Theology at the Void

Library Journal

In religious discourse, what are the warrants for truth-claims of statements about God or about human existence under the ordinance of God? Kelly (theology, St. Anselm Coll.) addresses this question by examining the proposals of several significant thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries, asking whether theological conversation is moving toward something or toward nothing at all. He begins with Friedrich Schleiermacher, who claimed that we experience God and then use language to mediate this human experience. Kelly next considers Wayne Proudfoot and George Lindbeck, two postmodern critics of Schleiermacher for whom language forms experience and does not simply mediate it. Kelly then turns to literary critic George Steiner, who proposes that both language and experience move the subject beyond the limits of the self to the experience of some "other," and, finally, to Karl Rahner, for whom the problems of circularity and solipsism inherent in postmodern struggles are best addressed by asserting the self-evident nature of mystery and the quotidian function of human transcendence. Because of the specialized nature of the book, it is recommended exclusively for university and seminary libraries. David I. Fulton, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.