FAITH

THINKING

THE DYNAMICS OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

Trevor Hart

InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

© Gospel and Culture 1995

Published in the United States of America by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, with permission from S.P.C.K., London.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship®, a student movement active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI53707-7895.

Cover art: Roberta Polfus

ISBN 0-8308-1883-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hart, Trevor A.

Faith thinking: the dynamics of Christian theology/Trevor Hart.

p. cm.

Originally published: London [England]: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1995, in series: Gospel & culture.

Includes bibliographical references and index

ISBN 0-8308-1883-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Theology—Methodology. 2. Faith. 3. Bible—Criticism,

interpretation, etc. 4. Tradition (Theology) I. Title.

BR118.H365 1996

230’.01—dc20

96-31718

CIP

For Rachel, Jonathan and Naomi who granted me the time and the freedom to write, and disturbed me just often enough to keep me firmly rooted in reality.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part One: The Rehabilitation of Faith

1 Faith Seeking Respectability

2 Faith and the Search for Certainty

3 Admiring the View from Nowhere

Part Two: Recovering Faith in Theology

4 Theologies Public and Private

5 Theology as Passionate Quest for Public Truth

Part Three: Making Sense of Scripture

6 Retrieving the Story: Text, Authority, and Meaning

7 The Greatest Sermon in the World: The Bible as the Community’s Scripture

Part Four: The Transformation of Tradition

8 Looking to the Past and Facing Up to the Future

9 Transmission and Translation

10 Integration and Reformation

11 Taking the Risk of Reality

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

This book began its life as undergraduate lectures in the University of Aberdeen. I am grateful to several generations of students there who tolerated earlier (and less refined) versions of different parts of it with patience, and helped me to see where it needed to be improved. I am grateful too to a selection of friends who, over the period during which the book has taken shape, have participated in the process by stimulating thought, engaging in critical discussion, correcting mistakes and misapprehensions, and generally exercising a ministry of encouragement. Particular mention must be made of Michael Partridge, who in the early stages and continually since, urged me that this was a worthwhile project to pursue, ...

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About Faith Thinking: The Dynamics of Christian Theology

Faith Thinking is a compelling exploration of where theology stands in the contemporary postmodern intellectual context. Eschewing both rigid objectivism and sheer relativism, Trevor Hart cuts a middle course towards a fresh theological paradigm capable of defending itself as an academic discipline. Faith Thinking is an invaluable resource for those struggling to understand the relationship between faith and understanding in the practice of theology.

Hart draws from philosophy, history, and literary criticism in his construction of a relevant theology for the postmodern world. In dialogue with Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Polanyi, and other influential thinkers, Hart examines what challenges and buttresses current intellectual trends have to offer theology.

Throughout Faith Thinking, Hart heeds the necessity to present theology as clearly as possible. Though cultivated in a university setting, Hart’s definitions and explanations maintain a comprehensibility that allows theologians at any level access to these important ideas. Faith Thinking’s powerful distillation of the complex world of theology after postmodernity will prove an important addition to any theological library.

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