 
Book Reviews Spirituality and Theology: Essays in Honor of Diogenes Allen by Eric O. Springsted Reviewed by Robert P. Mills Tuesday, September 15, 1998 |
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In the title of his own contribution to this collection of essays, “Theology and Spirituality; or, Why Theology is Not Critical Reflection on Religious Experience,” editor Eric Springsted identifies a thread that runs throughout this volume. Springsted observes that the connection between theology and spirituality “means that we not only think of God, but that by thinking of God truly at all we are at the same time involved with him in such a way that our spirits are improved by that involvement, by that thinking.” Later he adds, “Now if theology actually believes that it has an object of knowledge and that that object is God, then … the ultimate task of theology is transformation of the thinker, of fitting him or her to the inner life of God.” Transforming the thinker to fit the inner life of God is a fitting summary of much of the work of the one in whose honor the ten essays were written, Diogenes Allen, Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary. Contributors include prominent practitioners of such disciplines as philosophy, theology, spirituality, and ethics. Stanley Hauerwas leads off with “Christians in the Hands of Flaccid Secularists: Theology and ‘Moral Inquiry’ in the Modern University,” in which he traces the rise of pluralism and the consequent enforced marginalization of Christianity in the field of ethics. In “Friends in Conversation: The Language and Practice of Faith,” David Burrell concludes that “Friendship in Jesus does not rest on agreement so much as on an embracing good, which is promised to each so long as we are willing to submit to the rule of learning from the Word of God and test our understanding of that word with one another.” Daniel Migliore, a Princeton colleague of Allen, offers especially helpful reflections on prayer in “Freedom to Pray: Karl Barth’s Theology of Prayer.” In “Teaching Theology by Exploring the Ordinary,” Elena Malits shows how music, film and theater may open our lives to the love of God. “If music has the power not only to touch profoundly the emotions but to move the human soul then it cannot be neglected in religious education. In fact, the capacity to appreciate music must be assiduously cultivated to open persons to the life of God’s Spirit.” (Jeremy Begbie voices similar thoughts on p. 15 of this issue.) The concluding essay, “Spirituality and its Embodiment in Church Life” by Daniel W. Hardy, begins by noting that while Allen was in college “the most dynamic leadership there was being provided by the Presbyterian chaplain. Responding to this, he became Presbyterian and embarked on a life in the Presbyterian Church,” a life that has included service as a parish pastor as well as seminary professor. The integration of theology and spirituality, the study of God and the living of life in an increasing awareness of God’s presence, is exemplified in Allen’s teaching and writing. At their best combining deep faith and careful thinking with admirable clarity of expression, the essays in this volume often trace paths Allen has explored in his own work. The result is an appropriate appreciation of a unique apologist for historic Christian faith and practice, a spiritual theologian who has sharpened the minds and deepened the faith of a generation of pastors and scholars. |
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