5
has broken through and given authoritative revelation in the written word of God, which is used
by the Spirit, along with Christians, to construct that eschatological community.
This appeal to the Spirit serves not only to break through human language and give
revelation, but also to unite the otherwise discrete Christian communities. Drawing upon their
postmodern and non-foundationalist insights, Grenz and Franke insist upon the locality and
particularity of all theological reflection. Accordingly, they emphasize the historical and cultural
context within which the Spirit speaks to a localized community of Christians.
2
But by itself,
this emphasis still seems to lead to the discreteness of all such "Christian" communities. Now, if
we follow MacIntyre's view, which indeed seems applicable to Grenz and Franke's own
position, there cannot be such a thing as Christian language-as-such; there is only a multiplicity
of discrete, local communities whose languages and practices bear a family resemblance to each
other and may be called "Christian."
3
And this is what they claim: while all theology is specific
and local, these various theologies still may bear a family resemblance in at least three respects,
and if so, they are indeed Christian.
4
But most of all, what unites these diverse Christian
communities is that the Holy Spirit works with each community in its own context:
The Spirit continually speaks through the biblical text, illuminating subsequent generations to
understand their present in light of the grand, telic narrative of God and guiding them in the task
of living out in their own contexts the vocation all Christians share, namely, that of being the
community of Christ in the contemporary world. (259)
So Grenz and Franke have drawn our attention to several important considerations, such
as the need to carefully understand the historical-cultural context in which any theology is
2
For instance, see pages 26, 158, or 161.
3
Alasdair MacIntyre, Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press,
1988), 357.
4
See page 25 for their initial statement of this concept. But see also page 166, where they summarize what
they will unpack in Part 3: that all localized Christian theologies should be "trinitarian in content, communitarian in
focus, and eschatological in orientation."