In my quest for good introductory material, my attention turns to Mark McIntosh’s Divine Teaching: An Introduction to Christian Theology. For this post, I am particularly interested in his first chapter, “How God Makes Theologians.” To add some further fodder to his provocative title, McIntosh states:
Most of us contemporary theologians, soberly trained in the best [...]
Archive for July, 2009
Divine Teaching
Posted in Book Reviews, Theology on July 30, 2009 | 12 Comments »
More Haste, Less Speed in Theology
Posted in Interpretation, Theology on July 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The time allowed the church and its theology is a time in which the believer must find it intolerable that some men and women have no idea of the reasons for hope. It is not first and foremost a time for the blessedness of believing or for silent adoration. It is a time for speaking, [...]
“Money is a great breeder of unreality” – Terry Eagleton
Posted in cultural exegesis on July 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s something corny and outlandish to begin the post with: I wish I could post the whole of Terry Eagleton’s new Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate; it’s that good. It is a great summer read, breezy, light, tart and yet warming. I’m sure I’ll be posting more from this fun little [...]
Theology Through a Glass Darkly
Posted in Book Reviews on July 18, 2009 | 24 Comments »
What is the relationship between faith and understanding? Yes I know Anselm’s dictum of “faith seeking understanding” (Augustine said the same before him), but how does this actually flesh itself out? And if faith is equated with ever-increasing understanding, then what might lack of understanding say about our faith and about the nature of the [...]
Theology and the Drama of History
Posted in Book Reviews on July 17, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Cambridge University Press was kind enough to send me a copy of Ben Quash’s book Theology and the Drama of History, a volume in their Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine series (ISBN: 0-521-84434-7). For anyone doing work in the areas concerning a theology of history, theodramatics, von Balthasar or Barth’s relationship to any of these, [...]
Eucharistic Presence: A Proposal
Posted in Book Reviews, Sacraments on July 15, 2009 | 22 Comments »
Continuing my look at Hunsinger’s volume The Eucharist and Ecumenism, I turn now to consider his proposal for an ecumenical understanding of the real presence in the consecrated elements. Doing so will entail several concessions:
First, there is not a real presence of Christ in the elements at the expense of the local presence of Christ [...]
Eucharist: Real Presence
Posted in Book Reviews, Sacraments on July 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Beginning his discussion of real presence, Hunsinger turns to Aquinas.
Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas, in Hunsinger’s mind, was able to satisfy what he sees are the two major conditions for a proposal that could resolve eucharistic conflicts: “He was able to hold together, convincingly, a robust definition of ‘real presence’ with an equally robust definition of ‘local presence’” [...]
Eucharist
Posted in Book Reviews, Sacraments on July 11, 2009 | 3 Comments »
In this post, I will begin reviewing George Hunsinger’s book The Eucharist and Ecumenism by Cambridge University Press (ISBN:978-0-521-89486-9). This is one of the latest volumes in Cambridge’s “Current Issues In Theology” series, and is a welcome addition to an already well established set of volumes. It is no secret that the Eucharst and sacramental [...]
Learning Theology with the Church Fathers
Posted in Book Reviews on July 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As I am sure many of you know, IVP has been producing a great series (several series actually) of books that are designed to help academics, pastors, students and lay people come into contact with the early church fathers. One of these series is three volumes of introduction: Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers, Learning [...]
Trinitarian Theology and the Sacraments
Posted in Book Reviews, Sacraments, tagged Sacraments on July 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Gordon T. Smith, whose edited volume on eucharist was reviewed several months back, authors a chapter in IVP’s volume Trinitarian Theology for the Churchentitled: “The Sacraments and the Embodiment of Our Trinitarian Faith.” Smith bemoans the neglect by many to engage in the broader ecumenical discussion concerning the sacraments, suggesting that this neglect has fostered [...]
Trinitarian Theology for the Church: Social Trinitarianism
Posted in Book Reviews, Trinity on July 6, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The next issue I want to highlight in IVP’s volume Trinitarian Theology for the Church is the view of social trinitarianism. We are given two specific essays towards this end, the first by John Franke, discussing the social Trinity and the mission of God, and the second by Mark Husbands whose focus is explicit in [...]
