Abstract
Ottati, Douglas F.,
Theology for Liberal Protestants: God the Creator
, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2013; 378 pp.: 9780802869678, $38.00/£25.99
Recent two-volume liberal systematic theologies do not come easily to mind. This first volume promises us a fascinating project. In the introduction and the first main section on method the author tells us where he comes from, as a representative of theology which is consciously Protestant and liberal, and defines his project as an exercise in ‘hopeful realism’ a constructive theology which fills a perceived gap in the basic theological basis of contemporary liberal theologies. Liberals have moved too quickly to the practical at the expense of the theoretical. The second section of Part 1 underlines the need for constructive and meticulous liberal systematic theology without apology. There has been a loss of theological acuity.
In the rest of the book, on creation, specifically on God the creator, Ottati surveys the earth, the galaxies and the universes through the perspectives of modern scholarship, from the evolution of human being and the human mind to the evolution and telos of the galaxies. He does this under the rubrics of cosmic ecology and cosmic passage. All is radically contingent, but under the providence of God. Creation is unfolded in the context of biblical interpretation and Reformed tradition. Calvin brings clarity, if clarity is enough.
Ottati notes recent awareness that the demise of liberal theology has been considerably exaggerated, that liberal theology has been quietly persistent both in the Church and in its transformative contribution to the implementation of important issues such as human dignity and human rights in society.
I sometimes wonder whether the gap between perception and reality may be even greater than Ottati himself describes. Liberals may have not only interiorized the familiar modern critique of liberal theology, disenfranchizing themselves in the process, but simply become blind to the considerable body of solid liberal theology which is actually there, airbrushing it from view. To quote Robert of Melun is respectable, Henry Sloane Coffin is not. If this is the case, then, as in the taste for music and the arts, changing fashion may yet create visibility again – if there is still an audience when this happens.
Douglas Ottati sensibly calls for an ecumenical liberal tradition. In this liberality it would be nice to think that there may be more room to appreciate ecumenical insights (Rahner gets a mention but Schillebeeckx is absent), and even that there is liberal wisdom to be gained from writers whom we have been schooled to read as strictly orthodox – Augustine, much quoted, was a fascinatingly eclectic thinker, and even Barth might just conceivably be saved – grace is without limit.
But looking at this important study as a whole the last word must be of gratitude for an excellent, thought-provoking book. And probably the best is yet to come.