Analogical Imagination

Rating:
Summary: How the Particular Can Have Relevance for Everyone
Review: David Tracy is one of the most brilliant Christian theologians of this generation. He is also one of the most generous. Even as a young man, his range was breath-taking. His endnotes take his readers on guided tours of the best recent scholarship in a dozen fields, including philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, literary criticism, Biblical studies, comparative religious studies, hermeneutics, and critical theory. No serious work on the topic he has chosen is ignored. Each is cited for its strengths; none are trivialized or merely dismissed. Over the years, his range has remained remarkable, while his theology has become richer, subtler, more sensitive to human cruelty and human suffering, to conflicts, interruptions, displacements, blind alleys, and states of extreme tension and danger. He has been one of the great teachers of theology in this generation, a mentor to dozens of important younger scholars in a variety of church traditions. This book marked a kind of mid-point in his career. In it he grapples with the difficult question of how a particular event, a particular person, a particular tradition or a particular expression of passion, discipline and insight can become of general and even universal relevance and fundamental importance. Key to his treatment of these issues was his appropriation of the category of "the classic." Since his own tradition and faith community is Roman Catholic, this book becomes a deeply thoughtful and well focused exposition of the philosophical commitments and methodological principles that could make possible an adequate contemporary theological account of what it means to be "Catholic." This book, on the grounds and method of a Catholic systematic theology, was supposed to be followed by a major work on praxis and the needed framework for a "practical theology." But the path of his thinking took a different turn. For over a decade--or a decade and a half--he has instead been working on a major treatment of the Christian understanding of "God." Along the way, his Gifford Lectures, never published, gave some indication at least of the direction his thought on this subject has taken. All of us who feel indebted to him await the publication of this work with an expectation of a great banquet. Along with figures like Joseph Komonchak, Francis Schussler Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, John D. Caputo, and Bernard McGinn, Tracy has brought American Catholic thought onto a world stage. For anyone struggling with the implications of Christian faith in the postmodern situation of American culture Tracy's work can be a source of illumination, wisdom, and solace.

Rating:
Summary: How the Particular Can Have Relevance for Everyone
Review: David Tracy is one of the most brilliant Christian theologians of this generation. He is also one of the most generous. Even as a young man, his range was breath-taking. His endnotes take his readers on guided tours of the best recent scholarship in a dozen fields, including philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, literary criticism, Biblical studies, comparative religious studies, hermeneutics, and critical theory. No serious work on the topic he has chosen is ignored. Each is cited for its strengths; none are trivialized or merely dismissed. Over the years, his range has remained remarkable, while his theology has become richer, subtler, more sensitive to human cruelty and human suffering, to conflicts, interruptions, displacements, blind alleys, and states of extreme tension and danger. He has been one of the great teachers of theology in this generation, a mentor to dozens of important younger scholars in a variety of church traditions. This book marked a kind of mid-point in his career. In it he grapples with the difficult question of how a particular event, a particular person, a particular tradition or a particular expression of passion, discipline and insight can become of general and even universal relevance and fundamental importance. Key to his treatment of these issues was his appropriation of the category of "the classic." Since his own tradition and faith community is Roman Catholic, this book becomes a deeply thoughtful and well focused exposition of the philosophical commitments and methodological principles that could make possible an adequate contemporary theological account of what it means to be "Catholic." This book, on the grounds and method of a Catholic systematic theology, was supposed to be followed by a major work on praxis and the needed framework for a "practical theology." But the path of his thinking took a different turn. For over a decade--or a decade and a half--he has instead been working on a major treatment of the Christian understanding of "God." Along the way, his Gifford Lectures, never published, gave some indication at least of the direction his thought on this subject has taken. All of us who feel indebted to him await the publication of this work with an expectation of a great banquet. Along with figures like Joseph Komonchak, Francis Schussler Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, John D. Caputo, and Bernard McGinn, Tracy has brought American Catholic thought onto a world stage. For anyone struggling with the implications of Christian faith in the postmodern situation of American culture Tracy's work can be a source of illumination, wisdom, and solace.

Rating:
Summary: confronting the problem of alternate truth claims
Review: Tracy attempts to reach a methodological framework from which to account for the vast differences in theological doctrines--that is, plurality. His scholarship is erudite and felicitously written. He draws on all the big names in philosophy and theology, but his system remains lacking because of its reliance upon a Kantian view of knowledge and in the end there is little room for actual truth. Rather, truth is more practical in providing existential answers to various situations. Tracy's spirit in writing is good. Christians should work to keep theology vital and public. Utlimately though, Tracy's book is a deft move to declare relativism the norm of praxis.

Rating:
Summary: confronting the problem of alternate truth claims
Review: Tracy attempts to reach a methodological framework from which to account for the vast differences in theological doctrines--that is, plurality. His scholarship is erudite and felicitously written. He draws on all the big names in philosophy and theology, but his system remains lacking because of its reliance upon a Kantian view of knowledge and in the end there is little room for actual truth. Rather, truth is more practical in providing existential answers to various situations. Tracy's spirit in writing is good. Christians should work to keep theology vital and public. Utlimately though, Tracy's book is a deft move to declare relativism the norm of praxis.