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Theology and the End of Doctrine

Theology and the End of Doctrine

by Christine Helmer (Author)

  • New

    Paperback 2014

    $32.15
Synopsis

This book is about the crisis brought about by doctrine's estrangement from reality--that is from actual lives, experiences, histories, and from God. By invoking the end of doctrine, Christine Helmer opens a new discussion of doctrinal production that is engaged with the challenges and possibilities of modernity. The end of doctrine refers on the one hand to unquestioning doctrinal reception, which Helmer critiques, and on the other, represents an invitation to a new way of understanding the aim of doctrine in deeper connection to the reality that it seeks.

The book's first section offers an analysis of the current situation in theology by reconstructing a trajectory of Protestant theology from the turn of the twentieth century to today. This history focuses primarily on the status of the word in theology and explains how changes in theology in the context of the political and social crisis in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s led to a distancing of the word from reality. Helmer then turns to the constructive section of the book to propose a repositioning of theology to the world and to God. Helmer's powerful work will inspire revitalized interest in both doctrine and theological inquiry itself.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 248
 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Published: 25 Jul 2014
ISBN 10: 0664239293
ISBN 13: 9780664239299

Media Reviews
Recent discussion on doctrine has often been critical of the theological insights of modernity. Christine Helmer undertakes a careful revision of this discussion, emphasizing the need to take history and religious studies seriously. She demonstrates that this emphasis does not downplay the language and reality of theological doctrine but gives them a new relevance. -Risto Saarinen, Professor of Ecumenics, University of Helsinki
Helmer's book is a groundbreaking revitalization of doctrine for Christian theology and faith but also for the academy. It critiques two prominent approaches: authoritarian views of doctrine that deny its constructed character and the reductionist tendencies of religious studies where 'theology' and doctrine are viewed as anti-intellectual. The crucial connection of doctrine to transcendence through human witness, Helmer argues, requires recognition of doctrine's socially constructed character and the necessity of change. Reappropriating the contributions of Martin Luther and Friedrich Schleiermacher in enormously enlightening ways, she even shows how the work of Karl Barth supports her case for combining social constructionism and the transcendent. --Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Professor of Theology, Duke Divinity School
Author Bio
Christine Helmer is Professor of Religious Studies and German at Northwestern University. She is the author of The Trinity and Martin Luther (Zabern 1999) and contributing editor of numerous books on biblical interpretation, historical theology, and contemporary theology, including The Global Luther: A Theologian for Modern Times (Fortress 2009).