Top five theologians
Mar. 1st, 2007 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tree_and_leafThis has as much to do with personal idiosyncrasies as doctrine, but that's hardly a bad thing in context, right?
1. Luther. I love Luther, if only because he played the lute rather well and liked going to the pub, both of which are deeply sympathetic qualities in a reformer. The fact that he wrote German like a genius certainly helps (he didn't, quite, create modern German, but it's easy to see how the idea got started). He made a few mistakes, particularly in his dealings with the political aspects of reform, but unfortunate though its consequences were, his naivity becomes almost loveable when contrasted with the cynical politics which were such a big part (though not the only part, by any means) of the English reform. I like his emphasis on grace, and I suppose I also identify with the way he found lots of elements of mediaeval religion moving and meaningful despite the problems he percieved with it. I also like him for persuading the people of Wittenberg not to go on an iconoclastic rampage.... I think he'd have made a much better Anglican than many of the early Anglicans, and yes, I know that sounds stupid and probably liable to annoy both Anglicans and Lutherans.
2. Thomas Aquinas. Much as I like reading mysticism, sometimes it's a tremendous relief to deal with someone who has thought everything through clearly and logically, and presents his arguments in a well structured way. The fact that he was known to his fellow novices as 'the big dumb ox' gives hope to us all, and I've always rather liked the detachment with which he viewed his work at his life's end ("It reminds me of straw"). It's always important to recognise that God - or, for that matter, life - is bigger than your intellectual system, without using that as an excuse to stop thinking and exploring intellectually.
3. Dante. Cheating? No, because he's the first person to show how romantic/ sexual love can be a positive element of the way to God (as opposed to the "I used to have sex/ be in love with girls/ boys/ dead Carthaginian queens, and then I discovered Jesus" model, which is sadly still popular in certain circles). His theology of purgatory is steets ahead of most mediaeval theologians, most of whom were deeply confused about what it was for, and tended, to quote Eamon Duffy, to make it 'an outpatient department of Hell'. Dante's, by contrast, is full of beauty and love, despite the suffering. All this while inventing theological SF, even if there are no Jesuits in Space yet.
3a. Tempting to say Dorothy L Sayers, although she probably doesn't count, because of the sheer brilliance of her book on the Trinity (and also on creativity, particularly writing), The Mind of the Maker, because that really did expand my mind and has had a great deal of impact on how I think about Christian doctrine. And it contains references to Peter Wimsey - what more could one want?
Actually, there's no reason why she shouldn't count if Dante does - and given that I don't read Italian, she's also contributed an awful lot to my understanding of him, above the rest.
4. Julian of Norwich. Because she's wonderful, even though I don't always 'get' her.
5. Augustine. I shouldn't, really. His ideas about sex were pernicious, and his emphasis on predestination is nearly as bad. Also, he behaved very badly to his wife. But... the Confessions is a magnificent book, even if it has its self-serving moments, and I can't escape the beauty of the prayer 'You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you', or the strange moment of his conversion, when he seemed to hear a child's voice saying 'take up the book and read', the whole sense of intellectual exploration and journeying. Hm. Maybe I should count him as a 'favourite autobiographer' rather than a favourite theologian?
Nearly, but not quite: I almost put Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but that's more because I admire him as a person. I've never found his theological writings particularly appealing, though 'Von guten Machten wunderbar geborgen' is a good poem and one that means a lot to me.
I'm quite enjoying Ratzinger at the moment, but he's too much of a conservative Catholic....
1. Luther. I love Luther, if only because he played the lute rather well and liked going to the pub, both of which are deeply sympathetic qualities in a reformer. The fact that he wrote German like a genius certainly helps (he didn't, quite, create modern German, but it's easy to see how the idea got started). He made a few mistakes, particularly in his dealings with the political aspects of reform, but unfortunate though its consequences were, his naivity becomes almost loveable when contrasted with the cynical politics which were such a big part (though not the only part, by any means) of the English reform. I like his emphasis on grace, and I suppose I also identify with the way he found lots of elements of mediaeval religion moving and meaningful despite the problems he percieved with it. I also like him for persuading the people of Wittenberg not to go on an iconoclastic rampage.... I think he'd have made a much better Anglican than many of the early Anglicans, and yes, I know that sounds stupid and probably liable to annoy both Anglicans and Lutherans.
2. Thomas Aquinas. Much as I like reading mysticism, sometimes it's a tremendous relief to deal with someone who has thought everything through clearly and logically, and presents his arguments in a well structured way. The fact that he was known to his fellow novices as 'the big dumb ox' gives hope to us all, and I've always rather liked the detachment with which he viewed his work at his life's end ("It reminds me of straw"). It's always important to recognise that God - or, for that matter, life - is bigger than your intellectual system, without using that as an excuse to stop thinking and exploring intellectually.
3. Dante. Cheating? No, because he's the first person to show how romantic/ sexual love can be a positive element of the way to God (as opposed to the "I used to have sex/ be in love with girls/ boys/ dead Carthaginian queens, and then I discovered Jesus" model, which is sadly still popular in certain circles). His theology of purgatory is steets ahead of most mediaeval theologians, most of whom were deeply confused about what it was for, and tended, to quote Eamon Duffy, to make it 'an outpatient department of Hell'. Dante's, by contrast, is full of beauty and love, despite the suffering. All this while inventing theological SF, even if there are no Jesuits in Space yet.
3a. Tempting to say Dorothy L Sayers, although she probably doesn't count, because of the sheer brilliance of her book on the Trinity (and also on creativity, particularly writing), The Mind of the Maker, because that really did expand my mind and has had a great deal of impact on how I think about Christian doctrine. And it contains references to Peter Wimsey - what more could one want?
Actually, there's no reason why she shouldn't count if Dante does - and given that I don't read Italian, she's also contributed an awful lot to my understanding of him, above the rest.
4. Julian of Norwich. Because she's wonderful, even though I don't always 'get' her.
5. Augustine. I shouldn't, really. His ideas about sex were pernicious, and his emphasis on predestination is nearly as bad. Also, he behaved very badly to his wife. But... the Confessions is a magnificent book, even if it has its self-serving moments, and I can't escape the beauty of the prayer 'You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you', or the strange moment of his conversion, when he seemed to hear a child's voice saying 'take up the book and read', the whole sense of intellectual exploration and journeying. Hm. Maybe I should count him as a 'favourite autobiographer' rather than a favourite theologian?
Nearly, but not quite: I almost put Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but that's more because I admire him as a person. I've never found his theological writings particularly appealing, though 'Von guten Machten wunderbar geborgen' is a good poem and one that means a lot to me.
I'm quite enjoying Ratzinger at the moment, but he's too much of a conservative Catholic....
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Date: 2007-03-02 01:29 am (UTC)Another 20th century theologian I admire tremendously is Reinhold Niebuhr. His book on the theology of mass evil, Moral Man and Immoral Society, was a response to the rise of Fascism in Europe and is somewhat dated, but it's clearly written and insightful.
And strangely enough, even though I'm a Unitarian, I have a sneaking fondness for the Spanish Carmelites. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross were true mystics, and Teresa in particular was a powerful and original thinker who never flagged despite several bouts of spiritual aridity.
And oh yes...I assume you've read this already since you like Dante and the Inklings, but I rather liked Charles Williams' The Figure of Beatrice. Very interesting take on the Beloved as a route to God.
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Date: 2007-03-03 03:53 pm (UTC)I also love your new journal layout! xx