Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology

Came across this book on a wikipedia ref list. I'd seen discussion and accepted the importance of "commitment" in religion that it is central to religious language, but this book made me consider (for the first time) that "discernment" is another central component to religious language. Naturally, as a Christian, I had already experienced these things, but for whatever reason this book helped me link the experience with the word. I know that I am solid footing with the religious experience (God and his kid have some very good instructors), but, for me, I need a little bit of extra help with the vocabulary and this book finally did the trick especially with the word "discernment."

Tracy has been one of several provocative leaders in theological method and inquiry after Rahner. His grounding for theological method consists of meta-theoretical assumptions and constructs that reach and envelope numerous social science disciplines as well as the humanities, in general. When I first read Blessed Rage for Order in the summer of 1977 as a fledgling graduate student, I was not prepared by prior reading and knowledge to grasp the depths that Tracy had plumbed in this text. But the method of inquiry, which Tracy first introduced in Blessed Rage for Order, has led me in subsequent years to establish common ground with inquiry in nursing, medicine, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. Important to one who reads this text after its mid-90's re-release is the timeliness of Tracy's method to perennial problems that face ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue within ecclesial communions and across religions' boundaries. Also important is how well the method of Blessed Rage for Order can be applied to the study of historical texts of many economical, political, religious, or philosophical traditions. I now re-read Tracy's Blessed Rage for Order as I still re-read Plato's Symposium, Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, the Koran, Hobbes' Leviathan, Shakespeare's Histories, or Paul's First Letter to the Church at Corinth. More is always revealed each time I return to read Blessed Rage for Order.