Book Review: Agenda For Theology

It just occurred to me that some people might find the title “book review” a trifle dull. As far as I’m concerned, Newspapers the world over would double their readership if they ran book-reviews as front-page articles. Perhaps I need a snappier name for my book reviews? Perhaps “Strolling through Prose: (insert book title here)" or “Epic Awesomeness!” I mean “Book Review” and “Epic Awesomeness” are essentially synonyms, right?

At any rate, I must say I heartily recommend this slim volume. I was introduced to the work of Thomas C. Oden through his 3-volume systematic theology, which I refer to regularly in my studies. This book is an earlier work, where he spells out his beef with contemporary theological method, and proposes an alternative. The meat and potatoes of Oden’s method is summarized by Vincent of Lérins: “What was at all times and everywhere believed by everybody”. (my paraphrase) In other words, there is a stress put on ecumenical consensus in doctrine, primarily as expressed in the first seven ecumenical councils of church history.

Oden lays down a lot of smack on Modernity. He makes the observation that if you put a bracket on the last 200 years or so of Christian theology, (i.e. theology written in the Modern period) you see an astounding amount of unanimity as to what the bible teaches. Now why is this significant? I think it’s highly significant for anyone who has driven down the street and noticed the Reformed church on one side of the road, and the Nazarene church on the other side, or the Lutherans and the Baptists a block away from the Catholics. I think the common (and superficial) reaction to this experience is to assume that there is no such thing as “Christianity”: no one really represents “Christianity”, because there’s so many different versions of it! I must admit that the most infuriating position I’ve ever argued against is the notion that the bible isn’t clear enough, or the Christian tradition clear enough to be able to identify a core orthodox theology. If I may wax graceless for a moment, may I say that this idea is complete unadulterated crap rooted in a positively inexcusable commitment to religious ignorance.

What is this “vital center” of Christian orthodoxy? Oden boils it down to 3 things. 1. An Interpersonal Encounter with the Living Christ. 2. The Will of God is Revealed in the Resurrection of Jesus. 3. A life growing into Christ and out of Sin. Now I personally find this list pretty minamalistic, and if that’s the vital center, it almost leaves the impression that everything else Christians say and teach is up for grabs as “unclear”. If I hadn’t read Oden’s systematic theology I would think that he would be in the business of holding closely to the above core 3, and then slipping in whatever ideas he wants to and excusing his flagrant rejection of Christian tradition by squeaking heresy in under the rubric of “not part of the vital core”.

The relentless slam on Modernity keeps Oden a straight-shooter though, and his work displays a remarkable amount of self-restraint. Particularly edifying is Oden’s rousing exposé of the Modernist obsession with anything new, as if it was a self-evident fact that we know more than our predecessors, or that we are smarter and more ethical people than all that have preceded us. One would think our culture teaches something like that, given how much little importance is given to soaking up classic literature.

Even if one has no interest in theology, Oden’s book is well worth the read as a social commentary. Oden himself spent much of his life as a political activist, and later as an academic trying to square up the discipline of psychology with Christian theology, only to find that dialogue with other disciplines is almost entirely one-sided: theologians desperately trying to buddy up the insights of psychology, sociology, etc, whereas these disciplines pay little or no attention to theological studies departments.

Most of the books I read are for personal interest and curiosity: this one I thoughtfully recommend to almost anyone interested in contemporary ideological and political issues.