Julia Vitullo-Martin

Commonweal, June 18, 2004 by Julia Vitullo-Martin

RELATED ARTICLE: THE DIALECTICAL DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE

A Methodological Proposal

by Charles Dickinson

If Christianity--including Christian faith and theology--is to avoid becoming totally out of touch with the world--a museum piece at best, a force of baleful reaction at worst--it must constantly update itself by constant interaction, dialogue, dialectic with all the important intellectual currents, movements, disciplines of today. In the process, it must not lose its soul, or else it becomes useless. But, as Friedrich Schleiermacher said, it must open its windows to the world, lest it become irrelevant or even harmful.

Historians and theologians have traced the development of Christian docrrine, and even offered theories to explain it. On the other hand, various observers of the church in the world--perhaps most notoriously Max Weber--have interpreted how Christianity and the world have, for better or for worse, reacted upon one another. But going beyond such works, The Dialectical Development of Doctrine combines the two themes by proposing a necessary two-way dialectic between theology and the world, a dialectic absolutely essential to the healthy growth and development of both our faith and our understanding of the world, as well as of the culture which we continue to create and will bequeath to our children.

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Julia Vitullo-Martin

A frequent contributor, Julia Vitullo-Martin is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.