The doctrine of God it seems to me is an increasingly contested and increasingly important area of dogmatics. Actually, that seems like a silly thing to say - isn't it always?
A great collection of essays has been released, edited by Bruce McCormack, under the title Engaging the Doctrine of God. What I have read so far has been of very high standard - stimulating and very interesting.
Particular high on my list are the essays by John Webster and Henri Blocher, followed by an excellent one by Don Carson on 'The Wrath of God'. McCormack, as the editor of the book has allowed himself twice the room of everyone else, and I haven't yet tackled his piece. NT Wright has a piece, though it is rather light on footnotes and sounds very derivative of his other stuff - not a fresh piece of research it seems to me.
What is interesting is that there is a tension between those authors who are committed to classical theism (Helm, Crisp, Carson) and those who want to modify it without falling into open theism (McCormack, Blocher, Stephen Williams). And, as always, Barth is the point of depature...
1 comment:
Hey Michael, thanks so much for your tantalizing summary thus far of the volume. I've been itching for this book to come out, and I can't wait for it to arrive. Yes, I totally agree that the doctrine of God is of great importance at the moment. I had the pleasure of meeting one of the Princetonian Barth gurus, George Hunsinger, at the recent John Owen Today conference. It was great to pick his brains on Barth's doctrine of God, and yes, we do need to engage deeply and profoundly with Barth at this point. My great concern is how classical theism gets persistently misrepresented (egregiously by people like Moltmann, and even a little by Barth) and that we will only be able to move ahead when we engage with CT properly. Fortunately Muller's vols. 3 and 4 (in PRRD) are a good starting point for understanding CT. Blessings, Marty.
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