Unveiling Projects

First off, I want to apologize for being all but absent over the past two months. I’m planning on posting some reflections on CD IV/1 and CD IV/2 (which I just completed this weekend). Full-time graduate school plus clinical work plus a part-time job plus theological reading projects do not allow me as much free time as I’d like to blog. Also, I’ve gone back to church (PC USA) for the first time in two years, and I anticipate I’ll begin leading some group or teaching a class on modern theology. So stay tuned for updates on that.

Anyway, I’m beginning my feminist theology project. I was supposed to begin earlier, but I delayed the project so I could read Carter’s Race, which really lived up to the hype. I’m not very pious or spiritual, but it’s the first theology book that brought me to tears in quite some time (specifically his commentary on Gregory of Nyssa).

Feminist/African Theology Reading Project
Johnson – She Who Is
Isasi-Diaz – Mujerista Theology
Oduyoye – Introducing African Women’s Theology
Ogbonnaya – On Communitarian Divinity
St. Clair – Call and Consequence
Ela – African Cry
Pui-lan – Introducing Asian Feminist Theology
Kyung – Struggle to Be the Sun Again

Also, in 2011 I will be embarking on a major theological project much like the Church Dogmatics project I began in 2010 (update, I just began CD IV/3.1). The project is an attempt to cover major theological (mostly Protestant) schools of the 19th and 20th century. The project will begin with reading major works of liberal theology (major highlight ought to be reading Schleiermacher’s The Christian Faith). Next, I will go back to Kierkegaard and read major works by Neo-Orthodox theologians (Gogarten should be interesting). The third major section will cover works by Neo-Barthians (excited to finally read Panneberg’s ST and Jungel), and I will complete the project by reading a couple of works by post-liberal theologians. I’m only reading books I haven’t read before, which would explain any obvious omissions from the list. AJ Smith has also decided to jump on ship and work through this major project with me. I’m sure we’ll be posting back and forth throughout the year as time permits. I’ve listed the date after each work to indicate when said work will be completed. I encourage anyone interested to read along. Unfortunately, the reading list is non-negotiable, but I suspect there will be something on the list that everyone will be interested in reading.

Liberal
Kant – Religion Limits of Reason (175) – 1/9
Schleiermacher – Christian Faith (750) – 2/6
Hegel – Lectures Philosophy of Religion Volume III (300) – 2/20
Harnack – What is Christianity? (300) – 3/6
Rahner – Trinity (120) – 3/13, Hearer of the Word (180) – 3/20
Tillich – ST I (290) – 4/3, II (175) – 4/10
Tracy – Blessed Rage for Order (250) – 4/24

Neo-Orthodoxy
Kierkegaard – Philosophical Fragments (175) – 5/1
Bultmann – Jesus Word (220) – 5/8, Jesus Mythology (100) – 5/15
Gogarten – Christ the Crisis (300) – 5/29 (N/A)
Bohoeffer – Ethics (350) – 6/12

Neo-Barthian
Pannenberg – ST I (440) – 7/3 ST II (460) – 7/24, ST III (647) – 8/21
Jenson – Systematic Theology I (250) – 9/4, II (370) – 9/18
Jungel – God Mystery of World (400) – 10/9
Torrance – Christian Doctrine of God (250) – 10/23 (N/A)
Gunton – Promise of Trin Theology (210) – 10/30, Brief Theology of Rev (130) – 11/6
Tanner – Jesus, Humanity, Trinity (125) – 11/13
Hunsinger – Disruptive Grace (360) – 11/27 (N/A)
McCormack – Orthodox and Modern (300) – 12/11

Post-Liberal
Lindbeck – Nature of Doctrine (140) – 12/18
Frei – Theology and Narrative (233) – 12/31

Much like the CD project, the pace will be around 150-175 pages per week. I will be completing my project on feminist theology as I begin the larger project of 2011 through modern theology. My next side project after the work on feminist theology will be on Christology and atonement. Given that my larger project is almost completely a study of white males, I’m trying to have my side projects be more focused on theologies from the margins.

Douglas – Black Christ (120) – 1/30
Joh – Heart of the Cross (130) – 2/6
Bohache – Christology from the Margins (260) – 2/20
Anselm – Cur Deus Homo (140) – 2/27
Ray – Deceiving the Devil (150) – 3/6
Boresma – Violence, Hospitality (260) – 3/20
Jennings – Transforming Atonement (230) – 4/3 (N/A)
Kotsko – Politics of Redemption (200) – 4/17 (N/A)

All these works look pretty interesting, and I’m especially excited to read Bohache’s work in which he outlines a queer Christology.

My subsequent side project will be on theodicy. Unfortunately, fewer of these works are by liberation theologians, but they all look interesting

Lauber – Barth, Atonement, Descent Into Hell (180) – 4/24
Von Balthasar – Mysterium Paschale (266) – 5/8
Lewis – Between Cross and Resurrection (450) – 5/29
Fretheim – Suffering of God (160) – 6/5
Hall – God and Human Suffering (150) – 6/12
Kitamori – Theology and the Pain of God (190) – 6/26
Fiddes – Creative Suffering of God (270) – 7/10
McGill – Suffering (130) – 7/17
Surin – Theology Problem of Evil (200) – 7/24

Finally, I’m embarrassed to admit not having given proper attention to Latin American liberation theology so far in my theological education. Hence, my final side project will be focused primarily on Latin American liberation theology. I’m also reading some works by Asian liberation theologians and finishing up the study with Eiesland’s the Disable God.

Gutierrez – We Drink from Our Wells (140) – 8/7
Bonino – Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation (175) – 8/21
Boff – Trinity and Society (270) – 9/4
Sobrino – No Salvation (150) – 9/11
Segundo – Liberation of Theology (250) – 9/25
Miranda – Marx and the Bible (300) – 10/16
Dussel – Ethics Community (260) – 10/30
Rieger – God and the Excluded (200) – 11/13
Petrella – Beyond Liberation Theology (150) – 11/20
Koyama – Water Buffalo Theology – 11/27
Pieris – An Asian Theology of Liberation (140) – 12/4
Babcock – Minjung Theology (200) – 12/18
Eiesland – The Disabled God (140) – 12/25

Hopefully I’ll be posting more in upcoming weeks as I wrap up CD and begin working on my feminist theology project.