SCM Studyguide: Christian Doctrine

Jeff Astley

Description

An accessible textbook for all engaging with Christian doctrine for the first time. A valuable resource and suitable for all clergy and all training for ministry.

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 21 avril 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780334048008
• Langue: English

Extrait

SCM STUDYGUIDE TO CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
Jeff Astley


Copyright information
© Jeff Astley 2010
Published in 2010 by SCM Press
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SCM Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd (a registered charity)
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, SCM Press.
The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
978 0 334 04324 9
Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London
Printed and bound by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, SN14 6LH




Contents
Preface
1. Theology as Conversation: Thinking, Studying and Living Christian Doctrine
2. Discipleship Doctrine: Its Roots, Influences and Forms
3. Attempting God-Talk: Exploring Divine Discourse
4. Christian Activity: Worship, Ministry and Mission
5. Christian Belonging: The Church’s Self-Understanding
6. Christian Healing: Experiences and Images of Salvation
7. Reading Christ: Unpacking Faith in Jesus
8. Believing in the World: Finding God in the Mud
9. Embracing Mystery: The Deep Nature of God?
10. Christian Hopes: The Last Word for Christian Believers?
Further Reading
References




Preface
The SCM Studyguide Series provides succinct introductions to key areas of study, exploring challenging concepts in an accessible way, and encouraging readers to think independently and interact with the text. This volume offers an introduction to Christian doctrine at undergraduate level 1.
The book begins with three chapters examining the general nature of Christian doctrine, its setting and sources, and the language it uses. It then surveys the major areas of doctrine – following a slightly unusual order. Embarking on the doctrinal journey, we first examine teaching related to concrete experiences, behaviour and belonging within the Church. We then travel through the themes of Christian salvation, responses to Christ and God’s role in the world; before finally exploring the more abstract terrain of God’s mysterious reality and our ultimate destiny.
While intended mainly as a textbook, the book encourages readers to engage in theological conversations between their own more ‘ordinary theology’, on the one hand, and the varied resources of ecclesiastical and academic theology, on the other. In this way, this primer in doctrine should help those who seek a form of Christian believing and spirituality true to their own life and reflection.
In writing this Studyguide I have drawn on my experience of teaching doctrine to a range of students and ordinands in colleges, universities, and on wider courses, especially in Lincoln and Durham. Some material from my God’s World (Darton, Longman & Todd, 2000, now out of print) has been adapted for two of the present chapters.
In addition to the main discussion, some more technical or detailed reference material is provided in text boxes with a background tint – including a number of ‘Coming to Terms with Theology’ boxes – as well as in the footnotes. The details of the early history of Christology displayed in small print on pp. 141–5 fall into the same category. Prompts to stimulate theological conversation are included in the EXERCISE boxes, for use by individuals or (preferably) in group discussion.
Students of doctrine greatly benefit from listening to a variety of voices. The Further Reading section on pages 221–2 includes titles that survey most of the major doctrines, and their authors represent a wide spectrum of Christian denominations.
I am most grateful to Evelyn Jackson, Administrative Secretary to NEICE, for all her skilful work in preparing the manuscript for publication, and for help with the indexes.
Quotations from the Bible are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.




1. Theology as Conversation: Thinking, Studying and Living Christian Doctrine
What is Christian Theology?
Although this book is a guide to the study of doctrine , I want to begin our reflections with the wider term theology . It is rather discouraging that both words are frequently used negatively – particularly by politicians and journalists – as labels for obscure or impractical ideas, to which a certain type of ‘doctrinaire’ person demands strict adherence. Needless to say, theologians don’t recognize themselves in this description.
But who are ‘theologians’? Well, you are one of them if you have ever engaged in reflective thinking or speaking about God, or about any topic that relates to the nature and activity of God. Theology is literally ‘God-talk’ or ‘talk about God’, from the Greek for ‘God’ ( theos ) and ‘word’ ( logos ). So, at one level, a theologian is just someone who speaks about God.
However, logos is also used in a more restricted way to indicate a ‘study’: that is, a rational discussion or an ordered investigation. (This is why theology is sometimes identified as ‘a science’, using the word in a very broad sense.) In universities and similar contexts, theology names a field of study or an academic department. This usage often embraces people who are not talking about God directly at all. They study religious people, and the literature, practices and artefacts associated with them, through the disciplines (forms of study and knowledge) of history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and so on.
Alongside them, however, are also likely to be people who claim to be engaged in Christian ‘systematic theology’, ‘dogmatic theology’, ‘philosophical theology’ or ‘historical theology’. Although they will spend a lot of their time studying theology , by poring over the arguments and claims of other people (mainly early and present-day Christians), they will often also be engaged in doing theology for themselves: that is, articulating and refining what they take to be the most accurate and defensible ways of speaking about God.
Few readers of this book are likely to identify themselves with this picture of theologians or theological scholars – not yet, anyway. But the word ‘theology’ did not begin life in the academy (as academics often refer to places of advanced study, particularly universities). It began in the Church, and the Church remains its natural and proper home. Theology really belongs in and to the Church. This is not to say that academics have no right to it, nor that the Church is not enormously in their debt for their theological research and thinking. But it does mean that Christians, as members of the Church, bear the prime responsibility for doing Christian theology. It is certainly not something that they can leave to universities.
In its earliest usage, the Greek word theologia referred to a form of speaking about God that was close to speaking to God in prayer, worship and religious encounter. Close, but not identical. Until the eighteenth century, ‘theology was not just for the scholar or teacher but was the wisdom proper to the life of the believer’ – of all believers – as an integral part of Christian life (Farley, 1988, p. 88). In this broader application, theology is a ‘cognitive [knowing, believing, thinking] disposition and orientation of the soul’ (Farley, 1983, p. 35); it is a capacity, inclination and aptitude for a personal knowledge of God. It springs from and is entailed by the practical knowledge or wisdom of faith, and has been described as that wisdom ‘in a reflective mode’ and as ‘the cognitive component of piety’ (David Kelsey, Richard Osmer), which shapes our apprehension of God and of the world in relation to God. Understood in this way, theology is not a body of information and theory about God; it is the reflective wisdom of the believer – faith-become-reflective .
Reflection in Theology
This implies, however, that we can’t describe any old God-talk as theology. Sometimes, of course, it is just swearing – using ‘God’, ‘Jesus’ or ‘Mary’ simply to express the speaker’s extreme feelings. These words can also be used in a wholly unreflective way in personal devotion and public ritual. In all these cases, the speakers may not be ‘thinking what they are saying’.
We should reserve the word theology for reflective God-talk, using the adjective ‘reflective’ here in the broad sense of ‘thoughtful’ and ‘considered’. I prefer it to ‘rational’, partly because that term often implies some sort of logical deduction; and I want to avoid the word ‘reasonable’, because it has similar overtones of defending views by evidence and arguments. Reflective God-talk includes these more rigorous and narrow types of disciplined thinking, but the idea of theology as a ‘reflective exercise’ also extends to people who are simply trying to think more deeply about their faith. Christians are rarely totally non-reflective, although few are engaged at the level of critical reflection expected of – and by – university scholars. Reflective believers may simply be seeking to uncover their faith’s fuller and more profound meanings; and doing so in a way that values getting their own ideas clear and spotting weaknesses in their