A Brief History of Theology – Book Review

Theology is a process and one never comes to a finished state of theological insight. These are the opening statements of Derek Johnston’s book A Brief History of Theology. At the outset, Johnston says that this book provides a glimpse into what theology is all about. It introduces key ideas of the theologians of various areas and what were the questions that gripped them at their particular times. The book is meant to provide the foundations for the reader to think theologically. As one goes through the book, one comes across the thoughts of great theologians and thinkers like St. Augustine, John Wesley, Karl Rahner, St. Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin to name a few. I have taken the liberty of mentioning, in brief, the thought patterns of a few of these great theologians in accordance with the book.

Theologians and their thoughts

St. Paul: Paul who began as an active persecutor of the Church becomes the first Christian theologian after his conversion. Being a well-educated man, he was able to interpret Jesus’ teaching into the Gentile language. He did not focus on the imposing old traditions that were inherited rather he fought for a new vision that would be all-encompassing. His thought is marked by his struggle to understand the novelty of the gospel and the difficulty to integrate the Jewish awareness of God and the Christian theological concern.

St. Thomas Aquinas: Aquinas was among those medieval Christian theologians who attempted to integrate Western Philosophy and theology. In particular, Aquinas attempted to use Aristotle’s philosophy to explain Christian theology. His thought is so vast that it is very difficult to look at it in detail. He believed that the Gospel and the rational exploration of the world are not in contradiction. Through this, he was able to develop his famous five arguments for the existence of God and also affirm that God’s providence and intelligence resulted in the order and the beauty in the created world. Thus, he was able to present the role of reason in faith.

Martin Luther: With Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation. He disliked the Church’s teaching on salvation and so decided to develop his own doctrine of justification. He believed that faith was the only thing which justifies a sinner before God. Salvation cannot be earned. Rather it is a free gift out of the unimaginably generous love of God. The closest he came to systematic theology were the two catechisms he wrote, namely, the Longer Catechism and the Shorter Catechism. The Longer Catechism was to instruct the clergy and the Shorter Catechism was to instruct the faithful. His famous Ninety-five Theses on Indulgences which he nailed on the door of the Wittenberg Church claimed that there was no effect to indulgences and that only the cross of Christ guarantees salvation.

Karl Rahner: The thought of Human Transcendence was promulgated by Karl Rahner. He held that humans are naturally open to God but also supernaturally raised up by God by means of a transcendental openness so as to have an actual experience of God in everyday life. He had also coined the term ‘anonymous Christians’ which referred to those individuals whose explicit conviction was not Christian but continued to have an inner commitment to live a life of love and service.

Rosemary Radford Ruether: The rise of feminism began in the contemporary world and Rosemary Radford Ruether was a leading Christian feminist theologian. She saw that if one peels off the masculine imagery from Christology, the Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels emerges as a figure well-suited to feminism. She says that because of our structured thought tending towards dualism, we identify females with evil and males with good. She says that one needs to reshape the dualistic concept of reality. She was also a supporter of ecofeminism which is a union of the ecology movement and feminism.

Conclusion

Overall, the book is a wonderful read though it requires a bit of effort and concentration on the part of the reader so as to understand the different sections in the book. The language has been simplified to the extent that the reader is able to understand the various concepts of theology. A brief glossary is provided in almost every chapter describing the complicated and difficult terms that may be present either in the thought of the theologian or in the subject of theology itself. The brief life sketch of the theologians in every chapter gives the reader a background into the situation that influenced the thought pattern of the theologian. I personally feel that the author has accomplished his goal of presenting the history of theology to a reader who is interested in theology and is curious as to what theology entails.