Theological Negotiations: Proposals in Soteriology and Anthropology

by Douglas Farrow

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2018

Overview

In Theological Negotiations, leading theologian Douglas Farrow tackles some of his discipline’s perennial challenges, including the relation between nature and grace, philosophy and theology, autonomy and freedom, justification and sanctification, Gentile and Jew, and Christ’s offering and ours.

Controversial issues from supersessionism to transubstantiation to the perfection and final end of man are approached in new and innovative ways, showing what constructive theology looks like when it is determined to think eschatologically about the relations in question.

The innovation, however, is never at the expense of biblical and creedal parameters or of patient engagement with the Christian tradition and its formative thinkers. Along the way, Farrow invites readers to renegotiate, or at least to rethink, some key Catholic/Protestant differences in soteriology as well as some ill-advised compromises with contemporary autonomy-based anthropology.

Key Features

• Focuses on controversial theological topics that are of perennial interest
• Proposes advancement in ecumenical conversations
• Explores soteriological and doxological issues

Contents

• Theology and Philosophy: Recovering the Pax Thomistica
• Thinking with Aquinas about Nature and Grace
• Thinking with Luther about Justification and Sanctification
• Satisfaction and Punishment: Reckoning with Anselm
• Whose Offering? Doxological Pelagianism as an Ecumenical Problem
• Transubstantiation: Sic transit mundus ad gloriam
• Autonomy: Sic transit anima ad infernum
• For the Jew First: Reaffirming the Pax Paulinica
• The Gift of Fear: A Meditation on Hebrews

Top Highlights

“it was incapable of properly grasping either the doctrine of the Trinity or the doctrine of the incarnation” (Page 172)

“the law is busy evacuating itself of the body and of identity based upon the body” (Page 192)

“it is, is the ripened fruit of nominalism and voluntarism” (Page 193)

“they could be justified and how they should be employed” (Page 175)

Praise for the Print Edition

Farrow offers a panoramic view of the crisis points in theology, combined with unpicking a number of long-standing theological knots. He is at home in the worlds of both Protestant and Catholic theology, and he brings the two together with recommendations for an irenic concordat. Farrow’s style is engaging; the essays could be appreciated for their literary qualities alone, quite apart from the theological insights they contain.

—Tracey Rowland, John Paul II Chair of Theology, University of Notre Dame Australia

This book will challenge Catholics and Protestants alike, for Farrow critically dissects some of the major issues that have divided and harassed them for five centuries. His knowledge of both traditions along with some of their major thinkers is impressive. For Farrow, being true to Scripture and right reason is essential to theology. Anyone serious about negotiating the philosophical and doctrinal complexities of ecumenical theology on those terms will find in Farrow a veteran envoy.

—Thomas G. Weinandy, OFMCap

Farrow’s theology is robust and, like the gospel, ever ancient and yet ever new. It is also uncompromisingly biblical, catholic, and ecumenical. Farrow engages the dialectic of nature and grace as he surveys a wide range of fields: soteriology, sacraments, anthropology, and ecclesiology, among others. It is clear that what he calls the ‘Pax Thomistica’ is secure for the next generation and beyond. This is an important book.

—Scott Hahn, The Father Michael Scanlan TOR Professor of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization, Franciscan University of Steubenville

Product Details

• Title: Theological Negotiations: Proposals in Soteriology and Anthropology
• Author: Douglas Farrow
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 288
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Topic: Theology

About Douglas Farrow

Douglas Farrow (PhD, King’s College London) is professor of theology and Christian thought at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He is also the project director for Pluralism, Religion, and Public Policy at McGill. He previously taught at King’s College London and has lectured widely in North America and Europe. Farrow is the author of several books, including Ascension and Ecclesia, Ascension Theology, and Desiring a Better Country: Forays in Political Theology.