Catholicity of the Church and the Universality of Theology
The issue addressed in this essay is that of the Christian character or identity of Christian theology. Its “arguing partner” is that range of theological endeavours in which the particular context of a theological production is accentuated at the cost of under-valuing its necessary correlate, its C...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2003
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| In: |
Pacifica
Year: 2003, Volume: 16, Issue: 2, Pages: 123-136 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The issue addressed in this essay is that of the Christian character or identity of Christian theology. Its “arguing partner” is that range of theological endeavours in which the particular context of a theological production is accentuated at the cost of under-valuing its necessary correlate, its Christian or “catholic” character. The essay offers a justification for a concern about “orthodoxy” - though not as an alternative to “orthopraxis” - for it still matters in all theology that God be spoken of rightly, which is to say faithfully. Christian theology should therefore not abandon its connection with Christian doctrine, even though the boundaries of theology may extend further than the boundaries of doctrine. There is, of course, no easy move from the universality of the Gospel to the universal validity of any particular articulation of this Gospel. However, it is argued that a modest claim for universality is both permitted and required by the double premise that all theology is in some sense church theology and that the church confesses itself to be “catholic”. Support for such a position is found in the work of Robert Schreiter, a strong proponent of “local” theologies, who in recent work has also argued for a necessary engagement with the “tradition” and has identified new kinds of universal theology. Appeal is made also to the ancient idea of a regula fidei. None of this conflicts with the contextual nature and responsibility of theology, but “contextual” should never be equated with “narrow”, let alone “isolationist”. |
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| ISSN: | 1839-2598 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Pacifica
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/1030570X0301600201 |