Tradition II: Thinking with historical texts - Reflections on theologies of retrieval

[Extract] Theologies of retrieval come in several different varieties.[1] There are different confessional approaches to retrieval: Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox Christians have their own characteristic ways of drawing upon and appropriating the past for the purpose of using it within constructive theological proposals.[2] A theologian’s confessional location shapes both the specific sources to which she gravitates and the manner in which she engages with them. Another source of variety is that some theologies of retrieval are especially alert or sensitive to concerns about race and gender, lest these theologies seem to be simply an effort to “make theology great again” in the way that Donald Trump’s campaign for president of the United States attempted the same, that is, by using racist and sexist rhetoric.[3]