Systematic theology

In this concise, one-volume systematic theology, celebrated scholar Anthony Thiselton comprehensively covers the spectrum of Christian doctrine with an eye to practical application for Christian discipleship. Written with students and busy ministers in mind, this book is readable and accessible, comprising fifteen chapters of relatively equal length, with each chapter containing five evenly balanced subsections for teaching and learning convenience. Rather than setting out an abstract system, Thiselton explores theology as a living, organic whole. The book thus includes biblical foundations, historical thought, contemporary writers, and practical implications. Expertly incorporating biblical exegesis, philosophy, conceptual grammar, and hermeneutics, this work is the most succinct multidisciplinary systematic theology available. Preface Abbreviations I. Method and Truth 1. The Need for Coherence and Objections to "System" 2. Truth, Theology, and Philosophy: The New Testament and Earlier Church Fathers 3. Truth, Theology, and the Bible in Historical Context 4. A Further Aspect of Philosophy: Conceptual "Grammar" 5. Speech -- Acts, Hermeneutics, Sociology, and Literary Theory II. God: Personhood, Trinity, Holy Love, and Grace 1. God: Impersonal, Personal, or Suprapersonal? 2. God as Holy Trinity: Complication or Confirmation? 3. The Living God or "Theism"? 4. God as Holy Life -- Giver and Loving Creator. 5. God as the Giver of GraceIII. God and the World 1. The God of Love and the Problem of Evil 2. Can We Argue from "Cause" to God's Existence? God's Transcendence 3. The Argument from Design, and Modern Science 4. The Argument from Necessity: The Ontological Argument 5. Almighty, Omniscient, and Omnipresent: Their Meaning IV. The Challenge of Atheism: Lessons for Christians 1. The Origins of Atheism: A Simple, Materialist View of Humankind 2. "God" as a Human Projection: Feuerbach and Freud 3. "God" and Social Manipulation: Nietzsche and Marx 4. The Attack on Revelation. 5. Between Atheism and Theism: Deism, Pantheism, and AgnosticismV. The Nonhuman Creation, and Ordinances for Human Welfare 1. The Creation and Work of Angels, Mainly in the Biblical Canon 2. Angels in Postcanonical Judaism and in Historical Christian Thought 3. The Creation and Status of Animals: Is Creation Centered on Humankind? 4. Human Ordering: Political Communities, Marriage, and Justice 5. Modern Concerns for the Limitation of the State, and Justice for All VI. Human Potentiality and the Image of God 1. The Image of God: Human Beings Becoming "Persons." 2. The Unity of Human Nature, in Contrast to Mind -- Body Dualism3. The Diversity of Human Capacities 4. The Intervention of Sin and Alienation: Biblical Vocabulary 5. Understandings of the Universal Nature of Sin and the Fall, Notably in Paul VII. Misdirected Desire and Alienation: A Hermeneutical Comparison of Historical Thinkers 1. The Ante -- Nicene Church Fathers 2. The Post -- Nicene Church Fathers 3. The Medieval and Reformation Periods 4. The Early Modern Period 5. The Twentieth Century Onward VIII. Jesus Christ the Mediator. 1. The Gospel Defined in Terms of the Cross, and the Cross Defined in Terms of God's Grace2. The Transparent Meanings of Redemption and Salvation 3. Two Further Transparent Presuppositions: Mediation and Sacrifice 4. Complementary Models of the Atonement 5. Expiation and/or Propitiation? Paul's Distinctive Idea of Reconciliation IX. Why Consider Historical Theologies of the Atonement? Historical Thought and Hermeneutics 1. The Atonement in the Early Church 2. The Post -- Nicene Period 3. Anselm and Abelard 4. The Reformation: Luther and Calvin 5. Varied Approaches in the Modern Period. This book explores theology as a living, organic whole, while comprehensively examining the spectrum of Christian doctrine with an eye to practical application for Christian discipleship.