Download or read book Constructing Constructive Theology written by Jason A. Wyman Jr. and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2017-07-15 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To date, constructive theology hasn’t been viewed or conceptualized as a movement or trend in theology on its own as a whole. Questions arise as to what constructive theology is, where it came from, why it considers itself “constructive,” and why constructive is something different from the ways in which theology has been done in the past. This book traces the overall historical arc of constructive theology, from proto-movement through the present. Inklings of constructive theology emerged well before it began to take any formalized shape. At the same time, an important shift occurred when a group of theologians decided to create the Workgroup on Constructive Theology. Further, even as the workgroup continues to work collectively, producing textbooks, statements, and methodologies concerning theology, many theologians who are not part of the workgroup or may not even know it exists have adopted the moniker of “constructive theologian.” The book also considers the term “constructive” itself, offering possible reasons and historical contexts that led to this distinction being made in contrast to “systematic” theology and its subcategories. Constructive theology speaks to a very specific, historically situated emergence in the academy generally and in theology’s attempts to engage those shifts specifically.
Download or read book Life and Thought of Bernard Eugene Meland American Constructive Theologian 1899 1993 written by W. Creighton Peden and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2010-08-11 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with Bernard Eugene Meland’s “life” (as presented in his unpublished intellectual autobiography) and “thought” as a constructive theologian who taught in the Divinity School of The University of Chicago (1945-64). When Meland was in the process of completing his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago, he came into close association with Henry Nelson Wieman who was joining the faculty. Meland took the first course Wieman offered in which they read William Ernest Hocking’s The Meaning of God in Human Experience (Part IV) and Whitehead’s Religion in the Making. He audited Wieman’s other courses. The philosophy of A. N. Whitehead played a large role in their relationship and theology. With the sudden death of G. B. Smith, Wieman became Meland’s doctoral advisor. After completing the doctoral program, Meland spent the next year at Marburg University in Germany studying with Rudolf Otto. He came away from this experience having discovered that the stimulus and lure in the language of the arts had become for him an alternative to the moral way of expressing value, sensibility, and fulfillment of human experience. He returned from Europe to begin teaching at Central College in Missouri and in 1936 joined the faculty at Pomona College in Claremont, California. His association with Wieman continued in the 1930s as they co-authored American Philosophies of Religion (1936). While teaching at Central College, Meland authored Modern Man’s Worship (1934), and at Pomona College published Write Your Own Ten Commandments (1938), and The Church and Adult Education (1939). In 1945, Meland joined Wieman at the Divinity School as Professor of Constructive Theology. Although Wieman soon retired, their connection continued throughout Wieman’s life. The Second World War had concluded and Meland was in a state of anguish and despair over the war and especially by the atomic bomb. In this troubled state of mind he published Seeds of Redemption (1947), America’s Spiritual Culture (1948), and The Reawakening of Christian Faith (1949). His next two publications were Higher Education and the Human Spirit (1953) and Faith and Culture (1955), with the latter considered by many as his most important work. While teaching at Chicago, Meland twice served twice as The Barrows Lectures in India. His lectures in 1957-58 were published as The Realities of Faith (1962). In 1963-64, he continued his theme of the relationship between faith and culture by focusing on the impact of secularization on modern cultures. These lectures were published as The Secularization of Modern Cultures (1966). His last book was Fallible Forms and Symbols (1977). In the first section of this book, Meland’s “thought” is considered under four headings: Metaphysical View, Method, Doctrine of God, and View of Religion, followed by an evauation. Section two is devoted to his “Later Writings,” followed by a conclusion.
Download or read book The Constructive Theology of Bernard Meland written by Tyron Inbody and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the thought of Chicago Divinity School theologian Bernard Meland (1871-1993). Tyron Inbody places Meland's theology within the development of the liberal tradition. He argues that Meland was a precursor of liberal developments in epistemology -- especially in his view of how experience, language, and culture are related. Inbody explores the extent to which Meland was both representative and critical of process theology. He concludes with an assessment of Meland's contribution to postliberal theology. Inbody's work not only sheds light on the work of this important but neglected thinker, but is in its own right a contribution to empirical theology, theological epistemology, process theology, and the history of liberal theology in North America.
