Command of Grace

"The Command of Grace" sets forth a bold new critical initiative in theological apologetics which advocates a fundamental reassessment of theological self-understanding and method today, especially in its attentiveness to the present reality of God in revelation.It is predicated on what, through a sustained and penetrating critique of our philosophical and theological history, the book shows to be a still profoundly pervasive analytical 'spirit of idealism', under whose influences theology has in a wide array of ways come to exercise itself predominantly within a kind of cognitivist mono-vision. Theology has thereby not only become self-guaranteeing within itself ('tauto-theological'), thus forfeiting its rationally rigorous edge, but has also inadvertently violated its indispensable incarnational (embodied) ground. Against this, the book seeks, through a rigorously critical attentiveness to rational integrity, to revive for fundamental theological questioning two basic modes of human awareness, which under the aforementioned influences have become largely lost to theology over the past two centuries, even though they continue to thrive in the life of faith in the church itself.These are: causal attentiveness encountered through the faculties of bodily sensibility; and appetitive or motive attentiveness encountered in the faculty of desire.If God in his very 'Godness' meets us in revelation at the very centre of created life, and reveals himself only here as the hope of the life to come, then theology must again seek to be attentive to God in the full contingency of embodied-rational life in all of its constitutive faculties: sensible, cognitive and appetitive.

'Combining rigorous rationality with an engaging enthusiasm, this book crafts a theological apologetics that is at once original and instructive of how we can freshly avail ourselves of key elements of tradition. With clear, gracious, and compelling writing, it enlists an impressive array of theological and philosophical resources along with homely examples to make its case. An example of constructive theology at its best.' Elizabeth Ann Johnson, Distinguished Professor of Theology, Fordham University, New York, USA--Sanford Lakoff, 'Paul Janz's The Command of Grace: A New Theological Apologetics is a sophisticated, lucid, and original argument for reorienting Christian theology toward God's living reality. Janz's focus on the Hebraic sources of Christian theology and engagement with Jewish thought are particularly welcome and compelling. Anyone interested in the possibilities of Christian theology today as well as anyone concerned with the limits of theology and philosophy more generally will learn a tremendous amount from this work. In short, this book is an outstanding feat that will provoke discussion on the limits and powerful potential of theology for many years to come.' Leora Batnitzky, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, USA--Sanford Lakoff, "[T]his work of Janz has to do with the liturgy of the word, for it is an invitation to deepen one's understanding of what we are doing when we celebrate the word of God."-Maury Schepers O.P., Worship, Vol. 84, July 2010

Paul D. Janz is Lecturer in Philosophical Theology at King's College London, UK. His last book was God the Mind's Desire, (CUP 2004).