Many evangelicals seem to think that systematic theology consists simply of listing the relevant Bible verses for a particular topic or doctrine. But there is much more to it than that as I explain in this video.
systematic theology
Why would God send people to hell?
Is constructive systematic theology a conceptual failure?
I just wrote a series of tweets complaining about the argument in much current constructive systematic theology. Since I thought that analysis might be of some interest to my blog (but non-Twitter) readers, I’ve reproduced those tweets below. I’ve read a lot of systematic theology over the years. Some of it is very good: clear […]
92. God is everywhere: James Gordon on Divine Omnipresence
Christians regularly talk about God’s presence in space, but what do we mean when we use such language? I discuss this issue in the following passage on pages 22-23 of my 2009 book Finding God in the Shack: “if you go to church on a Sunday morning you might hear the pastor address the hushed congregation with the words: […]
87. From the Bible to Doctrine: A conversation with Stephen Holmes
Open up your trusty King James Bible, turn to 1 John 5:7, and read: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” For many centuries this verse provided a powerful, eloquent, and theologically rich summary of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, […]
86. Making Sense of the Incarnation: A Conversation with Timothy Pawl
In 1977 John Hick published The Myth of God Incarnate, an edited collection of essays by leading scholars which fell like a bomb on the playground of British theology. The objections to the incarnation presented by the contributors to that book were many, but perhaps the most incisive was presented by Hick himself as he railed […]
46. Kelly Kapic on A Little Book for New Theologians
Some years ago I arrived home to see my neighbor sitting in the front seat of her car with a strange, pained expression. “Are you okay?” I called over in a faltering attempt to be neighborly. My friendly inquiry was immediately returned with an in-depth account of my neighbor’s lower back pain, its etiology, proposed course […]
Fee-fi-foe-fum, I smell the blood of an Arminian!
My article “Calvinism and the Contrast Effect” ( https://randalrauser.com/2011/11/calvinism-and-the-contrast-effect/ ) elicited some interesting comments. Among the most interesting was from my colleague at Taylor Seminary, Jerry Shepherd. Things started out well: “Hello Randal, my good friend and colleague…” But alas, things quickly took a turn for the worse: “Let me point out here some real problems with […]