Systems of Theology

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Systems of Theology
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REFORMATION THEOLOGY

• The three Key Principles of Reformation Theology
• Sola Scriptura Scripture Alone
• Sola Fide By faith alone
• Sola Gratia By grace alone

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REFORMATION THEOLOGY Luther

• Upheld right of the individual conscience under
  the authority of Scripture
• Maintained a strict antithesis between the Law
  and Gospel
• the message of condemnation and
• the message of forgiveness
• Championed Justification by Grace through Faith
  alone against Roman Catholic notions of human
  merit
• Upheld a firm Augustinian notion of double
  Predestination
• Cf. his The Bondage of the Will
• Later modifications during the period of Lutheran
  Orthodoxy weakened the official Lutheran position
• Affirmed the enslavement of will even more
  vigorously than did Calvin

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REFORMATION THEOLOGY Luther

• Luther had a strict view on the inspiration of
  Scripture however
• he also maintained a loose view on the Canon
• he did not like the book of James
• He taught the physical presence of the body of
  Christ during Holy Communion
• This is often described by non-Lutherans as
  Consubstantiation
• Taught a view of the Communicatio Idiomatum in
  which the human body of Christ was granted
  ubiquity as part of its exaltation
• A necessary implication of his view of the
  Eucharist

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REFORMATION THEOLOGY Luther

• Offered a poorly developed ecclesiology, largely
  due to the uncertain and fluid political
  circumstances in which he lived
• Melanchthon, Luthers companion, produced several
  helpful editions of the Loci Communes, the first
  Protestant (evangelische) systematic theology
  text
• Lutheranism, to many,
• a conservative, even incomplete reformation
• whatever is not forbidden is allowed

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REFORMATION THEOLOGY Luther

• Lutheran accomplishments
• Appeal to Scripture is highly commendable,
• As is the emphasis on justification by grace
  through faith
• Finally, Luthers theology was colored by his own
  experiences,
• His struggles and temptations
• Defined his experience of grace and the way in
  which he framed his theology

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REFORMATION THEOLOGY Luther

• Methodological considerations
• System of dualisms- but no real use of covenant
• Law and Gospel
• Two Kingdoms
• Just and yet a sinner (simul iustus et peccator)
• A theology of the cross- the cross is all
• No obvious use of philosophy
• Underlying reliance on late medieval nominalism
• Not systematic- reason the devils whore
• Biblicist and Augustinian

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REFORMATION THEOLOGY Calvin

• Doctrinal developments that went beyond Luther
• Made much use of the Threefold Office of Christ
• Prophet/Priest/King
• The notion of munus triplex existed before
  Calvin, but was only developed thoroughly at the
  time of the Reformation by Calvin. See G.C.
  Berkouwer, Work of Christ, 61 Calvin, ICR, 2.15
• The Doctrine of Holy Spirit
• Calvin emphasized that the Spirit always leads in
  accordance with the Word. ICR, 1.9
• Called the theologian of the Holy Spirit
  because of the role of the Spirit in all his
  theology
• Calvin provided extensive discussion of the
  doctrines of Election and Reprobation. ICR,
  3.21-24

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REFORMATION THEOLOGY Calvin

• Linked Sanctification most closely to
  Justification
• Spoke of them as twin graces. ICR, 3.1ff
  especially 3.16.1
• Maintained the Normative use of the Law for the
  regenerate, ICR, 2.7.12
• He calls it the principal use
• Taught that every believer is a recipient of
  Gods call, (Doctrine of Vocation) on his life,
  ICR, 3.10.6
• Developed a thorough Doctrine of Church, with a
  well-thought out system of Church Government,
  ICR, 4.1.7-10 4.3
• Argued for the election of God
• Working itself out in terms of covenant, ICR,
  3.21
• Maintaining the unity of the covenant through Old
  and New Testaments, ICR, 2.11.1ff

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REFORMATION THEOLOGY Calvin

• Methodological Considerations
• He listened attentively to Scripture,
• Rejected the meteoric speculation of the
  schoolmen,
• Asserted that God is to be adored, not
  investigated,
• Abandoned the use of the Church Fathers as a
  final source of appeal
• For Calvin, theology was to be practical- not to
  be divorced from application
• Perhaps the Key Thought was this- Confirming
  people in Christ, ICR, 3.6.1
• Covenantal relationship a central theme, ICR 322

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POST-REFORMATION THEOLOGY

• Protestant Scholasticism
• Continuity with the Reformation
• Orientation to the Reformation principle of Sola
  Scriptura
• Not a new period Reformed doctrines were
  believed and taught- a vital and productive
  period of evangelical theology
• Above all, a period of Confessional development
• Scots Confession 1560
• Belgic Confession 1561
• Heidelburg Catechism 1563
• II Helvetic Confession 1566
• Irish Articles 1615
• Canons of Dordt 1619
• Westminster Confession and Catechisms 1643-7

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POST-REFORMATION THEOLOGY

• Protestant Orthodoxy
• Discontinuity with the Reformation
• Note the differences in tone and style of
  Calvins Institutes of the Christian Religion and
  Turretins Institutes of Elenctic Theology
• While Calvins work betrays its catechetical
  origins
• Turrettins betrays its technical character and
  polemical stance
• This is true in general, with earlier Reformation
  writings being more catechetical, while later
  writings were more scientific in structure and
  apologetic (i.e., contra Roman Catholicism,
  Lutheranism, etc.)
• The use of Aristotle was reintroduced by some
  theologians
• This is often described as a period of Protestant
  Scholasticism

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POST-REFORMATION THEOLOGY

• Protestant Orthodoxy
• There was an impressive amount of work
• Characterized by a desire to define truth more
  distinctly
• An extensive and scientific theological
  vocabulary was further developed (e.g., the term
  Regeneration See Turretin, Institutes, XV,5).
• There was an Intellectualizing of the Faith
• A. Schweitzer The Reformers confessed their
  beliefs, but the later theologians believed their
  confessions.
• There was extensive reliance on prooftexting,
  with Cocceius being a notable exception!
• Reason prior to revelation
• High Federalism extensive use of covenant
  structure, but not uniformly

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POST-REFORMATION REACTIONS

• Rationalism
• Sufficiency of Reason I will believe nothing I
  cannot understand
• Reason supersedes Revelation All is interpreted
  by the criterion of reason. Man is the measure
  of all things.
• Emphasis on Nature The universe is an orderly
  realm which adheres to the law of nature
• Nature the arbiter of what is true, the final
  court of appeals
• What is real is discernible in nature, hence rise
  of Deism
• Deism is the religion discernible in natures
  laws and reason
• Contrasted to revealed religion as taught in
  Scripture and by the Church
• All dogma was to be judged by its
  reasonableness
•  Autonomy The individual became the final
  determiner of truth (Not revelation, not the
  Church)

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POST-REFORMATION REACTIONS

• Pietism
• Made extensive use of Collegia Pietatis, small
  groups
• Does not introduce a new type of theology
• Although it has within its principles the seeds
  of a new emphasis in theology (a-historical)
• Philipp Jacob Spener was the Father of Pietism
  (along with his colleague, August Herman Francke)
• Emerged in the context of Lutheran orthodoxy
• Speners groundbreaking work Pia Desideria,
  Pious Desires
•  Pietist principles included
• Inward feelings of faith vs. intellectualizing of
  faith
• Personal experience of Regeneration was
  emphasized rather than an objective notion of
  Justification
• Focus was new life as process rather than act
  of justification

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POST-REFORMATION REACTIONS

• Pietism
• Recaptured elements of Medieval mysticism e.g.,
  Paul Gerhardt, 17th century, translated Bernard
  of Clairveaux, O Sacred Head Now Wounded.
• Pietism influenced Wesleys Methodism
  (Zinzendorf, Bohler, Moravians)
• Pietism often embraced an existential
  interpretation of Scripture
• Christian experience turns back on revelation and
  controls interpretation of that revelation
• Evaluating Scripture in terms of experience
  makes experience the point of reference How can
  I duplicate that experience?
• Thus, the outcome What does passage mean to
  me?

