Christine Helmer: A Protestant Theology of Protest
“Doctrine … has to do with the living reality of God…. Spiritual discernment is required to see and to understand the relations that God creates and transforms in different yet often hidden ways. God cannot be domesticated by doctrine…. The deepest ground of doctrine’s epistemic humility is the recognition that the theologian stands before a divine realty that is capable of rejecting human efforts and of shattering human expectations with novelty.”
Professor Helmer is an expert in the theologies of Martin Luther, Friedrich Schleiermacher, ecclesiologies of resistance, and the meaning and function of Christian doctrine. She teaches at Northwestern University in Illinois. Her 2014 book, Theology and the End of Doctrine, has made a significant contribution to the contemporary discussions of the role of doctrine in the church.