Effing the Ineffable: Charting Some Directions for Christian Theology in Our Deeply Troubling Times

This essay begins with the premise that the proper “subject” of theology, or “God-talk,” lies in an ineffable realm, but that human beings cannot avoid using language in referring to this realm that is itself beyond language, as we ask fundamental questions of the meaning and purpose of our human existence, and questions of ultimate reality. Given this premise, the essay maps out three areas that Christian theological reflection is called to consider and address if it is to be relevant to the urgent demands of our twenty-first century world. The first is a need for theology to reconnect with spirituality, from which it had been “divorced” since the so-called Western Enlightenment with the predominance placed on reason in human endeavors. The second is a need for a shift from an anthropocentric perspective to a creation-centered approach, in the light of the severe ecological crisis faced by our contemporary global society. The third is a need for Christian theology to take into account, and learn from other faith traditions, as sources of discovering divine revelatory activity as manifested in and through the world’s different religions and their various cultural manifestations.