The Dramatizing of Theology

Matthew Farlow traces the thoughts of Balthasar and Barth so as to enter into theological truth of God's Being-in-Act. This exploration embarks on a journey into the reality of our Triune God who has engaged his creation so as to elicit fellow actors. God seeking out humanity is God with us, a truth that not only informs our theological endeavors, but invites us into the dramatic performance of reconciliation. As Farlow illumines, God is an acting God who seeks fellow participants in his ongoing drama of salvation. Through the dramatizing of theology, the church and her theologians come to realize God's threefold movement--revelation, invitation and reconciliation. It is a unified act that startles humanity, and thus theology, out of its ""spectator's seat,"" so as to drag it onto the world's stage. As Farlow discusses, it is through the dramatizing of theology that we find ourselves best equipped to participate faithfully in the role of a lifetime.

""This is a serious theological reflection . . . . Farlow uses the thought of Barth and Balthasar to draw us into the divine drama so that we are personally encountered by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and invited into our lifetime roles. It was Shakespeare who told us that 'all the world is a stage'; Farlow reminds us that we are all invited to become actors in the divine play of life. When we engage and encounter the living Christ, we enter into the divine narrative most fully as persons who surrender in obedience to the call of the Master. You will not simply read this book; you will experience it and be the better for the journey. Read it like I did and discover your part in the story of life!""
--John Jackson, President, William Jessup University; public speaker; author of books on leadership and spiritual formation


Matthew Farlow is a lecturer of Theology and Christian Praxis at William Jessup University in Rocklin, CA, while also the Book Review Editor for Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture.