Pastoral care and psychology of religion: Toward a new alliance

This paper explores the possibility of a closer working relationship between psychologists of religion and professionals in pastoral care. The first part identifies the major conceptual problems of pastoral psychology and pastoral theology. The second part indicates how psychology of religion provides pastoral psychology and pastoral theology with resources for solving these problems. The author concludes that grounds for an alliance between psychology of religion and pastoral care clearly exist; both, for example, share a fundamental interest in personal transformation and integration.This article was presented on the occasion of Professor Capps' installation as a member of the Phillips faculty.     

Concept, Image and Story in Systematic Theology

This article enquires about the place of 'aesthetic theology' within the conceptual enterprise of systematic theology. If narrative theology is to be of any help in answering the question, it will have to include an appeal to extra-biblical images and stories in its method, and will also need to relate metaphor to some kind of analogy and metaphysics (carefully defined). Working from a theological basis in doctrines of revelation and canon, poems and novels outside the Bible may thus be seen to contribute to systematic theology in at least three ways: in deciding between concepts, in enabling connections to be made between concepts, and in developing the Christian story for the present age. Finally, the concept of God as 'relational being' is explored as an example of aesthetic forms of theological discourse, connecting everyday religious speech to systematic theology with an 'analogy of relations'.     

ARE LIBERALS AND EVANGELICALS SINGING FROM THE SAME SONG SHEET?

Characterising Liberal and Evangelical theology as positions on a continuum or spectrum is common within Protestant circles. I argue that Liberals and Evangelicals do not share a common conceptual framework but embody competing and incommensurable conceptual schemes. Liberal theology then is not a distortion of true Biblical Christianity, as is often supposed, but rather is an entirely different approach to doing theology, indeed, to seeing the world. What I hope to achieve by way of this paper is to provide a context within which to better understand both Liberal and Evangelical claims, and to offer an explanation as to why the debates between the two schools are seemingly intractable. Further, I hope to encourage Liberals and Evangelicals to pursue the difficult task of understanding each other's position so that genuine dialogue can take place.     

Doing Justice to Difference: Stanley Hauerwas and Public Theology

Stanley Hauerwas’s theology is widely read as a rejection of the world in favor of the church, and thus the antithesis of politically-engaged, publicly-minded theologies like Reinhold Niebuhr's. However, Hauerwas's critical work can be more fruitfully understood as an effort in disambiguating concepts like “love” and “justice.” Attending to the role language plays in Hauerwas's thought shows how neo-Anabaptist theology acts as a corrective to, not a rejection of, public theology. Charles Mathewes's The Republic of Grace is one example of a neo-Augustinian political theology that takes Hauerwas's conceptual clarifications seriously.     

Is Eusebius of Caesarea a ‘Nicene’? A Contribution to the Notion of Conciliar Theology

Amidst recent explorations in conciliar theology by Timothy Pawl and others, pressing questions about our theological readings of the councils have arisen – are we to treat the theology of the councils as unique to their historical context? Or as a unified body of ‘conciliar’ theology? This paper addresses these questions, using Eusebius of Caesarea as a unique example of Nicene theology. It defines the metrics for evaluating different definitions of the term ‘Nicene’ by distinguishing between judgements and concepts. Then, it ‘measures’ Eusebius’ theology according to the two proposed definitions. Finally, it offers constructive comments for conciliar theology, claiming that conceptual language is clarified through the councils, even if its interpretation is not immediately fixed.     

Principles of Systematic Theology

The Holy Trinity is the ontological principle of Christian systematic theology. Its external or objective cognitive principle is the divine Word, by which, through the prophets and apostles and with the illumination of the Spirit, God's incommunicable self-knowledge is accommodated to the saints. The internal or subjective cognitive principle is the redeemed intelligence of the saints. Systematic theology is thus ectypal knowledge (derived from God's disclosure of his archetypal self-knowledge), and a subaltern or subordinate science. Its matter is twofold: God, and all things in God. Accordingly, it is best arranged as a treatment of God in himself, followed by a treatment of the outer works of God, with a theology of the divine missions as the hinge between the two. This arrangement offers a synthetic and conceptual transposition of the primary language of Scripture.     

Models of God

This essay compares and contrasts nine different conceptual models of God: atheism, agnosticism, deism, theism, pantheism, polytheism, henotheism, panentheism, and eschatological panentheism. This essay justifies employment of the model method in theology based on commitments within philosophical hermeneutics, philosophy of science, and the theological understanding of divine transcendence. The result is an array of conceptual models of the divine which have reference, but which make indirect rather than literal claims. Of the analyzed models, this essay defends “eschatological panentheism” as the most satisfying model for Christian constructive theology. This paper was delivered during the APA Pacific 2007 Mini-Conference on Models of God.     

Science and Religion: Ten Models of War,Truce, and Partnership

Public discourse today continues to propagate the simplistic idea that science and religion are engaged in a hopelessly unwinnable war. This is misleading. Science and religion interact at so many different junctures and in so many different ways that any simple generalization misguides us. This essay provides an updated inventory of ten popular conceptual models for relating science and theology, when theology is understood as rational reflection on religion. Four influential models assume that a war is taking place: (1) scientism; (2) scientific imperialism; (3) theological authoritarianism; and (4) the evolution controversy. Six additional preferred models assume a truce or even more, a partnership: (5) the Two Books; (6) the Two Languages; (7) ethical alliance; (8) dialogue accompanied by creative mutual interaction; (9) naturalism; and (10) theology of nature. Special attention will be given to creative mutual interaction within a framework of a theology of nature.     

Where has hope gone? Toward an understanding of hope in pastoral care

This paper questions the lack of a conceptual model or psychology of hope for pastoral theology and proceeds to develop such a psychology by surveying the theology of hope, by reviewing the dynamics of hoping of some contemporary philosophers and psychologists, and by proposing a hypothesis that hope is difficult to conceptualize because the mode of hoping is nonabstract, relational, nonlinear, and imaginative, all right-lobe brain functions more characteristic of Eastern than Western consciousness. Six implications of this hypothesis for pastoral care are suggested.Research for this paper and work on hope as it relates to pastoral care and counseling was made possible by a year's sabbatical leave from St. Paul School of Theology.     

Two sorts of natural theology

Usually, natural theology is understood as the project of providing arguments for the existence of God. This project is endorsed by Moreland and Craig. McGrath, on the other hand, says that this project fails. In the first part of this article, I show how McGrath’s dismissal of arguments for the existence of God follows from his view of natural theology. In the second part, I argue that McGrath’s natural theology contains an accurate critique of Moreland and Craig’s way of doing natural theology, a critique that exposes two major problems in their treatment of the moral argument for the existence of God. In the third part, I propose a way of providing arguments for the existence of God that avoids the problems pointed out by McGrath, namely a way of arguing that seeks to show how theology may improve a certain non-theistic understanding of a natural phenomenon.     

THE LIMITS OF PRAGMATISM AND THE LIMITS OF REALISM

Abstract. I argue here for a limited version of pragmatism—called conceptual pragmatism—that recognizes that conceptual systems are to be evaluated according to their usefulness for helping us get around in the world. Once a conceptual system is in place, however, the truth of sentences is a matter of both empirical tit and coherence with the rest of our knowledge. The error of critical realists is to fail to take into account the limited conceptual relativity that is to be expected on the basis of conceptual pragmatism. The conceptual realist thesis applies equally in science and theology.     

Chaos Theology: A New Approach to the Science-Theology Dialogue

Comparison of the concepts of creation from chaos and creation out of nothing ( creatio ex nihilo ) leads me to reject the latter for several reasons: it is not the biblical concept, and it presents serious conceptual, scientific, and theological problems. Chaos theology is outlined under the headings creation from chaos; chaos and contingency; chaos, evil, and creativity; chaos and incarnation; chaos and eschatology. It is shown to be well suited for the science-theology dialogue by some examples of its application to aspects of cosmic and biological evolution: initial mystery, separation and ordering; chaos and entropy; contingency and fine-tuning of the universe; purpose and progressiveness in evolution; and complexity theory and chaos events.     

Hope

Hope is a central topic in Christian theology. In the Nordic countries, it holds a prominent place in recent contributions. The present article discusses relevant elements related to Christian hope in a wider context of politics, other imaginaries, and constructive and critical proposals. Taking its point of departure in conceptual nuances suggested by Derrida, it discusses the recent contributions of Herms, Keller and McCord Adams with regard to how a theological explication of hope can be developed in contemporary constructive theology.     

Honesty in Theology?

There is risk of intellectual dishonesty in the act of modernizing traditional doctrines. One reason theologians reform traditional doctrines is that the original formulations have become incredible to them. This is seldom honestly admitted. It is further dishonestly claimed that new formulations have a direct conceptual link to the old as if the new were the old retold. However, many times the connection between the new theology and the old is in name only, with radically new understanding for an old term. Can we honestly say so? Theology should resuscitate questions of intellectual honesty that were present at the Liberal theology's origins in the interest of maximizing honest theological inquiry. Can theology construct an ethics of belief for itself?     

AN AUGUSTINIAN PHILOSOPHER BETWEEN DUALISM AND MATERIALISM: ERNAN MCMULLIN ON HUMAN EMERGENCE

In claiming the independence of theology from science, Ernan McMullin nevertheless saw the danger of separating these disciplines on questions of mutual significance, as his accompanying article “Biology and the Theology of the Human” in this edition of Zygon shows. This paper analyzes McMullin's adoption of emergence as a qualified endorsement of a view that avoids the excesses of both dualism and materialism. I argue that McMullin's distinctive contribution is the conceptual clarification of emergence in the light of a precise understanding of matter, in light of Aristotelian metaphysics and Darwinian theory. As applied to human nature, McMullin retains an Augustinian outlook that sees spirit as emergent in the human body and which posits a credible biblical hermeneutic. I indicate briefly how McMullin's perspective could be fortified by a fuller natural theology.     

Noreen Herzfeld Technology and Religion: Remaining Human in a Co-created World

ABSTRACT

Astrotheology, not simply a theology of space sciences, is necessary because astrobiology effects a conceptual shift in how we ask the question “Why do we exist?” Here I suggest characterizing that shift in terms of the intra-action of living systems and habitable environments, which has serious implications for approaches to doctrinal theology. I consider this in terms of the imago Dei and what implications a transdisciplinary approach to astrotheology might in turn have for reframing SETI and METI endeavors as a quest for an Extraterrestrial imago Dei (SETiD or METiD).     

WHY SHOULD THEOLOGY BE UNNATURAL?

The recovery of theological integrity effected by Karl Barth has very much to do with his polemic against natural theology. Theology has regained credibility, however, at the price of being made unnatural, severed from the world in its own ecclesiastical sphere. This actually represents an indirect endorsement of natural theology inasmuch as the naturalistic understanding of the world is taken for granted as the way the world is. One result of this is the virtual abandonment of nature for theology, reflected in an alienation from science and a disinterest in ecology. The more specific object of Barth's critique of natural theology, Nazism, may also exert a reverse influence on Barth's theology, helping to account for its Christological exclusivism. The implication of this is that the critique of natural theology requires a renewed appreciation of the naturalness of theology.     

Reconciliation without violence

Is it possible to solve conflicts without using violence, or is the use of violent retribution necessary to solve problems and restore peace after serious crimes and offences? This is a classical question in the philosophy of law and in all the disciplines dealing with conflict resolution. It is also an important question in theology. The material for this article comes from interviews with sons who have grown up with violent fathers, and from philosophical and theological texts dealing with the theme of conflict resolution. In contemporary theology it is necessary to confront images of God as a violent patriarch and punisher, but still it is important to develop a theology of God as the fair and good judge. The God of reconciliation is not only the forgiver, but also the one who confronts Evil with wrath and resentment.     

Paradox and Mystery in Theology

The question of paradox in Christian theology continues to attract attention in contemporary philosophical theology. Much of this attention understandably centers on the epistemological problems paradoxical claims pose for Christian faith. But even among those who conclude that certain points of Christian theology are paradoxical and that belief in paradoxical points of doctrine is epistemically supportable, concepts of the nature and function of paradox in Christian theology differ significantly. In this essay, after briefly noting the diversity of phenomena that count as paradoxes in contemporary discourse, I critique two of the most helpful accounts of paradox in Christian theology available – James Anderson's and C. Stephen Evans's – on the way to proposing an alternative definition. That definition combines the most helpful features of those two accounts while correcting certain weaknesses in each. The result is a definition of paradox as a particular kind of mystery that fits the Reformed strand of Christian theology particularly well and involves a compelling analysis of the spirituality of the phenomenon of paradox in theology.