Outline

Chapter 2: The Theologian’s Contradictory Job Description

A. The Theologian as Guardian of Truth

1. What is Faith?

a. Thomas Aquinas

b. Martin Luther

c. John Calvin

d. Faith Seeking Understanding

2. What is Heresy?

3. The Theologian as Preserver of Tradition

B. The Theologian as “Scientist/Explorer”

1. The Theologian as “Scientist”

a. The Analytical and Critical Task

(1) The Text

(2) General Revelation

(3) Earlier Theologians

b. Paradigms

(1) Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions

(2) Three Kinds of Paradigm

(3) Changing Paradigms in Theology

(4) Worldview and Incarnation

(5) The Role of Models and Paradigms

      in Theology

2. The Theologian as “Explorer”

C. The Theologian as Contextualizer

1. The Origins of Contextualization

2. The Roots of Contextualization

a. Biblical Roots

b. Historical Roots

c. Form vs. Content

3. Objections to Contextualization

4. Implications of Contextualization

a. A Call for Creativity and Innovation

b. Integrating the Academic and Practical
Theological Disciplines

c. Understanding the Sources of Theology

d. Rethinking the Nature of the Authority
of the Scriptures

e. Rethinking Denominational and
   Ecumenical Relations

5. Evangelical Contextualization in the
    Contemporary World

D. Conclusion

Chapter 3: How Do We Know? Epistemology, History, and Truth

A. The Death of the Commonsense World

B. The Modern Understanding of Truth and Reality

1. Descartes and the Enlightenment Project

2. John Locke and the Rise of Empiricism

3. David Hume and the Challenge of Skepticism

4. Immanuel Kant and Phenomenalism

5. Thomas Reid and Common Sense Realism

6. Søren Kierkegaard and Existentialism

C. The Postmodern challenge to Enlightenment Certainty

1. The dogmatism of Doubt

2. The Skill of Knowing

3. Doomed to Relativism?

D. Preunderstandings and Theological Formulations

E. The Problem of History: How History and Truth Relate

F. Theology as Truth: How True Is Our Truth?

Chapter 4: Sources and Authority in Theology

A. Theological Method

1. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral

a. Scripture

b. Reason

c. Tradition

d. Experience

2. The Lutheran Trilateral

 

3. The Reformed Sola Scriptura

a. The Place of the Creeds in Reformed Theology

b. Sola Scriptura and the Briggs Case

c. Charles Briggs’s Proposal: The Bible, the Church
    and the Reason

B. Sources and Authorities

1. The Bible

2. Church and/or Tradition

3. Reason and/or Experience

a. Life Experience and Categories of Understanding

b. Reason and Rationalism

 

C. Factors Involved in the Gestalt of Doctrine

1. The Four Dimensions of Doctrine/Theology

2. The Epistemological Substructure

D. Relating the Authorities

1. Revelation

2. Special Revelation: The Bible

3. General Revelation

a. Wisdom and Wisdom Literature

b. Human Ability to Discover Truth

c. Tension between Fallenness and Ability

d. General Revelation and Grasping Reality

e. The Value of General Revelation

Chapter 5: Doctrinal Taxonomy: Are All Doctrines of
                Equal Importance?

A. The Problem

1. Two Examples

a. Inerrancy

b. Eschatology

2. Scholastic Maximalism

3. The Content of the Christian Faith:
    The Apostolic Proclamation

4. Degrees and Ranking of Authority

B. The Components of Doctrine/Theology

1. Doctrine as That Which Defines the Community

2. Doctrine as Interpretation of Narrative

3. Doctrine as an Interpretation of Experience

4. Doctrine as Truth Claim

C. The Necessity of Establishing a Doctrinal Taxonomy

1. Establishing a Doctrinal Taxonomy Historically

a. Trinitarianism

b. The Two Natures of Christ

c. The Nature of Divine Grace

d. The Canon of the New Testament

2. Establishing a Doctrinal Taxonomy Exegetically

D. A Theology of Minimums?

E. Ranking Non-core Issues

 

Chapter 6: Hardening of the Categories: Why Theologians have
                Opposed “New Knowledge”

