Kevin Vanhoozer's latest title, Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion and Authorship is out now. It's been a long time coming since he mentioned that he was working on the book in an interview on this blog in September 2007 - here. Looks like it will be worth the wait. The only problem is the price tag. At £75 from the publisher, Cambridge University Press and £52.25 from Amazon, the book is a little on the pricey side. I'll have to start saving my pennies.
From the Amazon product description:"The rise of modern science and the proclaimed ‘death’ of God in the nineteenth century led to a radical questioning of divine action and authorship – Bultmann’s celebrated ‘demythologizing’. Remythologizing Theology moves in another direction that begins by taking seriously the biblical accounts of God’s speaking. It establishes divine communicative action as the formal and material principle of theology, and suggests that interpersonal dialogue, rather than impersonal causality, is the keystone of God’s relationship with the world. This original contribution to the theology of divine action and authorship develops a new vision of Christian theism. It also revisits several long-standing controversies such as the relations of God’s sovereignty to human freedom, time to eternity, and suffering to love. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, it brings theology into fruitful dialogue with philosophy, literary theory, and biblical studies."
I suppose the pricetag reflects the specialised and limited expected readership with a resultant low print run?
ReplyDeleteCould be, J. On the other hand, with that price tag a limited readership is pretty much guaranteed.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to this book almost more than any other in 2010! I refuse to buy it at that price, though. It should find itself in a good paperback edition within a year or so.
ReplyDeleteI'll do with my library's copy until then!
KJV says that he asked CUP to publish the title in paperback concurrently, but they declined.
ReplyDeleteAlso that, "Remythologizing Theology is the most important thing I've written, and the first real work of theology..."
For a moment when I saw the title of the post "What price Remythologizing Theology, Dr Vanhoozer?", I thought Dr Vanhoozer had put out some radical and 'way out there' proposal in his book (hence at great cost to himself). Phew! you were actually talking about the cost of the book! = )
ReplyDeleteThe post title was meant to be a little light hearted. Still saving my pennies.
ReplyDelete