Theology Today

I'm concerned. That should not be surprising to you if you read this blog much. If you don't, scroll down and you'll see I'm a concerned person - I think.

Anyway, I am concerned with the state of theology today - these are thoughts that have been ruminating for a few months. I feel theology falling into two general camps today. One would be an inward theology and the other an outward theology. Let me briefly explain.

I see inward theology as a "closed" theology. It is becoming more and more prevalent in theology today. It is typified by a couple of groups - narrative theologians, Barthians, Balthasarians, and Radical Orthodox theologians. Essentially, I am talking about anti-modern theologians. These theologians all take aim at modernity and the thinking of modernity, specifically the turn to the subject and the subsequent subject/object distinction that is made. They feel as though the goal of theology is not to "play the games" of modernity or "secular" thinking, but to articulate what it is that the church believes and has always believed. The audience is usually the church or believers or sympathizers.

This theology is beneficial at times, but it takes few if any pains to articulate the beliefs of the church to people outside the church. The goal is not communication, but belief and dogmatics (for a good discussion of these terms, see Bernard Lonergan's Method in Theology). And I find this theology detrimental - and ironic - in that I do not think it is true to the Christian tradition. If one looks at what this theology does, it articulates the Christian position strictly from what it finds in the Christian tradition. It says that it's only source is the Christian tradition (even though many are based upon secular philosophies and thinking, specifically that of Wittgentstein and Geertz). In Christian tradition, though, theology finds much inspiration from that which is not specifically Christian - think everyone from Justin Martyr, Origen, the Cappadocians, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, John Scotus Eriugena, Thomas Aquinas, Nicholas of Cusa, etc.

So, if you can't tell, this theology concerns me because it seems to have lost that specifically theological function of communicating the Christian to the secular - and seeing that the secular may contain elements of the sacred.

On the other end of the spectrum is an outward theology, or a theology that only looks outward for its sources. This theology is typified by the fact that it tries to make the secular sacred. Many times, this theology is more concerned with legitimating that which is outside of it. These theologies are usually focused around social issues, although much of the theology and science debate is shaped by these types of concerns. The concern of theology is always set by those outside of theology.

This theology is becoming more and more prevalent the more that theology becomes in dialogue with other disciplines. I find the dialogue great, but become fearful when the agenda is set for theology by those outside of the discipline. For example, in current discussions of what makes a person, science has said certain things and set the criteria for what makes a person. Theology then is required to capitulate to this for the dialogue to take place.

This concerns me in that theology's criteria and concern is set by those outside of theology. Theology becomes a sub-discipline. It's methods and criteria for meaning, meaningfulness and truth is not really taken seriously.

What I propose is a theology that mediates these two. It has to be a theology thoroughly informed by the Christian tradition and with the intention of communicating this tradition, but it cannot close itself off to the outside world. It must communicate the message to those outside of itself - and this means attempting to articulate this in the language and worldview of the people with whom the conversation is taking place. However, theology must not allow the outside to dictate what it is that it should be saying, talking about, or seeing as adequate information.