DESCRIPTION: This doctoral seminar, open to limited number of advanced master's level students, is designed to investigate and discuss critically competing methodologies and approaches in contemporary systematic/constructive theology including their philosophical, hermeneutical, and cultural ramifications. Approaches to be studied include mainline Protestant and Catholic, post-liberal, postmodern, Radical Orthodox, postmetaphysical, post-colonial, canonical-linguistic, and various types of Liberationist and other "contextual" or "global" theologies, as well as Evangelical responses and constructive proposals.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: In light of the fact that in current theology there is no single "method" available, a careful consideration of various proposals and methodological issues is necessary for the preparation for independent academic work.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students completing this course will have demonstrated their ability to (1) identify key methodological choices and agendas in various contemporary systematic theologies; (2) analyze critically and assess their contributions and liabilities; (3) offer a reasoned response to various proposals in light of tradition and current intellectual milieu; and (4) begin to formulate their own approach to doing systematic/constructive theology.

COURSE FORMAT: The class will meet once a week for a three-hour session for student presentations and critical discussion. Immediately after registration, the student must contact the professor for the syllabus and pre-seminar assignments (vmk@fuller.edu).

REQUIRED READING: Selections from the following texts:

Course Reader: "Essays on Theological Method." ST829/529 (Moodle course website)

Cone, J. H. A Black Theology of Liberation. Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Orbis, 1990. 200 pp. ISBN: 9780883446850. $22.00.

OR Gutiérrez, G. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Orbis, 1973. 334 pp. ISBN: 9780883445426. $24.00.

Grenz, S. J. & Franke, J. R. Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Society. Westminster John Knox, 2001. 296 pp. ISBN: 9780664257699. $39.95.

OR Murphy, N. Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism: How Modern and Postmodern Philosophy Set the Theological Agenda. Trinity Press, 1996. 192 pp. ISBN: 1563381761. $27.96.

Hart, Trevor. Faith Thinking: The Dynamics of Christian Theology. Wipf & Stock, 2005. 248 pp. ISBN: 9781597520188. $27.00.

Johnson, E. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. Crossroad, 2002. 344 pp. ISBN: 9780824519254. $29.99 (1992).

OR McFague, S. Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age. Fortress, 1987. 244 pp. ISBN: 9780800620516. $22.00.

OR Kwok, P. Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology. Westminster John Knox, 2005. 256 pp. ISBN: 9780664228835. $29.95.

Lindbeck, G. A. The Nature of Doctrine: Religion & Theology in a Postliberal Age. Westminster John Knox, 1984. 144 pp. ISBN: 9780664246181. $29.95.

Lonergan, Bernard. Method in Theology. Repr. University of Toronto Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780802068095.

Milbank, J., et. al., ed. Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology. Routledge, 1998.

Moltmann, J., Experiences in Theology: Ways and Forms of Christian Theology. Fortress, 2000. 320 pp. ISBN: 9780800632670. $30.00.

Pannenberg, W. Systematic Theology. Vol. 1. Eerdmans, 1991. 486 pp. ISBN: 9780802865038. $55.00.

Placher, W. An Unapologetic Theology: A Christian Voice in a Pluralistic Society. Westminster John Knox, 1989. 184 pp. ISBN: 9780664250645. $29.95.

Vanhoozer, K. J. The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Doctrine. Westminster John Knox, 2005. 485 pp. ISBN: 9780664223274. $39.95.

Ward, Graham, ed. The Postmodern God: A Theological Reader. Wiley-Blackwell, 1998. 416 pp. ISBN: 9780631201410. $62.95.

The following works are available (in the reserve shelf) for consultation for presentations:

Bevans, S. B. Models of Contextual Theology. Rev. ed. Orbis, 2002. 192 pp. ISBN: 9781570754388. $30.00.

Bloesch, D. A Theology of Word & Spirit: Authority & Method in Theology. InterVarsity Press, 1992. 336 pp. ISBN: 9780830827510. $20.00.

Frei, H. W. The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative. Yale University Press, 1980. 365 pp. ISBN: 9780300026023. $25.00.

Greene-McCreight, Kathryn. Feminist Reconstructions of Christian Doctrine: Narrative Analysis and Appraisal. Oxford University Press, 2000. 192 pp. ISBN: 9780195128628. $95.00.

Kaufman, G. D. The Theological Imagination: Constructing the Concept of God. Westminster John Knox, 1981. 312 pp. ISBN: 9780664243937.

Marion, J. L. God without Being: Hors-Texte. University of Chicago Press, 1995. 284 pp. ISBN: 9780226505411. $21.00.

Milbank, J. & O. Simon, ed. The Radical Orthodoxy Reader. Routledge, 2009. 420 pp. ISBN: 9780415425131. $41.95.

Moltmann, J.: Any of the volumes in his series "Contributions to Theology" from The Trinity and the Kingdom (1981) to the Coming of God (1996). Fortress Press.

Murphy, N. Anglo-American Postmodernity: Philosophical Perspectives on Science, Religion, and Ethics. Westview Press, 1997. 240 pp. ISBN: 9780813328690. $39.00.

Pannenberg, W. Systematic Theology. Vol. 2. Eerdmans 1994. 515 pp. ISBN: 9780802837073. $55.00.

------. Systematic Theology. Vol. 3. Eerdmans, 1997. 730 pp. ISBN: 9780802864567. $55.00.

Phan, P. Christianity with an Asian Face: Asian American Theology in the Making. Orbis, 2003. 256 pp. ISBN: 9781570754661. $34.00.

Phillips, T. T. & D. L. Okholm, eds. The Nature of Confession. Evangelicals & Postliberals in Conversation. InterVarsity Press, 1996. 298 pp. 9780830818693. $12.55.

Smith, J. A. K. Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-Secular Theology. Baker Academic, 2004. 296 pp. ISBN: 9780801027352. $28.00.

Schreiter, R. J. Constructing Local Theologies. Orbis, 1985. 192 pp. ISBN: 9780883441084. $26.00.

Shults, F. L. The Postfoundationalist Task of Theology. Eerdmans, 1999. 286 pp. ISBN: 9780802846860. $29.00.

Tanner, K. Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology. Fortress, 1997. 208 pp. ISBN: 9780800630973. $21.00.

Tracy, D. The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism. Crossroad, 1998. 480 pp. ISBN: 9780824506940. $39.95.

Vanhoozer, K. J., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology. Cambridge University Press, 2003. 312 pp. ISBN: 9780521793957. $28.99.

Wilson, M. M. Historical and Social Dimensions in African Christian Theology. Wipf & Stock, 2009. 118 pp. ISBN: 9781606081242. $16.00.