Tom Steffen and Ray Neu, Character Theology: Engaging God through His Cast of Characters

Abstract

The authors call for a relational, narrative, and participatory way of doing theology. The systematic theology developed by Western Christendom is an abstract proposition that neglects God’s revelation through the lives, voices, conflicts, struggles, sufferings, and journeys of the characters. God’s revelation is in fact through characters in the stories. Theology cannot be separated from stories. The biblical characters in the Scripture mirror the stories of the readers.