Academic Theology Is Not Alright
Linn Tonstad, Butler-Peeler Controversies, and Nancy Pearcey
What’s Linn Tonstad Got To Do With It?
I very foolishly decided to offer my cold take on two controversies that emerged out of The Gospel Coalition earlier this year: the publication of excerpts from Josh Butler’s Beautiful Union and a review of Amy Peeler’s Women and the Gender of God. This latest piece focuses more on the latter, voicing concerns about her positive engagement with a provocateur-theologian at Yale Divinity by the name of Linn Tonstad. If you should choose to read the article, be warned that the language (quoting Tonstad) is extremely foul.
ICYMI: This piece emerged partially out of my surprise at the “family trees” I found when I mapped out mainline academic theology. Tonstad studied under Miroslav Volf, who studied under Jurgen Moltmann, who studied under was influenced by* Karl Barth.
The other piece, focusing on Josh Butler, was written earlier but should finally be making its way onto the World Wide Web sometime soon.
I say all this to emphasize that neither my opinion on Peeler nor my opinion on Butler are about “taking sides” in a culture war fight. I simply think there are more interesting questions about how we should live and speak lurking below the surface.
* UPDATE: Peter Hartwig graciously pointed out that I was wrong when I said here and before that Moltmann studied under Barth. They corresponded, there were certainly lines of influence, but no institutional teacher-student relationship.
Even better, Peter knows this because of an embarrassing interaction where his father made the same mistake as I have here, asking Moltmann “what it was like to study with Dr. Barth?” to which he replied, “I never did.” There might even be audio of the interchange, which Peter has promised to try to hunt down. *
"Theology is Dangerous" (Mere Orthodoxy)
To that end, I would love to do some more reflection in the same vein as the piece above, thinking through what a confessional college, a denominational seminary, or a divinity school housed within a university might look like in a healthier world. I have some initial thoughts on this, but there’s a lot of things I’d like to read before opining publicly (e.g., John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University, Alasdair MacIntyre’s God, Philosophy, Universities, Stanley Hauerwas’ The State of the University). If there’s anything else you’re aware of or have found fruitful, I’d appreciate further suggestions!
Nancy Pearcey Is Coming To Town
Apparently if you review an author’s book, you’re obligated to help them host an event when they’re in the area. Last month, The Gospel Coalition published a review I wrote of Nancy Pearcey’s The Toxic War on Masculinity and now Church of the Resurrection in Washington, D.C. is hosting a book event for her on Monday, October 30th. See more information at the Facebook event or Eventbrite link.
While the book has a title straight out of the culture war, the content is graciously written and extraordinarily deep. As I argue in the TGC review, by starting before the process of industrialization (several centuries before Kristin Kobes Du Mez’ Jesus and John Wayne picks up), Pearcey tells a much more interesting story about the history of gender relations.
ICYMI: I’ve written on Du Mez here before: Mapping Jesus and John Wayne (Substack)
I'm increasingly appreciative of any take on anything *remotely related* to gender/family/work that goes back further than the Industrial Revolution. Modernity is a short-sighted view, and if I see one more person romanticize any family or work structure that originated after the Industrial Revolution..... without thought to how things were prior..... I'm gonna lose it. haha I have your pieces saved to read.
Good overview. I totally agree from your comments in Mere Orthodoxy that Eva groups like TGC would do well to exercise communicative and reasoning transparency ("explain to the reader why you are engaging"), contextualization, holisticness, and scriptural shrewdness when publishing academic arguments that may have unexpected or unintended impacts on impressionable minds or hurting people.
Regarding reflection on healthy theological academy, this interview that John Milbank gave might provide some more ideas (I haven't read it in a minute so I don't remember the exact points) https://academic.logos.com/paideia-and-virtue-in-the-academy-a-conversation-with-john-milbank/ .
One other general outline of a thought: it's been interesting to see the one-dimensionality and incrementalism of much of the theological engagement and criticism that the institutions of "Big Eva" choose to field. An argument may be academically sound and worth pursuing in dialogue that is expected to be academic and critical, but may not have pragmatically applicable or healthy implications for the Church and people in the Church, or in a complex, pluralist modern society.
It requires basic (i.e 'mere' or simple) wisdom and perhaps even virtue to think through the implications and how things will be received, and whether ideas are actually sound and "implementable" in practice of missions and the service of the church.
Also, I wonder if there is an economic component, that our past zero-interest rate environment led to the ability and incentivization of more incrementalist academic thought to be published and fielded, without thinking always fully through the necessary implications , or seeking a more holistic, fundamental analysis that might actually be more constructive (and less divisive) in the long term.