Introduction to Vol. 2

Having launched our inaugural issue a year ago, we are very pleased to present our second issue.  Like the first, this issue begins with the text of the annual Analytic Theology Lecture given at the American Academy of Religion.  This year’s lecture was given by Marilyn McCord Adams, an Episcopal priest and philosophical theologian who has—over the years—taught both in philosophy departments and theology faculties.  In her “What’s Wrong with the Ontotheological Error?” she focuses on perhaps the central critique of analytic theology.  Her critique of the use of “ontotheological” as a bludgeon is historical, philosophical, and practical-theological.  Her essay operates on the principle that lex orandi really is lex credendi.

We also present two revised versions of papers given at the annual LOGOS conference in Analytic Theology at Notre Dame.  These conferences have provided not just a meeting ground for discussion by persons employed as philosophers and those employed as theologians but have produced some great work in analytic theology, including those on this volume.  John Keller’s “Theological Anti-Realism” presents theological anti-realism in the context of broader forms of anti-realism, especially a general ontological anti-realism.  Considering the logical, semantic, and politico-theological underpinnings of theological antirealism, Keller deftly explains why it is that analytic thinkers generally are not attracted to any kind of anti-realism and how that applies to theological anti-realism in particular.  As the most detailed analysis of theological antirealism in print, it should be the jumping off point for all future discussion.  William Wood’s “Analytic Theology as a Way of Life” provides a positive case for analytic theology satisfying important practical desiderata for meaningful theology.  According to Wood’s notion of analytic theology, the characterization of it as sterile and merely abstractly academic is a misleading caricature. These two articles taken together provide strong challenge to a certain paradigm in theology that would deny analytic theology a seat at the table.

This issue has three essays on Christology, a core area of theological research.  Tim Pawl’s “A Solution to the Fundamental Philosophical Problem of Christology” addresses, unsurprisingly, what Pawl takes to be the fundamental philosophical problem of Christology.  That problem is saying how one and the same person, the Second Person of the Trinity, can be both God and man.  Metasemantically, the problem is that there appear to be incompatible predicates applied to one person.  Michael Gorman’s “Christological Consistency and the Reduplicative Qua” addresses essentially this same problem.  Both Pawl and Gorman propose innovative solutions drawing on analytic theology but both also take very seriously the creedal tradition (They take the central creeds of the church, and, indeed, all the Ecumenical councils recognized by both the Roman Catholic and Easter Orthodox churches, as strongly normative). Then, building on his previous work, Andrew Loke’s “On the an-enhypostasia distinction and three-part concrete-nature Christology: The divine preconscious model,” which clearly also takes the creedal tradition as normative, discusses problems with the reduplicative qua approach and considers issues pertaining to the number of consciousnesses in the Incarnate Son.  He takes issue with certain formulations from Oliver Crisp and John Webster, among others.  These three articles taken together constitute excellent examples of doing analytic theology within the church.  

Next come five essays on various topics.  In alphabetical order, this section begins with Terrance Cuneo’s “Liturgical Immersion,” which provides a model for how to understand liturgical reenactment in the Easter tradition.  Next comes Mark McLeod-Harrison’s “On Being the Literal Image of God: Rethinking Human Essence as Uniqueness.”  He underscores the importance of the fact that each human is unique without compromising the collective aspects of salvation.  He explores a use of the notion of the image of God which, while acknowledging God is not physical, nevertheless features human embodiment in the notion of the imago dei.  Then, Ryan Mullins argues that those who place God in time do not necessarily place him in prison.  Rejecting the Aristotelian notion of time as the measure of Change, Mullins argues that time exists because a personal God exists.  Next, Dale Tuggy’s “Divine Deception and Monotheism” extends his previous work arguing that accepting a social model of the Trinity implies that in his interaction with the Hebrew people, God was engaging in unjustified deception.  Since God would never do this, if the deception charge sticks, social trinitarianism would stand refuted.  Finally, Ray Yeo’s “Towards a Model of Indwelling: A Conversation with Jonathan Edwards and William Alston” provides a model of indwelling which, in addition to delivering on the title, also touches on conciliar Christology in a way that connects with the papers in the Christology section.

The book symposium for this volume considers Yoram Hazony’s The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture (Cambirdge, 2012).  Responses to Hazony are offered by C.L Brinks, Samuel Lebens, Randal Rouser, and Jessica Wilson.  We are very pleased to present this lively and ecumenical discussion of an issue of foundational importance to the Judeo-Christian tradition.

To top things off we have opened up a new section of the journal for book reviews, edited by Jordan Wessling. Book reviews can be submitted for consideration through the JAT website using the same link one would use for submitting an article.

We are especially pleased at the ecumenical nature of this whole issue with scholars of very diverse theological backgrounds: Jewish, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, “high” and “low” church Protestant, and non-traditional.  These authors both defend and deny traditional views by appeal to Scripture and a host of ancient, medieval, and contemporary sources.  This diversity testifies to the health and positive outlook of analytic theology.