Missing theology …

Christian Century, April 10, 2002 by Christopher C. Roberts

BERNARD V. BRADY'S review of Amitai Etzioni's The Monochrome Society ("In community," Feb. 13-20) is a good example of what I call the nontheological point of view. Brady's introduction to communitarianism is helpful and good, and his critique of it legitimate and thoughtful. But I could read exactly the same article in countless journals of social thought. Since it's the CHRISTIAN CENTURY and he's a professor of theology, I expected more.

Does communitarianism rely on an implicity trinitarian anthropology? Is Brady's ultimate problem with communitarianism that it lacks a notion of sin? And what about recent theological investigations of liberalism, such as Oliver O'Donovan's Desire of the Nations--do they shed any light on the communitarian challenge?

Those are the sorts of questions the CENTURY'S writers should answer. Simply being intelligent and morally concerned, like Brady, is not enough.

Christopher C. Roberts
London, England