On Christian Theology

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 2000 by Coble, Ann

On Christian Theology. By Rowan Williams. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000, xvii 289 pp., $26.95 paper.

This volume is a collection of essays representing twenty years of work by noted Anglican theologian and recently appointed Archbishop of Wales Rowan Williams. Published in the "Challenges in Contemporary Theology" series (Gareth Jones and Lewis Ayres, editors), this book brings together eighteen previously published essays that provide the reader with an overview of Williams's theology in a variety of areas.

Williams's blend of modern and postmodern ideas is evident in the titles of the book's sections. The five general categories are: defining the enterprise, the act of God, the grammar of God, making signs, and living the mystery. In his prologue, Williams admits that British scholars are not known for setting out a clear methodology. Therefore, he sets out his "typology of theological activity (p. xiii) which is not exactly a statement of his methodology but functions to unite his perspectives. This typology falls into three categories that he titles the celebratory, the communicative, and the critical styles; these function cyclically throughout his writings.

Williams's strength is in his ability to retain the complexity of the theological enterprise. He points out the difficulty of doing theology because "the theologian is always beginning in the middle of things" (p. xii, his italics). In particular, Williams is dealing with the idea that theological works are being framed within multifaceted and problematical historical situations. His mastery of Church history makes his arguments all the more powerful. He rightly observes that we do not know everything now nor will we ever do so (at least on this side of eternity).

However, this strength is also Williams's weakness. His desire to allow for complexity at every theological turn leads him to articulate a theology that is ever shifting. He is very uncomfortable with the idea that religious language can claim a "total perspective" (p. 13), by which he appears to be setting himself against theologies that seek to establish a unified Christian worldview. At the same time, Williams has his own total perspective, one that uses much of the language of postmodernism. Yet his perspective is actually the modern project of creating one global community founded not on or by God but on human experience of God.

A connected weakness is Williams's understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection. Although he is an excellent historian, Williams follows Bultmann and later theologians who consider the authenticity of Jesus' resurrection to be ahistorical. The resurrection is an internal and spiritual event, of utmost significance to the church, but it was not an historical event. Williams would like to speak for the Anglican Church, particularly in his new position at Archbishop of Wales, but his understanding of the resurrection places him at odds with historic Christianity.

Williams's work represents not the radical edge of theology but a moderate way in which the older modern ideas, both liberal and neo-orthodox, and the new postmodern terminology are being melted into a theology for the new millennium. As a follower of historic Christianity, I found this approach to theology sometimes challenging and often disconcerting, but definitely an interesting read.

Ann Coble

Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA