Skip to main content

Contemporary Theologies - Outline

UNDERSTANDING THIS AGE

Modern Period (19th & Early 20th Centuries)
Post-Modern Period (Late 20th Century)
Post-Postmodern Period (21st Century)

MODERN PERIOD (19TH & EARLY 20TH CENTURIES)
  1. Rationalism
  2. Scientific Temper
  3. Utopianism
  4. Secularism
  5. Skepticism
  6. Liberalism

POST-MODERN PERIOD (LATE 20TH CENTURY)
  1. Mood Against Truth (No Absolutes)
  2. Rejection of Reason
  3. Emphasis on Style over Substance
  4. Privatization of Morals (Morals are personal)
  5. Pluralism
  6. Image or Virtual Culture
  7. Rejection of Metanarratives

POST-POSTMODERN AGE (21ST C)
  1. Intense Globalization and Trans-nationalism
  2. Intense Fundamentalism
  3. Return to Modernism
  4. Between Modernism and Post-modernism
  5. Neo-romanticism (Attempting to turn finite into infinite)
  6. Pseudo-modernism (Internet Culture of Clicks, Likes, and Downloads)

LIBERALISM
Friedrich Schliermacher, Harold De Wolf
  1. Rationalism and Scientific Temper
  2. Genesis 1-11 as Mythological. Not Literal. No Original Sin.
  3. Hyper Contextualization of Theology
  4. Emphasis on Natural Theology (Natural Religion)
  5. Anti-orthodoxy, Anti-traditionalism
  6. Scientific Method
  7. Emphasis on Experience or Empirical Research
  8. Undermining of Sin
  9. Division of Jesus of History from Christ of Faith
  10. Rejection of Fundamentals such as Trinity, Original Sin, Virgin Birth, Inerrancy of Bible, Atonement, Second Coming


NEO-ORTHODOXY
Karl Barth, Emil Brunner
  1. Emphasis on Biblical Encounter Revelation (Barth called natural theology as demonic; Brunner accepted it)
  2. Emphasis on the Transcendence of God. God is the “wholly other”
  3. Emphasis on Regeneration by Grace from Original Sin
  4. Personal Revelation, Not Propositional Revelation. Encountering Christ as the Word.
  5. Christo-centric Theology


PROCESS THEOLOGY
A.N.Whitehead, Teilhard De Chardin, Charles Hartshorne
  1. God is mutable, temporal, and passible (i.e. affected by the world)
  2. Everything, including God, is in process
  3. Everything in nature has value, every living being is equally important. Eco-centric Theology
  4. The world is in some sense part of God (Panentheism)
  5. God is in some sense a physical or material being.
  6. Emphasis on freewill
  7. God feels how we feel without feeling as we feel (e.g. God feels our fear of death but He doesn’t fear death)


EXISTENTIAL THEOLOGY
Soren Kierkegaard, Paul Tillich, Rudolf Bultmann
  1. Existence precedes essence
  2. Emphasis on Being
  3. God as the Ground of Being (God Above God)
  4. Christ is the manifestation of the New Being
  5. Authentic Existence
  6. Anthropo-centric Theology
  7. Demythologization


SECULAR THEOLOGY
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Harvey Cox
  1. Secularization as a Biblical Process in History
  2. Emancipation of Church from State
  3. Religionless Christianity
  4. Church as Witness
  5. Church as Transforming Factor

DEATH OF GOD SCHOOL
Gabriel Vahanian, Paul Van Buren, William Hamilton, John A.T. Robinson, Thomas J. J. Altizer, John D. Caputo
  1. Contemporary culture is godless
  2. God is Dead Vs There is No God
  3. Do-It-Yourself Religion (Don’t wait for God)
  4. Anti-Traditional
  5. Engagement with (not isolation from) the World
  6. Churchless Christianity

LIBERATION THEOLOGY
Martin Luther Jr. King, Desmond Tutu, Arvind Nirmal, V. Devasahayam, Mary Daly, Rosemary Radford Ruether.
  1. Social Christianity
  2. Justice & Equality
  3. Black Liberation Theology
  4. Feminist Liberation Theology
  5. Dalit Liberation Theology
  6. Palestinian Liberation Theology

DOMINION THEOLOGY
R. J. Rushdoony, Gary North, Peter Wagner
  1. Christian Reconstructionism: Calvinism, Cessationism, Post-millenialism, Biblical Law
  2. Kingdom Now Theology: Apostolic and Prophetic Movement, Restoration, Spiritual Warfare
  3. 7 Spheres: Mild Dominionism. Christians must ascend peaks of the mountains of cultural influence: Arts, Business, Church (Religion), Development and Media, Education, Family, Government, (Health).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Tale of Something, or Nothing, and God

In the beginning was God and nothing. Then, God created something out of nothing. But, soon that something forgot she was once a nothing. And, forgetting herself and God, she assumed herself to be everything. And, assuming herself to be everything, she died to everything else and God. After many days, when this something had run out of everything she got, She came to her senses and "Who am I? Where am I?" she thought. Then, she realized she was a nothing without her God, And so returned to her original place in God. In the end was God and something.
Post a Comment
Read more

Fight Against Corruption

Denmark ranks as the 1st among the world's least corrupt countries. Singapore ranks 8th. India ranks 65th. North Korea and Somalia rank 149th. A study of these systems reveal the following facts. 1. An Anti-corruption agency, independent of the police and executive is crucial to check corruption. Countries having multiple anti-corruption agencies don't seem to have much success. One cannot remove dirt with dirt; one has to use an agent that is intrinsically anti-dirt (soap-water). Singapore's "anti-corruption agency, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), is well resourced and independent. It is empowered to investigate any person, even police officers and ministers, and conducts public outreach to raise public awareness and shape social norms." (Lee Hsien Loong) 2. In countries like Singapore, the high-level officials are paid well and corruption is kept at bay at that level. The idea is that anti-corruption begins from top to bottom. "There is a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Not I but Grace

I worked...yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1Cor. 15:10) I get tired and weary most times; grace, never. I feel weak sometimes; grace, never. I get confused at times; grace, never. I see darkness at times; grace, never. I wish to give up sometimes; grace, never. I fail many times; grace, never. I have misunderstandings at times; grace, never. I am afraid at times; grace, never. I feel broken sometimes; grace comes to heal. I feel estranged sometimes; grace comes to comfort. I feel purposeless sometimes; grace comes to guide. I feel powerless sometimes; grave comes to strengthen. I feel I am that I am because of what I am; grace departs.... For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Post a Comment
Read more