Author: Aquinas, Thomas, Barth, Karl, Calvin, John, Erickson, Millard
Genre: Theology - General
Tags: Doctrine / Theology, Thinking / Reading
Series: Readings in Christian Theology
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
For those who want to catch up or keep up on their theology (and why wouldn’t we want to study the meat of the Word?) these (three) volumes of selected writings by various theologians throughout the church age is a good exercise.
Erickson (author of the most valuable Christian Theology and professor of theology at Bethel Theological Seminary) gives the reader a broad spectrum of views on several major issues. Volume I, ‘‘The Living God,’’ gives you writings on ‘‘Who God Is’’ from men such as Thomas Aquinas, Karl Barth and John Calvin to Kenneth Kantzer, William Hordern and Bernard Ramm.
Even the sections by liberals such as Rudolf Bultmann on ‘‘Demythologizing the New Testament Proclamation’’ remind us that twentieth century lost men are repeating the same old arguments of lost men generations ago.
Kenneth Kantzer, in an article on the authority of the Bible wrote some words that I think our generation of fundamental Baptists needs to heed: ‘‘A true and living orthodoxy must never become static. If we are to remain faithful to the orthodox faith of our fathers, we dare not merely repeat our fathers’ answers to opponents of a generation ago. A living orthodoxy, rather, must rethink for its own generation the doctrines of revelation and inspiration. It must be prepared to fight on the battle lines as they are drawn today, and must appropriate the truth of God as it has been given. Certainly no Christian need ever fear the honest search for truth in humble dependence upon the illumination of the Holy Spirit.’’ Admittedly, this is heavy reading. But, as A. W. Tozer said, “The stodgy pedestrian mind does no credit to Christianity.”