Ecclesial Reflection: An Anatomy of Theological Method

by Edward Farley

According to Farley a paradigm of divine activity will include an aim, a means or historical mediation, and an environment. The aim is redemption, the means is the "event of the crucified messianic teacher," and the environment is the three systems of cosmos, nature, and history. The interpretation of the environment will not be an objective one, for it is informed by the perspective of redemption. Here metaphysics and hermeneutics will come together in what Farley calls "a hermeneutic ontology." Farley's main thesis here is that "the divine empathy is what disposes world process in directions of synthesis, cooperation, and novelty. This thesis connects the content of the divine aim displayed in redemption and the kind of world we know". Using the analogy of human empathy Farley explains how the divine empathy is efficacious in both redemption and the ordering of the world's entities toward synthesis and cooperation. Uniting existentialist and metaphysical themes he suggests that God as Thou and God as a metaphysical empathy are two ways of expressing the activity of God in the world drawing self-oriented entities toward cooperation. Farley concludes with explanations of the ways in which his paradigm is related to the questions of theodicy, eschatology, and liberation.

380 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982