A Theological Challenge: Coordinating Biological, Social, and Religious Visions of Humanity

This paper attempts two tasks. First, it sketches how the natural sciences (including especially the biological sciences), the social sciences, and the scientific study of religion can be understood to furnish complementary, consonant perspectives on human beings and human groups. This suggests that it is possible to speak of a modern secular interpretation of humanity (MSIH) to which these perspectives contribute (though not without tensions). MSIH is not a comprehensive interpretation of human beings, if only because it adopts a posture of neutrality with regard to the reality of religious objects and the truth of theological claims about them. MSIH is certainly an impressively forceful interpretation, however, and it needs to be reckoned with by any perspective on human life that seeks to insert its truth claims into the arena of public debate. Second, the paper considers two challenges that MSIH poses to specifically theological interpretations of human beings. On the one hand, in spite of its posture of religious neutrality, MSIH is a key element in a class of wider, seemingly antireligious interpretations of humanity, including especially projectionist and illusionist critiques of religion. It is consonance with MSIH that makes these critiques such formidable competitors for traditional theological interpretations of human beings. On the other hand, and taking the religiously neutral posture of MSIH at face value, theological accounts of humanity that seek to coordinate the insights of MSIH with positive religious visions of human life must find ways to overcome or manage such dissonance as arises. The goal of synthesis is defended as important, and strategies for managing these challenges, especially in light of the pluralism of extant philosophical and theological interpretations of human beings, are advocated.     

Spiritual Machines,Personal Bodies,and God: Theological Education and Theological Anthropology

Programs of theological education in Christian traditions are exploring “distanced learning” as one way to address certain challenges to their educational excellence. A major strand in a twenty‐year old discussion of the nature and purpose of theological education has urged that analysis of theological schooling's failures and assessment of proposed remedies ought to be framed explicitly in theological terms as part of an ongoing inquiry into what makes theological education properly theological. This essay tries to show how following that advice can make a practical difference in assessing the merits of distanced learning. It does so by raising questions about the theological‐anthropological assumptions, respectively, of theological education and of distanced learning.     

Teaching Theological Reflection Well,Reflecting on Writing as a Theological Practice

Abstract. In order to teach theological reflection well, it is necessary to teach students how to write it well. This paper probes the writing of theological reflection as a rhetorical process and a theological practice by (1) situating theological reflection broadly within a “correlation” model, adapted for theological writers; (2) identifying two “generic” styles of theological reflection papers, the pastoral reflection paper and the systematic reflection paper; (3) following a writer's progress as she writes a one‐page pastoral reflection paper and constructs a working theology in the process of writing it. In conclusion, the correlation‐based “Reflecting on Paper” process provides a pedagogical bridge between the writing and teaching of “pastoral” and “systematic” theological reflection, and exemplifies the dynamic interplay between teaching theological reflection and reflecting on writing as a theological practice.     

Theological Reflections

[In January 1960 a meeting at the premises of the London Society of Analytical Psychology was convened to discuss the relation of analytical psychology to theology. It was given the provocative title "Who shall have the last word: psychologist or theologian?"; the aim was to stimulate debate. Kenneth Lambert was to open and Victor White was to be one of the discussants. So as to forward the discussion, Lambert sent Victor White a number of questions and his answers to them were to follow. To the great regret of everybody Fr. White could not be present at the meeting owing to ill health, but at my request he sent me his replies and agreed to allow their publication. They raise a number of interesting issues and it is hoped that they may promote further discussion in these pages. Editor .]     

Theological Hermeneutics

Book reviewed:
Recovering Theological Hermeneutics: An Incarnational-Trinitarian Theory of Interpretation , Jen Zimmerman, Baker 2004 (0-8010-2727-6), pp. 345, Hb £17.99     

神学研究

神学一词,广泛指所有对神这个主题展开的研究或学说。当天主教在罗马获得自由以后,神学一词多被用来指所有天主教信仰观的理论。     

Ecology, Justice, Liturgy: A Theological Autobiography

Abstract :  A narrative of the vocational trajectory and theology of a longstanding Christian theologian of nature and church practitioner, from the Lynn White, Jr. controversy to ecojustice issues, through historical Christian attitudes toward nature, cosmic Christology, and the ecological renewal of the Church's liturgy.     

Visions and Aspirations

SUMMARY

This chapter explores key characteristics of an ideal feminist educational environment, one that specifically focuses on the intellectual development and training of feminist therapists. Such an environment is dependent on an ongoing relationship among three entitiesstudents, instructors, and the institutionand characteristics of each of these three entities are discussed. The chapter evaluates the present climate within universities, and whether that climate offers the potential to promote or stifle a feminist environment.