the Roman Catholic magisterium. Fundamental theolo-
gy, however, starts with the facts of the Christian mes-
sage and shows its meaning and the way in which it
meets the needs of the contemporary world. Christiani-
ty represents one existential possibility. We can see im-
mediately that this approach is very close to the idea of
theology as a hermeneutic and is subject to the danger,
mentioned earlier, of giving too large a place to human
subjectivity.- In dealing with contemporary men and women, theolo-
gians must take them in their real situations and with
their real dimensions, and thus fundamental theology
allies itself to a “political theology” (J.-B. Metz; Jürgen
Moltmann). The latter seeks to overcome the “privatiza-
tion” characteristic of bourgeois religion and establish
itself as critic of society in the name of suffering and the
cross of Jesus Christ; in so doing it brings a message of
hope and Christian eschatology. Latin American “theol-
ogy of liberation” examines the situation of the poor,
who are deprived of their rights and their dignity, and
determines the “given” which is to serve as a starting
point for rethinking God, Christology, and the church
and its mission (Gustavo Gutiérrez). The practice of
struggle becomes a matrix within which theological re-
flection develops. The same is true, with modifications,
of the theologies directed to the liberation of all those
who are oppressed or excluded from a place in history:
black theology, African theology, feminist theology. - Ecumenism has its theological literature, its periodicals,
its meetings, but it is above all a dimension of every vig-
orous theology today. The name “ecumenical theology”
is given more specifically to a well-informed reflection
on ecumenism and its purpose and methods, to a theo-
logical study of the World Council of Churches, or to
the subject matter of a professorship in Konfession-
skunde: the study of the Christian churches in their his-
tory, worship, theology, and life. It is no longer possible
to theologize without taking account of ecumenical
questions and of the contributions of all the churches,
the theological originality of each, and the confessional
life of each. As theology reexamines the sources of par-
ticular Christian beliefs and continues to develop in a
pluralistic setting, it is becoming “metaconfessional”;
chapters on particular subjects in works of theology are
sometimes written by theologians from different
churches. Closely associated with the ecumenical out-
look is a critical attitude toward “dogmatism”—a dog-
matic fundamentalism that has no sense of the historical
development of dogmas.
All churches have their traditions. Many have norms for or-
thodoxy and the regulation of life. The work of the theolo-
gian is a specific ministry alongside the ordained or hierarchi-
cal pastoral ministry; it continues the ministry of the
didaskaloi, the teachers, in the New Testament and the early
church. The two ministries are subject to the same rule of
apostolic faith and serve the same believing people and in the
same world, but their tasks and responsibilities differ. Theo-
logians are dedicated to research; they associate with intellec-
tual and cultural innovators; they claim a legitimate freedom
to be innovators themselves. The hierarchic pastors, who are
responsible for keeping communities united in orthodox
faith, intervene at times in the theologians’ work, depending
on the discipline of the various churches. Many churches
have institutions and laws for settling such conflicts.SEE ALSO Atonement, article on Christian Concepts; Attri-
butes of God, article on Christian Concepts; Canon; Chris-
tian Ethics; Church; Councils, article on Christian Coun-
cils; Creeds, article on Christian Creeds; Eastern
Christianity; Enlightenment, The; Heresy, article on Chris-
tian Concepts; History, article on Christian Views; Human-
ism; Icons; Jesus; Justification; Mary; Merit, article on
Christian Concepts; Neoplatonism; Philosophy, article on
Philosophy of Religion; Platonism; Proofs for the Existence
of God; Protestantism; Reformation; Roman Catholicism;
Scholasticism; Trinity.BIBLIOGRAPHY
For further elaboration of the topics addressed above, see my
“Theologie,” Dictionnaire de théologie catholique (Paris,
1946), vol. 15, pp. 341–502. This essay has been partially
translated as A History of Theology (Garden City, N.Y.,
1968). See also my La foi et la théologie (Tournai, 1962).
From among the many books on theological method, see Johan-
nes Beumer’s Theologie als Glaubensverständnis (Würzburg,
1953), which follows the program outlined by Vatican I, and
Bernard J. F. Lonergan’s Method in Theology (New York,
1972). See also Henry Duméry, Claude Geffré, and Jacques
Poulain’s “Théologie,” Encyclopaedia universalis (Paris,
1968), vol. 15, pp. 1086–1093.
On the history of the conception and practice of theology, see
“Théologie,” by Duméry and others, listed above; Klassiker
der Theologie, edited by Heinrich Fries and Georg Kretsch-
mar, vol. 1, Von Irenäus bis Martin Luther (Munich, 1981),
and vol. 2, Von Richard Simon bis Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Mu-
nich, 1983); R. P. C. Hanson’s Allegory and Event: A Study
of the Sources and Significance of Origen’s Interpretation of
Scripture (Richmond, Va., 1959); and René Arnou’s “Plato-
nisme des Pères,” Dictionnaire de théologie catholique (Paris,
1933), vol. 12, which defends Origen against the accusation
of having given Platonism precedence over the pure Chris-
tian message. Also valuable are E. P. Meijering’s Orthodoxy
and Platonism in Athanasius: Synthesis or Antithesis? (Leiden,
1968) and Josef Hochstaffl’s Negative Theologie: Ein Versuch
zur Vermittlung des patristischen Begriffs (Munich, 1976).
The Greek and Latin fathers started the elaboration of theological
treatises on the basis of scripture; this development is dis-
cussed in Aloys Grillmeier’s “Vom Symbolum zur Summa:
Zum theologiegeschichtlichen Verhältnis von Patristik und
Scholastik,” in Kirche und Überlieferung, edited by Johannes
Betz and Heinrich Fries (Freiburg, 1960), pp. 119–169. Be-
cause of their documentation and clarity, the works of Mar-
tin Grabmann are still required reading: Die Geschichte der
scholastischen Methode, 2 vols. (1909–1911; reprint, Basel,9140 THEOLOGY: CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY