Types of Christian theology
With three main audiences: theology addressed to the believer (B), theology addressed to the church (C), and theology addressed to the world (W).
EXPOSITION: HOW IT IS
- (B) Catechetical exposition of the faith (e.g. Origen, First Principles; Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics)
- (C) Polemical exposition of the faith (e.g. Irenaeus, Against Heresies; Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is)
- (W) Apologetic exposition of the faith (e.g. Origen, Contra Celsum; John Milbank, Theology and Social Theory)
- (B) Template of a converted life (e.g. Clement of Alexandria, The Educator; Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality and the Self)
- (C) Template of a converted community (e.g. Calvin, Institutes; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together)
- (W) Template of a converted society (e.g. Augustine, City of God; Reinhold Niebuhr, Nature and Destiny of Man)
- (W) Protest against society (e.g. Tertullian, On Spectacles; Gustavo Gutiérrez, Theology of Liberation)
- (C) Protest against the church (e.g. Luther, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church; Kierkegaard, Attack upon Christendom)
- (B) Protest against the self (e.g. Pascal, Pensées; Simone Weil, Waiting for God)
Brandon Frick just tweeted a great suggestion for these three categories:
ReplyDelete1. How it is
2. How it should be
3. How it shouldn't be
And I like Brandon's headings so much that I've added them to the post.
ReplyDeleteI've always found George Lindbeck's “The Nature of Doctrine” useful in sorting out different approaches to theology.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess what we've got here is the Myers-Frick theometric type indicator, aka the MFTTI.
ReplyDelete