Taking the Long View: Christian Theology in Historical Perspective

by David Steinmetz

Taking the Long View argues in a series of engagingly written essays that remembering the past is essential for men and women who want to function effectively in the present--for without some knowledge of their own past, neither individuals nor institutions know where they have been or where they are going. The book illustrates its thesis with tough-minded examples from the Church's life and thought, ranging from more abstract problems like the theoretical role of historical criticism to such painfully concrete issues as the commandment of Jesus to forgive unforgivable wrongs.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published September 7, 2011

About the author

David’s background includes forty years of scientific work, including astronomy at the University of Arizona and optics at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Currently, he teaches about the yugas, ancient world cultures, astronomy, and physics at the Ananda College of Living Wisdom. He has been writing and lecturing on the topic of the yugas for more than a decade. David is a teacher at the Ananda College of Living Wisdom and was instrumental in developing a curiculum based on key aspects of the yuga cycle. He lives with his wife at Ananda Village, a spiritual community in Northern California.

Reviews

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came across a mention of this book in a blog that summarised aspects of its second chapter, Miss Marple Reads the Bible: Detective Fiction and the Art of Biblical Interpretation. This delightfully named section teases out the thought that there are times when a very fruitful approach to Scriptural text are found in the rules of writing a detective novel. Behind certain baffling surface storylines exists a coherent ‘second narrative’ designed so ‘that at the end all of the small parts fall together into an intelligible pattern.’ Any break in pattern, anything unexpected or out of place, is a clue towards finding this second narrative.

This thought appealed to me so much I had to get the book. And in it I found many other riches. The language of God's doing - creator, redeemer and sustainer - has been promoted to replace the language of God's being - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 'To keep silence in a time of conflict over the doctrine of the Trinity is to commit what Karl Rahner calls "virtual heresy"... The mystery of God always exceeds our intellectual grasp... Christian theology has always insisted that apophatic theology, which proceeds by denial of what God is not, is higher than kataphatic theology, which proceeds by affirmation." (p35)

The importance of continual repentance in the Christian life is thoroughly explored. (p74ff) As Calvin observed, when we deal with repentance and forgiveness of sins, we are dealing with the "sum of the gospel". (p76)

Luther observed that the Bible distinguished two kinds of words: Heisselwörter or words that simply name and classify already existing things, and Thettelwörter, or words that effect whatever they signify. When Adam named the creatures found in the Garden of Eden, he used Heisselwörter, language as a symbolic system that orders a reality it did not create. But when God created the world, He used Thettelwörter, language that is indistinguishable from reality-transforming deeds. (p83) The ancient prophets of Israel seemed to bear a reality-altering word from God. Like God, who "spoke and it was done", prophets spoke a Thettelwort from God that changed whoever heard it - sometimes for the better, other times for the worse, but it was never in vain, never without some effect. As with the prophets, so, too, with the later apostles and evangelists... When Luther described the transforming Word of God as a Thettelwort, he was using language more commonly associated in medieval Christianity with the sacraments. (p84)

In the course of the sixteenth century, the arguments used today to advance the ordination of women were already known and used - and although they did not change long-standing practice, they did support a more active role for women in the church. Nevertheless women lost many of the rights and privileges they had enjoyed in the fifteenth century: the right to work outside the home, to buy and sell property, to own businesses in their own name. (p110 f)

One of the oldest tests for authentic Christian teaching is to ask whether it has been taught "everywhere, always and by all." (p130)

[Maxime N. Georgel · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'ai lu le chapitre consacré à l'exégèse. Il fait l'éloge de l'allégorie dans l'interprétation des Écritures et vient challenger l'exégèse historico-grammaticale comme unique accès au sens du texte.

Alors que je suis depuis plusieurs moins maintenant très ouvert à l'idée et même plutôt convaincu, sa démonstration demeure très faible. La conclusion reste la meilleure partie de l'article :

The medieval theory of levels of meaning in the biblical text, with all its undoubted defects, flourished because it is true, while the modern theory of a single meaning, with all its demonstrable virtues, is false. Until the historical- critical method becomes critical of its own theoretical foundations and develops a hermeneutical theory adequate to the nature of the text which it is interpreting, it will remain restricted-as it deserves to be-to the guild and the academy, where the question of truth can endlessly be deferred.