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Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun,For the Life of the World: Theology That
Makes a Difference(Grand Rapids,MI: Brazos Press, 2019). 196 pp. $21.99 hardcover.
For the Life of the World: Theology That Makes a Difference started as a lecture series offered by Miroslav Volf to doctoral and post-doctoral students after he read Education’s Endand realized there were similar implications for theology as there were for education (187). Volf and Matthew Croasmun offer critique as well as hope. Volf is the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith and Cul- ture and has written more than twenty books. Croasmun directs the Life Worth Living Program at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture along with being a pas- tor and author.
Volf and Croasmun open the book with the question, “Why does theology matters to us?” They share how each of them in their own way was writing this book in order to process what they want to do with the rest of their life in working in the guild of theology. Volf shares how he was a teenager that loved theology. He did not know that while he was discovering theology, theology in the Western academy was in trouble and entering a crisis (2). By the time he became a professor, to be a theological professor meant to be employed by a global company, producing knowledge, trying to fight for tenure, publishing articles, book reviews, and books. He describes how he was having to compete as a science, wrestle with getting tenure, and try to get published while not really understanding who he was writing to and what he was writing for (3). Croasmun argues that he was writing this early in his professional life to estab- lish what he wanted to work on: “theology that yields beautiful, transcendent, and reconciling life” (6).
Inchapter1,theauthorsbegintoarguethattheologyreallyshouldnotbeone of the sciences, but should be seen as the crown jewel of the sciences. Though the sciences are bringing to the surface questions regarding human life, like what life is now and the meaning of life, they cannot answer the total ques- tion of what is a meaningful life, a good life, and a flourishing life. Volf and Croasmun begin to lead off of classical philosophy’s idea of “the good life” and they differentiate it by saying the flourishing life is not describing just what it is but describing what a flourishing life is in the context of the triune God. They begin to argue that either all things are flourishing or nothing is flourishing (13). Three areas that authors feel are needed in a flourishing life are: a life well led, a life going well, and a life feeling well (16). They go on to address the idea that the thought of a flourishing life would look different in a devel- oped western country compared to a developing country. They argue that “the mistake is in assuming what a flourishing life is considered on the basis of satisfaction of basic needs” (18). They further expound the idea of “the mis-
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take of assuming that a flourishing life increases on the basis of hierarchy as one improves their condition” (18).
In chapter 2 they begin to look at the crisis of theology. They begin to talk about how our culture looks at academic theology as irrelevant (39). This is partly because academic theology has not really been focused on answering the questions our culture is asking (40–41). Because of that, we begin to see the church and pastors reading academic theology less and less, and reading more pop theology, church growth, and church leadership. The church has discon- nected academic theology from practical theology. The other crisis of theology is that theology is trying to prove its worth in the secular universities by align- ing itself as one of the many sciences. Theologians should be researching and writing to show the other sciences that theology offers the ultimate answers to the questions they have been researching and working on. All cultures and all civilizations have some form of religious ideas about what a good life is, a flour- ishing life is, and what a true life is. One cannot ultimately answer the relevant questions with just philosophy but they have to also have a theological bent. Both philosophy and theology have perspectives that are relevant and neces- sary for the sciences. Volf and Croasmun are arguing that theologians helped theology lose its relevance by putting theology in with the sciences rather than fighting to keep it on top as the crowning jewel.
They also go on to say that part of the crisis with theology is that, often times, people are writing more to be published rather than for a specific audience. Theologians have allowed publishing companies to become an honorary vali- dation systems and the publishing companies are more than happy to become that. Some of the best professors are writing books that are only published 500 times and put in universities and seminary libraries and hardly anyone is pick- ing them up (42). This does not necessarily mean that they are not writing good books, but the books are not written with a specific audience, or they are writ- ing to talk to other theologians in their field. Volf and Croasmun argue that the idea of the flourishing life has to be brought into reality where the academic theology is connecting itself to everyday life also. Theologians should be writ- ing to include the bigger picture of the church.