A. Three Case Studies

1. Catholicism, Copernicus, and Galileo

2. Warfield, the Princetonians, and the
    Nature of Biblical Inspiration

3. Scientific Creationism

a. Background

b. The Rise of Scientific Creationism

c. The Literal Hermeneutic

d. Creationist Historiography

e. The All-or-Nothing Mind-Set

B. Implications

1. Knowledge, Orthodoxy, and Obscurantism

2. Orthodoxy and Orthodoxism

3. Extra-Confessional versus Contra-Confessional Belief

C. Conclusion

Chapter 7: The Divisions of Theological Study

A. Biblical Theology

1. The Nature of Biblical Theology

2. Biblical Theology and Other Theological Disciplines

a. Exegesis

b. Critical Studies

c. Historical

d. Systematic Theology

3. The Origin and Necessity of Biblical Theology as a Discipline

a. Continuity and Discontinuity between the Reader
    and the Biblical Text

b. The Medieval Answer: Living Tradition

c. The Reformation Wedge

d. The Enlightenment: The Overthrow of
    the Scholastic Method

4. Biblical Theology Movement

5. Divisions of Biblical Theology

a. Old Testament Theology

b. New Testament Theology

6. Issues in Biblical Theology

a. Unity and Diversity

b. The Issue of Method

B. Historical Theology

1. The Nature of Historical Theology and
    the History of Doctrine

2. The Development of Historical Theology

3. History of Dogma or History of Doctrine?

a. Dogma

b. Doctrine

C. Systematic Theology

1. A Joint Venture with Philosophy

2. Organizing Point

3. The Question of Questions/Issues

4. The Development of Systematic Theology

a. The Ancient Church

b. The Medieval Period

c. The Reformation

d. Post-Reformation Protestant Scholasticism

D. Modern Theology

1. The Liberal Impulse

2. The Mediating School

3. Reformed Theology

4. Neoorthodoxy

5. Other Twentieth-Century Theologians

Chapter 8: Orthodoxy

A. A Brief History of Orthodoxy

B. The Mystery of God

1. Apophatic Theology

2. The Trinity

3. The Filioque and the Procession of the Holy Spirit

C. Images

1. Christ the Image of the Father

2. Icons

D. Deification (Theosis)

E. Scripture, Tradition, and the Witness of the Spirit

F. Observations and Critique

Chapter 9: Roman Catholicism

A. History

1. The Emergence of the Catholic Consensus

2. The Rise of the Papacy

3. The Great Schism: The Split with Orthodoxy

4. Scholasticism

5. Late Medieval Decadence

6. Reform and Self-Definition at Trent

7. The Church since Vatican II

a. Vatican II

b. The Results of Vatican II

B. Theology

1. God is Transcendent

2. Historic Rootedness

3. John Henry Newman and the Dynamic   
    Development of Doctrine

4. Justification by Faith vis-à-vis Protestantism

5. Sacramentalism and Sacerdotalism

a. The Sacraments

b. Sacramentals

6. Ecclesiology

C. The Papacy

1. Biblical Basis

2. Historical Elevation

3. Infallibility

D. Status of Mary (The Cult of the Blessed Virgin)

E. Observations and Critique

Chapter 10: Lutheranism

A. The Medieval Background: Precursors to Reformation

1. Humanism

2. Scholasticism

B. The Reformation

1. Martin Luther

2. Philip Melanchthon

C. Theological Tenets of Lutheranism

1. Confessional Lutheranism and the Four Solas

2. Theology of the Cross

3. Ecclesiology

4. The Sacraments as Means of Grace

a. Baptism

b. The Eucharist

5. Other Elements of Lutheran Theology

D. Observations and Critique

1. Baptism

2. The Eucharist

3. Simul iustus et peccator

Chapter 11: Reformed Theology (Calvinism)

