Remythologizing Theology
Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship

This contribution to the theology of divine action and authorship develops a fresh vision of Christian theism.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Author)

9780521470124, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 January 2010

560 pages
23.4 x 15.8 x 2.9 cm, 1.01 kg

'Remythologizing Theology is an enormous accomplishment in reclaiming the biblical mythos in service to our reasoning about and response to God … Vanhoozer succeeds in keeping both the "theo" and the "drama" in theodrama by faithfully attending to God's being-in-communicative-action while creatively addressing God's dialogical and dramatic interaction with his creatures.' Presbyterion

The rise of modern science and the proclaimed 'death' of God in the nineteenth century led to a radical questioning of divine action and authorship - Bultmann's celebrated 'demythologizing'. Remythologizing Theology moves in another direction that begins by taking seriously the biblical accounts of God's speaking. It establishes divine communicative action as the formal and material principle of theology, and suggests that interpersonal dialogue, rather than impersonal causality, is the keystone of God's relationship with the world. This original contribution to the theology of divine action and authorship develops a fresh vision of Christian theism. It also revisits several long-standing controversies such as the relations of God's sovereignty to human freedom, time to eternity, and suffering to love. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, it brings theology into fruitful dialogue with philosophy, literary theory, and biblical studies.

Preface
Introduction: what is remythologizing?
Part I. 'God' in Scripture and Theology: 1. Biblical representation (Vorstellung): divine communicative action and passion
2. Theological conceptualization (Begriff): varieties of theism and panentheism
3. The new kenotic-perichoretic relational ontotheology: some 'classical' concerns
Part II. Communicative Theism and the Triune God: 4. God's being is in communicating
5. God in three persons: the one who lights and lives in love
Part III. God and World: Authorial Action and Interaction: 6. Divine author and human hero in dialogical relation
7. Divine communicative sovereignty and human freedom: the hero talks back
8. Impassible passion? Suffering, emotions, and the crucified God
9. Impassible compassion? From divine pathos to divine patience
Conclusion: always remythologizing? Answering to the Holy author in our midst
Select bibliography
Index of scriptural references
General index.

Subject Areas: Theology [HRLB]