Enclave Theology

Enclave Theology October 23, 2014

Thanks to FB (HT: Charles Y. Kim) I came across this quote from George Hunsinger about “enclave theology”:

By ‘enclave’ theology, I mean a theology based narrowly in a single tradition that seeks not to learn from other traditions and to enrich them, but instead to topple and defeat them, or at least to withstand them. Enclave theology is polemical theology even when it assumes an irenic facade. Its limited agenda makes it difficult for it to take other traditions seriously and deal with them fairly. Whether openly or secretly, it is not really interested in dialogue but in rectitude and hegemony…Because of its temptation to misrepresent or devalue traditions with which it disagrees, such theology is finally divisive and futile … Enclave theology makes itself look good, at least in its own eyes, by making others look bad. 
George Hunsinger (“The Eucharist and Ecumenism”, p. 1)

If “enclave theology” is a bad, what is the antidote? I would say something like “Reformational Catholicism” in the tradition of Leithart and Vanhoozer. 


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