Theology That Makes a Difference
The question of what makes life worth living is more vital now than ever. In today's pluralistic, postsecular world, universal values are dismissed as mere matters of private opinion, and the question of what constitutes flourishing life--for ourselves, our neighbors, and the planet as a whole--is neglected in our universities, our churches, and our culture at large. Although we increasingly have technology to do almost anything, we have little sense of what is truly worth accomplishing. In this provocative new contribution to public theology, world-renowned theologian Miroslav Volf (named "America's New Public Intellectual" by Scot McKnight on his Jesus Creed blog) and Matthew Croasmun explain that the intellectual tools needed to rescue us from our present malaise and meet our new cultural challenge are the tools of theology. A renewal of theology is crucial to help us articulate compelling visions of the good life, find our way through the maze of contested questions of value, and answer the fundamental question of what makes life worth living.
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I am not going to write up a full post on this. I listened to it on audio and the last time I wrote up a book of Volf's that I listened to on audio he complained about it not only directly but on twitter as well latter.
I have read four of his book and I continue to find him very helpful.
Part of the irony for me here is that the book talks about the need to make theology more accessible and useful out of the academy and then spends what I think was way too much time exploring that (which is likely not particularly interesting outside of the academy).
The main point is that Volf thinks that the focus of theology needs to be human flourishing, which I think makes a lot of sense. And the constructive part of the book at the end was very helpful and I wish was a bigger part of the book.
I would like to re-read the last half of the book again later in print when I find it on sale at some point.