This, Don Cupitt argues, is a new kind of theological book. It starts not from doctrine or scripture but from the rise of those sciences that bear most directly on the questions of human nature and the human condition. The idea is to find out what religious possibilities there may be in the emergent modern vision of our situation. The 'Christian doctrine of man', drawing most of its themes from the book of Genesis via Augustine, has been damaged virtually beyond repair. So a gap needs to be filled. Patching up the old will not do. 'Suppose that someone writing a textbook of psychology is told to integrate the Scientologiste beliefs into his text. He really and truly wishes to comply with this instruction, but he finds that even with the best will in the world it simply cannot be done. Thai is the difficulty that we are in. Maybe it is bad news, but shooting the messenger who brings it will not help.' So this book does not reinterpret or prune or modernize the Christian doctrine of man, or replace it with a new set of doctrines. There is no theological or philosophical anthropology, mixing existentialism, psychology and a little metaphysics. The materials come from geology and biology, psychology, social anthropology, and comparative religion. What results, forming a trilogy with Taking Larne of God and The World to Come, completes and supports a view which Don Cupitt has been presenting over a number of years. It is unlikely to leave readers unmoved.
- ISBN10 0334022355
- ISBN13 9780334022350
- Publish Date 18 July 2012
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 28 February 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint SCM Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 242
- Language English