Volf and Croasmun go on in chapter 3 about the renewal of theology and they begin to talk about how there is some new interest the shape of a flourish- ing life. Volf and Croasmun point out that a lot of the theologians that people are reading like Augustine, Maximus the Confessor, Aquinas and Bonaventure, Julian of Norwich, Luther, Calvin, and Schleiermacher, to name a few, wrote about the flourishing life (62). We don’t currently have any new voices writing about what a flourishing life is in our context. Volf and Croasmun are arguing that we are in this new place where there is room for theology to get back to its
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roots and focus on what flourishing means and looks like. Volf and Croasmun build on the idea of God being at home with us and us being at home with God (53).
They move into chapter 4 with the challenge of universality. They begin to wrestle with the idea that everything is interconnected and interdependent and there is no such thing as one part of creation flourishing without the other parts of creation flourishing. Reality is that all of creation needs to be flourish- ing since either everyone is flourishing, or no one is flourishing (86).
They go on to talk about this idea that the flourishing life is not just talking about the good life or the true life, but it is also talking about hardships, oppres- sion, suffering, and sorrow. Christianity is not about trying to create this happy good feeling life but it is actually trying to teach us that God wants to be in the high moments with us as well as the low moments. We are not trying to numb ourselves or distract ourselves from life but we are trying to live with God and let God live with us in all the different spectrums of life, the times of the great joys as well as the times of the great sorrow.
Volf and Croasmun go on to talk about lives of theologians in chapter 5.They begin to talk about the different ones that had written about theology, the flour- ishing life, and various rules of life. By reading how the flourishing life had been discussed and lived out throughout Christian history we gain a framework for how we can begin to discuss and live out a flourishing life in our culture and context.
In chapter 6, the authors give us a vision of what they see as a framework to start working on our ideas of a flourishing life. The idea of the flourishing life is beginning to be tied into the universality of the flourishing life and the connec- tion to the triune God. They are not giving us a definition of a flourishing life but they are giving us a framework to begin to discuss and develop our ideas of a flourishing life. One of the ideas they talk about is that theology ought to serve the kind of a flourishing life exemplified in the story of Jesus Christ and sketched into the story of the entire world becoming God’s home (149). They begin to argue that if theology is not a way of life that is seeking to understand life then we might be doing it wrong.
The authors argue that theology must be put into practice, with the goal in mind that it will transform the whole of the individual’s life. We cannot dis- connect what we are studying as the flourishing life from how we are living lives ourselves. Theologians need to write relevant and applicable works that they think would bring beneficial change to the church. They say that true and authentic theology comes from our inner core and based on the understand- ing that one can’t be studying, researching, and writing about a flourishing life unless living a flourishing life. The authors really wrestle with the idea that as
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theologians we have to form our ideas of what a flourishing life is or else we will have nothing to offer the culture, the church, and pastors. We will just be writing books that are just going in the library.
The authors’ purpose of this book is to address the state of academic the- ology. Their intent is not to address it through a critical lens but to address it both realistically and with hopefulness. They offer an idea of how the guild can turn itself around. I believe they accomplish this goal by putting themselves into the problem and offering suggestions that they themselves are trying to accomplish rather than just pointing a critical finger at others.
The strength of this book is its hopefulness that the state of academic the- ology can and will get better. This book reminds people of why they followed God’s calling into the guild. It also reminds theologians about what their pur- pose as a member of the guild and ultimately a co-laborer in the body of Christ is.
The weaknesses of this book is in its bias that they could be or are the only ones thinking about the need to develop the topic of a flourishing life. The authors do not give any perspectives from the last 20 years of practical theology regarding those who are working on the topic of a flourishing life. This proves theirpoint thattheologians arenot readingeachother’sworksbut wouldrather work off of primary sources from history.
What I learned from this book is how I need to better think about what a flourishinglifelooks likeand meanstome.The threecategoriesof a lifewellled, a life going well, and a life feeling well are very important in defining and devel- opingmyauthenticself asachildof God,anindividual,ahusband,andapastor. How can I help those I serve and minister to in living a flourishing life if I am not living a flourishing life? I believe this book’s primary audience is for new and post-doctoral students, members of the guild that are feeling disenchanted, and those who are teaching and preaching in the church. I recommend this book because it gives hope and answers to how the crisis of Western Christian- ity can be transformed by all of us that are working to understand our culture and context in light of who God is and how he made us to live.
Harvey Mitchell
Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, California,USA [email protected]
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