ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to engage James Gustafson at a different level in the hope that we can better understand the methodological presuppositions that underlie Ethics from a Theocentric Perspective. It looks at an issue that runs through Gustafson's work from the beginning to the present—namely, how time and history are understood to determine the methodological presuppositions by which a theologian works. Gustafson's discussion clearly sides with the "Augustinian stream," because these thinkers properly emphasize "that being in time is an important aspect of being a self". The chapter provides an internal critique of Gustafson's understanding of time and history. It suggests that although he has never abandoned the claims about inherent timefulness of the self begun in Treasure in Earthen Vessels, he has nevertheless qualified that emphasis by attempting to ground his theology in a general account of human experience.
