Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism: How Modern and Postmodern Philosophy Set the Theological Agenda (Rockwell Lecture Series)

Rating:
Summary: Definitely Worth Reading
Review: If the postmodern movement (if indeed this is an adequate label for what is afoot in segments of academia) by definition is a movement still caught in the modern web, Murphy's effort amply demonstrates why this is so. She wants to point to a way out of the foundationalist dilemma but in the end demonstrates why this is so difficult to do. At bottom we want and need an answer to the age-old question "what is truth?" - and this is at bottom more than an epistemological question. The need for a solution to what she has defined as the second-order epistemological question seems in the end to lead us back to this very issue. It is difficult to see in the need to justify my framework among acknowledged competing frameworks as in any way moving significantly beyond foundationalism. If foundationalism as defined in her book is indeed the beast to be slain (and I strongly suspect it is) I do not see how the drive for justification among acknowledged competing systems can itself be justified. Have I not already formed fairly foundational conclusions prior to assessing such a need?

However, I digress. Murphy's book is perhaps foundational (sorry, I could not resist) as a more than adequate summary of key issues. Anyone remotely familiar with Nietzsche and Wittgenstein will recognize the attacks that have been launched upon modernity as philosophical and scientific systems. I do not know the end result of any of this, but I do suspect Murphy's book will at least serve as a measurement of where we are at as Christian theologians and how we got here (first part of her book). How we are going to get out, supposing that we want to get out, might depend on seriously wrestling with issues addressed in the second half of her work. However, I am not at all certain many really want to get out, see the need to get out, or have a clue as to what getting out really entails or to what it would lead. I am certainly guilty on most accounts. My deepest suspicion is that Murphy has attempted to copy the works of Hawking (in physics) - that is, here is the current state of affairs, the issues involved, and some suggestions as to what might be done and what things might look like once they are done. If I am correct, it is an interesting approach, but in the end I don't know that she has really moved the discussion beyond where it was when I was in grad school 20 years ago. Reading her book was in many ways a blast from the past.

I do want to seriously react to one of her suggestions. I do not believe we as Christian thinkers need work too strenuously in our efforts to bring our theology up-to-date with current scientific theories. We should be aware of them, and we might even use them in certain ways, but any effort to wed theology and science will need to be rethought later. The history of science amply demonstrates that scientific theories rarely (if ever) contain the last word on any given subject. I understand that if we fail to address/use/incorporate current philosophical or scientific theories we leave ourselves with little to do as theologians. Yet, wedding ourselves to current scientific theories as though we have discovered or found some new truth has proven time and again to be just one more obstacle to overcome in another more "enlightened" scientific age. Yes, I write this with a smile, but you have been warned.

On the other hand, what we do with current movements in philosophy is much more interesting and possibly much more rewarding since typically philosophers are ahead of theologians in their use of scientific theories anyway. I enjoy reading quantum theory as much as the next person but I am not at all clear as to what I am supposed to make of it apart from its already significant place in philosophy. I suspect (may I say strongly suspect) most trained theologians currently attempting to incorporate current theories as to the nature of reality into their work are in reality using the works of popularizers (may I say philosophers) rather than the actual works of the physicists themselves. There are to be sure exceptions (at least I hope there are exceptions). When we incorporate these things based on secondhand accounts much of the real work has been done. Also, we are already behind what is really current in the sciences. I say all of this to make a point: the postmodern movement (if it can be called a movement) is in large part raking around in cesspools left by the waning of the modern. As theologians we certainly have a right (a task?) to join in the fun. Will it really produce a theology that in turn makes a significant contribution to a life that might be recognized as Christian? That is my question and I am not at all certain Murphy's book leads to a definitive answer. This is more of an observation rather than a criticism. I don't know that she intended to provide an answer. Again, I found her book very similar to several works on "modern" physics - an attempt at summary and "outlining what is required if we are to move forward." It is the latter part of the equation that reveals the author's agenda.

Rating:
Summary: A Wake-Up Call in Theology
Review: In this highly comprehensive work Nancey Murphy has single-handedly described where theology has come from, where it is now and where it is heading in the future. This is one of the best descriptions of the history of Western philosophic thought it's impact upon any theology. What is appreciated is how Dr. Murphy describes how our thought has emerged into what we know today as "Liberalism" and "Fundamentalism" (and Fundmentalism's child - evangelicalism) - but she does not leave us there. She moves then into a description of postmodern thought and it's impact upon theology. The rules have all changed! I did not understand "why" I thought and believed the way I do before reading this book as this was never explained in theological school - we just worked from various "a priori" assumptions. After reading this book, a different world opened up to me that has given me hope for a theology that is better informed for a postmodern world. The "wake-up" call is the fact that all the rules have changed. Those who hold onto the old rules of engagement will find this book threatening. Those who can see possibilities with the new rules of post-modern thought will find this book highly engaging and an accurate description of where theology is heading.

