Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship: 18
Cambridge University Press, 1/14/2010
EAN 9780521470124, ISBN10: 0521470129
Hardcover, 560 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm
Language: English
The rise of modern science and the proclaimed 'death' of God in the nineteenth century led to a radical questioning of divine action and authorship - Bultmann's celebrated 'demythologizing'. Remythologizing Theology moves in another direction that begins by taking seriously the biblical accounts of God's speaking. It establishes divine communicative action as the formal and material principle of theology, and suggests that interpersonal dialogue, rather than impersonal causality, is the keystone of God's relationship with the world. This original contribution to the theology of divine action and authorship develops a fresh vision of Christian theism. It also revisits several long-standing controversies such as the relations of God's sovereignty to human freedom, time to eternity, and suffering to love. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, it brings theology into fruitful dialogue with philosophy, literary theory, and biblical studies.
Preface
Introduction
what is remythologizing?
Part I. 'God' in Scripture and Theology
1. Biblical representation (Vorstellung)
divine communicative action and passion
2. Theological conceptualization (Begriff)
varieties of theism and panentheism
3. The new kenotic-perichoretic relational ontotheology
some 'classical' concerns
Part II. Communicative Theism and the Triune God
4. God's being is in communicating
5. God in three persons
the one who lights and lives in love
Part III. God and World
Authorial Action and Interaction
6. Divine author and human hero in dialogical relation
7. Divine communicative sovereignty and human freedom
the hero talks back
8. Impassible passion? Suffering, emotions, and the crucified God
9. Impassible compassion? From divine pathos to divine patience
Conclusion
always remythologizing? Answering to the Holy author in our midst
Select bibliography
Index of scriptural references
General index.
'... Vanhoozer's proposal is a bona fide constructive achievement which deserves to be taken seriously by all who undertake work on the doctrine of God today.' Theological Book Review