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The Relational Theology of James E. Loder

Encounter and Conviction

by Kenneth E. Kovacs (Author)
©2011 Monographs X, 300 Pages
Series: Practical Theology, Volume 2

Summary

The work of practical theologian James E. Loder, Jr. (1931-2001) deserves a wider audience. For more than forty years, he developed and exercised an interdisciplinary methodology that identified patterns of correlation in the fields of psychology, educational theory, phenomenology, epistemology, and physics, producing a compelling theological vision that centers on the person and work of the Holy Spirit engaging and transforming human life. At his untimely death in November 2001, Loder was the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Philosophy of Christian Education at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he lectured primarily in the areas of human development and the philosophy of education.
This book introduces and examines, explores and untangles the complexity of Loder’s thought in order to make it more accessible to a broader audience. At the core of Loder’s work is a relational phenomenological pneumatology of inestimable value to the theologian engaged in the ongoing renewal of the church. The Christian life is preeminently relational, distinguished by a relationship with God constituted by Jesus Christ, and sustained by the Holy Spirit. Relationality, Loder claims, takes place in and through the life of the Holy Spirit who operates within a complementary relationship with the human spirit, through an analogia spiritus: a profound, transformational interrelation of the Holy Spirit and the human spirit. The Holy Spirit, intimately connected to the person and work of Christ, takes up and extends the work begun in the incarnation by enfleshing the presence of Christ, thus transforming human life. Loder is distinctive for articulating a pneumatology that incorporates ‘how’ the self participates in the relationship and the way the self, through the relationship, comes to have a full knowledge of itself, the world, and God. It is precisely the logic of this Christomorphic dynamic that has extraordinary implications for the way we attempt to fathom the depths and convey the meaning of Christian experience. Loder’s relational phenomenological pneumatology contains rich and principally unrecognized resources for providing new frameworks for the Christian life.

Details

Pages
X, 300
Publication Year
2011
ISBN (PDF)
9781453908020
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433113369
DOI
10.3726/978-1-4539-0802-0
Language
English
Publication date
2012 (February)
Keywords
conviction Practical theology pneumatology psychology transformation relationality relationalism ontology Soren Kierkegaard Sigmund Freud Hans Hofmann Thomas F. Torrance Christian education parish Erik Erikson phenomenology Emil Brunner
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2011. X, 300 pp.

Biographical notes

Kenneth E. Kovacs (Author)

Kenneth E. Kovacs is pastor of the Catonsville Presbyterian Church, Catonsville, Maryland, and has served churches in St. Andrews, Scotland, and Mendham, New Jersey. He studied at Rutgers College, Yale Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, and he received his PhD in theology from the University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland.

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Title: The Relational Theology of James E. Loder