The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical Linguistic Approach to Christian Doctrine

Christianity is foremost a testimony of the great theo-drama: God’s communicative acts (finding their pinnacle in Christ) for the redemption of humankind. These acts comprise not only Christian scripture, but also a script upon which all later gospel performances must be faithful – in a wedding of textual and cultural analysis. Vanhoozer masterfully extends this metaphor of Christianity as theater in the four sections of his book: the drama, the script, the dramaturge, and the performance. This work calls the Christian community (theologian, pastor, laymen) to reexamine assumptions about the Bible and theology, while making a clarion call as to the importance of good judgment and practical wisdom in the Christian life. Vanhoozer show more offers a weighty yet engaging “postpropositionalist,” “postconservative,” and “postfoundationalist” approach to theology. A+ show less

I really tried to finish this, but after about 80% of the book, I found myself skimming to the end.

This book needed an good editor. It was incredibly repetitive. It tried so hard to be "relevant" to the changing tides of 21st century philosophy, but failed, badly. The author was constantly building "straw men" on either side of an issue and then happily finding the "goldilocks" sweet spot in the middle, that only he was able to articulate as "the cononical/linguistic" answer.

I found this book to be very frustrating, (repetitive, repetitive and again, repetitive) and overall I would rate it a complete waste of my time.