As can be seen in this blog, human flourishing is a predominant theme and concern.  However, it has been a rare theme specifically addressed in theology, at least the theology that I have encountered. 

In a recent project in my studies, I chose to explore the work of Miroslav Volf as he specifically addresses a theology of human flourishing.  Although better known for the book “Exclusion and Embrace,”[1] Volf addresses themes related to human flourishing work in “A Public Faith”[2] (APF) and “For the Life of the World,”[3] (FtLotW), which were the subjects of analysis.

The immediate methodological[4] question is by what yardstick or criteria do I assess Volf?  Post-liberal theologians have wrestled with “how one position may be judged to be superior [to another]”[5] given their conviction that it is an “illusion to suppose that there is some neutral standing ground” for tradition independent enquiry.[6]

The way out of this logjam is to let Volf himself guide us.  In the very last paragraph of FtLotW, Volf gives the last word to his mentor Jurgen Moltmann.[7]  So I used Moltmann to guide the course of criteria for assessment.  The first two steps of my method, therefore were as follows:

Step 1: Using Moltmann’s book “Theology of Hope,” draw out a heuristic lens in which to make an assessment.

Step 2: Extend this heuristic lens by connecting it to human flourishing.  This step will be presuppositional and in a propositional summary form.[8] 

I then investigated Volf’s two books against the heuristic lens developed in steps 1 and 2. 

My criticism of Volf centred mainly around his resorting to a taxonomy of description (little lists that he uses to advance his argument) which are helpful to follow his line of thought but gives the illusion of root cause analysis.  Describing symptoms, such as the “malfunctions of faith”[9] lacks explanatory power in the fundamental cause of why faith malfunctions.  I would have liked to see a continuation of the work of Moltmann on how eschatology and hope relate to human flourishing:  Does our understanding of hope and eschatology affect our imagination, innovation, improvisation, and creativity?  Do these components and others lead to human flourishing?  What does Christianity bring that is distinctive?

Harking back to a previous blog post on Ephesians, I would like to understand the power of narrative in human flourishing.  The Gospels are written in narrative form, not abstract principles.  ‘Story’ communicates something that dot points cannot.  Understanding scripture’s grand narrative and metaphors has an effect on the imagination.  It is this poetic imagination that allows us to place ourselves “into a dynamic story …[and] is the mode by which hope enters into and transforms the world.”[10]  Scripture reflects this principle as the story of the road to Emmaus shows.[11]  Hays proposes that our consciousness can be reshaped in the same way as the early Christians, who were “narrate[d] … into Israel’s story through metaphorical appropriation of Scripture,”[12] and in doing so, underwent “an imaginative paradigm shift so comprehensive that it can only be described as a ‘conversion of the imagination.’”[13]  Perhaps modern theology’s purpose, then, is not to focus on human flourishing itself, but to do what Hays says Paul was trying to teach the Corinthian church: “to think eschatologically,” and to reshape its identity in light of Israel’s Scripture.”[14]  This has strong parallels to Moltmann’s purpose for theology.

I would also like to understand the relationship between theology and narrative.  I have been critical of theology as a discipline, suggesting that it reflects Greek metaphysical approach to the world by “seeking timeless truths and principles” and belittling the Bible in the process.[15]  Vanhoozer suggests a much more positive relationship between theology and the bible, and that theology seeks “not abstraction but understanding” and “the right relationship between parts and wholes.”[16]  Perhaps, borrowing a phrase from Iain McGilchrist, it is a matter of theology being a servant of the narrative rather than the master, while remaining vigilant that the servant does not become the master and sap life from the narrative. 

