Transcript HOLY SPIRIT - Erskine College

Introduction to
Systematic
Theology
SOURCES OF REVELATION:
• Objective View: Roman Catholic Theology
– There is One Source (tradition) in two kinds
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Tradition One
Tradition Two
Mediated by the teaching office of the Church.
See The Documents of Vatican Two, the dogmatic
constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum) 9,10 which
speaks of a “single sacred deposit.”
– Scripture is “tradition one”
– Oral Tradition is “tradition two”
– The Magisterium Ecclesiae is the teaching office of
the Church
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SOURCES OF REVELATION:
• Subjective View
– Some say the source of revelation is not to be found
in any objective source
– Essentially, Christian Experience is the source of
revelation
• This is the preponderant view of classical
Protestant Liberalism (Consciousness
theologians)
– Schleiermacher
– Ritschl
– Also, some forms of Pentecostalism
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SOURCES OF REVELATION:
• The Multiple Source View
– The “Wesleyan Quadrilateral”
• Scripture (Supreme Authority)
• Reason
• Tradition
• Experience
– Scripture, Reason, and Tradition are the
traditional sources in the Anglican
Formula
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SOURCES OF REVELATION:
• The Multiple Source View
– B.B. Warfield
• Nature (What God has created: would include Reason)
• Providence (What God has done in history, in the Church)
Tradition???
• Experience (What God has done in your life)
• Scripture (What God has said)
– “The revelation of God in his written Word is easily shown not
only to be incomparably superior to all other manifestations of
him in the fullness, richness and clearness of its
communications, but also to contain the sole discovery of much
that is most important for the soul to know as to its state and
destiny.” Warfield, Studies in Theology, 60-1.
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SOURCES OF REVELATION:
• God reveals himself through many means,
all of which contribute to our knowledge
of God- but Scripture is Fons Unicum
– However, we must distinguish between
• Scripture, as the unique source of revelation, and
• Other sources as subordinate to Scripture
• The Latin terms norma normans and norma
normativa provide help
– Scripture is norma normans, a rule that rules
– All other revelatory media (Experience, Tradition,
Providence, Reason) are norma normativa, a rule that is
governed- by Scripture, in this instance
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THE ACTION OF THEOLOGY:
• The Meaning of Systematic
– Does not imply other disciplines are not
systematic
• Rather, it refers to the logical coherence
that exists among divine truths
– The “Action” of Systematic Theology
• Is not bringing order out of chaos
• Is not imposing an external system on
Scripture
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THE ACTION OF THEOLOGY:
• Doing Systematic Theology does not imply an
infinite number of strands we can weave into
any theological tapestry of our own design
• The “Action,” instead, is recognizing the fabric
of revealed truth that already exists in sacred
Scripture
• Doing Theology does not produce new truth.
Rather, it reproduces the truth
• Doing theology, however, may bring to light
new truth as at the time of the Protestant
Reformation
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THE ACTION OF THEOLOGY:
• Theological Presuppositions
– There is Unity in the Scriptures by virtue of their
ultimate author, God himself
– There is an Integrity to the Scriptures; it represents
the truth its author intended us to know
– There is a Coherence to the Scriptures
• It holds together presenting a seamless fabric of
redemptive truth
• From the first promise of the Savior to the final
consummation- the Bible hangs together
• There is not a diffusion of themes or ideas, as in a college
course anthology
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THE WARRANT FOR THEOLOGY:
• New Testament Fulfillment Language
– For example, Matt. 1:22, “All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet.”
• The Analogy of Scripture
– Often, the illumination of one part of Scripture is
based upon another
• For example, it is not possible fully to understand I
Corinthians 6 apart from Genesis 2
– The understanding of one part is often based on other
parts
• For example, it is impossible to understand Romans 8:30 fully
without knowing what the Scripture teaches elsewhere about
predestination, calling, justification, and glorification
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• There is a chronological development of
theology- this is the lesson of historical
theology
• There are cultural influences on the
development of theology
– This, too, is demonstrated by the unfolding
of Church History
– Cultural influences include, for example,
Hebraic, Greek, Roman, North African, and
Western European
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• The Evangelical Presupposition
– Since the Scriptures, ultimately, are God’s revelation
to all of mankind, there will be a unity of truth even
in the midst of diverse cultural emphases and
contextualized language
– Some evangelicals “have tended to view theology as
transcultural or culturally neutral. Always fearful of
the historicist notion of theology, these evangelicals
have typically championed biblical authority by
claiming that there is only one horizon in theologythe biblical text itself.” Richard Lints, The Fabric of
Theology, 102
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• There are two horizons that must be addressed
if one is to do theology properly
– The Ancient World: the biblical text and its cultural
milieu
– The Modern World: the interpreter and the culture in
which the interpretation occurs and is applied
– Indeed, “ . . . there is still the need to link those
understandings [the ‘specific cultural and historical
meaning of Scripture’] up with the target culture into
which we wish to announce these words, not to
mention our need to be aware of our own cultural
baggage as interpreters.” Walter Kaiser and Moses
Silva, An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics, 175
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• Some interpreters (usually of the more critical
schools) have erred on the other extreme
– They suggest “that the meaning of the biblical
message is actually determined by the constraints
of the contemporary culture, that the Scriptures
have no other meaning than that which is
permitted by the conceptuality of the present-day
situation.” Lints, Fabric, 102
– Lints gives, as an example, the methodology of
Rudolf Bultmann
– The key idea that must be considered is the
unavoidable fact that “we hear the divine
conversation only after it has passed through
several filters.” Lints, Fabric, 60
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• There are a number of INTERPRETIVE FILTERS
(or, MATRICES) that every interpreter employs
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Personal/Family Characteristics
Individual Religious Tradition
National, regional culture
Racial heritage
Social Relationships
Educational Matrix
Personal Faith Experience
Vocational/Leisure-time Matrix
Cross-cultural experience
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• There is a transcultural aspect to the doing of
theology: “Ought we to give our western creeds
to the Oriental mind? . . . Of course those
Western creeds ought to be given to the Oriental
mind. But that ought to be done only on one
condition- that those western creeds are true. If
they are not true, they ought not to be given to
the Oriental mind or to any other kind of mind;
but if they are true, they are just as true in China
as they are in the United States.” Machen,
Christian Faith in the Modern World, 93
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• “Our final and fundamental hope rests in the
conviction that God himself communicates across
cultures, principally across that cultural chasm
that lies between himself and us. As Gabriel
Fackre has suggested, ‘We are not so locked into
our ecclesial or cultural positions that its truth
cannot make itself known to us- the Word
addresses the hearer- even to the extent that a
contemporary perspective from which a text is
viewed can be challenged, modified and even
overturned by the text.’” Lints, Fabric, 114
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• There is an unavoidable cultural
influence in the doing of theology and
consequentially, a need to evaluate
critically its effect on the theological
task: “Contemporary theologians must
also seek to challenge the contemporary
mind to think more critically about its
own culturally accepted values.”
Lints, Fabric, 113
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THEOLOGY AND CULTURE:
• “I wonder if we really recognize that all theology
represents a contextualization, even our own theology?
We speak of Latin American theology, black theology,
or feminist theology; but without the slightest second
thought we will assume that our own theology is
simply theology, undoubtedly in its purest form. Do we
recognize that the versions of evangelical theology held
by most people in this room are in fact North
American, white, and male and that they reflect and/
or address those values and concerns?” Stanley
Gundry, “Evangelical Theology: Where Should We Be
Going?” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
22 (1979): 11
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Introduction to
Systematic
Theology