An Essay on Theological Method

by Gordon D. Kaufman

This book, first published in 1979, contains Gordon Kaufman's initial attempt to articulate his conviction that theology is, and always has been, an activity of what he calls the "imaginative construction" of a comprehensive and coherent picture of humanity in the world under God. While Kaufman's 1993 work, In Face of Mystery , qualifies and deepens the programmatic proposals offered in An Essay on Theological Method , the earlier book nevertheless remains a sound and accessible statement on theological method by one of America's most distinguished theologians. The Third Edition includes an extensive new Preface by the author, and an appendix on "The Three Moments of Theological Construction."

Genres: Theology

120 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1975

About the author

Gordon D. Kaufman is Professor of Theology Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School. He is a past president of the American Academy of Religion and of the American Theological Society, as well as a member of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. Professor Kaufman is author of numerous articles and reviews as well as 12 books, including In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology (Harvard University Press, 1993), which won the 1995 American Academy of Religion Award for "Excellence" in the "Constructive-Reflective" category of scholarly books on Religion; and two recent books, In the beginning . . . Creativity (Fortress Press, 2004) and Jesus and Creativity (Fortress Press, 2006). He has lectured widely, and taught at universities across the United States, and also in India, Japan, South Africa, England, and Hong Kong. Professor Kaufman has been an ordained minister in the Mennonite Church for 50 years, and has been the subject of two Festschriften.

Reviews

[Adrian Woods · Rating 2 out of 5]

He thinks that the concept of god is an imaginative construction on our part, and theologians are artists, making stuff up.