A Critical Consideration of the Work of David Jenkins in the Context of Contemporary Theological Thought

Abstract

David Jenkins was a public theologian in two senses: he believed that the theological task must be related to issues of public concern, whether personal or social, but he was also a public theologian insofar as he was, perhaps more than any other theologian of his time, in the spotlight of publicity and controversy. However very little substantive has been written on Jenkins’s theological significance and this thesis leads into unexplored territories, especially the crucial link between his personal Christological foundation and the paradigmatic shift resulting from his work with the World Council of Churches with an enhanced awareness of the need to apply theology to social, economic and political issues.
I identify four key areas of Jenkins’s thought using his major works (The Glory of Man, The Contradiction of Christianity, and Market Whys and Human Wherefores) and supplement these with corroborating evidence from his numerous popular works, articles, reports and broadcasts. The first area is that of incarnation seen through the prism of the personal; the second is Jenkins’s unified understanding of history and his refusal of any form of dualism; the third is the application of his theology to social, economic and political issues, and the fourth is the more subliminal one of the question of power. I argue that these four concerns are intimately connected and form the basis for an exemplary theological method which does justice to the foundational Christian tradition, whilst at the same time being a proper part of academic enquiry and communicating with a wider audience.

My overall contention is that Jenkins, through his very public career and the theology which informed it, offers a theological methodology together with particular insights and questions which need to be heard again today. Jenkins’s open, questioning approach, whilst being rooted in orthodox Christian faith, continues to provoke. This thesis attempts to demonstrate the truth of this as evidenced in Jenkins’s own work and as this is reflected in subsequent theological writing.

I conclude by bringing the personal, the historically-rooted, and the public application of his theology into a synthesis in which theology and spirituality are inextricable, such that Jenkins’s linkage of theology and science can be helpfully supplemented by analogy with the arts, thereby giving a diversity of form to Jenkins’s underlying Christological theme of the pattern of personalness.

Date of Award	6 Jun 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Angus Paddison (Supervisor) & Barnabas Palfrey (Supervisor)