Dr Timothy Stanley

How can Christian particularism be credibly discussed in postmodern culture? The answer to this question does not necessarily demand an abandonment of the particular salvific claims of the Christian tradition. This essay explores the cultural and philosophical subtext of religious pluralism in order to discuss religious particularity in a more credible way. If Christians are faithfully to articulate their own particularity, they must first seek to understand the way postmodernity's emancipatory strategies have co-opted the category of religion. Though modernity's quest for political and social emancipation is not a novel thesis, the elucidation of how emancipation in modernity has been radicalized in postmodernity offers new insight into the cultural context within which Christum traditions now find themselves. By explicating the relationship between freedom and religious pluralism in postmodernity, we can begin to see that by gaining a more thoughtful understanding of freedom we can develop more adept strategies for communicating Christian particularity. In this regard, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity may play a crucial role. 2008 World Council of Churches.

This article focuses on Barth's explication of Anselm's Proslogion 2-4 in his book on Anselm and attempts to show how Anselm helped clarify for Barth the ontological nature of his own early theology, in particular what he meant by the ¿is¿ in his affirmation ¿God is God.¿ Our contention is that Barth's continual pointing to Anselm's Fides Quaerens Intellectum as a vital key to his own theology should not be overlooked. In fact, we argue that only by returning Barth to Anselm in this way can we begin to understand more thoroughly one of the key contributions of Barth's theology generally and its potential relevance to contemporary onto-theological debates. © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.