God’s Advocates , Rupert Shortt’s 2005 collection of interviews with prominent Christian thinkers, is one of the best introductions to contemporary theology available. Premised on the claims that theology is recovering its nerve and that this recovery is especially noticeable in the UK . . . . Continue Reading »
Rowan Williams says in an interview with Rupert Shortt, “what caught me and still catches me about Barth is that sense of exuberant bloody-mindedness, enlarged upon at huge length, the gusto, the verve of the theology, with all its outrageous misunderstandings of other people and its . . . . Continue Reading »
Schmemann again (from an appendix to For the Life of the World ): “To condemn a heresy is relatively easy. What is much more difficult is to detect the question it implies, and to give this question an adequate answer. Such, however, was always the Church’s dealing with . . . . Continue Reading »
Schmemann anticipates Milbank: “Secularism - we must again and again stresss this - is a ‘stepchild’ of Christianity, as are, in the last analysis, all secular ideologies which today dominate the world - not, as it is claimed by the Western apostles of a Christian acceptance of . . . . Continue Reading »
Catholic and Feminist: The Surprising History of the American Catholic Feminist Movement by mary j. henold university of north carolina press, 304 pages, $32 Ihave never met a nun—there was a time when this would have been a truly bizarre statement from an American Catholic. Nuns were everywhere: . . . . Continue Reading »
The Bible contains a verse that scholars like to quote. It is from the book of Ecclesiastes: “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is weariness of the flesh” (12:12). In context it serves as a warning against the vain illusion that we can study our way to the Kingdom of God. The . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ve learned that Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques , a thoughtful evangelical critique of Barth, is now available inNorth America, published by T&T Clark. More information about the UK edition is available at the book’s website, www.engagingwithbarth.com . . . . . Continue Reading »
Is God limited by His nature? If we say No, we’re radical nominalists and voluntarists; God might turn ugly at a whim. If we way Yes, we have the uncomfortable feeling that we’ve constrained God. The problem is in that word “limit.” Better to avoid it altogether. It’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Milbank charges that modern theology is characterized by false humility. Barth agreed with respect to Christology. In the name of a humble refusal to penetrate the veil of mystery around the incarnation, modern theologians have often renounced “beforehand all serious and responsible inquiry . . . . Continue Reading »
Hamann suggests that the fear of God is what energizes: “When one considers how much strength, presence of mind, and speed, off which we are otherwise incapable, the fear of an extraordinary danger inspires in us: then one can understand why a Christian is so superior to the natural, secure . . . . Continue Reading »
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