Theology in the Middle of Things: Existential Preconditions of Systematic Theology

Abstract

AbstractIn this article I argue that an account of the starting‐point of systematic theology should be shaped by an understanding of what I call the ‘existential preconditions’ of theological work. I develop accounts of three such preconditions – embodiment, subjectivity and spatiality – for the sake of showing that they both stand as necessary conditions of theological work, and represent topics of and in systematic theology. Reflection on this twofold ‘precondition of but topic in’ dynamic serves as a foundation for the claim that theology is always undertaken ‘in the middle of things’, and is best understood to have its starting‐point there.