Faith, Work, and Economics
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 59, No. 2 - Spring 2017
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
Systematic Theology. By Anthony C. Thiselton. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015. 432 pages. Hardcover, $40.00.
Systematic theology is the disciplined study of organizing a set of data and relating it to God, in this case the Christian God. In a sense, systematic theology covers everything as it relates to God, hence the complexity and overwhelming challenge of such an endeavour. Couple this with the attempt to bring all of the material into one volume, and one is confronted with a significant challenge. Very few one-volume systematics exist for these reasons. Anthony C. Thiselton successfully attempts just that by contributing a well-rounded one-volume systematic theology.
Thiselton begins his study with theological method. While trained in New Testament scholarship and hermeneutics, he synthesizes a swath of relevant theological data and authorities, making his method appealing to multiple theological disciplines. He lays out his approach to theological method by advancing a method that is at once interdisciplinary and affective in nature. By interdisciplinary, Thiselton intends the idea that systematic thinking about God and the world is tied to a wide set of issues and disciplines, an approach refreshingly unusual from a New Testament scholar (13). By affective, Thiselton describes theology as a task that is intimately related to prayer, contemplation and participating in God (6). What may be surprising to some, Thiselton does not include a section on the doctrine of revelation itself. Instead he integrates his understanding of revelation, as God’s act of making himself known, to theological method. His methodological starting point includes both revelation and the “rule of faith” or the authority of church interpretation continuous with apostolic teaching. Indispensable to this task is philosophy both in terms of epistemic foundations (e.g., coherence) and “conceptual grammar” (15). Additionally, he takes it that sociology, literary theory and hermeneutics are necessary for a holistic systematic approach. Thiselton unites these disciplines in such a way as to naturally move from systematic to practical theology.
Like so many systematics, he proceeds naturally from prolegomena to Theology proper. From Theology proper he proceeds to anthropology, the person of Christ, Christ’s work, the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the Church, and, finally, eschatology (i.e., the last things and the afterlife). The reader will be surprised that after all of this, Thiselton still manages to interact with modern and postmodern theology. He is especially attuned to the insights of Barth and Brunner as he interacts with their understandings of Christ and revelation. Drawing insights from both modern Reformation scholars (e.g., Pannenberg and Moltmann) and Roman scholars (e.g., Balthasar, Rahner, Kung and Pope John Paul II), he is able to use modern theology as a sounding board for theologically addressing modern concerns.
Naturally with an interdisciplinary work that is this far reaching and wide in scope, specialists may have concerns. They may find themselves disagreeing with Thiselton’s use of evidence or conclusions. His mastery of New Testament studies, hermeneutics along with philosophy, church history, and sociology is quite impressive but it lends itself to the possibility of imprecision and generality. Philosophers and theologians may disagree over his ascribing to God the notion of “suprapersonal” as sufficiently fuzzy (see Chapter II) or his interpretation of Augustine (10) or his waving aside mind-body dualism (140–44), to name just a few. Given the scope and overwhelming amount of data involved, these concerns are surely forgivable.
In the end, Thiselton contributes one of the finest one-volume systematic theologies on the market. His manuscript will be especially helpful to professors teaching courses that cover all the major doctrines. I look forward to using this volume in the future.
