Response to James M. Gustafson

Abstract

A difficulty in commenting on Gustafson’s chapter lies in its more interpretative than positional stance, which allows few clues as to where the author himself stands—what he wishes to be identified with in the theological spectrum he so skillfully and impartially spreads out before us. The choice to interpret the agenda rather than enact it for us is, of course, entirely legitimate, but it leaves the commentator somewhat short on issues to come to grips with. Conceivably, the choice itself, perhaps less than free, might be a matter for comment if it could be taken to reflect the troubled state of theology in our time: its loss of self-confidence and its infection by the prevailing scepticism, histor-icism, cultural relativism, and so on. Some of Gustafson’s own stated “assumptions” seem to point in that direction. However that may be (and such a reading of his reticence may be quite mistaken), the nontheologian and secularist would for argument’s sake have welcomed something more assertive to envy and feel challenged by, something more positive to salute and get his teeth into.