Download or read book What is Constructive Theology written by Marion Grau and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This essential introduction to contemporary constructive theology charts the most important disciplinary trends of the moment. It gives a historical overview of the field and discusses key hermeneutical and methodological concerns. The contributors apply a constructive perspective to a wide range of approaches, ranging from biblical hermeneutics and postcolonial studies to comparative, political, and black theology. What is Constructive Theology? shows how diverse and interdisciplinary constructive theology can be by exploring key themes in the field. The contributors explore the porous boundaries between Christianity and other religions, reflect on contextual, liberation and constructive theologies from Africa and from Black British perspectives, explore the connection between embodiment, epistemology and hermeneutics, and take a constructive approach to the dangerous memories and theologies of colonial histories in Belgium and Native Americans in the United States. This sampler of the field will help you rethink theologies and find constructive alternatives.
Download or read book The Making of American Liberal Theology written by Gary J. Dorrien and published by Presbyterian Publishing Corp. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 682 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first of three volumes, Dorrien identifies the indigenous roots of American liberal theology and demonstrates a wider, longer-running tradition than has been thought. The tradition took shape in the nineteenth century, motivated by a desire to map a modernist "third way" between orthodoxy and rationalistic deism/atheism. It is defined by its openness to modern intellectual inquiry; its commitment to the authority of individual reason and experience; its conception of Christianity as an ethical way of life; and its commitment to make Christianity credible and socially relevant to modern people. Dorrien takes a narrative approach and provides a biographical reading of important religious thinkers of the time, including William E. Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Charles Briggs. Dorrien notes that, although liberal theology moved into elite academic institutions, its conceptual foundations were laid in the pulpit rather than the classroom.
Download or read book Bernard Eugene Meland s Unpublished Papers written by John N. Gaston and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12-18 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard Eugene Meland (1899–1993) was a leader in the pragmatic tradition of constructive theology associated with the University of Chicago. This volume contains more than forty-six previously unpublished lectures, reports, and other personal documents that Meland wrote at various times between 1937 and 1979. It is a companion volume to W. Creighton Peden’s book, Life and Thought of Bernard Eugene Meland, American Constructive Theologian, 1899–1993, and is intended to give the reader a deeper understanding of Meland’s methods and thought.
Download or read book The Spirit of American Liberal Theology written by Gary Dorrien and published by Presbyterian Publishing Corp. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 661 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Spirit of American Liberal Theology is an interpretation of the entire U.S. American tradition of liberal theology. A highly condensed and far-more-accessible summary of Gary Dorrien’s three-volume trilogy, The Making of American Liberal Theology (Westminster John Knox Press 2001, 2003, and 2006), Dorrien here presses the argument that the most abundant, diverse, and persistent tradition of liberal theology is the one that blossomed in the United States and is still refashioning itself. While discussions of English and German liberalism persist, new material includes expanded treatment of the Black social gospel, the Universalists, developments into early 2020s, and a robust expression of the author’s post-Hegelian liberal-liberationist perspective.
Download or read book Christian Tradition Today written by Jeffrey C. K. Goh and published by Peeters Publishers. This book was released on 2000 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study critically examines the postliberal project, with special reference to George Lindbeck, the "founding father" of postliberalism. In an age of profound cultural change, is it feasible to locate the future of the Church and of the world on a consensus-building hermeneutic that dwells in the particularity of the Christian Scripture as its exclusive home? Seeing the theological task as a hermeneutical task founded upon the premise that truth is revealed in a dialectical way, the author provides an intelligible framework for dialogue with the postliberal school of thought. This dialogue, he argues, is ultimately determined by the overarching question of what it means to be Church. Towards a critical synthesis of the ecclesiological impact of this dialogue, the author offers a tightly argued and informative discussion on five pairs of key concepts: tradition and authority, Bible and de-Christianization, hermeneutics and revelation, religion and experience, doctrine and truth.