My criticism of theology and Greek philosophy is very idealistic.  In reality, we can only use the categories and concepts that are available to us.  The important thing to remember is that the categories we use are not the truth that they are trying to portray.  According to Lindbeck, we need to “make a distinction between doctrines, on the one hand, and the terminology and conceptuality in which they are formulated, on the other.”[17]

I’ve also made a sharp distinction between Greek and Biblical thought, when in reality, the New Testament writers were living in a Hellenised world.  Therefore there is some tension in the Greek Testament between Greek thought and an epistemology brought by the resurrection.[18]  I think Greek thought represents a pinnacle of rationalist thought in a world without the resurrection, and is, therefore, a default position.  Attempts to harmonise between the two would result in a retreat from a resurrection epistemology, but it is difficult to avoid.  Even church Fathers that were hostile to Greek thought absorbed its ideas.[19]

Having said all this, I believe Moltmann is on to something fundamental to human flourishing, and I offer the attached (extracted from the larger paper) in that spirit.  Please forgive the lack of nuance.  Similarly, my representation of vertical eschatology (VE) and horizontal eschatology (HE) are caricatures that would benefit from much more nuance if space allowed.  Perhaps this paper simply serves to show that there is much work to be done on the relationship of Hope, eschatology, and Human Flourishing, and what this means for the church.[20]    

[1]  Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Abingdon Press, 1996).

[2]  Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good (Brazos Press, 2011).

[3]  Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun, For The Life Of The World (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Pr, 2019).

[4]  I prefer the word ‘approach’ as ‘method’ implies mechanical steps towards a solution.  I’d like to claim my approach is like Moltmann – content driven.

[5]  David Trenery, Alasdair MacIntyre, George Lindbeck, and the Nature of Tradition (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014), 3.

[6]  Ibid., 106.

[7]  Volf and Croasmun, For The Life Of The World, 185.

[8]  Establishing the link between the theology of hope and human flourishing is the subject of another research project, and space cannot be devoted to that here.

[9]  Volf, A Public Faith, 3–21.

[10]  Julie Clawson, “Imagination, Hope, and Reconciliation in Ricoeur and Moltmann,” Anglican Theological Review 95, no. 2 (2013): 308.

[11]  According to Wright, the phrase ‘in accordance with the Bible’ has little to do with isolated proof-texts and everything to do with the meaning of the long, dark, puzzling narrative of Israel ending with the question mark at the end of the books of Malachi and Chronicles’ N. T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion (San Francisco: HarperCollins Religious – US, 2016), 280.

[12]  Richard B. Hays, The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005), sec. 69.

[13]  Ibid., sec. 205.

[14]  Ibid., 209.

[15]  Michael W Goheen, “The Urgency of Reading the Bible as One Story,” Theology Today 64, no. 4 (January 2008): 474.

[16]  Benjamin E. Reynolds, Brian Lugioyo, and Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Reconsidering the Relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology in the New Testament: Essays by Theologians and New Testament Scholars (Tübingen, GERMANY: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 26, accessed November 21, 2019, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/slq/detail.action?docID=1746138.

[17]  George A. Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age (Westminster John Knox Press, 1984), 92.

[18]  For example and an introduction to Paul and the Philosophers see Chapter 14 of N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol 4., Christian Origin and the Question of God (London: SPCK, 2013), 1354–1406.

[19]  Tony Lane, The Lion Concise Book of Christian Thought, Fourth Edition. (Oxford: Lion Publishing plc, 2002), 24.

[20]  For example, three Australian books draw on a strong HE perspective in their ecclesiology and missiology: Andre Van Eymeren, Building Communities of the Kingdom: How to Work With Others to Build Great Spaces and Places (Eugene: Wipf & Stock Pub, 2017); Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church, Reprint edition. (Baker Pub Group, 2001); Andrew Menzies and Dean Phelan, Kingdom Communities: Shining the Light of Christ through Faith, Hope and Love (Morning Star Publishing, 2018).

Bibliography

Clawson, Julie. “Imagination, Hope, and Reconciliation in Ricoeur and Moltmann.” Anglican Theological Review 95, no. 2 (2013): 293–309.

Eymeren, Andre Van. Building Communities of the Kingdom: How to Work With Others to Build Great Spaces and Places. Eugene: Wipf & Stock Pub, 2017.

Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church. Reprint edition. Baker Pub Group, 2001.

