The Wanderings of a Theological Vagabond

Book Review: Wrestling with Questions

I owe a big “Thank You!” to Ausburg-Fortress Press for providing me with this book to review.

Wrestling with Questions: An Introduction to Contemporary Theologies, by Gregory C. Higgins, is an excellent book for those looking for a brief and informative introduction to the most prominent theologians and theological movements in 20^th century.

Higgins divides this book into ten chapters.  Each chapter providing an introduction to traditional questions in systematic theology (i.e., Why did Christ have to die? or What does it mean to say humankind is created in the image of God?).  With the larger framework established, Higgins then correlates each area of theology to it correlative theologian, surveying how he or she has shaped the conversation in the 20^th century.  Higgins surveys the works of Rosemary Radford Ruether, and proceeds through Gustavo Gutiérrez, Reinhold Niebuhr, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Sallie McFague, Karl Rahner, Jürgen Moltmann, Stanley Hauerwas, John Cobb Jr., and Wolfhart Pannenberg.  Obviously, if you are looking for good introduction, you probably will not know who many of those theologians are (All of the more reason to buy this book!).

Wrestling with Questions was written as an introduction for undergraduate students to contemporary theology; and, when fortunate enough to be blessed with my own classroom of undergraduate students, I intend to use this book.  However, this book is easily accessible for unconventional theology students as well.  Obviously, Higgins’ interpretation of each theologian is simply his perspective and therefore ought not to be considered definitive.  Each of these theologians’ work is inherently complex and nuanced.  Nevertheless, he provides the foundational information to become conversant with corpus of these theologians.  Higgins does not intend this book to replace interaction with the primary sources themselves; he intends this book as the beginning of a journey into 20^th century theology.  A journey on which I highly recommend you join Higgins and Wrestling with Questions.

Post a Comment