Faith Thinking: The Dynamics of Christian Theology [Paperback]

Trevor A. Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2004

Introducing key issues surrounding the nature of theology for the postmodern world, this text explores the transformation of tradition for our changing times, and makes a case for a new paradigm--theology is faith thinking.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Hart's book (first published in Britain in 1995) is true to its title; it is an introduction to theology as "faith thinking" or, more specifically, faith seeking an understanding. This is hardly a new paradigm for theology, but it is a relevant one as theology seeks to find its way as an academic discipline in a postmodern world. The book grew out of lectures to undergraduate students of theology in a university setting, but its value is not limited to an academic audience. It is a good introduction for any reader interested in grappling with the relationship between faith and understanding in the practice of theology. Hart draws freely on philosophy, history, and literary criticism as well as theology; this enhances the book's value as an introduction not only to the dynamics but also to the context of Christian theology. Steve Schroeder --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers (December 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597520187
• ISBN-13: 978-1597520188
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,131,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A very readable survey of critical issues in theological method., February 21, 2012

By 

Magdan (Sunny Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faith Thinking: The Dynamics of Christian Theology (Paperback)

I won't provide a detailed review at this time, but just want to say that Hart's book is surprisingly good in my view. To define good more clearly: Hart communicates quite clearly and covers a lot of ground. Most of the book revolves around the relationship between faith and reason, and how that relates to the way we (should) do theology. He deals quite a bit with issues that relate to modern vs. postmodern debates about rationality (the role of faith in our knowing vs. the role of reason; where/how meaning is found in a text; the relationship between faith/reason and tradition; the contextual and provisional nature of our knowledge and interpretations of our faith). In the end I think Hart echoes many other voices in contemporary theology, including evangelicals like Stanely Grenz and James Wm. McClendon, Jr., in trying to find a way between objectivism and relativism. So I would characterize his position as a soft postmodernism, or perhaps post-critical. And I think he does a good job articulating this (perhaps it is too short to say he "defends" this position).
My greatest hesitation is with his section on where meaning is found in a text. He leans pretty heavily here toward a reader/community productive view of meaning. Though he doesn't draw specifically on Gadamer, it seems to cohere well with that outlook, and definitely rejects the approach of Hirsh - the common sense approach that meaning is to be found in the author's intentions. Here he repeats common errors of assuming we must somehow get inside the author's head to divine such a meaning, and throwing it aside because we have no absolute certainty or consensus over it. I agree with Hart that the reader has a productive role to play in understanding a text, but I think this is separable from where the meaning is to be sought. I think we can recover an author's meaning because communication is a public event based on linguistic and literary conventions. I also agree with him that understanding (though he says meaning) will always differ every time two people read a text, or even every reading by one person. We always understand differently, to some extent. Yet we should seek the meaning in it's proper place, which is usually what the author intended to convey.
Hart's overall themes/theses are that knowledge always involves faith and commitment (Polanyi) and is always contextual, never absolute. Human beings are always in a search for truth that involves a complex interaction of testing various perspectives that we encounter: the Enlightenment dream of an objective "view from nowhere" from which we can simply test things to determine their rationality and truth, is an illusion. But this doesn't mean, with the relativist, that we give up on truth: we simply pursue it in a more human, more humble, and more realistic way. His vision of theology as a community activity of testing and revising one's faith/tradition in conversation with contemporary perspectives is attractive. It rejects the fundamentalist refusal to consider change and development, as well as the liberal bias in favor of modern views which judge faith and insist that it conform to it's rational dictates. Hart believes that faith must submit to critical testing, but also that the faith which Christians profess has revelatory and prophetic content which also judges our contemporary context. Liberal approaches are too quick, in Hart's estimation, to give up crucial aspect of faith to satisfy the demands of modern rationalism.
Overall I like the balance Hart strikes between insisting on testing, criticism, and continual revision/reform, but rejecting a reduction of faith to whatever stamp of approval it can gain from reason. He rejects the idea of absolute reason as illusion, since there is faith and personal commitment at the heart of all human knowledge. I am slightly more optimistic than Hart that we can see things "as they are" from a particular perspective, but I still see his approach as pretty balanced, and not at all giving up on the pursuit of knowledge and truth.