In the third edition of The Modern Theologians (Blackwell, 2005), David Ford closes the book with an epilogue, where he writes 12 theses for theology in the twenty-first century. (These are reprinted in the introduction to Christian Wisdom (CUP, 2007), which I really enjoying!)
1. God is the one who blesses and loves in wisdom
2. Theology is done for God's sake and for the sake of the kingdom of God
3. Prayer is the beginning, accompaniment and end of theology: Come, Holy Spirit! Hallelujah! and Maranatha!
4. Study of scripture is at the heart of theology
5. Describing reality in the light of God is a basic theological discipline
6. Theology hopes in and seeks God's purposes while immersed in the contingencies, complexities and ambiguities of creation and history
7. Theological wisdom seeks to do justice to many contexts, levels, voices, moods, genres, systems and responsibilities
8. Theology is practised collegially, in conversation and, best of all, in friendship; and, through the communion of saints, it is simultaneously premodern, modern and postmodern
9. Theology is a broker of the arts, humanity, sciences and common sense for the sake of a wisdom that affirms, critiques and transforms each of them
10. Our religious and secular world needs theology with religious studies in its schools and universities
11. Conversations around scriptures is at the heart of all interfaith relations
12. Theology is for all who desire to think about God and about reality in relation to God
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