Abstract
‘That the contemporary theological scene has become chaotic is evident to everyone who attempts to work in theology. There appears to be no consensus on what the task of theology is or how theology is to be pursued. Some see it as the ‘science of religion’; others as exposition of the Christian faith; still others as prophetic pronouncement on the conditions of, for example, contemporary American culture (or Western cultural [sic] generally). There are those who are attempting to develop a ‘non-sectarian’ theology which will not be restricted in meaningfulness to any of the great historic religious traditions; others are attempting to exploit theological insights for developing a more profound understanding of human nature; yet others still see theology as primarily a work of the church attempting to come to better understanding of itself.”1
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Notes
Gordon D. Kaufman, An Essay on Theological Method (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1975) p. ix.
I have given my own views about theological ethics in Gustafson, Can Ethics Be Christian? (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975).
Julian N. Hartt, “Encounter and Inference in Our Awareness of God,” in The God Experience, ed. Joseph P. Whalen, S.J. (New York: Newman Press, 1971), p. 52. This theme is elaborated in Hartt, Theological Method and Imagination (New York: Seabury Press, 1976).
I cannot undertake here to discuss the crucial matter of whether and how such believing and beliefs might be justified. My own views are most fully expressed in Can Ethics Be Christian?, pp. 82–116.
I have critically assessed this use of historical analogies, in ibid., pp. 117–44.
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1941, 1943).
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 16.
Ibid., vol. 1, p. 251–60.
Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974; reprint of 1834 ed.), vol. I, pp. 95–121, 122–42.
This judgment is not concurred in by Paul Ramsey, who is editing these texts for the Yale edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Oral communication, January, 1978.
Edwards, Works, vol. I, p. 100, col. 1.
See Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), pp. 93–124.
I have developed this with more specific relation to medical ethics in The Contributions of Theology to Medical Ethics (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1975).
For Barth’s views on some medical moral problems, see Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics III:4 (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1961), pp. 397 ff.
For further development see Gustafson, Protestant and Roman Catholic Ethics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp. 80–94.
See, Gustafson, Contributions of Theology, for further development.
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Gustafson, J.M. (1981). Theology and Ethics: An Interpretation of the Agenda. In: Callahan, D., Engelhardt, H.T. (eds) The Roots of Ethics. The Hastings Center Series in Ethics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3303-6_9
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