Theologian Ian Markham reviews theologian George Pattison, whose message seems to boil down to...
The End of Theology – and the Task of Thinking about God by George Pattison (SCM) £9.95
I am a critical realist. This book disposes of me in the first two chapters. But for readers of Sea of Faith magazine it is vitally important reading. Pattison does not wish to “take leave of God”; for him, it is a presumption to imagine that we have sufficient knowledge to make such a decision. Yet the tenor of the book keeps good company with the likes of Don Cupitt and David Hart. Many assumptions are shared, and probably Pattison’s conclusions and analysis could be shared as well.
The opening chapter traces the changed context in which theology finds itself. The traditional pre-modern preoccupation with ontology is no longer an option: the assumptions necessary for such activity are no longer available. Aware of the complexity and mystery of personhood, the focus becomes instead “dialogue”.
The rest of the book is a mini-systematic theology of an unorthodox kind. The concept of dialogue is explored in illuminating detail. Its importance lies partly in the simple process: being open to the other makes it highly unlikely you will kill them. But naturally it is more than this for the “implicit aim of dialogue is always directed towards the manifestation of the personal in its concrete fullness” (p.57).
We then move to an account of tradition/Church, which is interpreted dialogically. History is forced to be dialogical. Movements in thought from Augustine to Aquinas to the modern do not tolerate those who refuse to be open to opposing currents of thought. From tradition, we move out. Adapting David Tracy’s account, Pattison suggests theology must be shaped with four contrasting contexts: Church (naturally – the community committed to faith); academy (appropriately, as a community committed to the totality of human experience); society (inevitably – nothing happens without feeding on the wider social context) and finally the individual (the existentialist influence on Pattison).
His basic judgements are sound. There is no simple correlation between secular public institutions and preservation of actual political and religious liberties (p.100). It is right that there should be state funding of Islamic schools (p.101). And in a welcome, albeit implied, dig at the Radical Orthodox, for theology to survive in the academy, it must submit to the discipline of dialogue with other disciplines.
As I said at the start, I am a critical realist and quickly disposed of. Yet without some realist sense of truth we have lost the most important reason why conservative theologies are wrong. Without some sense of truth, we have no goal for the dialogue. This, I know, is a different ball game. But that said, this is a remarkably good book.
Ian Markham is Professor of Theology and Public Life at Liverpool Hope University College.