Pragmatic Historicism: A Theology for the Twenty-first Century

Presents a new option in theology, "pragmatic historicism" which emerges out of the historicist assumptions of recent Western thought and resists both confessionalism and universalism.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments 1. Histories and Contexts Preliminary Remarks Pluralistic Modernity Directions in and Challenges to Twentieth-Century Theology Emergent Historicism Current Historicist Theological Options 2. Theological Roads Not Taken Preliminary Remarks George Lindbeck and Postliberalism David Tracy and Revisionist Theology Toward Pragmatic Historicism 3. Historicism and Human Worldviews Assumptions and Theories Conversation Partners Cosmological and Anthropological Presuppositions Concluding Comments 4. Theology in a Historicist Perspective Preliminary Comments Historicist Theology as Imaginative Construction Historicist Theology as Metaphorical Elaboration Toward a More Consistent Historicism A Pragmatic Historicism 5. Philosophical Fellow Travelers: Rorty, Stout, and West Philosophical Pragmatism Richard Rorty Jeffrey Stout Cornel West 6. Conclusion: Beyond Luck and Weapons The Move to Normative Judgments Revisiting the Relation of Past and Present Procedural Pragmatism: Reentering the Public Arena In the Face of Multiple Voices The Content of Pragmatic Norms Tragedy and Hope Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Sheila Greeve Davaney is Professor of Theology at Iliff School of Theology. She has published many works, including most recently Horizons in Feminist Theology: Identity, Tradition, and Norms.

Review :
"By not going down the road of either postliberal or revisionist thinking, Davaney's theology emerges as an exciting new way of doing theology: a theology that seriously confronts theological pluralism, and a theology that transcends the extremes of foundationalism and relativist forms of nonfoundationalism." - J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, author of The Shaping of Rationality: Toward Interdisciplinarity in Theology and Science "Davaney has done an impressive job in providing a clear and comprehensive overview of major currents in contemporary theology, and situating the alternatives against the backdrop of broader intellectual developments. She goes beyond depicting the contemporary theological scene to make a case for the identification of an emerging trajectory-pragmatic historicism-that deserves recognition and nurturing." - Linell E. Cady, author of Religion, Theology, and American Public Life