Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | März/2019 |
Spalte: | 253–255 |
Kategorie: | Systematische Theologie: Dogmatik |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Cortez, Marc, and Michael P. Jensen [Eds.] |
Titel/Untertitel: | T & T Clark Reader in Theological Anthropology. |
Verlag: | London u. a.: Bloomsbury T & T Clark 2017. VII, 424 S. Kart. US$ 45,95. ISBN 978-0-567-65557-8. |
Rezensent: | George Pattison |
At the start of their introduction, the editors identify theological anthropology as »one of the most pressing areas of inquiry in the-ology today« (1), a fact that they attribute principally to the high profile of current debates around gender and sexuality and to the impact of reductive materialist theories on traditional theological accounts of human being that assumed the existence of an immaterial soul.
Having indicated the importance of their theme, they immediately draw attention to some of the difficulties in identifying sources for inclusion in their reader. As they rightly note, although issues of the human are often implicit in Patristic sources, they are rarely thematized (the free-will debate being an exception). This situation changes somewhat in the Middle Ages, with significant space being given to topics of anthropology by Peter Lombard, a development also reflected in Thomas Aquinas (Lombard himself is not included in the collection, but there are several excerpts from Thomas; Bernard of Clairvaux is also represented). Nevertheless, it is from the Reformation onwards that an identifiable theological thematization of anthropology emerges most strongly and it is really only in the latter part of the twentieth century that the topic becomes, as the editors say, »pressing«, engendering a need to gain clarity about sources and methods – these last two words supplying the heading for the book’s first section. At the same time, the logic of the introduction constitutes a defence for the prevalence of more recent texts in the collection as a whole. Following on from »Sources and Methods«, we have sections on »The Image of God«, »Human Ontology« (e. g. questions of soul, body, and dualism), »Free Will«, »Gender and Sexuality«, »Personhood«, and, finally, »Worship and Desire«.
In broad terms, the editorial narrative I have sketched is plausible. Cortez and Jensen themselves note that the lack of specifically anthropological reflection in the Patristic sources can be inter-preted as the obverse of the presence of anthropological assumptions across the literature – yet these are also hard to disentangle from their contexts. Over and above this particular challenge they are keenly aware of the difficulty of selectivity and they have clearly laboured long over their decisions. From the point of view of their most likely readers – undergraduate students in departments with a predominantly Protestant heritage – they have produced a workable volume.
In the nature of the case, however, a collection such as this is especially vulnerable to charges of omission. That it has a »Protes-tant« leaning is by no means illegitimate and, of course, Augustine and Thomas are well-represented. However, post-Reformation Catholic thinkers seem thin on the ground. Karl Rahner is cited by Rosemary Radford Ruether, but is not directly represented, even though he might have a good claim to have made one of the most influential contributions to the field in the twentieth century. More generally, what we might call the existentialist tradition in theology is significantly under-represented, despite its renowned focus on what its Barthian critics called »Man«. To be sure, much now shows itself to have been of its day, but there are still rich resources in the analysis of human existence in Kierkegaard, Tillich, and others that one might have expected to see here. Schleiermacher too is very surprisingly absent, even from discussion. Also missing, despite a section on »Personhood«, are the key thinkers of twentieth century personalism, Marcel, Buber, Mounier, Berdyaev, and Macmurray.
Thematically, one might have expected sections relating to such defining areas of human experience as suffering and death, al-though Dostoevsky’s discussion of suffering is discussed over a couple of pages in the extract from John Zizioulas and there are sig-nificant references to the theme in, e. g., Ada María Isasi-Díaz’s mujerista anthropology. Even apart from the extremes of suffering depicted in Dostoevsky’s novels and in the twentieth-century ex-perience itself, being ill is a chronic and significant feature of human existence and has had a central place in Church life as well as being a major topic in Christian literature. Then again, so too are »happiness« and the good life. Love is discussed at many points in the collection, but there would have been a strong case for giving it its own section.
As I have mentioned above, the editors have clearly anguished over their choices and it is probably too easy in a case such as this to complain that one’s favoured topics, authors, and approaches have been left out. Other reviewers would doubtless make alternative suggestions. Basically, the collection does what it sets out to do for the readership it has in mind and, as such, can be recommended. Over and above its serviceability as a workbook for students, it will hopefully provoke further discussion as to the scope and agenda of theological anthropology itself – and here one can only endorse the editors’ perception of its timeliness.