Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | Mai/2017 |
Spalte: | 563–566 |
Kategorie: | Systematische Theologie: Dogmatik |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Webster, John |
Titel/Untertitel: | God without Measure. Working Papers in Christian Theology. Vol. 1: God and the Works of God. |
Verlag: | London u. a.: Bloomsbury T & T Clark 2015. VIII, 231 S. Geb. US$ 122,00. ISBN 978-0-567-13942-9. Vol. 2: Virtue and Intellect. London u. a.: Bloomsbury T & T Clark 2015. VII, 192 S. Geb. US$ 114,00. ISBN 978-0-567-66409-9. |
Rezensent: | David F. Ford |
John Webster, one of the most distinguished European theologians of his generation, died shortly after completing these volumes, so to their intrinsic interest is added the fact that they are the culmination of his life’s work. They are a clear, powerful, and somewhat controversial last word.
At the heart of both volumes is a double insistence: that Christian theology is first of all about God in se, the immanent Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit with their eternal relations and processions; and secondly about all else in relation to this God – the economic Trinity, all creation, and history. This Trinitarian ontology and metaphysic is expounded by drawing mainly on biblical, pa-tristic, Thomist and Reformed Protestant thought, with pervasive use of the language of principles and causes. In the first volume there are sketches of how some of the main Christian doctrines, such a s Christology, creation, providence, soteriology, justification, and ecclesiology, should be shaped within this ordering. The second volume lays out ›the first principles of moral science‹, with special reference to dignity, mercy, sorrow, courage, mortification and vivification, sins of speech, intellectual life, and intellectual patience, together with a chapter on ›God, Theology, Universities‹. Throughout, there are recurrent polemics against any theology that does not recognize and realize the proper relationship between the self-existent Trinitarian God and all else – that turns out to include nearly all theology of recent centuries. So there is a defiant, prophetic tone that deplores what is seen as a widespread decline of Christian theology and offers a way of renewal.
The summons to contemplate and celebrate who God is is radical, clear, passionate, and persuasive. Given who God is for orthodox Christian theology, the priority of acknowledging, understanding, praising, thanking, and rejoicing in God for God’s sake and, flowing from that, for the sake of all God knows, does and gives, may seem an obvious truth, and one that faithful minds should be constantly stretched in seeking to explore – but it is very easy to be distracted from it. W. draws on a few very good theologians, especially Paul, John the Evangelist, Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin and his immediate successors in Reformed dogmatics, and Barth, in order to repeat this summons in many forms, and to give his understanding of what sort of theologians are required to respond to it today. He gives a refresher course in key classical concepts of God and other doctrines, especially as developed in the Western Christian tradition up to the seventeenth century, and even those who are steeped in this tradition might benefit both from his systematic, intelligent presentation of it and from his portrayal of the theologian’s vocation. Sadly, one hindrance to following key themes through the variety of working papers is the publisher’s responsibility: a disgracefully inadequate subject index in both volumes – love, for example, does not appear in either.
W.’s rigorous concentration on the identity of God as conceptualized by his favoured thinkers is accompanied by other features that are not, in my judgement, necessary to the valid points he is making. It is not so much that a good deal of Christian thought down the centuries and around the world today does not seem to be within his horizon – this might be justified by having chosen to concentrate on a few classic thinkers. Rather, it is his practice of dismissal of, or sometimes less than generous judgement on, named thinkers and movements, often in summary form and with little sense of thorough engagement – they often serve simply as foils for his own points. Living contemporaries fare especially badly – hardly any seem to deserve serious consideration. Yet a fine piece on Congar shows that W. is capable of careful and generous attention to a thinker with whom he has disagreements.
In some contrast to his models, such as Augustine, Aquinas and Barth, who developed significantly some of what they inherited, W. is generally content to say what they said (occasionally with some criticism) rather than doing anything analogous to the sometimes daring improvisations they performed. The sense conveyed by his style and references is that the important theological achievements are in the past, with the contemporary task being to retrieve them. In terms of the three main thrusts of the Second Vatican Council, which, I would suggest, taken together offer a recipe for a balanced theology (and one exemplified by W.’s own models), W. has abundant ressourcement, but relatively little of either aggiornamento – there is more dismissal of modernity than deep engagement with it – or conversazione: W.’s horizon within Christianity is very Western, and even within that he converses with few contemporaries; beyond Christianity, while there is some consideration of secular thinking, there is little sense, for example, that engagement with other religions might be able to make a positive contribution to Christian understanding and the theological task.
His theological interpretation of the Bible is single-minded in its concentration on scripture as divine communication, at the cost of not exploring the theological potential of literary, historical and hermeneutical approaches. The centre of gravity for his thought as it is presented here lies in Aquinas and Reformed dogmatics; it could be enhanced both by reaching back from them to do more fresh readings of the Bible, and by reaching forward to converse more with contemporaries. Yet when he does occasionally do intensive biblical interpretation, as in his rich exegesis of the Letter to the Colossians, he shows its fruitfulness for his project.
What contribution might these working papers, supported by W.’s other work, make to twenty-first century Christian theology? I suggest three principal lessons.
First, and overwhelmingly, this is a call that every Christian theologian should not only heed but delight in responding to: a call to honour God as who God is, and to think about every other topic in relation to who God is. To let this ›Who?‹ question be central is the perhaps deepest secret of theological wisdom, and it is W.’s core teaching. If it takes a somewhat extreme, at times controversial and hyperbolic voice (echoes of Jesus?) to let this be taken seriously, then so be it. It should ring true with any Christian who prays daily, »Hallowed be your name […]«, and who adds to every singing of a psalm, »Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit«. I would also hope that those responding to W.’s call might attend to the first word of the phrase reportedly on the lips of Karl Barth shortly before his death: ›Fröhlich ernstnehmen‹ – »Joyfully to take seriously«.
Second, this is a major ecumenical achievement within Western Christianity. To draw deeply and simultaneously on both Thomas Aquinas and Reformed dogmatics is to demonstrate a profound unity on the theological topic that matters most, who God is. This is W.’s enormous, original contribution: a ressourcement that relativises many of the contentious issues arising from the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and that opens the way for a better future together, as exemplified in his discussion of Congar.
Third, having sat in the school of W. and learned those two lessons (and others related to them, especially his bracing teaching on the formation of the theologian), there are many other schools in which there is Christian wisdom to be learned. To change the image, in the theological city W.’s particular classical style is not the only one available for building homes in which there can be authentically Christian life and thought. As I consider, for example, my experience of editing three editions of The Modern Theologians (David F. Ford with Rachel Muers [Eds.], The Modern Theologians. An introduction to Christian theology since 1918, Oxford: Blackwell 2005), to which W. contributed a fine chapter, I recall the repeated delight in finding so much habitable Christian wisdom in such a variety of thinkers, traditions, and approaches. My conclusion is that the past century has perhaps been the most theologically rich in the whole history of Christian thought.
Yet I recall also the many exclusions we had to make as editors, some but not all on the grounds of limited space, and pay tribute to the enduring value of the discriminating, challenging rigour in John W.’s theological integrity and judgements. As these volumes show, his judgements are made above all in order to do away with distractions from the main, glorious, always relevant point: God and God’s ways with the world.