PO Box 440140 Aurora CO 80014-0140
Title: In Search of a Non-Dogmatic Theology
Author: Jeffrey W. Robbins,
Philosophical and Cultural Studies in Religion
Imprint: The Davies Group, Publishers
soft cover
228pp.
USD 24.00
ISBN 978-1888570595
October 2003
Is theology necessarily dogmatic? If not, then what makes theology specifically theological? And what value does theological thinking
still have in our postmodern age of religious pluralism, philosophical skepticism, and cultural relativism?
In Search of a Non-Dogmatic Theology is Jeffrey W. Robbins’ grappling with these central questions and his attempt to give voice to what is emerging as a
transformed religious and theological sensibility. From the philosophical accounting of Nietzsche’s proclamation of the ‘death of God,’ to the cultural ramifications
of postmodern pluralism, to the global rise of religious fundamentalism, and to the more recent ‘theological turn’ of phenomenology, the contemporary
conditions of theological possibility have been unalterably marked. The non-dogmatic theology Robbins proposes is a post-critical theology that is simultaneously
an affirmation of the traditional theological pattern of ‘faith seeking understanding,’ and a radical recasting of that tradition by the realization of the changing
structure of faith and the changing fundaments of intelligibility. It is a search that constructively engages the theological legacy of continental philosophical
thinkers such as Heidegger, Levinas, Deleuze, and Derrida, cultural theorists such as Žižek and Kristeva, and contemporary theologians and philosophers of
religion such as Barth, Marion, Winquist, and Caputo.
In In Search of a Non-Dogmatic Theology, Robbins invites the reader to join him in this timely search for a more relevant and less dogmatic form of theological
thinking, one that takes as its starting point not the assurances offered by a blindly accepted faith, but rather the concrete reality of diverging religious traditions
and conflicting interests. The non-dogmatic theology he proposes is a post-critical theology that is simultaneously an affirmation of the traditional theological
pattern of ‘faith seeking understanding,’ and a radical recasting of that tradition by the realization of the changing structure of faith and the changing
fundamentals of intelligibility.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Re-Placing Theology
Chapter One: The Return of Religion
Chapter Two: Theology in the Ruins
Chapter Three: Theology without Religion?
Part Two: The Step Back
Chapter Four: Heidegger’s Step Back
Chapter Five: Ontotheology: Complications
Chapter Six: The Theological Turn
Part Three: Theology at the Margins
Chapter Seven: The Enlightenment at the Margins
Chapter Eight: The Ethics of Ethics
Chapter Nine: The Law of Religion
Conclusion
Endnotes
Index
Review
“A theology without God, a God without being, a religion without religion, and an ethics against ethics—that is the daunting, postmodern challenge and the
setting in which Jeff Robbins puts forth an uncompromising argument on behalf of theology. Robbins make a plea for a theological thinking that genuinely
thinks, that genuinely confronts reality—moral, cultural, and ultimate reality. Defending the possibility of a theology that is neither conservative nor
reactionary nor in league with authoritarianism, Robbins leads in a lively style through the thickets of all the major debates in contemporary religious and
philosophical thought. The result is a non-dogmatic, pragmatic, pluralistic theology for a postmodern age that adds an important new voice to the current
dialogue.” — John D. Caputo
Author
Jeffrey W. Robbins is Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy, and director of the college colloquium and the American Studies program at Lebanon
Valley College, where he has been named the Thomas Rhys Vickroy Teacher of the Year. He is the author or editor of five books, including most recently
Radical Democracy and Political Theology (2011). He is a contributing editor of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, and serves on the steering
committee of the "Theology and the Political" consultation group of the American Academy of Religion. He has been hailed by the Journal of the American
Academy of Religion as "one of the best commentators on religion and postmodernism."