Interpreting the history of the Workgroup on Constructive Theology

Abstract

This article narrates and interprets the history of the Workgroup on Constructive Theology. Founded in 1975 at Vanderbilt University and composed of many of the most well-known and influential progressive Christian theologians in theology throughout its existence, the Workgroup has served as an organizational center for the development of constructive theology and a place where its key methodological and thematic proposals have been nurtured and propagated. Constructive theology acknowledges the constitutive discursive role theologians play in constructing Christianity, rather than supposing that theology describes an objective, external religious reality. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and is employed toward progressive, social justice ends. In order to understand the state of progressive Christian theology today and the direction it is heading, it is imperative to understand the rise and development of constructive theology as its own category, which is inextricably linked with the history of the Workgroup.