Download or read book The Order of Things written by Alister E. McGrath and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provocative and immensely well informed, The Order of Things represents a substantial and original contribution to the fields of systematic theology, historical theology, and the science and religion dialogue. Leading theologian, Alister E. McGrath explores how the working methods and assumptions of the natural sciences can be used to inform and stimulate systematic theology. Written by one of today's best-known Christian writers Explores how the working methods and assumptions of the natural sciences can be used to inform and stimulate systematic theology Continues McGrath’s acclaimed exploration of scientific theology, begun with his groundbreaking three-volume work, A Scientific Theology Includes a landmark extended analysis of whether doctrinal development can be explained using Darwinian evolutionary models, and exploration of how the transition from a “scientific theology” to a future “scientific dogmatics” might be made Supported by a published review of McGrath’s scientific theology project, which is currently the best brief introduction to his thought.
Download or read book The Abuse of Power written by James Newton Poling and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pastoral care instruction and observation from a therapist of survivors of sexual abuse. "The Abuse of Power is 'must' reading for clergy and denominational officials.... Weaving case stories with theory, Poling demonstrates that sexual abuse of children is not a private matter, but very much a matter for society and church--a question of structure and ideology, not just of individual character. He is not afraid to tackle the tough question: Does the image of God sacrificing Jesus on the cross contribute to abusive parent-child relationships?...If pastors and church officials read this book the church will change." --Karen Lebacqz, Pacific School of Religion "For the exploitation of women and children to stop, men must be willing to break ranks with all forms of privilege that sanction male dominance. James Poling does so by deconstructing his own sense of male entitlement, by refusing to distance himself from perpetrators, by allowing survivors of sexual and domestic violence to speak with their own voices, by giving us profound words of hope, and by articulating a powerfully healing theology wrought through the depths of his own struggle with one of the worst evils in our society. His courageous and compassionate work reveals the love and hope that is born of solidarity across the boundaries of gender, sexual orientation, race, and economics....The psychological, political, spiritual, and theological power of this book is such that all educators, ministers, therapists, and Christians must read it." --Rita Nakashima Brock, Hamline University Chapter titles are: 1. Hearing the Silenced Voices 2. Power and Abuse of Power 3. "Karen": Survivor of Sexual Violence 4. Stories of Recovering Perpetrators 5. The Schreber Case: Methods of Analysis 6. The Search for Self 7. The Search for Community 8. The Search for God 9. Ministry Practice and Practical Theology
Download or read book The Human Image of God written by Hans-Georg Ziebertz and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new wave of religious energy is sweeping through the western nations. Although God is disappearing from religious discourse in western culture, both as a word and as a concept, there is a definite undercurrent of religious ardour, which is growing in strength. It focuses all the more attention on the issue: what or who is God in the modern era? This is the question examined through systematic studies, practical theology and empirical research, that are presented here through anthropologically relevant theology. Renowned international authors make it plain in this book: the question of God is exciting again! This book is published in honour of Johannes A. van der Ven on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
Download or read book The Transforming God written by Tyron Inbody and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a bold new approach to the theological interpretation of human suffering. Beginning with a description of suffering and evil as religious problems, Inbody moves to a critique of the all-loving and omnipotent deity in classical theism, concluding with a radical interpretation of the Christian God as a vulnerable, transforming God.
