Interpretation is always risky, but the most intrepid risk seeker can turn risk averse at the prospect of interpreting David Tracy. Okey boldly offers a guide for entering into conversation with Tracy by surveying Tracy's half century of theological work both topically and chronologically.
The book is immediately commendable for its comprehensive overview compared to other books on Tracy focusing more narrowly on specific topics or discussing multiple themes more discretely. Careful attention to details allays fears of abstraction or oversimplification and may prove instructive to the most seasoned interpreters of Tracy. Certain commonplace—almost cliché-like—topographies of Tracy's theology are shown to be too facile and reductionistic.
The stated thesis is that throughout his entire career viewing theology as an ongoing conversation with diverse interlocutors has guided Tracy's work (190). Qualitatively speaking, exposition surpasses argumentation, but efforts at persuasion abound and conversation as Tracy's theological modus operandi is on full display. Okey smoothly integrates commentary, analysis, and criticism.
Identifying rubrics under which to discuss Tracy's theology is itself an act of interpretation, and Okey's hermeneutical skills bring us chapters of roughly the same length on certain major themes: public theology, theological method, the classic and fragment, pluralism, Christology, God, and the Tracy-Lindbeck debate. Throughout, a litany of key concepts is treated, which includes but is not limited to: the limit, revisionist theology, mutually critical correlation, relative adequacy, Tracy's three publics, instensification and distanciation, mediation, manifestation / proclamation / action, christomorphic-theocentrism, the names of God, the hermeneutical-political, and more.
Each chapter is organized logically and diachronically with helpful summaries at the beginning and the end. One may read individual chapters for overviews of key themes, but there is an organicity that dictates reading the book from start to finish for the most benefit. The use of footnotes is convenient, and there is a handy Tracy bibliography.
This book would work well for courses on fundamental theology, theological method, pluralism, and of course Tracy himself. Here Tracy certainly serves as an exemplar of doing theology today, not to mention intellectual integrity, humility, and charity. Although not necessarily out of reach for those new to the contemporary theological scene, it is ideally suited for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The treatments of figures and topics require some familiarity for maximal understanding.
For instance, although Okey frequently explains how Tracy's use of concepts is consistent with and diverges from his sources, sometimes he passes over origins. “Culture,” “situation,” and Tracy's own way of distinguishing between “Jesus” and “Christ” are covered without mentioning Tillich, relative “adequacy” without Whitehead, and “family resemblance” apart from Wittgenstein. Explanations of how Tracy's use of catchphrases such as Heidegger's “Being-in-the-world,” Marcuse's “repressive tolerance,” and Bonhoeffer's “cheap grace” can sometimes go beyond their original meanings would be helpful.
This review can scarcely do justice to all that commends this book. How seemingly prima facie distinct areas of Tracy's thought are internally related becomes vivid. The epilogue on the Tracy-Lindbeck debate is a tour de force. There are corrections to potential but common misunderstandings of Tracy, responses to Tracy's critics, and novel critiques by Okey. Tracy's “postmodern turn” is complexified by attention to particularity. Tracy himself becomes a shining example of alacrity to change—sometimes dramatically—one's positions through conversation and graciousness toward those with whom one disagrees (even strongly). One gets the impression that, perhaps in another era, further conversations could move Tracy even beyond deconstruction, the critique of ontotheology, and critical theory. These have not yet suffered the deposition that is the fate of every philosophy.
Similarity and difference are indeed ubiquitous common threads. Be it in how Tracy agrees or disagrees with his interlocutors, what he simultaneously retains and changes from his abundant sources, or how his later work is both continuous and discontinuous with his earlier work, the book brims with sameness and contrast, viewed analogically or dialectically depending on one's perspective.
Regarding its aim, the volume splendidly showcases the thoroughly conversational-argumentative mode of Tracy's theology. Its presence notwithstanding, the centrality of hermeneutics for Tracy could perhaps be more pronounced. This by no means tells against an already exceptional book, one that should be the mental property of those seriously engaged in contemporary theological conversation and an ever ready-at-hand reference for one of the towering theological figures of our generation.
