Speaking of God: Theology, Language and Truth

by D. Stephen Long

Overview

D. Stephen Long here addresses a key question in current theological debate: the conditions of the possibility of "God-talk," along with attending questions about natural theology, fideism, and theological truth-claims. He engages not only the most significant contemporary theologians and philosophers on this score (Denys Turner, Bruce Marshall, John Milbank, Charles Taylor, Fergus Kerr) but also the legacy of twentieth-century theology (Barth, von Balthasar) and the analytic philosophical tradition from Wittgenstein to Davidson. Throughout, Long sustains a careful exegetical engagement with Aquinas, showing that what's at stake in contemporary theology is justhow we inherit St. Thomas. 

In joining all of these voices into one conversation, Long does a remarkable job of surveying the current theological scene with respect to issues of language and truth, arguing for the need to deal head-on with classical questions of metaphysics. Central to his project is averting the charge of "fideism" so often laid at the feet of "postliberal" approaches (like Long's). To that end Long argues for a (chastened) natural theology, while challenging any simple distinction between "natural" and "confessional" theology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802845726
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/21/2009
Series:	Eerdmans Ekklesia Series (EES)
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

D. Stephen Long is professor of systematic theology at Marquette University. Among his other books is The Goodness of God: Theology, Church, and Social Order.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

1 Speaking of God in Modernity 21

1 Fideism 24

2 Projectionist Theological Language 36

3 Ontotheology 50

4 Analogia entis 55

2 Faith and Reason 83

1 Modern Theology's Discontents 85

2 Barthian Fideism? 93

3 Neoscholastic Rationalism? 110

4 Faith and Its Reasons 115

5 Formal and Material Aspects of Faith and Reason 123

6 God Is ... Triune 135

3 Theology: The Divine Name 149

1 Negative Theology? 150

2 The Divine Name(s) 163

2a Divine Names between Univocal and Equivocal Predication 171

2b Divine Names: Modus Significandi/Res Significata 174

2c Divine Names: Negation, Affirmation, Via Eminentiae 176

2d Divine Names: Christ Is the Via Eminentiae 177

3 The Loss of the Divine Names and Speaking Well of God 180

3a The Hellenization Thesis 183

3b The End of Metaphysics 185

3c Historical-Critical Readings of the Divine Name 187

4 Augustine, Dionysius, and Aquinas on the Divine Names 193

5 Thomas's Five Ways and the Way of Jesus 199

6 The Five Ways among Theology's Discontents 207

4 Language 215

1 Metaphysics versus Metaphysical Use 217

2 The Linguistic Overturn of Metaphysics 228

3 Conflicting Interpretations of Wittgenstein 234

4 Aquinas's Higher Discipline 238

5 Methodological Nominalism 244

5 Truth 261

1 The Politics of Truth 263

2 The Truth of Politics 268

3 Truth as Inevitably Metaphysical 279

4 Must We Be Fallibilists? 285

5 Truth, Generosity, and Love 293

6 Truth, Love, and Mary 298

7 What Is Truth? The Encounter between Jesus and Pilate 323

Index Of Authors 327

Index Of Subjects 332