Original Research - Special Collection: UP Faculty of Theology Centenary Volume One

‘Something is recognised’: A liberal Protestant reflection on Erik Borgman’s cultural theology

Rick Benjamins
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 72, No 4 | a3339 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i4.3339 | © 2016 Rick Benjamins | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 20 January 2016 | Published: 31 August 2016

About the author(s)

Rick Benjamins, Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam/Groningen, the Netherlands & Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Netherlands

Abstract

The Dutch Roman Catholic theologian Erik Borgman (1957), who developed a cultural theology, was appointed as a visiting professor at the liberal Protestant theological Mennonite Seminary in Amsterdam. In this article, his progressive Roman Catholic theology is compared to a liberal Protestant approach. The historical backgrounds of these different types of theology are expounded, all the way back to Aquinas and Scotus, in order to clarify their specific character for the sake of a better mutual understanding. Next, the convergence of these two types of theology in the twentieth century is explained with reference to the philosophy of Heidegger. Finally, the difficulties posed by postmodern philosophies to both a progressive Roman Catholic theology and a liberal Protestant theology are shown. It is asserted that both types of theology claim that the insights of their particular tradition can be relevant beyond this tradition to modern and postmodern humans.

Keywords

Liberal Protetantism; Thomistic Theology; Religion; Culture; Postmodernism

Metrics

Total abstract views: 2757
Total article views: 3821

 

Crossref Citations

1. How to Scrutinize the Market God
Jerome Boyd
Stance: an international undergraduate philosophy journal  vol: 13  issue: 1  first page: 48  year: 2020  
doi: 10.33043/S.13.1.48-61