May 2, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS – In the brief but programmatic Liberal Theology: A Radical Vision, distinguished theologian Peter Hodgson reflects on the precarious yet vital role of theology today and its nearly lost and sometimes discredited tradition of liberal thought, especially liberal theology. Liberal theology has been the main thread of Christian thinking over the last 200 years, but it threatens to be obscured by a rising tide of conservative and even fundamentalist Christianity, on the one hand, and a secular materialism, on the other.

Hodgson's sure-footed work offers a way of seeing our religious and political situations together. He calls for liberal theology to reinvent itself and to fulfill its crucial historical roles as a mediator between Christian commitment and the cultural situation and as a critical lens through which to retrieve and reconstrue key Christian doctrines.

The heart or root of Christian commitment, Hodgson finds, lies in its radical vision of freedom-God's, nature's, and our own. In the end, Hodgson's proposal embraces not only theology but Christianity itself and its relevance to today's most pressing problems.

"There is something intrinsically radical about theology. . . . This book calls for a revival of liberal theology with a radical vision because of the conviction that it offers deeper insight into the meaning and truth of Christian faith for today." – from the Preface.

"This book is a measured triumph of theological reflection, the fruit of a lifetime's generous commitment to a liberal religious voice in an increasingly illiberal world." – Paul Lakeland, Kelley Professor of Catholic Studies, Fairfield University.

Peter C. Hodgson is among North America's most respected and accomplished theologians. Now the Charles G. Finney Professor of Theology, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Hodgson has been a member of the Vanderbilt faculty since 1965. His work embraces both historical theology – he is a leading interpreter of the work of G.W. F. Hegel and nineteenth-century theology – and constructive theology. His theological publishing has centered on issues of freedom and liberation, Jesus and Christology, and the shape of theology itself, articulated most fully in his systematic theology, Winds of the Spirit: A Constructive Christian Theology (1994). A founding member and leader of the Workgroup on Constructive Christian Theology, Hodgson has served as coeditor, with Robert H. King, of two of its most influential volumes: Christian Theology: An Introduction to Its Traditions and Tasks (Newly Updated Edition, 1994), and Readings in Christian Theology (1985).

Liberal Theology: A Radical Vision, By Peter C. Hodgson, Item Number: 978-0-8006-3898-6, Price: $20.00 / CAN $24.00 / UK £11.99, Specs: 5.5" x 8.5," hardcover with jacket, 144 pages.

To order Liberal Theology: A Radical Vision call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press