Towards Friendship-Shaped Communities: A Practical Theology of Friendship

Appendix: A Correlational Approach to Theological Reflection

How are we to speak of God and the life of the world in relation to God? Canadian theologian Paul Allen notes that “if one’s theological method is consciously chosen, then the scope and precision of the theological claims being made are bound to be clearer.”¹ The research within this book has been consciously shaped by critical correlation methodology. This appendix outlines the development of this methodology and identifies objections regarding, challenges inherent to, and strengths of this methodology.

My tracing of the development of critical correlation begins with Paul Tillich, possibly “the most theologically attentive theologian of the twentieth century.”² An existentialist philosopher and German-born theologian, Tillich emigrated to the United States in 1933 after conflict with Nazi authorities; he taught at Union Theological Seminary, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. Tillich became convinced that Christian theology must address the moral and existential questions of each generation. He referred to his approach as an answering theology.³ If the task of articulating a body of understanding by which people can live meaningfully in the contemporary world is integral to theology, then theologians must engage with the dilemmas that preoccupy people, and advance responses that are both theologically authentic and culturally relevant. Tillich described this process as correlation.⁴ Tillich’s correlative attempts ...