Lay Theology

Christian theology is the attempt to make clear the beliefs implicit in the Christian way of life. It is rooted in that life itself, but, as a reflective discipline, it also stands in relation to philosophy, the sciences and the culture generally. Lay theology is particularly concerned to relate the theological enterprise to the whole people of God. It is theology of the people, by the people, for the people. -John Macquarrie. The Faith of the People of God. (1972) p. 23

God in a Box

Placher, William C., The Domestication of Transcendence. 1996. Westminster John Knox Press.

Placher looks at "classical" Christian theology (Aquinas, Calvin, Luther) and contrast it with the Christian discourse about God that evolved in the seventeenth century (Descartes, Suarez). In particular, he deals with the notion of transcendence that gained prominence in this era and its impact on modern theology and modern thinking today. He persuasively argues that useful lessons can be drawn from premodern thinking about God, especially when viewed within the context of contemporary objections to it. In a word, moderns misread Aquinas, Calvin, Luther.

Many contemporary theologians protest against a transcendent God, that distant being who dwells on high, our stern judge, the culmination of the cosmic order. They are right to protest, but wrong simply to blame "the Christian tradition" or "classical Christian theism " for the faults they identify. The principal object of their complaint came to dominate the Christian understanding of divine transcendence only in the seventeenth century. Before that, theologians spoke more forcefully of a Triune God utterly beyond our understanding and full of unexpected grace....We cannot simply return to that earlier theology, and would not want to if we could. But in its radical view of divine transcendence, it may still have lessons to teach us. (215)