312 - Thinking the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context

Thinking the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context

By Douglas John Hall

Minneapolis, Augsburg, 1989. 465 Pp. $29.95.

To think the faith today in North America is a worthy field of endeavor and, in truth, a field not overly crowded with practitioners Douglas John Hall's Thinking the Faith is addressed to "entrenched doctrinalism" in North American Protestantism to make a case for an indigenous theology of our continental context. As a Canadian, Hall is more aware than many in the United States that this continent has a shared and diverse cultural context and one that is not always illumined by theologies generated by the European context.

Hall devotes much of this volume to establishing the need for contextuality in Christian theology and to identifying significant crises (Pluralism, Auschwitz, Marxism and the Revolution of the Oppressed, Nature, Nuclearism, and Apocalyptic Consciousness, and the Rise of Religious Simplism) that define that context in a broad sense. The second part of Thinking the Faith follows contextuality through the elements of theological discipline (Bible, tradition, experience, prayer, church, world, and the like). Hall concludes with a reflection on method and, finally, a discourse on epistemology in relation to the revealed character of the Christian faith.

The book is clearly written, the arguments cogent. There is no gainsaying that entrenched doctrinalism is unable to meet the challenge of poverty or to counter the "Religious Simplism" that has made the word "Christian" into an adjective describing consumer goods (Christian theme park, Christian books, Christian entertainment). Hall's prescription is for a closer analysis of context by the theologian to focus theology not only in the "now," but in the "here."

One of the most creative insights of the book is that much Protestant theology is done with a consciousness of time and almost none of place. Therefore theologians make the erroneous assumption that people who are contemporaries share the same world when, in fact, "the human condition has always to be spelled out in terms of such specifics as race, gender, power, and property." Insight into such specifics can only come from "place-consciousness," the awareness of geographical location and its impact on world view.

Yet, I found the book disappointing because of what it did not attempt despite calls for "intellectual daring." Hall makes the argument that the day has passed when philosophy was the dialogue partner

313 - Thinking the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context

of choice for theology. Today, he claims, and rightly so, I believe, it is poetry, art, the novel, drama, and music that best give us the lay of the cultural land, the signs of the times to which theology must speak. So where is the poetry? Several chapters begin with a snip of poetry, a couple of lines are quoted in the text. But that is all. The poetry itself is not engaged; it is employed as a means to further a theological point made on totally other grounds. And there is no art, no drama, and no music brought into the constructive work at all, only referenced in the claim that these should be dialogue partners for theology. Whom does Hall engage?

Despite the oft-pressed point that this is a theology of the North American context and not one lifted out of Europe, Hall quotes Karl Barth with striking regularity (43 times). When he is not quoting Barth he quotes Luther (50 times), Calvin (22 times), and Bonhoeffer (21 times). Tillich is heavily cited (47 times). Tillich at least lived part of his life on the North American continent, but in terms of theological formation Tillich is a European. This could be supportable in order to make a case for contrasting North American theology to these folk. But where are the North Americans? Robert Bellah, Peter Berger, Langdon Gilkey, John Cobb, Frederick Herzog, Gordon Kaufman, Sallie McFague and a few other North Americans rate one or two citations, but none are engaged in Hall's constructive work as are the Europeans.

Furthermore, there is no wrestling with feminist theology (Rosemary Radford Ruether is cited twice, once for her work with anti-Semitism) nor with black theology (James Cone is ignored, Cornel West is referenced for his work in philosophical theology). Hall is completely incorrect in his assessment that Rosemary Ruether is a representative of the theology of the cross.

I was very sorry to discover that despite its promises and its frequent insights, I does not deliver a theology of the North American context. What we have here is Hall's frequent theme of the theology of the cross (Lighten Our Darkness: Towards an Indigenous Theology of the Cross, 1976) drawn primarily from a neo-Barthian perspective buttered over the North American context.

This was a frustrating discovery. I wanted to like this book. From the description of theology as "by definition contextual" in the beginning to the structure that places the method and epistemological sections at the end, I was prepared to like this book. But, as Hall notes, contextual theology is a risky business. It is risky because you do not know in advance precisely where you will end up. Hall has prejudged his case and, in so doing, failed to do a theology of the North American context.

SUSAN BROOKS THISTLETHWAITE

Chicago Theological Seminary

Chicago, Illinois