Theology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Need this book for my Behavior Science course...thankful it is available in digital format and much cheaper

Despite working under the constraint of so few pages, Ford has produced a valuable explication of both theology and religious studies as university subjects, presenting a formula of how those subjects both should and can be taught in secular Depths of Religious Studies. Yale, interestingly, has taught both without incident. It is lesser universities and their departments in the US who seem prone to leave theology behind, which Ford rd

Required reading for my Education for Ministry class.It’s a special person that enjoys this subject and peruses knowledge. Not me

I have always struggled with the concepts of Theology. This book simplifies and gives examples.

Who picks these so called writers who seem to be interested in filling pages and avoiding the subject matter. a complete waste of time and money

A great concise book. It is a bit on the academic side, which I don't mind.

Excellent book. Very tidy.

Author makes a complex set of topics even more complicated; seems to be impressed with himself and demonstrates his intellectual power with $10 words and run-on sentences. Why Sewanee makes us read this book is beyond me. A waste of my time and a lost opportunity for the beginning of the 4th year of EfM.

To start with due disclosure, I am a Jew and do not share the Christian frame of this book. But, as an "outsider" I found it outstanding in presenting main lines of (Christian) theological, mainly academic, thinking, which is in large parts relevant also to non-Christians. It also handles well studying theology, including hermeneutics, epistemology, and the importance of knowing languages -- which is much neglected in modern mass-cultures. I am not qualified to discuss the theological issues taken up in this book, though I am somewhat surprised that "negative theology," which regards humans as only qualified to speak about what God is not rather than what his attributes are, is not mentioned other than in a side hint (p.162). Also the author is much too optimistic about inter-faith dialogues (pp.117-122), instead of fully recognizing and confronting the realities and growing potentials of mass-killings caused by religious fanaticism.My main critique concerns what is missing, including important background on the historic roots of monotheistic faiths on one side and urgent needs for theological rethinking and ethical-spiritual leadership fitting the emerging metamorphosis of humanity on the other (despite a short chapter on "Theology for the third millennium", pp. 169-176, which does not include main likely challenges).To start with the past, Karl Jaspers coined the term "Axial Age" referring to the period from about 800 to 200 BCE, during which relatively similar radical innovations in thinking appeared in China, India, and the Occident, which laid the ground for monotheistic faiths. I think that this foundational development should at least be mentioned and somewhat discussed in a book like this one.To jump to the future, the emerging metamorphosis of humanity, as driven mainly by science and technology, is sure to pose completely novel fateful issues requiring, inter alia, radically innovative moral thinking, including in theology. Examples include human enhancement and cloning, perhaps synthesis of life forms, advanced quasi-intelligent robots, mass-killing viruses produced in kitchen laboratories and more. Not only do such issues pose critical challenges to theology of all faiths, but they also require a novel type of ethical-spiritual leadership, both separate from and in combination with radically novel political leaders (whom I call in my next book "Avant-Garde Politicians)." Therefore preparing the required ethical-spiritual leadership (and ethical-spiritual advisors for senior politicians) is a main task of theology, but one neither taken up nor recognized in this book. Hopefully the author will apply his broad knowledge and sharp mind to such emerging crucial challenges facing all theologies (all the more so as they are not taken considered in his longer book on the The Future of Christian Theology, as well as in other books on the future of theology, such as Steven Kepnes, The Future of Jewish Theology. They are also ignored in discourse on needed global ethics in the two books by Küng included in the additional readings [pp. 80,183]).Pending a coming book by the author dealing with such issues, hopefully soon, given the scope of this book as chosen by the author I evaluate it as "outstanding." It is strongly recommend to all concerned with ultimate questions of human existence, spirituality and interface with the transcendental.Professor Yehezkel DrorThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem

I loved this book. David Ford is an eminent theologian and a lucid author. Tlin this book he provides a very clear and well-structured account of what theology is all about, the key subdivisions within the discipline, the methods adopted by theologians, and the challenges that face theology in the future. Highly recommended!

I’m disappointed by the presentation of this book. It downplays religion throughout the book as a personal choice, suggesting that truth is what you make it (i.e. relative). It introduces some interesting topics and gives a bit of background to the area, though I find it uncompelling as a catholic as it almost feels like it is mocking faith at times and suggesting that it is unreasonable which is far from what I have experienced and seen in the catholic community that I belong to.

Like all the OUP 'Very Short Introductions' I have read, this is an excellent, authoritative summary of this particular subject. Extremely well written, very engaging, comprehensive and authoritative - you really feel the author is an expert in his field.It is very specifically about Christian theology (as the author points out, there are other 'Very Short Introductions' to other faiths /religions available in the series) so be aware of this when considering it.

Concentrating mostly on the Christian tradition, but providing some recent inter-religious dialogue material and numerous items for further reading, this gives a recommendable intro in a manageable pocketably sized book. The distinction between theology and religion is clarified, there are sections on thinking about God, the problem of evil, the identity of Jesus, the scope of salvation, the place of experience .. don't you just love these VSI's?!