ABSTRACT
The very title ‘Theology Now’ suggests that theology, far from being a static body of knowledge, moves on. At least as much as other intellectual disciplines, theology is a dynamic enterprise, interacting with circumstance and changing through time. Even those theologies which claim to be maintaining fixed positions of traditional doctrine, and to be resistant to passing philosophical and cultural fashions, are able to do so only by developing new forms of argument to counter new criticisms of their position. Theology has been likened to a bird on the wing, and therefore to give an account of ‘theology now’—particularly when there are in fact a number of birds, not all flying in the same direction or at similar speeds—is a far from easy undertaking. In order to do justice to the historical dynamism of theology, rather than attempt to describe a multiplicity of present ‘positions’ it is more important to indicate the most important directions in which various types of theology are moving, and the motivating forces behind them. Clearly in a chapter of this size a broad picture must suffice, and certain limits of scope must be drawn.
