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Experiments in Early Christian Theology: The Costan Lectures 2022
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Nov 25 2025
Pages: 114
Weight: 0.26
Height: 0.24 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
The lectures published here represent Tanner's most focused and thorough account of early Christianity's spirit of exploration, offered to encourage us to work towards ends unknown by thinking with the theologians that have gone before. -ED WATSON, Yale Department of Religious Studies
Amid the uncertainties and instabilities of the present century, it is increasingly common to overhear calls to return to the fathers. But just what does the theology of the early church have to offer us? And more importantly, what will it do to us as theologians? In Experiments in Early Christian Theology, Kathryn Tanner draws our attention to the bold, daring, and speculative quality of theology as it was practiced by the church's first theologians. They are engaged in open exploration towards ends unknown, Tanner writes, making their way with great daring into uncharted territory. Over the course of three lectures, Tanner details how theologians like Origen and Gregory of Nyssa sought to reimagine received assumptions and, in the process, sketched cosmic architectures of salvation and ever-intensifying economies of divine enjoyment. As Tanner makes clear, the experimental inventiveness of early Christian theology should inspire us to undertake our own projects of theological speculation and daring. In this way, Tanner invites the church of today to plumb the ever-renewed depths of God and to re-envision ways of sharing the world as God's free gift to us. Originally given as the 2022 Costan Lectures, this edition includes an introduction by Ed Watson.
Kathryn Tanner is the Frederick Marquand Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School. She approaches theology from the perspectives of historical, philosophical, and critical studies, and is the author of many books and essays, among them Politics of God (Fortress, 1992), Economy of Grace (Fortress 2005), and Christ the Key (Cambridge, 2010).
Ed Watson is a PhD Candidate in Yale's Religious Studies Department. His research focuses on how theological reflection can be used to create novel possibilities of meaning in spaces of racial domination and resistance. About the Costan LecturesThe Costan Lectures at Virginia Theological Seminary are an annual three-day series established in 2014 through the generosity of Jay and Margaret Costan. They provide world-renowned scholars an opportunity to connect the deep well of Christian tradition with contemporary issues in theology, ethics, and spirituality. Often turning to figures from the first millennium of Christianity, these lectures demonstrate the perennial relevance of the church's earliest theologians, inspiring a new generation of thinkers, writers, and leaders to speak boldly into the contemporary moment. VTS PRESS, 2025
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