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For method as a system (hence forth what I will call method-as-system) assumes that we have arrived, or are already in a unified and perhaps even closed system where no distance exists between Christian and the non-Christians in which the ways of conceiving reality finds an all too-easy commensurability. In contrast, method conceived as an approach (hence forth what I will call method-as-approach) suggests that we Christians are not already near or close enough, but intimates that we know something of the orderly direction to which we are headed. We sense a real distance with those out-with the Christian tradition, but we remain optimistic about active discourse and constructive agreements it may occasion. It is an approach, which denies being a system per se.
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( 0 / 0 )So begins Frei’s Types of Christian Theology. In the years leading up to this crystallization, Frei was chiefly concerned with the historical figure of Jesus “in popular and high culture in England and Germany since 1750” . After so many years of struggling with this historical project, Frei was finally able to bring together the two sides of his work – hermeneutics and Christology. According to Mike Higton, “It is hard now to gauge exactly what shape the final project would have taken in which all this rich material would have been combined, but it is clear that Frei wished to pursue theological reflection through the medium of detailed historical work, and wished to hone a full-blown Christology of his own - a Christology which would have had a significant political dimension - by paying detailed attention to the ways in which Jesus had been described and redescribed in Western Protestant culture since the Enlightenment”. This unfortunately never materialized due to his untimely death in 1988.
The central aim of this chapter is to carefully unpack, analyze, and lay the ground work of Hans Frei’s public theology- namely the critical promise of his now famous five-place typology in relation to constructing a credible Christian ethics in the public sphere. Prior to this critique and constructive alternative, however, a detailed analysis of Frei’s dense and difficult work must be initiated. Part 1 of this thesis (Chapters 1 and 2) examines the specifics of Frei’s theological development as it relates to his public ethics. In assessing Frei’s corpus, I have vied for impartiality, but not neutrality. That is, I confess to bringing my own interpretative optics in appropriating Frei’s work in trying to modestly advance theological ethics. I had better say that even though this thesis begins with an examination of Frei, it is not meant to be a thesis exclusively about Frei. Other dialogue partners – as I have mentioned in the abstract – also play a pivotal role; namely Nick Adams (Chapter 2), Stanley Hauerwas (Chapter 3), Duncan Forrester (Chapter 4), and finally Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Chapter 5). Insofar as this, the thesis remains a contemporary work which tries to engage with the thoughts of contemporary theologians. However, I wish to suggest that before Frei is pressed into the service of such constructive proposals, we would do better to gain a greater purchase on the critical promise of his thought; namely the undeveloped contours of his Christology. It would be patently absurd (and immodest) to try to construct here the sort of “full-blown” Christology Frei would have developed. This is not my intention in any case. But what I will attempt in this chapter is to carefully lay the foundation of our endeavour which hopefully will aid in constructing (in Chapter 5 ) not what Frei would have said, but what could be said presently given what Frei does say in his works leading up to Types of Christian Theology.
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( 0 / 0 )I have decided since most of the writing I'm doing these days is my thesis I will post parts of it daily so as to bore you all.
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We may ask at the outset what is meant by Christian Public Ethics. Quite simply, it is an attempt to bring together theology, anthropology, ecclesiology, and political ethics. Following this, the aim of this thesis is to examine Hans Frei’s public theology as it is found in his now famous five-place typology. It is a typology with a deceptively small theological canvas and large themes which has tremendous potential to clarify, articulate, and advance the field of Christian Public Ethics. It is widely recognized now in the field of theology that Hans Frei was a towering figure in the field of modern biblical hermeneutics. Although his reticence to publish widely necessarily limits what we have at our disposal, his opus magnum, The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: : A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics, published in 1974, set a new and exciting course for modern hermeneutics. It was followed by his other (and only) major work to be published in his lifetime, The Identity of Jesus Christ: The Hermeneutical Bases of Dogmatic Theology (having been originally published in 1967 as a series of articles) in 1975.
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( 0 / 0 )Dear Sir,
I write to you in regard to Miss Amy Lamé’s article, “A Jersey Girl’s Homecoming Treat” (Saturday, November 1, 2008). Miss Lamé’s description of New Jersey is not so much wrong as empty, because it both misrepresents and under-represents that powerful landscape. I find it frustrating, at this remove, to make points so obvious, but to equate the whole of New Jersey to Essex – by which I take it Ms. Lamé means Jerseyans lack any form of “intellect” or “culture” and therefore are more ontologically predisposed to “keepin’ it real” – is not only untrue, but patently absurd.
I have never known people affiliated with the Cosa Nostra, and I would suspect that most Jerseyans have not either. The trope of “Mafia” has become a form of unthinking, unreflective folk religion- the worst sort of mythology. That some have perpetuated this chimera – in the hope that it will ennoble us all, at last – is nothing more than cynicism because somebody like Miss Lamé – who had the gumption and the breadth of intellectual curiosity to venture beyond the land of New Jersey – should give British readers a better, more truthful account, having thus had the critical distance for reflection.
Despite more than three centuries of development, almost half of New Jersey is still wooded. And as of 2008, New Jersey had more millionaire residents than any other state in the nation. It is the home to Princeton University, finally. I do not claim that these elements are more authentic or even more faithful representations, but to suppress these competing realities in the name of “keepin’ it real” not only breeds parochialism but more sadly, cynicism.
Indeed, why should Jerseyans cloak themselves in self-loathing and perpetuate the myth that we can “never go back home?” Why do we do this to ourselves? We have been reminded of this ploy to the point of banality. We have become unwilling, perhaps even unable, to confront the notion that Jersey is simply more than the grey, industrial, toxic waste site that so many of her very own sons and daughters have come to celebrate. It is time that we unlearn this sort of speech.
Yours faithfully,
Sang Y. Cha
Cambridge
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( 0 / 0 )It's been said that Sarah Palin may get the nod for the Presidential Bid in 4 years. What is going on here? Can my party please give me a serious candidate that I can support as a Republican? I'm sorry to say this but ideas still do matter.
-s
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