A Short Systematic Theology - Softcover

Zahl, Paul F. M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802847293 ISBN 13: 9780802847294

Verlag: Eerdmans, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. A user-friendly summary of the essentials of Christian belief. This short systematic theology is a refreshing alternative to works on Christian doctrine that are too large or demanding for personal or group study. Paul Zahl offers a concentrated summary of the whole Christian faith in three concise, biblically correct chapters at once serious and popular, scholarly and contemporary. Arranged around twenty-five theses that cover the core Christian beliefs, the book clearly explains the person and nature of Jesus Christ, the meaning of the atonement, and the life that results from Christian freedom. Encompassing a great wealth of knowledge in a user-friendly, easy-to-follow format, A Short Systematic Theology is one of the best resources available for church, group, and personal study.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Paul F. M. Zahl is Rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland (Washington DC). He has written ten books, including Grace in Practice (2007) and 2000 Years of Amazing Grace (2007).

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A Short Systematic Theology

By PAUL F. M. ZAHL

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Copyright © 2000 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8028-4729-4

Contents

Introduction................................................................................................1I. The Subject of Theology: Jesus Christ (Theses 1-11).....................................................5The Historical Jesus........................................................................................13The Present-Day Christ......................................................................................22The Presence of His Absence.................................................................................35The Expanding Christ........................................................................................39Christ as Subject...........................................................................................41The Spirit of God...........................................................................................46Summary.....................................................................................................48II. The Content of Theology: Power in the Blood (Theses 12-19).............................................51Two Metaphors for Substitution..............................................................................61The Incarnation.............................................................................................69The Trinity.................................................................................................71The Hardest Part............................................................................................73The Atoned, Atoning God.....................................................................................76III. The Method of Theology and the Method of Life: Libertas christiana (Theses 20-25).....................79Conclusion..................................................................................................91Appendix A: Beza's Summa totius Christianismi...............................................................95Appendix B: Lucas Cranach's "The Old and New Testament".....................................................99Selected Reading List.......................................................................................101Index of Authors............................................................................................105Index of Biblical References................................................................................107

Chapter One

The Subject of Theology: Jesus Christ

For Christians, the prism through which all light concerning God is reflected is Jesus Christ. This means that Christology is the beginning and the end, better, the starting point and summary, of all Christian thought. Christology is Paul's theme when he writes, "For it is the very God who said, `Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). Christology is the subject of theology. More precisely put, Jesus Christ is the subject of theology.

We understand that God in any sense differentiated from Jesus Christ is unknowable. This needs to be affirmed from the start. John writes in the prologue to his Gospel, "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (1:18). John repeats this idea forcefully in his first letter: "No one has ever seen God" (4:12). Job complains of God, "Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!" (23:3). Bible religion knows nothing about a God who can be found or made out from our side of things. "Such knowledge is too wonderful; it is high, I cannot attain it" (Psalm 139:6).

Why is theology unable to start from God as the creator of the universe, or God as the "ground of our being," or God simply as the Other? Theology is unable to start in those places because the picture of God that emerges from such beginnings is speculative.

It is speculation, for example, that there exists a "first cause" that set all things in motion. No proof! It is speculation that there is an underlying principle governing or sustaining all that is. No proof! It is speculation that otherness—that is, all that is other to me as the subject of my life—has any personal or conscious character. No proof! It is speculation to suggest that a single entity, power, or unity created the universe, even in some pre-existing sense. In that case, the case that there is a unity or fundamental harmony to the natural world, there exists proof to the contrary. There is contrary, discouraging evidence against the existence of a unified primordial harmony. The contrary evidence is the cruelty of nature, the catastrophes of nature, the predatory character of the food chain from top to bottom, the disorder of nature, and the demonstrated fact of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Nature is neither orderly nor pre-existing nor absolute nor kind.

We go wrong from the beginning if we start with God in any other sense than as known in concrete engagement with universal human vulnerability. We go wrong if we start from a god who exists detached from our experience of relentless, arbitrary, even cruel nature. God cannot exist apart from the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 or Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

We also go wrong in starting with God in any metaphysical or ontological remove from the empirical lives we live in the world. This is because of the existence of sin within these empirical lives. The theme of sin, its verifiability among all sorts and conditions of men and women, through all moments of recorded history, prevents us from positing a God who exists in any stage of his existence apart even for a moment or an atom from the problem of sin. Because of the ubiquity of injustice and sin in the world, no God can exist who is not a moral being. We have this written in our human nature by the instrument of conscience. "What the law requires is written on the hearts [of human beings], while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus" (Romans 2:15-16). Plain experience and common sense inform us that no abstract Person can have made us as we are, let alone endured us, without also wishing to delete us and start over (Genesis 8:21; Zephaniah 1:2). Therefore, the existence of cruel and arbitrary nature, together with the universality of human sin, prevents us from beginning the theological enterprise from any concept of God that is distinct from revelation. All theologies of a cosmic harmonic principle shipwreck on the truths of tragedy, catastrophe, and injustice.

This is why Christian theology is Christology and why the subject of theology is Christ. Moreover, Christ is theology's subject not only as its theme but also in the sense of being its governor or voice, its driver. Christ proves to be the "I" of the conversation between God and human nature. God addresses humanity through Christ. He is the subject of address, and we are the object.

Thesis 1: Theology is Christology.

Systematic theology proceeds from an assertion concerning human nature that is not the Also Sprach Zarathustra (as in the film 2001) declared through the first verse of Genesis. We do not start, save in long retrospect, with article 1 of the church's...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Eerdmans
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2000
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0802847293
• ISBN 13: 9780802847294
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 120
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland