The Life of Christian Doctrine

The lives of Christian churches are shaped by doctrinal theology. That is, they are shaped by practices in which ideas about God and God’s ways with the world are developed, discussed, and deployed. This book explores those practices, and asks why they matter for communities seeking to follow Jesus.
Taking the example of the Church of England – a church often thought to have a tenuous relationship to doctrinal theology – this book explores the contexts in which doctrinal ideas appear, and the work that discussion of them does. It discusses the temptation to intellectualism, and the need to remember the embodied, affective and located reality of all doctrinal practices. It describes the relationship of doctrine to ordinary Christian believing, arguing that doctrinal theology can help the church know God better, even though doctrinal theologians don’t know God better than their fellow believers. It analyses doctrine’s relation to scripture, arguing that doctrine can help the church to read in scripture challenges to its life, including to its doctrine. It examines deep doctrinal disagreements, and argues that a better quality of disagreement is possible even in the absence of knock-down arguments between traditions. And it explores the role that doctrinal theology can play in the ongoing discovery of God’s surprising work, especially amongst those whose voices have been ignored or silenced.
In the light of all this, The Life of Christian Doctrine indicates how churches might develop a richer ecology of doctrinal deliberation.