ABSTRACT
In this, his final lecture, Root begins by reflecting upon his seventh lecture on the supernatural, asserting once again that the category is an essential one for theology. The death of God would be the death of theology, says Root. ‘To be relevant today is to be more extravagantly theological’, and this has everything to do with ‘enrichment and enlargement’. In the end, Root leaves it to the radicals to prescribe their own limits. The lectures were, for Root, an opportunity to consider the question of theological method, and here Root looks to the poet and the artist for guidance. In what are no doubt the climactic lines of the lectures, Root says: ‘The limits of radicalism are those which end not in chaos but in the breaking of fresh ground. Let the voices speak. Let the contestants push to those limits they find for themselves … Method will unfold itself in the exploration.’ And it is here that Root sounds most contemporary, anticipating conversations now being pursued by David Brown, Ben Quash, Lieven Boeve and others.
