Edward Schillebeeckx and Contemporary Theology

Dr Frederiek Depoortere is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) at the Faculty of Theology, K.U.Leuven (Belgium) and a member of the research group 'Theology in a Postmodern Context'. Stephan van Erp is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer in Systematic Theology and Theory of Religion and Culture at the Faculties of Theology and Religious Studies of the Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands). His main publications include The Art of God: Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics and the Foundations of Faith (2004) and Vrijheid in verdeeldheid: De geschiedenis van religieuze tolerantie (Freedom in Diversity: The History of Religious Tolerance) (2008). Lieven Boeve is professor of fundamental theology at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), where he currently also serves as Dean of the Faculty and as the co-ordinator of the Research Group Theology in a Postmodern Context. His research concerns theological epistemology, philosophical theology, truth in faith and theology, tradition development and hermeneutics. He is the author of Interrupting Tradition. An Essay on Christian Faith in a Postmodern Context (2003) and God Interrupts History. Theology in a Time of Upheaval (2007). He has co-edited various volumes, of which the most recent are: Augustine and Postmodern Thought: A New Alliance against Modernity? (2009) and Orthodoxy: Process and Product (2009). From 2005 till 2009 he served as president of the European Society for Catholic Theology.

• List of Contents; In Memoriam Edward Schillebeeckx, OP (1914-2009); Prof. dr. Lieven Boeve, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; Prof. dr. Ben Vedder, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Letter from Edward Schillebeeckx to the Participants in the Symposium 'Theology for the 21st Century: The Enduring Relevance of Edward Schillebeeckx for Contemporary Theology' (Leuven - December 3-6, 2008); Preface; Frederiek Depoortere; List of Contributors; INTRODUCTION; The Enduring Significance and Relevance of Edward Schillebeeckx: Introducing the State of the Question in Medias Res, Lieven Boeve; PART I 'God Is New Each Moment': The Question of God in Modernity; God, the Luxury of Our Lives: Schillebeeckx and the Argument, Anthony J. Godzieba; Taking Atheism Seriously: A Challenge for Theology in the 21st Century, Frederiek Depoortere; PART II 'Everything Is Politics But Politics is Not Everything': The Social Role of Theology; When Everything becomes Political: Reading Schillebeeckx on Faith and Politics in the Contemporary United States, Vincent J. Miller; New Orientations of the Political: On the Contemporary Challenge of Political Theology,Jurgen Manemann; PART III 'God Is Bigger Than All Religions Put Together': The Dialogue Between the Religions; God Before Us, God Among Us: Interreligious Dialogue from an Intercultural Feminist Perspective, Gemma Tulud Cruz; Which Christological Tools for the Interreligious Dialogue?, Jean-Louis Souletie; PART IV 'Deus humanissimus': Suffering and Experiences of Negative Contrast; Suffering, Resistance, and Hope: Women's Experience of Negative Contrast and Christology, Kathleen McManus, OP; The Threatened Humanum as Imago Dei: Anthropology and Christian Ethics, Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP; 'Dark Light': Wrestling with the Angel at the Edge of History, Elizabeth Kennedy Tillar; PART V 'It Began With an Experience': Church and Tradition in an Age of Globalization and Liquidization; Pushed to a Precarious Flexibility: Where to Go if Tradition Has No Answer and Apocalypse Is No Alternative, Hans-Joachim Sander; History and Tradition: Catholicism and the Challenge of Globalized Modernity, Oliver Davies; The Church with a Human Face, Marc Dumas; PART VI Philosophy and Theology; Implicit Faith: Philosophical Theology after Schillebeeckx, Stephan van Erp; Conversation, Identity and Truth, Benoit Bourgine; PART VII Looking Backward, Looking Forward: The Past and Future of Schillebeeckx's Theological Project; Retrieving God's Contemporary Presence: The Future of Edward Schillebeeckx's Theology of Culture, Erik Borgman; Schillebeeckx and Theology in the Twenty-First Century, Robert J. Schreiter; Theology for the 21st Century: A Commentary on the Symposium, Kathleen Dolphin, PBVM; Bibliography; Index.

This volume not only introduces Schillebeeckx's theology, one of the leading theologians of the twentieth century, but it also explores its potential for the twentieth first century. The range of challenges and the high quality of the essays by internationally known scholars makes this volume indispensible for anyone interested in the challenges facing theology today. Its value goes far beyond the interpretation of Schillebeeckx to a serious engagement with the problems and issues he faced and with those that we need to face today.