Table Of ContentTheological
Method
ii
a GuIDe FOR THe PeRPleXeD
Theological
Method
Paul l. allen
Published by T&T Clark International
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© Paul L. Allen, 2012
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Paul L. Allen has asserted his right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: HB: 978-0-5670-1947-9
PB: 978-0-5671-1908-7
e-ISBN: 978-0-5672-5686-7
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COnTenTs
Acknowledgements vi
Preface vii
Introduction: Is there a theological epistemology? 1
1 Paul the theologian 23
2 The patristic era 49
3 Augustine and the method of
Christian conversion 73
4 Medieval theology – Not just sacred doctrine 89
5 The meaning of sola scriptura 117
6 Early modern theology – The rise of explicit
methodology 143
7 Modern theological methods – Correlation
and anti-correlation 167
8 Contemporary theological method as wisdom 207
Notes 229
Bibliography 245
Index 257
aCknOwleDGemenTs
First, I want to thank T&T Clark, especially Tom Kraft, whose
patience and forbearance has been a source of great serenity and
confidence. I want also to thank Kathryn Sawyer, who helped me at
the beginning stages of research for the first part of the book. Her
timely management of library resources and her deft touch with
respect to annotations on certain material were crucial in the early
stages.
I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to the friars and staff of
Blackfriars Hall, especially Regent Fr. Richard Finn, O.P. and Vice
Regent Fr. Richard Conrad, O.P., each of whose gift of hospitality
was a treat. Thanks to various other members of the Dominican
Priory of the Holy Ghost in Oxford, for their beautiful liturgies and
the friendships that we sustained over a few months while my family
and I were in Oxford and while I ensconced myself in the library.
Thanks, too, must go to the staff at the Faculty of Theology Library
and the Bodleian Library. Heartfelt thanks are also due to David
Graham, Provost of Concordia University, who approved the six-
month sabbatical during which much of the research and writing of
this book took place. I remain very grateful for the support made
available during the time spent in Oxford.
I want to thank very much the following persons whose various
comments aided the book’s emergence in vital ways: Daniel J. R.
Kirk, Mark Scott, Matthew Anderson and Jason Zuidema. Thanks
are also due to members of the 2011 Method Seminar for their
comments on a draft of Chapter Seven. Needless to say, any errors
of thinking that are reflected in this text are mine alone.
Most of all, I am grateful to my wife Monica and our two
children, Jeremy and Sarah, whose patience, joy and sense of what
is important are my guides. This book is dedicated to them.
PReFaCe
This book was generated by two causes, as Aristotle might say – a
primary and a secondary. Directly, I chanced upon T&T Clark’s
search for titles in their Guide for the Perplexed series while browsing
Ben Myers’s indispensable and winsome ‘Faith & Theology’ blog
in 2008. This coincided with some substantial misgivings I had
been having at that time over how to structure the graduate course
in theological method that I taught every other year through my
department. It struck me then that students studying theological
method are in need of material that brings together three things.
First, a reflection on the important methodical developments in
the history of theology is required. Second, a substantial yet not
overwhelming presentation of philosophical topoi relevant to the
study of theology is needed, a kind of reading and discussion of
theological prolegomena. And, third, students of theological method
need to read a great book, or at least part thereof, dealing with
theological method which can transform their own thinking onto a
radically new horizon of understanding.
My problem at that time was that the students were getting the
third element by reading Lonergan’s Method in Theology but not the
first two elements. Many students have been riveted by a reading of
Lonergan’s Method in Theology, which held out the promise of an
explanatory scheme to account for an incredible range of theological
material, but some students were not persuaded by what appeared
to be an overly abstract presentation of a system that seemed almost
too neat to be true. But even for the majority of students who were
impressed by the scale of Lonergan’s accomplishment, it was still
apparent to me that without some greater sense of the historical
parameters around which theological method is circumscribed, a
familiarity with some, or even all, of Lonergan’s great book could
not serve as a satisfactory substitute. What was needed somehow
viii PReFaCe
was a more rounded appreciation of just what reflection on
practising theology means. Hence, I speculated about whether it
would be possible to describe, in a relatively brief format, just those
very parameters of theological method in a way that might lead –
perhaps not inexorably but at least smoothly – into the kinds of
questions and solutions that Lonergan offers like no one else.
Thus, in this book, the main objective is to survey and analyse the
history of Christian reflection regarding how we speak of God and
the life of the world in relation to God. By no means can a single
volume cover even the most important figures, church traditions or
theological movements in this respect. But it is my hope that this
book might serve as a bridge to the more extensive engagements
with theological method that might be undertaken subsequent to a
reading of this expository account. Since this book deals with the
first element of describing the ways that theologians have ordered
theology, I do not deal with the more formidable introduction
to philosophy that is no doubt a necessary aid in understanding
theological method. Nor do I engage in extensive discussion of
Lonergan’s own positions on theological method, as appealing as
that was to attempt.
Nevertheless, there is some analysis of figures and texts employed
with the help of Lonergan’s insights, which are kept at some
distance from the immediate task at hand. Particularly when it is
apparent to me that theological method has run into some dead
ends or limitations of some kind, I tend to mention an aspect of
Lonergan’s work that is germane to a diagnosis of that limitation.
But, given the relative brevity of this book and its veritable fountain
of possibilities lurking at every turn, I severely limit the ways I
introduce Lonergan in order to do justice to both the material at
hand and thereby retain the fast clip in which material is introduced.
In addition to which, I might add, there is a considerable secondary
literature available on Lonergan’s theological method. I have no
wish to duplicate that material here. Nevertheless, I am convinced
that some of the secondary material in Lonergan studies is in need of
complementary insights and judgements from a deeper engagement
with the Christian tradition as such, but this work can only begin
to indicate ways forwards in that vast and comprehensive task. This
book does not substitute for a presentation of the relationships
between philosophy and theology – Diogenes Allen’s Philosophy
PReFaCe ix
for Understanding Theology, 2nd edition (Nashville, Tenn.:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), is an ideal text that meets
that particular objective. What this book does do is provide a wide-
angle lens on the horizon of Christian theology, with the peaks and
valleys of theological method revealed in cursory snapshots over
the bulk of its 2000-year history.
