Tuesday, 2 August 2005

Top Five Countdown: the greatest achievements of modern theology

If a thousand years from now some curious scholar looks back on nineteenth- and twentieth-century theology, what will she say our greatest theological achievements were? What are the most important contributions of modern theology? What are the developments that stand out most within the broader span of church history? What are the theological achievements that will still stand out hundreds of years from now?

Obviously it will take plenty of subjectivity—not to mention pure guesswork—to answer these questions. But I’m going to have a shot at it. Stay tuned, because over the next couple of days I’ll give you my “Top Five Countdown” of the five greatest achievements of modern theology. (Can you guess what the Number One Achievement will be?)

Here is a summary of the Countdown:

5. Karl Barth’s doctrine of election

4. Revelation as self-revelation

3. The hermeneutical question

2. The triumph of actuality over possibility

1. The historical-critical method

And to see a closing comment on the Countdown, click here.

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...

6. The rediscovery of eschatology.

Jeremiah Kier Cowart said...

Regarding #2, I think actuality triumphed over possibility (or 'potentiality') in the 13th century with the philosophical theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.

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