The Place of the Past in Theological Construction

Abstract

This article discusses the views of three liberal theologians, L. Cady, D. Brown, and S. G. Davaney, on the place of the past in theological construction. They all attempt to keep in balance both a historicist view of epistemology as well as an insistence on the continued usefulness of the past for theology. In the process, the meaning of the past gets radically altered. I argue that Cady fails to make coherent her notion of “creative extension” because of the unity she ascribes to the whole of tradition. Brown deconstructs this unity, but to such an extent that tradition becomes a mere generic term for whatever “authors” human identities. Finally, Davaney's radicalizing of Brown ends up identifying theology with ethnography, surrendering its distinctiveness.