Types of Theology

There is a traditional fairground attraction in which the bystander is equipped with a hammer and invited to hit a series of moles popping up randomly through a variety of holes. As public fury about City bonuses reached a zenith, the arcade on Southwold pier introduced a version replacing the moles with bankers.1 This somewhat macabre game is rather like the attempt to establish a fixed definition of something, or to create a definitive model or account. As soon as the attempt has been made an exception appears, or a new instance, or an unforeseen limitation, and the hammer of argumentation or language has to move ever faster to keep up. This is a particular hazard in theology but, in order to critique Church of England views on capitalism in the period, it is necessary to establish some kind of theological ‘ideal’. The selection of any ideal inevitably results in a partial analysis and one that begs the criticism of oversimplicity, particularly given the range of Church of England views considered, but the device of an ideal remains a useful heuristic. In this context, an abstracted approach will be adopted as an oblique way of establishing a set of criteria that approach an ideal, from a theoretical point of Archimedean privilege designed to offer a comprehensive purview.