Christian Theology Critique - Book Report/Review Example

? Christian Theology by Millard J. Erickson The book Christian Theology is written by Millard J. Erickson. He has also penned several other books on similar topics. It starts off with a preface which acts like an introduction to the book, lets the reader know what to expect in the rest of the book. Also, it talks about the writer’s view on Christianity. The book itself is divided into twelve parts, which are further partitioned into more chapters, thus making sure that the readers get the most amount of information out of the book in every related topic. It ends with a conclusion and sums up the contents of the book for the reader. The first section is titled ‘Studying God’ and has six parts in it which further branch out into more chapters. The first part is called ‘What is Theology?’. Over here, the terms religion and theology are discussed in terms of Christianity. Theology is simply a study of religion. It allows one to get to know more about one’s religion and even lets one understand other religions. It talks of the different religions which are so popular in the world now and broadens one’s horizons. The Word of God i.e. the Bible is also discussed over here and how it helps the Christians in following their religion. The first chapter is called ‘The Nature of Religion’ and is followed by ‘The Definition of Theology’. Next is ‘Locating (Systematic) Theology on the Theological Map’ and then ‘The Need for Theology’. After this is more talk of theology in the chapters ‘The Starting Point of Theology’, ‘Theology as Science’ and finally the last one called ‘Why the Bible?’. The second part is called ‘Theology and Philosophy’ and it branches out into just three chapters which relate theology and philosophy of different time periods to each other. The first chapter of this part is ‘Types of Relationships Between Theology and Philosophy’ and is followed by ‘Some Twentieth-Century Philosophies’ and ends with ‘Theology’s Use of Philosophy’. The third part is ‘The Method of Theology’ and as the main title and those of the further chapters in this section show, this part also focuses on theology. There are three chapters in here are called: ‘The Theological Scene Today’, the second one ‘The Process of Doing Theology’ and lastly ‘Degrees of Authority of Theological Statements’. This part gives out a more detailed account of the different kinds of theology and how one can follow them. The current theologies have also been discussed to make the reader understand how they can adapt to this world and still be a good Christian. The fourth part is called ‘Theology and Critical Study of the Bible’. This part just has three chapters starting off with ‘Form Criticism’, followed by ‘Redaction Criticism’ and lastly ‘Guidelines for Evaluating Critical Methods’. As is obvious from the chapter titles, this part deals with the study of the Bible and how one can follow God’s teachings by making a close study of the Book He has sent down for us. If one examines the passages of the Bible carefully, one will become a good Christian as well as a good person. ‘Contemporizing the Christian Message’ is the fifth part. This one has four further sections. The first one is ‘The Challenge of Obsolescence’ which is followed by ‘The Locus of Permanence in Christianity’, the third chapter is called ‘TWO Approaches to Contemporizing Theology’, ending with the last one titled ‘Criteria of Permanence’. The religion started off centuries back and times have changed. This section makes it helpful to understand the religion and apply it according to the 21st century. Reaching the ending of the first section and the sixth part comes called ‘Theology and Its Language’. This also has three chapters titled as follows: ‘Theological Language and Verificational Analysis: The Accusation of Meaninglessness’, ‘Theological Language and Functional Analysis’ and finally ‘Answers to the Accusation of Meaninglessness’. The second section is called ‘Knowing God’ and has five parts in it. Of course, as is obvious, this section mostly relates to God and His qualities. How He sent the Bible for us and why we should worship Him. The first part is titled ‘God’s Universal Revelation’ and has five chapters in it. It starts off with ‘The Nature of Revelation’ and is followed by ‘The Loci of General Revelation’. The third chapter is ‘The Reality and Efficacy of General Revelation’, the fourth ‘General Revelation and Human Responsibility’ and lastly ‘Implications of General Revelation’. Over here the way God revealed various things - including the Bible - is discussed. ‘God’s Particular Revelation’ is the second part of the section. It has five chapters in it called ‘The Definition and Necessity of Special Revelation’, ‘The Style of Special Revelation’, ‘The Modes of Special Revelation’. After these are the fourth and fifth chapters: ‘Special Revelation: Propositional or Personal?’ and ‘Scripture as Revelation’. The author specifically focuses on the discussion of the Bible over here. Next part is ‘The Preservation of the Revelation: Inspiration’. This is really talked of in quite detail and has eight chapters in it starting off with ‘Definition of Inspiration’ and followed by ‘The Fact of Inspiration’. The third chapter is ‘Issues in Formulating a Theory of Inspiration’, the fourth is ‘Theories of Inspiration’ and then ‘The Method of Formulating a Theory of Inspiration’. Inspiration is discussed to even a further degree in the chapters: ‘The Extent of Inspiration’, ‘The Intensiveness of Inspiration’ and finally ‘A Model of Inspiration’. The third part is ‘The Dependability of God’s Word: Inerrancy’ in which what inerrancy is is defined. It also talks of the different meanings one may give to the term and why it is so important when studying the religion. Inerrancy is basically the belief that the word of God is completely true. Thus, whatever the Bible says is correct and