Future of religion — Where is Christian theology headed?

Soul Search

The world Christians live in is changing, so Christian theology is too. David Bentley Hart — one of the world’s most prominent and influential theologians — calls elements of mainstream Western Christian thought “a psychotic fantasy”. Wow! In Australia, theological colleges grapple with environmental and postcolonial questions, and it might just change the church here going forward.

David Bentley Hart is a philosopher and theologian whose works focus on Christian metaphysics, philosophy of the mind, Indian and East Asian religion. He is the author of dozens of books and over 1000 essays, including That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. Most recently, his second edition of his translation of the New Testament is published by Yale University Press. He also writes fiction and literary criticism, including Roland in Moonlight.

Rev Dr Dorothy Lee is an Anglican priest and Professor of New Testament at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne. Her most recent book is The Enduring Impact of the Gospel of John and The Ministry of Women in the New Testament: Reclaiming the Biblical Vision for Church Leadership.

More links

• David Bentley Hart is in Australia for the Gospel Conversations conference
• Read David Bentley Hart’s essay, “The Metaphysical Meaning of Baseball”
• Read David Bentley Hart’s essay, “The obscenity of belief in an eternal hell”
• Wesley Hill’s review of David Bentley Hart’s translation of the New Testament is on ABC Religion & Ethics