God After the Church Lost Control : Sociological Analysis and Critical-constructive Theology

This book combines insights from sociology of religion and theology to consider the fundamental changes that have taken place in how people think about God in contemporary Western society. It can be said that God has become irrelevant for many people, often as a result of well-grounded ethical critique of churches. Here the authors argue for the necessity of rethinking God-talk in a pluralist and changing context and for thinking critically about hegemonic ways of speaking about God from a moral and experiential perspective, not only from the point of view of abstract theology. Drawing on empirical material from a Norwegian setting, the book advocates a critical-constructive theology with a notion of God that takes human experience and social change seriously. It depicts a God who is an enabler of moral maturity rather than an authoritarian moral instructor, a God who is on the side of the marginalized and poor, and a challenge to unjust hierarchies.

Jan-Olav Henriksen is Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion at the Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society (MF) in Oslo, Norway.

Pål Repstad is Professor Emeritus in the Sociology of Religion at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway.