In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: A Critical Reflection on the Trinitarian Theologies of Religion of S. Mark Heim and Gavin D'Costa

Abstract:  S. Mark Heim and Gavin D'Costa are two significant contemporary authors grounding a theology of religions in the doctrine of the Trinity. This article critically examines their respective interpretations of the doctrine of the Trinity, and their deployment of this doctrine in appreciation of religious difference. Heim, in his attempt to provide a theological validation for the world religions, departs from more traditional formulations of the Trinity. Ironically, this departure means that he fails to describe the world religions in their own particularity, that is, as they would describe themselves. D'Costa, by contrast, maintains a sound trinitarian position, and raises the question of Christian responsibility toward the world religions from precisely this theological grounding. He does not conceptualize the religions within a theological framework, but does demonstrate that engagement with the religions constitutes an obedient ecclesial response to the Trinity.     

Bioethics, theology, and social change

Recent years have witnessed a concern among theological bioethicists that secular debate has grown increasingly "thin," and that "thick" religious traditions and their spokespersons have been correspondingly excluded. This essay disputes that analysis. First, religious and theological voices compete for public attention and effectiveness with the equally "thick" cultural traditions of modern science and market capitalism. The distinctive contribution of religion should be to emphasize social justice in access to the benefits of health care, challenging the for-profit global marketing of research and biotechnology to wealthy consumers. Second, religion and theology have been and are still socially effective in sponsoring activism for practical change, both locally and globally. This claim will be supported with specific examples; with familiar concepts like subsidiarity and "middle axioms"; and with recent analyses of "participatory democracy" and of emerging, decentralized forms of global governance.     

THEOLOGICAL ETHICS, THE CHURCHES, AND GLOBAL POLITICS

Several discourses about theology, church, and politics are occurring among Christian theologians in the United States. One influential strand centers on the communitarian theology of Stanley Hauerwas, who calls on Christians to witness faithfully against liberalism in general and war in particular. Jeffrey Stout, in his widely discussed Democracy and Tradition (2004), responds that religious people ought precisely to endorse those democratic and liberal American traditions that join religious and secular counterparts to battle injustice. Hauerwas, Stout, and many of their interlocutors envision liberal U.S. culture as the context of Christian social ethics. The ensuing debate rarely incorporates Catholic scholars, feminist scholars, scholars of color, or international and liberationist voices. Their inclusion could enhance an understanding of the role of the church in society, and support a common morality in the face of global pluralism. More importantly, it could broaden the scope of discourse on religion and politics to envision global Christian social ethics.     

Hegel’s Secular Theology

This essay attempts to present Hegel as a secular theologian and to argue that the theological dimension of Hegel’s thought is central to his entire philosophy and is, in fact, the leitmotif that draws together all of his work. The task of overcoming the dualism between the sacred and the secular provides the driving spirit of all Hegel’s endeavors, from his juvenilia to the mature thought of his Heidelberg and Berlin periods. A secular theology demonstrates its commitment to secularity through three main affirmations: (1) the full reality and significance of this world, (2) the autonomy of the different fields of culture and knowledge besides that of religion, and (3) the epistemological authority of reason and shared experience in determining the real and the true. Hegel’s secular theology, however, has an ambiguous relationship with most forms of theism, including panentheism.     

SAVING THE “SECULAR”: The Public Vocation of Moral Theology1

The London suicide bombings of July 7, 2005 were partly the revolt of moral earnestness against a liberal society that, enchanted by the fantasy of rationalist anthropology, surrenders its passionate members to a degrading consumerism. The “humane” liberalism variously espoused by Jürgen Habermas, John Rawls, and Jeffrey Stout offers a dignifying alternative; but it is fragile, and each of its proponents looks for allies among certain kinds of religious believer. Stanley Hauerwas, however, counsels Christians against cooperation. On the one hand, he is right to resist, insofar as liberalism illiberally excludes theology from public discourse. On the other hand, not all humane liberalism does this: Stout's, for example, is genuinely polyglot, requiring not a common secularist language but a common ethic of communicating. Such a liberal ethic and its attendant anthropology merit the support of Christians: there may be more to be said about the Kingdom of God than respect, tolerance, and fairness, but there will not be less. The Christian has good theological reasons to expect some concord with other inhabitants of secular space. Ethical distinctiveness is no measure of theological integrity; and neither theology (pace Barth) nor biblical narrative (pace Richard Hays) should be expected to do all of the ethical running. If Christians are to be thorough in their moral theology and intelligible in their public statements, then they must borrow non‐theological material, formulate abstract concepts, and engage in casuistical analysis. Nevertheless, if an anxious insistence on distinctiveness is a mistake, concern for theological integrity is not. When the moral theologian borrows ethical material from elsewhere, he should integrate it into a theological vision structured by the Christian salvation‐historical narrative, which will sometimes modify the meaning of what is incorporated. So in affirming humane, polyglot liberalism, the moral theologian will at the same time make salutary qualifications. One of these is the assertion of the need of liberal institutions to own and promote their moral and anthropological commitments. In such a confessionally liberal society, universities in general, and the Arts and Humanities in particular, would recover their vocation to form citizens in communicative virtues and to offer them a dignifying, morally serious vision of human being that could save future generations from a degrading consumerism on the one hand and violent over‐reaction on the other.     

DIGGING IT: ON UNDERSTANDING THEOLOGY AS BRICKLAYING

The connections Stanley Hauerwas draws between his theological work and the craft of bricklaying, which he learned from his father, invites comparison with Seamus Heaney's depiction of poetry as digging. Both men understand their task of writing as hard and precise labour that pays close attention to given materials and that honours the complexities of the past. I consider how the characterisation of theology as bricklaying‐like work, integral to Hauerwas’ professional and personal self‐understanding, may shape his theological approaches and priorities, and ask how this might contrast with other possible approaches formed from other historical contexts.     

Slavoj Žižek,the Death Drive,and Zombies: A Theological Account

In this article, I discuss the question of the hybridity of the religious and the secular through the example of the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj ?i?ek and his psychoanalytically inspired notion of the undead. The undead is ?i?ek's rendering of the Freudian death drive, and as the undead is instantiated in the popular culture cliché of the zombies, we need to look no further than to George A. Romero's classic zombie movie Night of the Living Dead from 1968. Thus, this article proceeds in three steps: first, I trace the concept of the death drive from Freud to ?i?ek, supplemented, for their theological importance, by two contemporary philosophers, Jonathan Lear and Eric Santner. Second, I discuss the zombie in contemporary popular culture, with a focus on Romero's movies, and whether such cinematic representations can function as a kind of cultural critique. In conclusion, I return to the question of theology by showing what ?i?ek means by theology and contrasting as well as comparing his philosophy to Augustine's anthropology. Despite ?i?ek's atheistic confession and his dismissal of all pre‐modern philosophy and theology, I show that Augustine's anthropology is structurally similar to ?i?ek's, thus suggesting that the relationship is more complex than ?i?ek allows. Both are united in rejecting any superficial and transparent understanding of self, and become, consequently, an example of the ambiguous relationship between religion and secularity in contemporary times.     

The Economy and Money in Three Recent Mission Documents

While economic issues are not usually much debated in theology, three recent mission documents (The Cape Town Commitment, Together towards Life and Evangelii Gaudium) have directly addressed them, criticizing globalized capitalism more or less sharply and explicitly. However, all three lack transparency in that possible analysis which might provide foundation for the statements made is not visible. Additionally, the critique offered is vague and general except for some relatively concrete propositions in Evangelii Gaudium with seemingly social‐democrat overtones. Thus these documents do not readily connect with economic, political, and social scientific discourses, which reduces their applicability predominantly to the religious sphere and further supports an Enlightenment sacred/secular dichotomy that conflicts with the approach advocated in Together towards Life. In order to increase the relevance of theological arguments concerning economic issues to spheres beyond the churches, theologians need to cooperate with economists and familiarize themselves with economic theories and practices before prescribing policies based on theological argumentation.     

How Separable Are Spirituality and Theology in Psychotherapy?

The authors respond to D. A. Helminiak's (2001) article “Treating Spiritual Issues in Secular Psychotherapy.” They focus particularly on Helminiak's argument for secular spirituality (whether spirituality can be independent of theology/religion) and his inherent biases in discussing the nature and existence of spirituality. The authors argue that all spiritual conceptions have theological implications—and thus a theology, broadly defined—and that theology, in this sense, pervades the theory and practice of all psychotherapists, whether or not they are religious.     

Salvation, Liberation and Christian Character Formation: Postliberal and Liberation Theologians in Dialogue

This article analyzes North American postliberal theological assessments of Latin American liberationists by focusing on Stanley Hauerwas's and George Hunsinger's critical reflections on Gustavo Gutiérrez's theology. Both conclude that Gutiérrez tends to conflate salvation with socio-political liberation. The author argues that reading Gutiérrez's theology from a regulative doctrinal perspective (as articulated in George Lindbeck's The Nature of Doctrine ) reveals a doctrinal structure holding salvation and liberation as a unity without confusion. Furthermore the author suggests that there is a mutually beneficial complementarity between Hauerwas and Gutiérrez regarding central aspects of their views on cultivating appropriate Christian character.     

Faith in the Research Process: Information Behavior at Claremont School of Theology

Abstract

Faith significantly affects the educational experience in graduate studies of religion and theology. This study explored the roles of graduate theological students’ religious faith and degree program affiliation in their information behaviors, particularly their degree-related research behaviors at Claremont School of Theology. The purpose was to explore problems in information action inherent to the dichotomy between academic study of theology that leads to Master of Arts (MA) degree and professional study of theology that leads to Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree. The research design incorporated interviews of MA and MDiv students regarding the roles of their religious faith, degree program affiliation and interpersonal information sources in their research processes. Data were collected, coded and analyzed as a lens into the social network of the theological research community. The study found that information behavior does relate to degree program affiliations and students’ religious faith. Degree program affiliation and religious faith background are relevant to graduate theological research processes and may be useful to consider in research consultations and bibliographic instruction in graduate theological education.     

