Theology Is About God and All Things in Relation to God

What is the future of theology? We asked that question of several leading theologians 7 years ago, including today's featured guest, Katherine Sonderegger, The William Meade Chair of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary, a priest in the Episcopal Church, and has written widely, covering Creation, Christology, Election, the Jewishness of Jesus...

Her approach to theology is beautifully summed up in the following, “There really is no more beautiful thought in all reality than the thought of God. I believe that theology is ultimately just that: thinking the thought of God and worshipping the Reality who is God.”

In this conversation, Katherine Sonderegger joins Matt Croasmun to discuss the importance of a free and unapologetic, unembarrassed approach to Christian theology; the interplay of Christian theology with other religious texts and pluralistic perspectives; the practice of peace, listening, and being knit together even in difference; the strong unity and center of theology, which is the capital-R Reality that is God, who is, in Sonderegger's words, "the great hope of theology."

Show Notes

• What’s right with theology these days? 
• Women and theology 
• The relationship between Old Testament studies, New Testament studies, and theology
• “In the major universities, it is an odd thing to be a religious person”
• Intellectualism, depth and transcendence 
• The relationship between Christianity and Judaism
• Christianity between Judaism and Islam
• What is central to Christianity? 
• Ties between Christian faith and the secular realm
• “Religious people can bring our own reflections on wisdom, as well as folly” 
• Thomas Aquinas and God 
• ‘God and all things in relation to God’ 
• Theology and thinking the sublime 
• Theology is for exploration of God 
• Intellectual worship of God 
• Does theology have a center?
• Scripture and the mystery of God 
• “I want to see theology losing itself in the ocean of reality”
• God’s abundance 
• Galatians 5:14 “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Loving God through love of neighbor
• Augustine: “Love God and do what you will” 
• The future of the field of theology 
• “God is the great hope of theology”
• indifference to religion 
• The seminary graduates fill her with hope 
• “If it is of God, it cannot fail” 

About Katherine Sonderegger 

Katherine Sonderegger is The William Meade Chair of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary. She joined the VTS faculty in 2002, after fifteen years as a professor of religion at Middlebury College. Her academic career began at Smith College, where she undertook interdisciplinary research in medieval studies. Her priestly vocation began at Yale Divinity School, where she completed her M.Div. and STM degrees, writing a thesis on feminist theology. The first years after graduation brought her to congregational ministry and chaplaincy training at Yale New Haven Hospital. Raised a Presbyterian, the Reformed roots run deep in her vocation. She brought these into the Episcopal Church when she was ordained deacon and priest in 2000.

Twin topics have characterized her academic career: the dogmatic theology of Karl Barth and constructive work in systematic theology. She has published in several areas of Barth studies, from Barth’s interpretation of Israel, Jews, and Judaism, to his Doctrine of God, his Christology, and his remarkable exegesis of Scripture. More recently, Sonderegger has turned to constructive theology, writing shorter works on the Doctrines of Election, Creation, and Christology, and launching a new systematics. Volume 1: The Doctrine of God appeared under the aegis of Fortress Press in 2015, and Volume 2: The Trinity: Processions and Persons was published in 2020. She is currently working on Volume 3: Divine Missions, Christology, and Pneumatology.

Sonderegger is also the author of That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew: Karl Barth’s “Doctrine of Israel” (University Park: Penn State Press, 1992) and coauthor, with artist Margaret Adams Parker, of Praying the Stations of the Cross: Finding Hope in a Weary Land (Wm. Eerdmans Press, 2019).

Production Notes

• This podcast featured theologian Katherine Sonderegger and biblical scholar Matthew Croasmun
• Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
• Hosted by Evan Rosa
• Production and Editorial Assistance Nathan Jowers
• A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
• Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give