we should not contest it but follow the revelations and apply the teachings to our lives. This part has five chapters, starting off with ‘Various Conceptions of Inerrancy’ and followed by ‘The Importance of Inerrancy’. The third one is ‘Inerrancy and Phenomena’; the fourth chapter is called ‘Defining Inerrancy’ and lastly ‘Ancillary Issues’. The last part of this section is titled ‘The Power of God’s Word: Authority’. This part is the most extensive and has nine chapters in it. The first chapter is ‘Definition of Authority’ and the second one is ‘Religious Authority’. God is the All Knowing and the only being worthy of worship, everything that is around us is all thanks to Him. No doubt, He is the highest authority of all and we should have complete faith in Him. The third chapter is ‘Establishing the Meaning and Divine Origin of the Bible’ and this is followed by ‘The Internal Working of the Holy Spirit’. There are believed to be three Gods: God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ even though all are one and same. The next chapter is ‘Objective and Subjective Components of Authority’ and then ‘Various Views of Illumination’. The closing chapters of the section are: ‘The Bible, Reason, and the Spirit’, ‘Tradition and Authority’ and ‘Historical and Normative Authoritativeness’. Again, it revolves around how God is one and everything is in His hands. Without His will, nothing is possible. The third section is titled ‘What God is Like’ and there are a lot more of God’s attributes discussed over here. This has four parts, the first one being called ‘The Greatness of God’. It has just three chapters: ‘The Nature of Attributes’, ‘Classifications of Attributes’ and ‘Attributes of Greatness’. God is the greatest being of all and has a great many qualities in Him. There are some of these which only He has like He is immortal. On the other hand, He has some attributes which even we have but in less quantities such as forgiveness, kindness, generosity, etc. The second part is titled ‘The Goodness of God’ and branches out into three further chapters. It starts off with ‘Moral Qualities’, followed by ‘God’s Love and Justice-A Point of Tension?’ and finally ending with ‘The Best Mode of Investigating God’s Attributes’. This is more of an extension of the previous part and carries on the discussion about God’s various characteristics which make Him perfect and worthy of worship. ‘God’s Nearness and Distance: Immanence and Transcendence’ is the third part of this section and has only two chapters called ‘Immanence’ and ‘Transcendence’. The last part of this section is called ‘God’s Three-in-Oneness: The Trinity’ and has four chapters in it. The first one is ‘The Biblical Teaching’, followed by ‘Historical Constructions’. The third chapter is ‘Essential Elements of a Doctrine of the Trinity’ and lastly ‘The Search for Analogies’. The trinity refers to God, the Holy Son i.e. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and how the Christians believe in them all. The fourth section is called ‘What God Does’ and it has five parts starting off with ‘God’s Plan’. This part has six chapters which talk about how God has planned everything beforehand. Whatever incident takes place is because He has willed it to happen. It has all been preplanned by Him and He knows the results in advance. The first chapter is ‘Key Definitions’ followed by ‘The Biblical Teaching’ and then ‘The Nature of the Divine Plan’. Next comes ‘Logical Priority: God’s Plan or Human Action?’, ‘A Moderately Calvinistic Model’ and finally ‘Various Understandings of History’. ‘God’s Originating Work: Creation’ is the second part of this section and has seven chapters which talk of the works of God – those which we can see and those which we cannot – and yet they are all exquisitely made and so very precious. The first chapter is ‘Reasons for Studying the Doctrine of Creation’ and then ‘Elements of the Biblical Teaching on Creation’. This is followed by ‘God’s Later Creative Work’, ‘The Theological Meaning of the Doctrine’, ‘The Creation Doctrine and Its Relation to Science’ and ‘The Uniqueness of God’s Creative Work’. The last chapter is ‘Implications of the Doctrine of Creation’. God’s creations are all around us. We, ourselves, are His creations. The world around us is made by Him. There are so many things which we use in our daily lives and thus do not give them quite the importance which they deserve. We barely ever stop and think, rarely realize that we should be thanking Him for all the bounty – a His creations - that He has provided for us which makes our life easier. Everything He has created has a certain purpose and is all balanced and linked to each other. The third part is titled ‘God’s Continuing Work: Providence’ and it has four chapters: ‘Providence as Preservation’, ‘Providence as Government’, ‘Providence and Prayer’ and ‘Providence and Miracles’. The fourth part is ‘Evil and God’s World: A Special Problem’. It has the following chapters: ‘The Nature of the Problem’, ‘Types of Solutions’ and ‘Themes for Dealing with the Problem of Evil’. The last part is called ‘God’s Special Agents: Angels’. As is obvious, this part covers bits about the celestial beings that there are good angels as well as bad ones. The former are always worshipping the Lord and following His orders. They are given various tasks to carry out by Him. The latter are those who have rebelled against Him, the greatest example being that of Lucifer. These evil angels go against God’s orders and try to stray the human beings to the wrong path. These are the chapters which talk of all this: ‘History of the Doctrine’, ‘Good Angels’, ‘Evil Angels’ and lastly ‘The Role of the Doctrine of Angels’. The fifth section is titled ‘Humanity’ and has five parts in it. It starts off with ‘Introduction to the Doctrine of Humanity’, followed by ‘Importance of the Doctrine of Humanity’, then ‘Images of Man’ and lastly ‘The Christian