Essays in Theology of Culture

Robert L. Wilken
—University of Virginia
"Robert Jenson begins these essays with art and architecture and ends with the Eucharist. Along the way he touches almost every question thoughtful Christians have pondered these last three decades, from church and society to the doctrine of the Trinity to the mass media. This is a wise book, profound and earthy on human matters, yet sophisticated on theological ones. Jenson is a man of the academy whose home is the church, a systematic and analytic thinker who loves the arts. He recognizes a good argument, yet he speaks from experience. In this book he writes with conviction and style about real questions — the kind we wonder about when we are in conversation only with ourselves."

Gilbert Meilaender
—Oberlin College
"Here is evidence that serious theology is neither an esoteric nor a purely private undertaking. In learned, provocative, and innovative theological explorations of politics, education, and the arts, Robert Jenson discusses and exemplifies the calling of Christians to learn to love God with the mind."

Colin E. Gunton
—King's College, London
"Reading these essays has provided me with a whole range of new insights into many aspects of human life and thought. Most pungent and telling are the reflections on social and political existence, but many other themes, from ritual to science and from beauty to violence, are perceptively treated. Here is another who can be called 'America's theologian' but whose significance reaches far beyond his country's shores."