Rating:
Summary: A Wake-Up Call in Theology
Review: In this highly comprehensive work Nancey Murphy has single-handedly described where theology has come from, where it is now and where it is heading in the future. This is one of the best descriptions of the history of Western philosophic thought it's impact upon any theology. What is appreciated is how Dr. Murphy describes how our thought has emerged into what we know today as "Liberalism" and "Fundamentalism" (and Fundmentalism's child - evangelicalism) - but she does not leave us there. She moves then into a description of postmodern thought and it's impact upon theology. The rules have all changed! I did not understand "why" I thought and believed the way I do before reading this book as this was never explained in theological school - we just worked from various "a priori" assumptions. After reading this book, a different world opened up to me that has given me hope for a theology that is better informed for a postmodern world. The "wake-up" call is the fact that all the rules have changed. Those who hold onto the old rules of engagement will find this book threatening. Those who can see possibilities with the new rules of post-modern thought will find this book highly engaging and an accurate description of where theology is heading.

Rating:
Summary: A Lucid (if not original) Account
Review: Murphy's work is excellent.

And it's not because she makes any startling claims. The liberal/conservative divide in theology is obvious. It is no surprise that both are fundamentally different (in content and reasoning) but based on similar philosophical presuppositions. That these presuppositions are increasingly questionable in a "postmodern" era has been pointed out so many times nobody wants to hear it anymore.

What is great about this book is Murphy's clarity. Beyond the pedantry of liberals and the fearful diatribes of conservatives, Murphy speaks in a clean and hopeful manner. She uses "ideal types" to be sure, but with such gracefulness that they work beautifully and effectively.

Her constructive chapters, of course, will not settle everything definitively. But they don't really have to --- all Murphy has to do is prove that this is really a move beyond liberalism and fundamentalism. I think she does this effectively.

I recommend this book because it improves on some of the ambiguities of Lindbeck's The Nature of Doctrine. Like Lindbeck, it is concise and powerful. Unlike Lindbeck, however, Murphy clears up some of the ambiguity surrounding "experiential-expressivism" and "cognitive-propositionalism." Her positive proposal, unlike Lindbeck's "cultural-linguistic" approach, is sufficiently nuanced so as not to fall prey to the claims of "Barthianism" or "relativism."

Finally, since Murphy comes from Berkely/Pasadena, not from New Haven or Chicago, she is able to avoid the history of better established schools of theology.

Rating:
Summary: Beyond Comparison, How Ontology set the Epestimic Agenda
Review: Nancey begins her philosophical waltz as most desirous of going "where no one has gone before" and consequently suffers the same fate. In an attempt to criticize the naivete of both her Liberal and Fundamental theological interlocutors, regarding situational relativity and their obliviousness to it, she fails to either recognize (at best) or admit (at worst) that her own critical apparatus is little more than an enculturation "effect" of the disembededness of life - even her own - in the context of the "high noon" of modernity; and thus the deafning silence regarding ontology. Whether comparing propositional revelation with expressive reflection, metaphysical foundationalism with antifoundationalism, niave realism with pragmatic realism , or divine interventionism and natural immanentism, all are conveniently addressed from within the most precarious of theological\philosophical positions i.e. with their ontological feet planted firmly in mid air. Of course my own critical observations are being advanced within a particular tradition, of and for which I thank God, I gladly admit it and I might add the "True" and\or "Real" one. One where Biblical Holism not only addresses the musings of the scholarly, with their "webs" of epistemology and the hue and cry of antifoundational foundations, accompanied by their creative and pragmatic realism (supported by assertive fiat) but also the reality of Creation which (whether consented to or not) provides the ultimate foundation against which there is no escape. Is not it interesting that even for the postmodern "evangelical" avant garde we are often surprised at the light orthodox and historic Christianity can shed own our autonomous musings. At one point she displays excitement regarding the prospects of rapprochment within this chronological "snobbery" milieu but the seeming discrepancies adumbrated are only convenient constructs advanced by academic status seekers and lagging christian want-to-be's whose ideas await the same honor of previous fads - obscurity. As if these issues have not been or can not be resolved satisfactorily within the anamnesis of the Reformed faith she inadvertantly confuses idols for ideas and most who are enchanted by reading will probably not be the better served. As Christians given the imperative to take "every thought captive to the obedience of Christ" we can do better than this and indeed must. This fails to be "Beyond" anything but not above serious reconsideration!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to foundationalism and theology
Review: Nancy Murphy's central thesis is that modern philosophy has created a situation where Liberal and Conservative theologians are, because of their foundationalist method, intractable in their relation to the other camp. The first half of the book examines this claim in respect of three opposing positions i) how we know God ii) the role and form of religious language and, iii) how God acts in the world. The second half argues that the intractability of the Liberal-Conservative positions is based on foundationalist methods and that with their apparent demise a postfoundationalist approach, such as those of Thiemann and Lindbeck, opens up a whole range of options that overcomes the Liberal-Conservative divide.

All this is done in a remarkably clear way and in a relatively small book. This book is an excellent introduction to contemporary changes in theological method that commonly come under the label of postmodern. From this basis theology will not be trapped in a pre-determined set of options as Murphy shows in reference to many areas of contemporary theology such as religion and science and the use of feminine language as a referent of God. Overall, this book will undoubtably make you think and question the way theology is done. My one major complaint is that while this book is an issue based book a more thorough exposition of the key theologians would have made this a more theologically important work.