Abstract
The Nature of Theology is a timely and compelling defense of the credibility and ongoing relevance of the Christian faith in the face of a number of pressing contemporary challenges. H.’s method is correlational and so the book opens with an analysis of three fundamental challenges to belief in North American culture: metaphysical skepticism, relativism, and ontic pessimism. Metaphysical skepticism relates primarily to challenges posed by the scientific worldview, relativism to the collapse of normative truth claims in response to cultural and religious pluralism, and ontic pessimism to the problem of evil and the suffering of the innocent. The first four chapters lay out these challenges and reflect on how religious skepticism, religious pluralism, and the problem of theodicy shape contemporary theological reflection. The final three chapters offer a constructive theological account of God as creator, Jesus as mediator, and God as Spirit. These chapters respond to the cultural challenges H. identifies: God’s relation to the world is set in conversation with science, Christology with religious pluralism, and God’s presence in the world as Spirit with a robust commitment to liberation.
The Nature of Theology persuasively extends the apologetic orientation of modern theology that stretches from Friedrich Schleiermacher’s attempt to confront the criticisms of cultured despisers of religion to Karl Rahner’s concern to construct a theology that responds to the tacit unbelief of the contemporary believer. H. is perhaps the most important heir to this tradition writing today, and The Nature of Theology offers a synthetic account of his constructive interventions in the areas of fundamental theology, Christology, theology and science, and interfaith dialogue. It also serves as an indispensable guide for practicing theology as a discipline responsive to the actual issues people are grappling with today. H. frames this book as an introduction to the discipline of theology, and it would work very well as a foundational text for an upper-level course at the undergraduate level or an introductory course at the graduate level.