Paradigm Change in Theology: A Symposium for the Future

Hans Küng (born 1928) is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and author. At the time this book was published in 1989, David Tracy was a Professor of Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. They note in the Introduction, "Is there a basic consensus in Christian theology today, in spite of all our differences? This question was the subject of an international ecumenical symposium ... attended by 70 men and women from all over the world---theologians, most of them, both Catholic and Protestant, but representatives of other disciplines as well---sociologists of religion, for example, and philosophers... can we trace the emergence of a new, different, basic pattern of theology---a 'new paradigm,' to use the phrase which we took as leitmotif for our symposium?" Besides Küng and Tracy, participants included Martin Marty, Jurgen Moltmann, Stephen Toulmin, Paul Ricouer, Schubert Ogden, Edward Schillebeeckx, Johann Metz, Langdon Gilkey, John Cobb, and Leonardo Boff. A Jesuit commentator observes that "Augustine invented a new 'paradigm' in the Latin Church, because he turned each of these fundamental experiences of modernity into passionate research into the first elements, or principles of his beliefs. From the point of his conversion, this inner dialogue never ceased." (Pg. 128) Schillebeeckx argues, "If, therefore, we are able to speak about THE paradigm in today's situation, it will be the paradigm of 'humanity,' the paradigm of the (undefinable) cry for the humane, open to God's future which transcends human history." (Pg. 318) Küng asserts in his closing essay that "The new paradigm of theology has a fundamentally political dimension." (Pg. 451) This is an excellent collection of creative essays by a wide group of thinkers.