A. John Calvin and Reformed Theology

1. Influences on Calvin’s Theology

a. Humanism

b. Patristics

c. Luther

B. Protestant Scholasticism

1. Theodore Beza

2. The Reaction of Jacob Arminius

3. The Synod of Dort, Five-Point Calvinism, and TULIP

4. Francis Turretin

5. Four-Point Calvinism (Amyraldism)

C. Covenant Theology

D. The Puritans

1. The Westminster Confession and the Catechism

2. Emphasis on Conversion

3. The Sabbath

E. Princeton Theology

1. Scripture

2. Reformed Confessionalism

3. Scottish Common Sense

F. Dutch Calvinism

1. Abraham Kuyper (1827 – 1920)

2. Herman Bavinck (1854 – 1921)

3. Louis Berkhof (1873 – 1957)

G. Observations and Critique

Chapter 12: Wesleyan – Arminian Theology

A. The Development of Arminianism

1. The Hardening of Reformed Theology

2. Jacobus Arminius and Arminianism

3. The Remonstrant Defense of Arminianism

4. Arminianism in England

5. Later Developments in Arminianism

B. John Wesley and Wesleyanism

1. Family Background

2. Before Aldersgate

3. Aldersgate

4. Distinctive Doctrine of Sanctification

C. Methodism and the Holiness Movement

1. The Move Away from Wesley’s Theology

2. A Synthesis of Wesleyanism and Arminianism

3. Pentecostalism

D. Wesleyan – Arminian Theology

1. Theology Proper

2. Anthropology

3. Transmission and State of Sin

4. Salvation

5. Sanctification

E. Observations and Critique

Chapter 13: Dispensationalism

A. Origins and Development

1. Premillennial Ferment in the Nineteenth Century

2. Formative Period

3. Confessional or Classical Period

4. Revised or Essentialism Period

5. Progressive Dispensationalism

B. Major Features Common to Dispensationalism

1. Authority of Scripture

2. Divine Administrative Arrangements as
Key to Understanding Scripture

3. Uniqueness of the Church in Relation to National Israel

4. Practical Significance of the Universal Church

5. Significance of Biblical Prophecy

6. Futurist Premillennialism

7. Imminent Return of Christ

8. A Future for National Israel

C. Major Representatives

1. Denominations and Missions Organizations

2. Institutions

3. Individuals

D. Issues and Tensions

1. Hermeneutics

2. Historiography

3. Sine Qua Non?

4. Cessation of the Charismata?

E. Contributions of Dispensationalism

F. A Tradition in Transition

G. Observations and Critique

Chapter 14: Liberalism

A. The Roots of Liberalism

1. The Effects of the Enlightenment

2. Immanuel Kant

3. G. W. F. Hegel

B. Liberalism in Germany

1. Friedrich Schleiermacher: Father of Liberal Theology

2. Albrecht Ritschl and Theological Agnosticism

3. Comparative Religions/History of Religions School

4. Adolf von Harnack

C. Major Theological Propositions of Liberalism

1. The Universal Fatherhood of the Immanent God

2. The Universal Brotherhood of Man and the Infinite Value
of the Individual Human Soul

3. Jesus Christ Serves as the Supreme Example

4. Religious Authority, Salvation, and the Kingdom

D. Liberalism in America

1. Social Gospel

2. Modernism

E. Observations and Critique

Chapter 15: Neoorthodoxy

A. The Background of Neoorthodoxy

1. The Post-Kantian Environment

a. The Untenable Liberal Optimism

b. The Marginalization of the Bible

2. Theology at Loggerheads:  
    Liberalism and Fundamentalism

B. Neoorthodoxy: A Reaction against Liberalism

1. Karl Barth

a. Education

b. Pastorate (1911 – 21)

c. Der Römerbrief (1918, 1922)

d. Break with Liberalism

e. Christian Dogmatics in Outline (1927)

f. Church Dogmatics (1932 – 68)

g. Anselm’s Influence

h. Conflict with Natural Theology

2. Emil Brunner

3. Reinhold Niebuhr

4. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

C. The Neoorthodox Theological Perspective

1. Theological Method: Dialectic

2. God: The Wholly Other

3. Revelation and Encounter

4. Rejection of Natural Theology

5. Christology

6. Biblical Realism

7. The Biblical Theology Movement

8. Revelation in History

D. Observations and Critique

1. Contributions of Neoorthodoxy

2. Critique

Chapter 16: Liberation Theology

A. The Background of Liberation Theologies

1. Orthodoxy versus Orthopraxis

2. Moltmann’s Theology of Hope

B. Latin American Liberation Theology

1. The Context of Latin American Liberation Theology

a. Historical Background

b. “Institutional Violence” and Its Consequences

c. Who Are the Poor?

2. The Twentieth-Century Response: Liberation Theology

a. The Emergence of Liberation Theology

b. The Theological Justification for Liberation Theology

c. The Method of Liberation Theology

d. Key Themes in Liberation Theology

e. The Agenda of Liberation Theology

C. Black Theology

1. Origins

2. Radicalization

D. Feminist Theology

1. Hermeneutical Issues

2. Christological Issues

E. Critique

1. Hermeneutics

2. Latin American Liberation Theology

3. Black Theology

4. Feminist Theology