The One, the Three and the Many

This study examines what is often called the crisis of modernity, with reference not only to modernity but to modern culture in general.

Colin E. Gunton (Author)

9780521421843, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 July 1993

264 pages
21.7 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.395 kg

"[Gunton's] work merits wide and careful consideration. His study is meticulously structured, replete with signposts that enhance its readability as well as sturdily conveying his vigorous and thoroughly theological intellectual program." Nancy A. Dallavalle, Theological Studies

This study offers a theological analysis of, and response to, the modern world, and is at once a theology of culture and of creation. In the first half of the book, Gunton expounds some of the distinctive and often contradictory features of modern culture. It emerges that modern culture, far from being unique in its difficulties, reflects similar inadequacies in ancient thought. The distinctive pathos of modernity is to be found in one unique feature, namely the displacement of God that is a mark of all realms of life. The roots of the problem are sought beyond the Enlightenment, where they are often located, in the combination of platonism and Christian theology which dominated medieval Christian thought. At the heart of the matter is a deficient - because of an inadequately trinitarian - understanding of creation and creation's God. The second half of the book develops a powerful theology of creation where due weight can be given to both universal and particular, both society and the individual.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. The Displacement of God: 1. From Heraclitus to Havel. The problem of the one and the many in modern life and thought
2. The disappearing other. The problem of the particular in modern life and thought
3. A plea for the present. The problem of relatedness in modern life and thought
4. The rootless will. The problem of meaning and truth in modern life and thought
Part II. Rethinking Createdness: 5. The universal and the particular. Towards a theology of meaning and truth
6. 'Through whom and in whom …' Towards a theology of relatedness
7. The Lord who is the Spirit. Towards a theology of the particular
8. The triune Lord. Towards a theology of the one and the many
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Christian theology [HRCM]