RELS 160 Intro Lecture

8/13/2019 RELS 160 Intro Lecture

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RELS 160 A

Introduction to Theology


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Todays Agenda

Self-introductions

Introduction to the course and expectations

Introduction to the course authors

Theology and the new atheism


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Introduction to Theology

An introduction to the field of theology. Discusses issues of theolog

method and the historical development of some major Christian doc

and relates them to theological issues today.


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Underlying Questions

What distinguishes theological thinking from other kinds of thinking

and where does theology have an application in ordinary life?

How do theological claims relate to Biblical and other forms of reve

In what sense are theological claims supposed to be true? What do

seeking understanding mean in a so-called secular age?

Should our theology determine our experience of reality, or the othe

around? How have others in the Christian tradition addressed these a

other matters?


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G. K. Chesterton

18741936

The Catholic C. S. Lewis

An apologist of a different stripe


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Augustine

354430

Church Father

Claimed by all branches of Christianity

Integrates Greek and Biblical wisdom


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Rowan Williams

1950

Retired Archbishop of Canterbury

Academic and pastoral theologian


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Dietrich Bonhoeffer

19061945

German Lutheran pastor and theologian

Nazi resister, believer in costly grace

Executed in a concentration camp


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William Cavanaugh

Theologian and ethicist at DePaul University

Focus on human rights and social justice

Critic of secular reason


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What has 'theology' ever said that is of the smuse to anybody? When has 'theology' ever saianything that is demonstrably true and is notobvious? What makes you think that 'theology

subject at all?


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Religion drives otherwise sensible people incelibate monasteries, or crashing into New Yoskyscrapers. Religion motivates people to whtheir own backs, to set fire to themselves or th

daughters, to denounce their own grandmothwitches, or, in less extreme cases, simply to stkneel, week after week, through ceremonies ostupefying boredom.


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Of course Jesus was a theist, but that is the leinteresting thing about him. He was a theistbecause, in his time, everybody was. Atheismnot an option, even for so radical a thinker as J

What was interesting and remarkable about Jewas not the obvious fact that he believed in thof his Jewish religion, but that he rebelled agamany aspects of Yahweh's vengeful nastiness.


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Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuevade the need to think and evaluateevidence. Faith is belief in spite of, evenperhaps because of, the lack of evidence

I am against religion because it teachesbe satisfied with not understanding theworld.


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Paranormal phenomena havehabit of going away wheneverthey are tested under rigorous

conditions.


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In what sense can the world ever be underst

Is human experience ultimately subject to a circle of logic?

Do Dawkins views fail to account for tempora

uncertainty?

Is the world like a logical argument, or more lpoem?


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Does the poetic nature of religious language mit too otherwordly, or does this world, the wo

we actually live in, call for something more pothan the new atheism allows?

Terry Eagleton says Dawkins is rather like aperson who thinks a novel is a botched piece sociology. What is the significance of this cla


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Chesterton, Orthodoxy, chapters 1, 2, 4, a

What makes Christian theology realistic

How might Chestertons view of the worl

strangeness change how we think in othedomains too?

Documents

RELS 160 Intro Lecture