hinduism Hinduism’s relation to Christianity is analogous to the Old Testament and Judaism Christianity is incompatible with Hinduism The Hindu context gives to rise to a specifically Indian form of Christianity Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Africa –European missionaries and colonizers –Indigenous African theologians John Mbiti (b.1931), Kenya Kwame Bediako ( ), Ghana Charles Nyamiti (b.1931), Tanzania –South Africa and apartheid Wiley-Blackwell 2010