METZ'S FUNDAMENTAL THEOLOGY INTRODUCTION A basic orientation and context must be provided for the theological thought of J.B. Metz. This is necessary to understand both the scope and direction of his theological reflection. Metz is a fundamental theologian. In this light, he must be viewed as a thinker who is involved with the core of theology: a core which touches all the different branches of theology. Metz's perspective embraces questions concerning hermeneutics, apologetics, ecclesiology, and the very theory about the possibility of theology itself. A dynamic tension grounds fundamental theology, i.e., the tension between reason and revelation, reason and faith. In neoscholasticism, fundamental theology was concerned with the apologetics about the preambles of faith: God, revelation, revelation by Christ, the church established by Christ, and the Catholic Church as the true church. Fundamental theology was a discipline, according to most theological textbooks, that investigates the basic elements of Christian Revelation. Fundamental theology consequently, has traditionally concerned itself with the two great Christian facts: God has revealed Himself to men, and this revelation was climaxed in Christ, who founded a church that transmits the Christian revelation. 1 This traditional approach to fundamentals has changed. This change can be seen in Metz's article on 'Apologetics' in Sacramentum Mundi: Apologetics first addressed itself in its defense of its hope to the pagan world of the Roman Empire ... In the Middle Ages, Islam was in particular envisaged ... After the Reformation, it was primarily non Catholic Christianity, and after the Enlightenment, the critics .of religion who based themselves on philosophical, scientific or sodo-political grounds. In any case, the audience envisaged was the outsider from the point of view of church theology, the unbeliever or heterodox. Hence apologetics lNew Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol.e?
New York: McGraw Hill, 1967, p.222.