My first taste of 'theology' was in the late 1960's, with the work of people such as Vahanian, Altizer and Hamilton. From my teenage years, I read and have always read Lloyd Geering's books. During my years at The Theological Hall, Knox College, Dunedin, I was influenced by Frank Nichol and Ruth Page, and read closely the work of Gordon Kaufman, Langdon Gilkey and Edward Farley (for my MTh. thesis). For a time in parish ministry in the 1980's I was absorbed in the works of 'liberation theology', especially Segundo's The Liberation of Theology. Later, I tried to read as much as I could of feminist critique of major male theologians in this school (and in others). In Birmingham, UK, I was fortunate to have as teachers, John Hick and Lesslie Newbigin, who were influential in philosophy of religion and missiology respectively. In Richmond, Virginia, USA, I was influenced by scholars of the Hebrew Scriptures, John Bright and James L. Mays. I did a course that year in Christian ethics and US foreign policy. It involved a trip to the Pentagon and the State Department, where Christian people in those organizations gave up their time to discuss ethics with the group of us on the course. I wonder if such a thing would be possible today. I've read nearly all Don Cupitt's work closely and keep his book Emptiness and Brightness close to me. I'm always interested in theology that is on the margins.
"The pursuit of theological education is a blessed one. It will often times lead you to the wonders of great writings and texts and if you are patient enough, it will lead you to the lives of people whose experiences will stay with you for a lifetime. These people will never call themselves theologians but you and I know better."
Rachelle Brown
http://candler.emory.edu/news/blog/2012/12/who-is-theologiaan.html
Idea and Experience in Ecclesia
This was the title of my M.Th. thesis. I wanted to explore the possibilities for theology after the 'death of God' theologies that I had studied in the early 1970's. The thesis was based on the works of the three theologians pictured here:
Langdon Gilkey (1919-2004) - lived experience prior to religious language
Gordon Kaufman (1925-2011) - theological ideas with which people in the Christian tradition interpret experience
Edward Farley (1929-2014) - ecclesia - the context in which Christians interpret experience with particular ideas
I've kept the kind letters of encouragement and advice I received from each of them, written on the typewriters of the time, over 40 years ago.
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