A Liberal Theology For The Twenty First Century

Liberal theology, in its typical form, represents the attempt to approach religion from a rational perspective without denying or belittling the importance of religious experience and religious commitment. Versions of liberal theology can be found in all the great religions. This book is primarily concerned with a Christian tradition that goes back to the second century and reached a high point in the seventeenth. This tradition includes a method of inquiry which, when re-evaluated in the light of recent discussions on the nature of rationality and applied to contemporary issues, reveals that there are versions of materialism, monism and theism that can accord with rationality. While liberal theology cannot demonstrate the truth of theism, it can present it not only as one of the rational options, but as an option that has uniquely attractive characteristics, and when the liberal tradition is taken at its best, it can support a version of Christianity which continues to refer to God as a transcendent 'reality', and which can continue to support recognizable doctrines of incarnation, redemption and Trinity. The liberal theology introduced and advanced in this book can be contrasted with many recent 'radical theologies', and could be called 'liberal orthodoxy'. Students of philosophy, theology and religious studies, as well as clergy and interested lay readers, will find this an accessible insight into liberal theology and to current debates on materialism, atheism and inter-faith dialogue.

This text is an attempt to explore the methods of the liberal Christian tradition, along with what this tradition has to say about certain fundamental questions, particularly those pertaining to the nature and reality of God and the implications for human life of any answers that might be given. To explore the fundamental questions about the nature and reality of God this book follows seven steps. The first two seteps look at where to begin when answering the fundamental questions, while the following steps are an attempt to answer them. Steps three and four explore negative and positive answers to the question Is God a reality . Step five examines the case for theism, the belief in the God, creator of the universe; while step six looks at the different forms that theism may take. The final step, step seven, concludes the quest for rational answers to fundamental questions.