Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | April/2022 |
Spalte: | 351–352 |
Kategorie: | Dogmen- und Theologiegeschichte |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Simpson, Christopher Ben |
Titel/Untertitel: | Modern Christian Theology. Second Edition. |
Verlag: | London u. a.: Bloomsbury T & T Clark 2020. 416 S. m. Abb. Kart. £ 31,99. ISBN 9780567688446. |
Rezensent: | Dafydd Mills Daniel |
Christopher Ben Simpson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Lincoln Christian University. The 2nd edition of his Modern Christian Theology (London, 2020) does not (and does not claim to) differ materially from the 1st edition published in 2016. However, so as long as you have not already acquired the 1st edition, that is not a bad thing: S.’s book is an adept introduction to the history of philosophical theology since the medieval period, as well as an often exhilarating – both in pace and tone – statement of the importance of theological concerns and religious events for the emergence of both pre- and post-Kantian philosophy of religion, as well as an exploration of some more recent figures and movements in contemporary Christian theology, including process, postmod-ern, liberation, black, feminist, and womanist theologies.
The advantages of S.’s book are both its clarity and its scope. Chapters on ›Late Nineteenth Century Catholic Theology‹, ›Early Twentieth Century Catholic Theology‹, ›Twentieth Century Eastern Orthodox Theology‹, ›Liberation Theologies‹ and ›Revisionist and Se-cular Theologies‹, appear as part of the story of modern theology, alongside more conventional extended focuses on Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Karl Barth, where there is particularly valuable discussion, especially for what is billed by the publisher as a classroom textbook, of Romanticism in con-nection with eighteenth and nineteenth century religious ›Awak-enings‹, and of ›Ritschlianism‹, which includes insights on such less prominent figures as Johann Herrmann and Martin Kähler.
Even in the chapters mentioned above, which help to give the book its impressive scope, it is fair to say that this is principally a history of the rise of liberal Protestant philosophical theology, where a large number of its (whether witting or unwitting) pro-ponents and decriers, from the ›Enlightenment‹ to the present day, are summarised in turn, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser, detail. Consequently, the discussion of medieval thought, Renaissance humanism, as well as both the Reformation and Reformed thought more generally, are brief at best, while ›Ritschlianism‹ and Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are discussed out of historical sequence so that the latter two can act as a principal reference point for Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Paul Tillich.
Nevertheless, the book follows an effective, if familiar, historic-thematic chronological pattern: divided up into four parts (medieval and early modern; long nineteenth century; post-First World War; post-Second World War) which are framed as not just histor-ical time periods, but intellectual-historical time periods: the ›Middle Ages‹ as the emergence of ›modern‹ concerns; Enlightenment rationalism and its twin ›counters‹ of religious Awakenings and Romanticism; Hegelianism followed by reductionism and the twin ›challenges‹ to Christian orthodoxy of ›biblical criticism‹ and ›natural science‹; Kierkegaard and Nietzsche as ›prophets‹ for the post-First World War era; whose influence can still be felt in the pluralism, postmodernism, fundamentalism, and secularism which are both problems for, and ways of doing, theology post-Second World War.
Moreover, the above organisation is not only suited to the book’s principal focus, but, as such, its overarching aim: in effect, to populate with individual theologians the story told by, in particular, Charles Taylor about the history of Western thought as a history of ›secularity‹ – where to S.’s credit he is not only eminently clear about the Taylor-esque story he is aiming to tell, but eminently clear on Taylor, which has the added benefit of helping to make features of Taylor accessible to students and general readers, when he is often a daunting prospect in himself.
Of course, as a textbook there is bound to be – because, as any-one who has written a textbook knows, there inevitably has to be – moments of generalisation and selectivity; however, S. not only avoids anything hasty or distorting when encountering such in-evitable moments, he shows incisiveness and succinctness in many of his descriptions of key aspects of individual thinkers; is, at times, subtle and thought-provoking in his placement of certain figures within his historic-thematic chronology; and, principally, demonstrates skill and erudition in marshalling his range of individual figures and epochs.
In consulting the book, the general reader and students, from pre-university to Masters-level, will either have a welcome prelim-inary introduction and guide to many key thoughts and thinkers, and their connections, within the history of modern theology, or, by being drawn from figures and eras with which they are more familiar into ones with which they are less, will be encouraged into building and assessing those connections themselves.