The Problems of Theology by Brian Hebblethwaite (review)

BOOK REVIEWS The Problems of Theology. By BRIAN HEBBLETHWAITE. Cambridge University Press: 1980. Pp. 164. $21.50. The main content of this book is a wide ranging study of theology as an academic discipline among other academic disciplines. This includes much discussion of the object and methods of theology compared and contrasted with those of the history or phenomenology of religions, psychology and the social sciences, philosophy and history, both church history and secular history. Particular attention is given to the problem of revelation as a claim to data not generally available or not subject to regular scrutiny, to the relation between ethics and theology and to the problem of the relationship of theology to official church doctrine. All this is done with astonishing competence, considering the range of content and the brevity of the text. It must be said that the writing is very dense and at times extremely hard to follow. Such is the content. The purpose of the book is to demonstrate and defend the place of theology in the (secular) university by explaining its method, content and scope. In the feisty opening chapter, Hebblethwaite lays out all the cards he means to play, but by this time the reader is caught. The harmless looking little book in the bland blue dustjacket turns out to be first cousin to the Trojan horse and fraternal twin to the letter bomb. It unmasks a pervasive hidden assumption, an unacknowledged bias in the main stream of contemporary religious studies with a powerful if idiosyncratic logic. The setting and the manner of the argument are British. American readers may have some difficulty following the thread of the argument at first but the book rewards persevering readers generously. The thesis of the book is this : to include theology within the category of " religious studies " implies an underlying assumption that God does not exist, for if God exists then " religious studies " must necessarily be included in theology (p. 3). The author's definition of theology is "rational talk about God" (pp. 1, 6, and throughout). His implied definition of " religious studies" appears to be " rational talk about religious behavior and beliefs ", such as would be meaningful whether or not the beliefs are well-founded or the behavior justified. His concern, though never explicitly stated in quite this way, appears to be that there is an alliance at work among three very unlikely partners and that two of them are probably unaware of what is going on. These partners are atheist 448 444 BOOK REVIEWS scholars and academic administrators. whether these be theoretical or merely practical atheists, rigorist or fundamentalist theologians, of whatever faith or denomination they may be, and those extremely liberal (not radical) theologians to whom the particularity of their tradition and its claims is no longer important because they are willing to follow the Hegelian notion that religion attains maturity by resolving itself into philosophy. Hebblethwaite's understanding appears to be that the consensus over establishment of religious studies in universities and colleges (rather than theology, though this might be included as a small area of descriptive study within the " academically respectable " field of religious studies) is totally coherent from the point of view of the atheists, but a trap for the other two parties. The doctrinaire theologian is the one who will not bring his discussion into the public forum of the academic world because he claims privileged data, methods and conclusions. If the establishment of religious studies keeps him out of the academic limelight but guarantees him a corner which he is sure he could not otherwise occupy, he is cautiously satisfied. If religious studies exclude him, he is probably relieved in any case, because he is convinced that he has nothing to discuss with his unbelieving colleagues in the secular university and had better pursue his theological activities in an isolated world of believers. As this world shrinks and many traditions are closely intertwined in society, such theologians have less and less to say even to believers. They can be progressively discounted, which is of course a desirable development from the atheists' point of view. The extremely liberal theologians are happy to be invited into the liberal arena...