View of Man’. This bit mostly revolves around the greatest of God’s creations: human beings. There is a reason why they have more of a status than the angels. There are certain ways in which the humans have to carry themselves, how they should treat others and so on. God considers them to be the most precious of His creations. The second part is called ‘The Origin of Humanity’ and it is divided into five further chapters, starting off with ‘The Meaning of “Origin”’, followed by ‘The Status of Adam and Eve’. Adam was the first man created by the Lord and he was followed by the creation of Eve – the first woman. God considered the humans to be greater than the angels and ordered them to bow to Adam which Satan refused to do so. His life purpose then became to stray the humans from doing the right thing and he succeeded in convincing Adam to disregard God’s orders. The result was that Adam was sent to earth and together with Eve they started their progeny. Thus, human life began. This is further discussed in the chapters ‘Views of Human Beginning’, ‘The Age of Man’ and ‘The Theological Meaning of Human Creation’. The third part is called ‘The Image of God in the Human’ and is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is ‘The Relevant Scripture Passages’ and is followed by ‘Views of the Image’. Next comes the ‘Evaluation of the Views’ and then the ‘Conclusions Regarding the Nature of the Image’. The last one is ‘Implications of the Doctrine’. ‘The Constitutional Nature of the Human’ is the fourth part of this section and consists of five chapters. Over here, the writer has talked of the various attributes of the humans be them positive or negative, how nobody is perfect and everyone reacts differently according to the circumstances and their dispositions. The first one is ‘Basic Views of the Human Constitution Biblical Considerations’ and it leads to ‘Philosophical Considerations’ and then ‘An Alternative Model: Conditional Unity’. ‘Implications of Conditional Unity’ is the last one of all. The last part of this section is titled ‘The Universality of Humanity’ and it branches out into six chapters. In the chapter ‘All Races’, the writer talks of the various races existing in the world which include the blacks and the whites. There should not be any prejudice due to someone being of a different race or due to their skin color, the religion they follow and so on. It is the person and his heart, his personality that matters. This is followed by the chapter titled ‘Both Sexes’ in which, of course, both the sexes are discussed. What being a male or a female means, what respective responsibilities come with it, etc. the union of both through marriage and what their part is in the society. The next chapter is ‘People of All Economic Statuses’ and here the rights of the people are discussed, how they should be treated equally whether they are poor or rich. The amount of money does not count; it does not matter in the eyes of God unless they use it to carry out some good deeds like giving it for charity. One should be judged according to one’s good traits and not by the amount of money one may have. The fourth chapter is ‘The Aged’, followed by ‘The Unborn’ and lastly ‘The Unmarried’. The sixth section is titled ‘Sin’. This discusses how when one does not follow God’s teachings but listens to Satan’s promptings and ends up doing the wrong things, he commits a sin. The result is that the person may stray to the bad path for a while or maybe forever. Every time he does something wrong, he reserves a punishment for himself. Anyone who sins a great deal and does not even ask for God’s forgiveness will end in Hell. The next two sections are ‘The Person of Christ’ and ‘The Work of Christ’. These talk of the birth of Christ, of how he was born to Virgin Mary, how his birth was a miracle in itself. He himself performed many miracles but he was still a human being with human qualities. The passages of the Bible were revealed to him and it was he who preached Christianity. It also talks of the persecution he had to suffer through and the sacrifice he gave of his life for his followers. The rest of the topics being discussed in the book relate to ‘The Holy Spirit’, ‘Salvation’, ‘The Church’ and ‘The Last Things’. There are several books which have been written about Christian theology and the works. However, very few of them are included under the criteria of being helpful and knowledgeable to the readers. Christian Theology by Millard J. Erickson is one of these books. He has quite an extensive range of topics covered in his book. He starts off with the introduction to give the reader a taste of what is to come next, what they should expect from his book. The themes he has written about have all been divided under sections and given subheadings to make it easier for the reader to swallow. It also makes it easy for someone who just wants to use the book as reference to find a particular topic without much problem. Also, if someone is just curious to learn more about a specific topic, he can directly open up to that part. The topics aside, the book is written in a very user friendly manner. Erickson has given out all the information but has explained it all in such a way that it is quite easy to understand and follow. He also relates certain things to the current life so the readers can adapt them to the lives they live in these times. Also, he has listed the references he used at the end of every page to ensure that the reader knows that what he is saying has been affirmed by the others. Of course, the readers can look up these resources for themselves and find more information for whichever topic that interests them the most. The book ends with a conclusion and also has a page of index listing the topics and subjects discussed throughout the book. All in all, Erickson’s Christian Theology is very helpful for anyone who is interested in learning more about Christianity. Read More