Papers by David S. Cunningham
Anglican theological review, 2001
L'A. présente et critique l'ouvrage d'Ephraim Radner : La fin de l'Eglise : P... more L'A. présente et critique l'ouvrage d'Ephraim Radner : La fin de l'Eglise : Pneumatologie de la division chrétienne en Occident, paru en 1998. L'auteur démontre que l'Esprit-Saint a abandonné l'Eglise en raison de ses divisions, et qu'elle restera morte jusqu'au moment où, par sa ...
Dostoevsky Beyond Dostoevsky, 2019
For many years I taught an undergraduate course called Atheists and Apologists, usually as an upp... more For many years I taught an undergraduate course called Atheists and Apologists, usually as an upper-level seminar in a Religious Studies department. Students were assigned ten primary texts-actually, five pairs of texts, each of which brought two approximately contemporaneous figures into conversation with one another. The paired writers were chosen because they displayed quite significantly different views about God, faith, and morality. Nevertheless, in constructing the pairings, I always tried to complicate any easy conclusions about precisely what makes a particular author an "atheist" and what makes another an "apologist" for religious belief. So, for example, the classes were asked to read Descartes in tandem with Pascal; both authors profess to be believers, but students quickly recognize that they offer very different accounts of belief. In fact, Descartes's rationalism can quickly seem to eclipse his profession of faith. Similarly, many students find Hegel's supposed Christian faith to be distant and sterile, whereas Marx's apparently atheistic arguments are filled with theologically charged turns of phrase. VI My thanks are due to Svetlana Evdokimova at Brown University for inviting me to the conference on Dostoevsky, where I presented this material in a (much) earlier form. In particular, I am grateful for her hospitality at the conference and for her patience as the revision of this chapter lingered far too long. Thanks also to Rowan Williams, my theological teacher and mentor.
Journal of Reformed Theology, 2020
Reviews in Religion & Theology, 1995
Theological Studies, 2005
Scottish Journal of Theology, 2000
New Blackfriars, 2007
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The Expository Times, 2010
Theological Studies, 1995
οτι ήκουον εις έκαστος τη ίδία διαλέκτφ λαλούντων αυτών-Acts 2:6 C ONTEMPORARY TRANSLATION theory... more οτι ήκουον εις έκαστος τη ίδία διαλέκτφ λαλούντων αυτών-Acts 2:6 C ONTEMPORARY TRANSLATION theory has seized upon the story of Ba bel as its touchstone. We live "after Babel," says one contempo rary theorist; 2 another believes that the story of Babel "can provide an epigraph for all discussions of translation." 3 But the Church under stands the legacy of Babel as having been profoundly altered by the event of Pentecost. No longer are languages confused and the people scattered; rather, each person hears the message of the gospel in his or her own native tongue. But this is not a reversion to the era before Babel, in which "the whole earth had one language and the same words" (Gen 11:1). The multiplicity of language remains, but the con fusion and failed communication, the legacy of Babel, has been deci sively overcome through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, in its very constituting event, the Church acknowledged that its message could be heard "in translation": that the differences be tween one's own native tongue and the t/r-text of revelation would not stand as a barrier to the proclamation of the gospel. In contradistinc tion to Islam (and to some versions of Judaism), the Holy Scriptures of the Christian faith are available not only in their original languages, but also in various vernaculars. However, the early emergence of Greek as the common tongue of Christian theology, and the maintenance of linguistic univocity in the West through its replacement by Latin, helped to mask the essential translatability of the Christian witness. A similar phenomenon has evolved in the Anglophone world, not only because of the pervasive influence (due to aesthetic, literary, and political factors) of the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible, but also because of the increasing hegemony of English as the new lingua franca in the inter-1 With much help and encouragement from Margaret Adam and Phil Kenneson. Thanks also to Α.
Theological Studies, 2010
Thomist, 1996
(argued in Swinburne"s book on Revelation), the historical evidence for this event need not ... more (argued in Swinburne"s book on Revelation), the historical evidence for this event need not be strong. The Church's teaching about what the Lord said and did is to be believed as authenticated by God. "Revelation confirms the public evidence that Christ lived the sort of life that God Incarnate would be expected to have set himself to live" (221). Unfortunately, immense scholarly erudition is incompatible neither with intellectual incompetence nor with triviality of mind; obviously it would be invidious to cite examples, but they are legion. This only serves to set in relief Swinburne's combination of philosophical power, detailed knowledge of orthodox Christian doctrine, and just appreciation of its intellectual riches, for it is as admirable as it is rare.
Theology Today, Apr 1, 2006
Anglican theological review, 1998
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Theological Studies, Sep 1, 1994
understanding of the Trinity as the Idealdearum, an idea that grounds three "open transcende... more understanding of the Trinity as the Idealdearum, an idea that grounds three "open transcendentals": the unity and diversity of human culture, the dynamism of the individual and society, and the relation between time and space and eternity and infinity. G. argues for these trinitarian transcendentals as mediating concepts for the tension of homogeneity and fragmentation present in modernity, a tension that he traces to antiquity, in the contrast between Heraclitus and Parmenides. The Spirit is an important and flexible idea in this mediation as the principle of concrete particularity, maintaining "the concreteness of things in their particular configurations in space and time: in their haecceitas" (201). By this work of sustaining the relationship of creation and divinity in all its particularity, the Spirit brings creation to perfection, a recapitulation that reflects G.'s appreciation of Irenaeus' teleologically oriented economic starting point. Some oversights undermine the power of G.'s address. Drawing on the work of thinkers such as Vaclav Havel and Alain Finkielkraut, G. provides a compelling account of the ills of contemporary culture in the wake of Kant. But he never allows those who argue against the bias of the universals touted by such authors to make their case. It is curious that a study so attentive to particularity would sideline the insights of liberation and feminist theologians, for whom the critique of the homogeneity of contemporary culture is a well-developed thesis. Theologically, G.'s nuanced use of the terms "hypostasis" and "perichoresis" are certainly due to his reading of the Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas. But G. ignores the appearance of these concepts in the well-documented explosion of trinitarian theologies in Roman Catholic thought in the wake of Karl Rahner (most recently in the work of Catherine LaCugna). While I charge G. with a certain insularity, his work merits wide and careful consideration. His study is meticulously structured, replete with signposts that enhance its readability as well as sturdily conveying his vigorous and thoroughly theological intellectual program.
Theology Today, Apr 1, 2000
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 6, 2001
The Brothers Karamazov'as trinitarian theology 135 illustrations (and explications) of doctr... more The Brothers Karamazov'as trinitarian theology 135 illustrations (and explications) of doctrinal points, most theologians seemto view the doctrine of the Trinity as something far too esoteric, far too philosophically complex, to be explicated by means of literature. But I ...
Journal of Reformed Theology, 2013
Theology Today, Oct 1, 1994
Reviews in religion and theology, Feb 1, 1997
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Papers by David S. Cunningham