Goheen, Michael W. “The Urgency of Reading the Bible as One Story.” Theology Today 64, no. 4 (January 2008): 469–483.

Hays, Richard B. The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005.

Lane, Tony. The Lion Concise Book of Christian Thought. Fourth Edition. Oxford: Lion Publishing plc, 2002.

Lindbeck, George A. The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age. Westminster John Knox Press, 1984.

Menzies, Andrew, and Dean Phelan. Kingdom Communities: Shining the Light of Christ through Faith, Hope and Love. Morning Star Publishing, 2018.

Reynolds, Benjamin E., Brian Lugioyo, and Kevin J. Vanhoozer. Reconsidering the Relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology in the New Testament: Essays by Theologians and New Testament Scholars. Tübingen, GERMANY: Mohr Siebeck, 2014. Accessed November 21, 2019. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/slq/detail.action?docID=1746138.

Trenery, David. Alasdair MacIntyre, George Lindbeck, and the Nature of Tradition. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014.

Volf, Miroslav. A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good. Brazos Press, 2011.

———. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Abingdon Press, 1996.

Volf, Miroslave, and Matthew Croasmun. For The Life Of The World. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Pr, 2019.

Wright, N. T. Paul and the Faithfulness of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol 4. Christian Origin and the Question of God. London: SPCK, 2013.

———. The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. San Francisco: HarperCollins Religious – US, 2016.

[1] Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Abingdon Press, 1996).

[2] Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good (Brazos Press, 2011).

[3] Miroslave Volf and Matthew Croasmun, For The Life Of The World (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Pr, 2019).

[4] I prefer the word ‘approach’ as ‘method’ implies mechanical steps towards a solution.  I’d like to claim my approach is like Moltmann – content driven.

[5] David Trenery, Alasdair MacIntyre, George Lindbeck, and the Nature of Tradition (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014), 3.

[6] Ibid., 106.

[7] Volf and Croasmun, For The Life Of The World, 185.

[8] Establishing the link between the theology of hope and human flourishing is the subject of another research project, and space cannot be devoted to that here.

[9] Volf, A Public Faith, 3–21.

[10] Julie Clawson, “Imagination, Hope, and Reconciliation in Ricoeur and Moltmann,” Anglican Theological Review 95, no. 2 (2013): 308.

[11] According to Wright, the phrase ‘in accordance with the Bible’ has little to do with isolated proof-texts and everything to do with the meaning of the long, dark, puzzling narrative of Israel ending with the question mark at the end of the books of Malachi and Chronicles’ N. T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion (San Francisco: HarperCollins Religious – US, 2016), 280.

[12] Richard B. Hays, The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005), sec. 69.

[13] Ibid., sec. 205.

[14] Ibid., 209.

[15] Michael W Goheen, “The Urgency of Reading the Bible as One Story,” Theology Today 64, no. 4 (January 2008): 474.

[16] Benjamin E. Reynolds, Brian Lugioyo, and Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Reconsidering the Relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology in the New Testament: Essays by Theologians and New Testament Scholars (Tübingen, GERMANY: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 26, accessed November 21, 2019, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/slq/detail.action?docID=1746138.

[17] George A. Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age (Westminster John Knox Press, 1984), 92.

[18] For example and an introduction to Paul and the Philosophers see Chapter 14 of N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol 4., Christian Origin and the Question of God (London: SPCK, 2013), 1354–1406.

[19] Tony Lane, The Lion Concise Book of Christian Thought, Fourth Edition. (Oxford: Lion Publishing plc, 2002), 24.

[20] For example, three Australian books draw on a strong HE perspective in their ecclesiology and missiology: Andre Van Eymeren, Building Communities of the Kingdom: How to Work With Others to Build Great Spaces and Places (Eugene: Wipf & Stock Pub, 2017); Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church, Reprint edition. (Baker Pub Group, 2001); Andrew Menzies and Dean Phelan, Kingdom Communities: Shining the Light of Christ through Faith, Hope and Love (Morning Star Publishing, 2018).