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CONSCIOUSNESS THEOLOGY Roots

• Historicism
• Established canons of scientific history and
  standards of historical accuracy that brought
  into question the historical integrity and
  believability of Scripture
• Scientism
• Wherever the Bible presents a picture that is at
  odds with modern science, the Bible is not to be
  believed Science over Scripture
• Criticism
• Many documents from classical and medieval
  periods were proved to be fraudulent documents
  of Scripture scrutinized with same skeptical
  perspective. Thus, the rise of Higher Criticism
  as a given in biblical studies

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CONSCIOUSNESS THEOLOGY Roots

• Rationalism
• Per Kant, reason is paramount in science
  (knowledge), ethics and religion, and in beauty
  or aesthetics
• Theologians are expected to subject any
  mysterious elements in Christianity to the canon
  of reason
• Tolerationism
• There was no longer a belief in inherent
  sinfulness, but an expectation of progress
  through advances in all the sciences
• Kantianism
• Religion receives an ethical interpretation and
  is divorced from revelation and reason

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CONSCIOUSNESS THEOLOGY

• Kant The Dialectic
• God exceeds our experience one cannot have a
  theoretical (or, scientific) knowledge of God
• Only a practical knowledge
• The Noumenal/Phenomenal distinction
• Noumenal
• Ding-an-sich, the thing in itself
• Objective, Unknowable
• Phenomenal
• The thing as experienced,
• As known subject to our categories (Scientific
  Reason)
• It is impossible to know anything in itself, but
  only as it is perceived by the subject mind

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CONSCIOUSNESS THEOLOGY

• Kant arrived at a Nature/Freedom dialectic
• Practical Reason
• God a postulate of human consciousness, since we
  cannot have direct knowledge of God in himself
  through scientific (pure reason) means
• Nevertheless, there is practical reason- we have
  a sense of what ought to be
• Kant three postulates
• Can not be established by theoretical reason
• Must be assumed because required by the moral
  nature of the world- not because of Bible
• God
• Immortality
• Human Freedom

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CONSCIOUSNESS THEOLOGIANS

• Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834)
• Background Reformed pietism, the philosophy of
  Immanuel Kant
• Theology was a study of individual faith,
  religious experience
• Faith is a matter of feeling, the consciousness
  of absolute dependence upon God
• Theology comes from the human consciousness
• God is known only in the light of human
  experience
• The Bible was viewed as a book of religious
  experiences, not as an authoritative revelation
• All religions are valid Christianity was viewed
  simply as the most advanced, the highest in
  principle and religious evolution

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CONSCIOUSNESS THEOLOGIANS

• Albrecht Ritschl (A.D. 1822-89)
• Two key writings
• Critical History of Justification and
  Reconciliation
• Christian Doctrine of Justification and
  Reconciliation
• These volumes were a reaction to the subjectivism
  of Schleiermacher and the individualism of
  Pietism
• The foundation of faith was sought in historical
  Jesus, not in the transcendent Christ
• The focus was on Kingdom of God, ethical behavior

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CONSCIOUSNESS THEOLOGIANS

• Albrecht Ritschl, cont.
• Theological characteristics
• Ritschl attempted to remove dogma from religion
  and substitute ethical behavior instead
• Doctrines were viewed merely as judgments of
  value based on experience.
• Jesus was considered divine because he has value
  of God for me
• The emphasis on the Kingdom of God, i.e., Live
  morally led naturally to development of the
  Social Gospel

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Systems of Theology