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Title: No Boutique Theology
Subtitle: Leuven between the Particular and the Universal
Author(s): GODZIEBA, Anthony J.
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 42    Issue: 4   Date: 2019   
Pages: 417-431
DOI: 10.2143/LS.42.4.3287166

Abstract :
In this overview of Leuven systematic theology as practiced by the faculty over the past few decades, I use the various LEST congresses since 1997 as an important clue and argue that a core aspect of Leuven’s theological approach is to maintain a healthy balance between attention to the universal (God’s all-encompassing love and saving initiative) and to the particular (the diverse cultures in which the Christian tradition is immersed). A hermeneutically-and-historically based approach, close analyses of cultures and their complexities, and a commitment to liberation have steered this approach away from being a 'boutique' or 'niche' theology. Instead, it seeks the universal in the particular, thus performing in a truly Catholic, contemporary, and productive way Edward Schillebeeckx’s insight that extra mundum nulla salus.


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