Download or read book Queer Christianities written by Kathleen T. Talvacchia and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Queerness and Christianity, often depicted as mutually exclusive, both challenge received notions of the good and the natural. Nowhere is this challenge more visible than in the identities, faiths, and communities that queer Christians have long been creating. As Christians they have staked a claim for a Christianity that is true to their self-understandings. How do queer-identified persons understand their religious lives? And in what ways do the lived experiences of queer Christians respond to traditions and reshape them in contemporary practice? Queer Christianities integrates the perspectives of queer theory, religious studies, and Christian theology into a lively conversation—both transgressive and traditional—about the fundamental questions surrounding the lives of queer Christians. The volume contributes to the emerging scholarly discussion on queer religious experiences as lived both within communities of Christian confession, as well as outside of these established communities. Organized around traditional Christian states of life—celibacy, matrimony, and what is here provocatively conceptualized as promiscuity—this work reflects the ways in which queer Christians continually reconstruct and multiply the forms these states of life take. Queer Christianities challenges received ideas about sexuality and religion, yet remains true to Christian self-understandings that are open to further enquiry and to further queerness.
Download or read book Religious Naturalism Today written by Jerome A. Stone and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2008-12-18 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previously a forgotten option in religious thinking, religious naturalism is coming back. It seeks to explore and encourage religious ways of responding to the world on a completely naturalistic basis without a supreme being or ground of being. In this book, Jerome A. Stone traces its history and analyzes some of the issues dividing religious naturalists. He includes analysis of nearly fifty distinguished philosophers, theologians, scientists, and figures in art and literature, both living and dead. They range from Ursula Goodenough, Gordon Kaufman, William Dean, Thomas Berry, and Gary Snyder to Jan Christiaan Smuts, William Bernhardt, Gregory Bateson, and Sharon Welch.
Download or read book Transforming Process Theism written by Lewis S. Ford and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2000-05-18 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Process theism, in a variety of manifestations and modifications stemming from Whitehead's original suggestions, dominates discussions of philosophical and natural theology in Europe and America. In Transforming Process Theism Ford argues that subsequent modifications of Whitehead's original line of thought mask a fundamental and unresolved aporia in that original proposal: since only past or "objectified" determinate events can influence present experiences and since God, as conceived by Whitehead, is never fully determinate or objectifiable as a "past event", it is difficult to see how this divine persuasive power can have any influence on the present as a source of creativity and genuinely new possibilities for enactment. Ford meticulously reconstructs and evaluates Whitehead's own versions of theism, and he critically appraises the most influential subsequent modifications of these unrecognized variants by other process thinkers. He recovers the original trajectory of Whitehead's continuous revision of his conception of God, and forges an appropriate solution to this central aporia. He concludes that -- consistent with Whitehead's overarching metaphysical principles, there is another kind of causal influence that does not require objectification, and is the opposite of past determinateness. The future, conceived as active, offers an account of subjectivity which is both universal and transcendent. God, according to Ford's revisions, must be understood as this particular but indefinite creativity or universal activity of the future, bestowing subjectivity on each present occasion of experience without ever becoming determinate.
Download or read book Learning on Life s Way written by Paul R. Sponheim and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-08-27 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born into a pack of religiously divided siblings with a devout mother and an agnostic father, Sponheim finds the triad of faith/unfaith/many faiths central in telling the tall tale of God. Through his half-century of teaching and writing, the doctrine of creation becomes decisive for Sponheim, featuring a God who has a "very big operation going in this world." Drawing on such diverse mentors as Soren Kierkegaard, Alfred North Whitehead, and feminist authors, he offers a deeply relational conception of the "tallness," the height, humankind seeks. In his own family he sees God's operation in such diverse worlds as music, science, and athletics. Personally, he has witnessed the saving work of the Creator in such worldly affairs as inner city social change programs, a domestic abuse project, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Without compromising a present-time "ethic of risk," he closes with an eschatological exploration, asking "What future would do, if it were true?" And "Is it true?"
Download or read book Theology in a Global Context written by Hans Schwarz and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2005-11 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Hans Schwarz leads us into the web of Christian theology's recent past from Kant and Schleiermacher to Mbiti and Zizoulas, pointing out all the theologians of the last two hundred years who have had a major impact beyond their own context. With an eye to the blending of theology and biography, Schwarz draws the lines of connection between theologians, their history, and wider theological movements. - Publisher.
