This chapter is about theology – the ancient and constantly revised traditions which inquire about the meaning, truth, and goodness of religious beliefs and spiritual longings. Theology means “God-talk,” speaking and reasoning (logos) about divine things (theos). The legacy of theology is mixed: the once-
proud queen of the sciences now dwells at the margins of the academy and public life. Scholars in other fields rarely cite the writings of theologians in academic work. It was not always so. What has happened?This chapter explores theism and theology in a way similar to the previous
account of the humanistic imagination. We will do so by exploring some basic metaphors used to think about God in the history of Western thought. These metaphors not only clarify main options in theology but also hold some potential, when critically used, for the work of theological humanism
about human transcendence and the claim, reality, and presence of the inte-grity of life. Yet we also want to isolate flaws and criticisms of theology and theism. The chapter thus has critical and constructive purposes.Contemporary theology is torn between two contending impulses. On one hand, we witness the proliferation in the Christian community of The Plight of Theology churchly
theologiesthrough their confessional communities. They take the creeds, dogmas, symbols, narrativauthoritative, and exclusive points of contact with the divine. Churchly theo-, in which theologians defend beliefs or practices handed down es, or practices of their church traditions as self-evident,
logies easily reduce God to “my” or “our” God. They reject the modernThinking of God^3
9781405155267_4_003.indd 389781405155267_4_003.indd 38Religion and the Human Future: An Essay on Theological Humanism © 2008 David E. Klemm and William Schweiker. ISBN: 978-1-405-15526-7^ David E. Klemm and William Schweiker5/2/2008 2:14:28 PM5/2/2008 2:14:28 PM