Biography as Theology: How Life Stories Can Remake Today's Theology

James Wm. McClendon

Jul 2002 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

About this ebook

This minor classic of the narrative theology movement proposes to use biography as a way of doing theology, rather than using biography to set forth models of exemplary living to inspire the faithful. By looking at the lives of four significant persons (Dag Hammarskjold, Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence Jordan, and Charles Ives), the author discovers a theology that is adequate to account for the kind of lives these persons lived. This unique approach to theology is applicable to any religion, but the author has chosen to work within his own Christian tradition in this book. The book concludes with suggested methods by which the work of doing theology biographically can be carried further.

About the author

James Wm. McClendon, Jr. was Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, until his death on October 30, 2000. Previous teaching positions included the Golden Gate Baptist Seminary in Berkeley, California, and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, also in Berkeley. He is author of a three volume systematic theology, titled 'Ethics', 'Doctrine', and 'Witness' (published by Abingdon Press). James M. Smith is Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Fresno, and coeditor of Mill's Utilitarianism.