The Normativity of History: Theological Truth and Tradition in the Tension between Church History and Systematic Theology

This collection of essays engages the basic themes of the five-year,

joint research project (GOA) The Normativity of History. The

project brought together specialists in the areas of Church History and

Systematic Theology to investigate questions of truth and tradition in

light of their varying expertise. The thematic scope of this volume

includes questions concerning tradition and its development, the present

context of plurality and its challenges for discerning a theological

epistemology of tradition-bound truth, and the challenges of religious

diversity for contemporary theology. As a whole, these reflections

suggest that the force and weight of history must be adequately

accounted for when attempting to answer theological questions in a

manner that does justice to a tradition that is very much embedded in

and shaped by the complexities manifest in its living and at times,

ambiguous history.