Modern Christian Theology

Christopher Ben Simpson tells the story of modern Christian theology against the backdrop of the history of modernity itself. The book examines the many ways that theology became modern while seeing how modernity arose in no small part from theology. These intertwined stories progress through four parts. In Part I, Emerging Modernity, Simpson discusses the period from the beginnings of modernity in the late Middle Ages through the Protestant Reformation and Renaissance Humanism to the creative tension between Enlightenments and Awakenings of the 18th-century. Part II, The Long Nineteenth-Century, presents the great movements and figures arising out of these creative tension - from Romanticism and Schleiermacher to Ritschlianism and Vatican I. Part III, Twentieth-Century Crisis and Modernity, proceeds through the revolutionary theologies of the period of the World Wars such as that of Karl Barth or nouvelle théologie. Finally, Part IV, The Late Modern Supernova, lays out the diverse panoply of recent theologies - from the various liberation theologies to the revisionist, the secular, the postliberal, and the postsecular. Designed for classroom use, this volume includes the following features: - charts/diagrams/visual organizations of the information presented included throughout - both a one-page chapter title table of the contents and an expanded (multipage) table of contents - chapter at-a-glance outlines at the beginning of each chapter - references to further reading at the end of chapters

Table of Contents:
Introduction PART I: EMERGING MODERNITY 1 The Middle Ages and the Lost World 2 Reformation and Humanism: 1400-1650 3 Enlightenments and Awakenings: 1650-1800 4 Kant PART II: THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY 5 Romanticism: 1800-1850 6 Schleiermacher 7 Hegel and Hegelians 8 Coping with the Nova 9 Early-Nineteenth-Century Catholic and Anglo-Catholic Theology 10 Ritschlianism 11 Late-Nineteenth-Century Catholic Theology PART III: TWENTIETH-CENTURY CRISIS AND MODERNITY 12 Kierkegaard and Nietzsche 13 Barth 14 Bultmann and Tillich 15 Early-Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology 16 Conservative Protestants in America PART IV: THE LATE MODERN SUPERNOVA 17 Later Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology 18 Liberation Theologies 19 Revisionist and Secular Theologies 20 Postliberal and Postsecular Theologies Index

About the Author :
Christopher Ben Simpson is Professor of Philosophical Theology at Lincoln Christian University, USA. Simpson is the author of Religion, Metaphysics and Postmodern (2009), The Truth is the Way: Kierkegaard's Theologia Viatorum (2010), Deleuze and Theology (2012), and Merleau-Ponty and Theology (2014).

Review :
A clear, incisive and judicious survey ... Highly recommended. I like the clean visual layout of the book ... The chapters each begin with a boxed outline of their contents, which act as a guide within this 'go-to' book ... The book tracks key transitions through the modern period and includes some interesting (albeit brief) material on, for example, process, postliberal and postsecular theologies, to which one could direct students for a quick insight and some further reading suggestions. The terrain is massive, but Simpson consistently arrives at the essentials, and the text makes good use of bold font and graphics to help the student return to key concepts. Repeatedly, one admires Simpson's ability to explain a complex subject and then to offer an apt apercu … This textbook would be a delight to use. Modern Christian Theology serves as a first-rate overview of philosophical theology from the last five centuries. It will refresh more educated readers on the history and relations of theological movements, and it offers students from most university levels a superb guide to theology and certain eras of philosophy since the medieval period. This is a splendid survey: judicious, precise and generous; marvelously comprehensive and yet concise. Students of modern theology will be deeply indebted to Simpson This is the best, most up-to-date, attractive, incisive and well-informed elementary guide to modern theology now available. It has no current rivals. Christopher Ben Simpson's book skilfully weaves together the manifold strands of modern Christian theology in a lively and readable manner that makes the subject approachable for the non-specialist. His broad, non-partisan approach shows how the story of Christian theology has always involved a range of often conflicting approaches and that this is likely to continue into the future - a good warning to those specialists insisting too loudly on the exclusiveness of their own claims.