ABSTRACT
Root begins his fifth lecture with an important clarification. These lectures are not primarily about reconstruction (along radical lines), but, instead, about ‘what theology is’, and this has everything to do with the role of tradition. Root reiterates his rejection of radical reductionism (aka ‘theological nihilism’), and turns immediately to resources. Here again, the reader may hear echoes of Congar. In any case, Root makes clear that he is thinking of more than ‘finding a new language in which to say the old things’, thereby acknowledging the limitations of (theological) language. Rather than dwelling on these limits, however, Root argues for ‘elucidation and explication’ (against ‘reductionism’), suggesting that resources may well be ‘additive’. And here Root displays his openness, citing a wide variety of ‘additive imagery’ including not only St John of the Cross, T.S. Eliot and Edwin Muir, but also Mozart and Beethoven, and also, more generally, pop art, novels, poetry, television, pop songs and modern art. According to Root, ‘there are no borders to our resources’. We must ‘begin where we are’, says Root, for we cannot, in the manner of Leonard Hodgson, ‘think ourselves into the minds and feelings of men 2000 years ago’.
