John Webster, on theological criticism as an activity performed by and for the Christian community:

There are no infallible methods of theological criticism, though there are some pretty well-tested ones which we ignore at our peril, such as exegetical or creedal fidelity. What is crucial is that criticism be seen as a spiritual transaction which cannot be codified or made into a routine. Christian theological criticism requires of its practitioners the same skills as any other kind of theology, because it is simply Christian theology about the business of appraisal rather than description. It requires the same attentiveness, the same self-distrust, the same readiness for fresh conversion, above all, the same prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit to disable the dullness of our blinded sight. Critical theology is thus a mode of reflective attention to the gospel, one which directs that attention to the possible fissures between the gospel and our inhabitation of it. Therein, it simply reiterates God’s repudiation of our idolatries.