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

Placebo and the Philosophy of Mind and Matter in Drug Research

A placebo is a non-therapeutic substance administered under the camouflage of medication to deceive patients into believing that they are receiving medications; this done solely for psychological and not for physiological effects. Placebo may usually be used to compare its effects with the effects of other drugs in drug research. Let's take the case of an experiment that tries to establish whether a particular drug, say to treat weariness, is genuine or merely has the effects of a placebo. Suppose 20 candidates are chosen for this experiment. 10 are given the drug and the rest are put on a placebo while they are told that the placebo is a genuine medication. They need to make sure that the deception is well carried on for the success of the experiment. If both the groups make similar improvements after taking the treatments, the new drug seems to only function as a placebo in effect. The basic hypothesis of the placebo raises the question of mind over matter. Of course, this pushes...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Water Baptism Necessary Before Partaking in Lord's Supper

"Last Supper" by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1750) Yes, it is. Water baptism identifies one with the redemption work of Jesus Christ, with His death, burial, and resurrection. It is anticipated of visible identification with Christ and His Church. Every person has the personal responsibility to examine him/herself before deciding to partake in the Lord's Table. The Bible makes it clear that those who chose not to be baptized were rejecting the counsel of God (Lk.7:30). In a mixed congregation, it is not possible to always know who is worthy to partake of the Table; however, the minister must encourage only those who have been baptized for remission of sins (not just as a ritual but by faith in Jesus Christ) to partake of the Table. Before Jesus sat down to dip bread in the cup, He washed His disciples' feet. He makes the statement that they are already "washed" and only need feet to be washed. Of course, this may not explicitly/only refer to their baptism, fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reliability, Predictability, and Paul the Octopus

Paul the Octopus has recently become very famous after his predictions for Germany and Spain during the World Cup 2010 came right. The 100% accuracy tag distinguishes him from any other diviner who had attempted a prediction during the World Cup. There were responses and reactions from various people including sportsmen, statesmen, and mathematicians. Whatever, the use of Paul has demonstrated once again that mankind's search for an extra-temporal, psychic foresight has not quelled through the historical calendar returning a decade over this millennium. The question before us is can such predictions as those of Paul be counted on as reliable (in other words, can they be seriously taken as true)? The mathematicians have plumped for chance. It's all a matter of probability, they say ( BBC News ). However, the argument of chance in itself is weak. The mathematics of chance will calculate that the probability of Paul being right seven times out of seven is 1/128. But, the conclusi...
3 comments
Read more