Distruptive History: Rowan Williams on Heresy and Orthodoxy

In spite of all the recent developments within the fields of cultural and intellectual history, much contemporary theology suffers from a rationalistic conception of doctrinal history. Few theologians today would be willing to speak of a linear "development" of doctrine; but the assumption that there is a relatively stable Christian tradition, moving through history with its own immanent doctrinal "grammar", remains entrenched in some of the most influential contemporary theologies.