BOOK REVIEWS

About 25% of the Jewish population in Israel consists of “secular believers.” They self-identify as secular but also believe in God or some kind of higher/deeper power(s). Their identity conflicts with the conventional identification of secularism with atheism, as do post-secular theologies, whose theological ideas reject traditional religion while adopting concepts of faith. Western feminism proved especially conducive to the development of post-secular theology. This study addresses both Israeli Judaism and feminist theology from a post-secular perspective. It analyses two academic fields of discourse—feminist Jewish theology and feminism in Israel—to determine whether, how and why they are developing a Jewish post-secular feminist theology. The study reveals that such theologies are rare and suggests that discursive field structure limits their development.     

“To Teach Them to See”: Teaching Christian Theology in Material Things

Teachers of theology or religious studies readily seek to open their students to the interpretation of theological texts. Do they share a similar readiness to open students to the interpretation of religious symbols and artifacts, the material cultures of religious faiths? Although theological studies have preferred the abstract concept over the material object, any proper understanding of religious faith must admit some form of direct encounter with the constellation of material symbols surrounding that faith. Teaching students to “read” the material symbols of faith does not do away with the need to help them read and interpret the written word, but supplements and deepens humane, scholarly reflection on religious faith. Helping students to see, to interpret what they see, and to re‐view their understanding of the religious symbol or artifact amounts to teaching a visual theology; a helpful and necessary challenge for the teacher of theology or religious studies.     

The Religious Meaning of Culture: Paul Tillich and Beyond

Throughout his theological career Paul Tillich (1886–1965) was fundamentally concerned with the question of the religious meaning of culture. The answers that he gave – initially in the revolutionary ferment of 1920s–1930s Germany and then again in the brave new world of post‐World War II America – were profound and far‐reaching in their importance for twentieth‐century theology. This article will explore the development of Tillich's interpretations of the religious meaning of culture and apply his analyses to our contemporary religious and cultural situation by suggesting a trinitarian enlargement of Tillich's concept of theonomous metaphysics towards a multidimensional theology of culture.     

REMEMBERING HOW AND WHAT I THINK: A Response to the JRE Articles on Hauerwas

In this essay Stanley Hauerwas reflects on his life's work by responding to the critical contributions found in the essays of this volume. Rather than trying to defend a “position,” Hauerwas takes this opportunity to offer further insight into how he sees his work to be driven by theology, insofar as his ethical reflection cannot be extricated from Christological considerations. It is this Christological center that allows him to avoid making a false separation between the person and work of Jesus Christ. For Hauerwas, only in maintaining its Christological center can Christian “ethics” be understood in continuity with the practices of the church, including the practice of Christian speech. Without this continuity, “ethics” fails to be theological.     

Reinhold Niebuhr in Contemporary Scholarship

Recent studies of Reinhold Niebuhr's life and work demonstrate his continued importance in theology, ethics, and political thought. Historical studies by Heather Warren, Mark Kleinman, and Normunds Kamergrauzis provide new assessments of Niebuhr's role as a political and religious leader in his own time and trace the consequences of the movements in which he participated. They also show us more clearly how his work was connected to the ideas and programs of his contemporaries. Colm McKeogh offers a more systematic treatment of Niebuhr's political realism in relation to just war theory. Niebuhr's intellectual legacy remains disputed, with Stanley Hauerwas and Langdon Gilkey offering radically different assessments of his theology. Hauerwas sees in Niebuhr a close connection to the religious liberalism of William James that precludes any authentic Christian witness. Niebuhr's empiricism reduces God to a necessary feature of human consciousness. Gilkey notes Niebuhr's early use of James' psychology, but discerns a theology of history that is central to Niebuhr's mature work. In that theology, the ground of hope necessarily lies beyond human consciousness, and indeed beyond history itself.     

Political theology in a Nordic post-secular setting

The current return of religion into the public sphere in Europe calls for a rethinking of traditional standpoints in political theology. The present article discusses the Lutheran idea of “two kingdoms,” which has been important in a Nordic setting. The author shows how the theological idea of two kingdoms has changed in the time after Luther. Originally, in pre-modernity, church and state were both seen from a religious point of view. God the creator was presupposed by all citizens. In modernity a secular view-point became the one taken for granted, defining also the way the spiritual realm was comprehended. In a post-secular context neither of these positions can be taken for granted. Current political theology must search for a post-secular solution that goes beyond the dichotomy of politics belonging to a secular sphere and Christian life belonging to a religious one. The article analyses some examples of how the idea of the post-secular has been discussed. Taking its starting-point in ideas by thinkers informed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, the article stresses the importance of taking concrete contexts into account in every discussion of political ethics. The position presented points in the direction of “radical democracy” newly discussed by several theologians.     

STAGE‐TWO SECULARITY AND THE FUTURE OF THEOLOGY‐AND‐SCIENCE

Charles Taylor has recently provided an in‐depth exploration of secularity, with a central characteristic being the understanding that religious commitment is optional. This essay extends this analysis, considering the possibility that American society may be entering a second stage of secularity, one in which the possibility of religious commitment ceases to be an option at all for many. The possible implications of such a development are considered for the theology‐and‐science dialogue.