interactive content
Help pages
This interactive book is best viewed fullscreen in your browser window.
Main page content appears on the right
Interactive content appears on the left
Home and help buttons appear at the bottom left hand side of the page.
Paging controls appear at the bottom of the page. Click to go to the required page.Current page is highlighted.
Interactive links appear in blue. Click to load interactive content
External links appear in blue. Click to load external content in a new 'tab' or browser window
Hover over footnotes to view. If there is an external link in the footnote click to hold open.
The method of Generous Love
Generous Love begins (Chapter 1) with a theological statement, about God as both One and Three, and it also ends (Chapter 8) with a theological statement, about the dynamic of 'sending and abiding' which is both God's and ours. The intervening chapters talk about the unfolding of this theology in the many different contexts of today's world (Chapters 2-7). In other words, its method is one in which believing comes first and last, shaping a framework for relating and acting.
A different approach might have been to begin with context, and to move from there to theology. This is a pattern which is followed in several contemporary statements from Anglican and other churches, relying on the method of 'reflection on praxis'. The famous 'Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions' of the Second Vatican Council (1965) takes its Latin title from its opening description of the contemporary context: 'In this age of ours (nostra aetate), when men are drawing more closely together and the bonds of friendship between different peoples are being strengthened ...' Why then does Generous Love put context after theology? There are three reasons:
- Firstly, the contexts in which Anglicans are involved in inter faith relations are so different from one another (Chapter 2) that it would be very difficult to develop a contextually generated theology which would be recognisable to all. As Generous Love seeks to articulate a theology which can be held in common around the Anglican Communion, it therefore must build on what we have in common - our belief in the core affirmations of Christian faith.
- Secondly, the order of Generous Love reflects what has been the historic pattern of Anglican method (Chapters 3-4), in which the Bible as primary source is interpreted in the light of tradition and reason. This involves indeed a subtle interplay between text and context, and creates space for development and adaptation, but the centrality of the truths to which the scriptures bear witness is not in question.
- Thirdly, the purpose of Generous Love is to ground the experience of inter faith encounter firmly in the heartlands of Christian believing. Its approach rests on the conviction that religious diversity poses challenges to the Church not only at the political and social level, but in the area of theology. In fact, as Chs. 3-4 argue, these are not new challenges for Christians. They have been with the people of God from the beginning and throughout history; what is needed for today is to recover readings of the core texts of our faith which speak into our diverse contexts.
There are powerful reasons, then, why Generous Love prioritises theology over context; but the two cannot be separated. If it is faith that informs our attitude to our contexts, it is those contexts that in turn shape our understanding of faith. Chapters 5-7 in particular describe, across a wide range of contexts, the experiences of Christians being led into new life through inter religious encounter of many kinds. Reflection on those experiences in turn leads us back to the reality of the Trinity present and engaged in our world. So theology unfolds into context, context leads back to theology.