Sunday, December 04, 2005

The Problem with Evangelical Theology

Ben Witherington comments on his new book The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, and Wesleyanism. There is also an interview at Christianity Today: The Problem with Evangelical Theologies. As well as an Excerpt of the book, and Table of Contents. The excerpt is chapter one of the book and begins with the delightful: THE PROBLEM WITH TULIPS—AND OTHER PROTESTANT FLOWERS.
Overture: The Legacy of the Reformers
PART ONE: Augustine's Children: The Problems with Reformed Theology
1 Oh Adam, Where Art Thou?
2 Squinting at the Pauline "I" Chart
3 Laying Down the Law with Luther
4 Awaiting the Election Results
PART TWO: On Dispensing with Dispensationalism
5 Enraptured but not Uplifted: The Origins of Dispensationalism and Prophecy
6 What Goes Up, Must Come Down: The Problem with Rapture Theology
7 Will the Real Israel of God Please Stand Up?
PART THREE: Mr. Wesley Heading West
8 Jesus, Paul, and John: Keeping Company in the Kingdom
9 New Birth or New Creatures?
10 Amazing Prevenient Grace and Entire Sanctification
PART FOUR: The Long Journey Home-Where Do We Go from Here?
11 Reimagining the Mystery
12 And So?Coda: Rebirth of Orthodoxy or Return to Fundamentalism?
My own story resonates with these insights from Ben. The more I engage with/in biblical studies, the more disillusioned I become with systematic theologies. Except ofcourse Pannenberg, who makes up for it with pages of exegetical reflection.
Maybe Ben Myers can do for Pannenberg what he did for the Barth? :)

2 comments:

Ben Myers said...

I agree with you, Sean: the lack of responsible exegesis in systematic theology can be depressing. I myself love systematic theology and I have a big collection of systematic theologies -- but at times I get very bored and frustrated by theological works that really haven't taken the biblical documents seriously.

You're right about Pannenberg, though -- the crucial points of his theology are always exegetically grounded, and unlike most theologians Pannenberg really is a capable and critical biblical interpreter in his own right.

But Pannenberg is not alone. Moltmann's better books also engage deeply with the biblical texts, and on the Catholic side so do the works of Schillebeeckx and Küng. And the systematic theologies of Hendrikus Berkhof (Christian Faith 1979) and Gerhard Ebeling (Dogmatik 1987-1993) are exciting works, because they engage in a scholarly, critical way with the Bible.

So there is definitely some hope! But, sadly, far too many systematic theologies continue to use the Bible as a source of proof-texts -- and it would really be much better and much more honest if these works simply didn't quote the Bible at all!

Chris Tilling said...

Sean: "The more I engage with/in biblical studies, the more disillusioned I become with systematic theologies."

Ben: "far too many systematic theologies continue to use the Bible as a source of proof-texts -- and it would really be much better and much more honest if these works simply didn't quote the Bible at all!"


Spoken from my heart chaps.