The Postfoundationalist Task of Theology: Wolfhart Pannenberg and the New Theological Rationality

by F. LeRon Shults

In recent years the theological writings of Wolfhart Pannenberg have exerted considerable influence. However, Pannenberg’s work has also been criticized for not taking seriously the post-modern challenge to traditional conceptions of rationality and truth. This volume by F. LeRon Shults argues that the popular “foundationalist” reading of Pannenberg is a misinterpretation of his methodology and shows that, in fact, the structural dynamics of Pannenberg’s approach offer significant resources for the postfoundationalist task of theology in our postmodern culture.   After presenting the first comprehensive summary and interpretation of the emerging post-foundationalist model of theological rationality, Shults revisits Pannenberg’s theological method and shows the German theologian to be a surprising ally in the quest to reconstruct a theological rationality along postfoundationalist lines. In the course of the discussion, Shults challenges views that see the future, reason, or history as the central concept of Pannenberg’s thought and offers instead a new interpretation of Pannenberg’s basic theological principle as understanding and explaining all things sub ratione Dei (under the aspect of the relation to God). Shults also focuses on Pannenberg’s unique way of linking philosophical and systematic theology and demonstrates how the underlying reciprocity of this method can be carried over into the postfoundational concern to link hermeneutics and epistemology in the postmodern context.  

Genres: Religion, Theology

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 1999