The Drama of Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer

Author:Kevin J. Vanhoozer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Published: 2005-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

PART 3

THE DRAMATURGE

Part 1 presented the subject matter and subsequent form of theology in terms of a triune theo-drama of redemption. Theology is evangelical to the extent that it acknowledges and preserves the priority of the Word and Act of God over that of human beings. Part 2 presented Scripture as the church’s script, the authorized version of the theo-drama, the constitution of the church, and the locus of authority when it comes to doctrinal direction for the church’s fitting participation in the ongoing drama. The focus of part 3 is on theological method: on what a theology that corresponds to the gospel—to the theo-drama of redemption and to the canonical script—actually looks like when it is put to work.

The drama of doctrine aims at truthful speech and righteous action, all said and done to the glory of God. The canonical-linguistic approach to theology to be developed here emphasizes Christian practices—the church’s fitting participation in the drama of redemption as transmitted by canonical practices—but not to the exclusion of cognitive truth claims. A theology that fosters the love of God with all one’s heart, mind, and strength requires propositional information, poetic imaginations, and practical initiatives alike in order adequately to respond to the Tatwort of the Gospel. Christian theology must ultimately be oriented toward practical wisdom—a matter of apprehension, affection, and action alike.

Part 3 lays out, in broad strokes, six features that together constitute the canonical-linguistic approach to theology—a sixfold path that enables the church, in all its multicultural and situational diversity today, to hear, understand, and perform the word of God in Scripture. Together, these six features provide criteria for determining what it means to participate fittingly in the canonically scripted drama of redemption.1 The first three characteristics—post-propositionalist, postconservative, postfoundationalist—have primary reference to the fit between doctrines and the biblical text and to the nature of theology as an exegetical scientia. Though sacra doctrina emerges from sacra pagina, it does not do so simply by abstracting revealed propositions. Interpreting Scripture theologically—being biblical in one’s speech, thought, and life—ultimately requires forming habits of seeing, experiencing, thinking, and acting through participating in the diversity of canonical practices. Rationality is a matter of making cognitive contact with reality, but the literary diversity in Scripture enables different kinds of cognitive contact.

The second canonical-linguistic triad—prosaic, phronetic, prophetic—has special reference to the contemporary situation and to theology as a practical sapientia, or form of wisdom. In the final analysis, to participate fittingly in the drama of redemption requires a proper response not only to the biblical text but also to the diversity of present contexts in which the church finds herself. “Canonical-linguistic” thus refers not only to the theology done in the canon but to theology done from the canon but aimed onward and outward.2 Canonical-linguistic theology aims at the contemporary realization or performance of the same Christ-shaped wisdom that is the focus of the Scriptures. To engage in canonical-linguistic theology does not mean that we repeat yesterday’s performances. The drama may, and must, be

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