Thiselton - Thiselton Companion to Christian Theology

Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015. – 884 p.

ISBN 978-0-8028-7232-6 (cloth: alk. paper)

eISBN 978-1-4674-4325-8 (ePub)

eISBN 978-1-4674-4285-5 (Kindle)

 

Several features of this Companion to Christian Theology are distinctive. First, a single author has written the 600-plus articles in this book. This has the advantage of coherence, and avoids the danger of presenting an uneven work, which often becomes the fate invited by a multiauthored volume. A single author provides a single judgment, in this case gained from fifty years of teaching and research. It also ensures that the entries receive the word length that each subject or thinker genuinely needs, rather than one imposed in advance by a general editor or format.

 

Second, a judicious balance between research material and a tool for teaching has been reached in the work. I originally conceived of this work as a teaching tool comparable to my Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford: OneWorld, 2002; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005). As I wrote, however, it became clear that many topics deserved long, thoughtful essays, which drew on research, evaluation, and careful judgment. The articles on God, Christology, and the Holy Spirit, for example, vary between 20,000 words and 28,000 words apiece. Similarly, the entry on the atonement merits 16,000 words. These are all subdivided into biblical and historical sections, and are often divided topically, for the sake of convenience and readability. Each section has its separate bibliography. Hence this work combines some shorter articles, which sometimes constitute explanatory teaching tools of 50-100 words, with longer articles that embody reflection and research. Some 122 articles exceed 1,000 words; over 480 are shorter articles.

 

I must bear full responsibility for the length and selection of each article, and I readily confess to the difficulty of choosing some subjects over others among 600 articles. There are bound to be mistakes. The length accorded to specific theologians varies enormously, depending on their creative originality and influence, and the confines of space. Wolfhart Pannenberg, for example, receives more than 8,000 words, and Karl Barth and Martin Luther some 6,000 words each. Augustine, Bultmann, Balthasar, Calvin, Küng, Moltmann, and Rahner receive 5,000, or a little less. On the other hand, numerous theologians receive less than 100 words, to explain their date and significance as briefly as possible.

 

Third, although I have made every effort to be scrupulously fair and accurate, I have often added my own value judgment or comment. This may be reflected even in some of the recommended reading. The average length of article is 700 words. Hence I have listed reading suggestions for entries that exceed 700 words, and usually restricted these to six or occasionally seven books, or sometimes articles.

 

Fourth, this is specifically a companion to Christian theology. I have avoided exploring other faiths, and only marginally touched on ethics and liturgy. However, I have been careful to document sources (including publisher, place, date), and where possible to quote the actual language of theologians, rather than rely on loose paraphrase. For me, this exemplifies “Do as you would be done by” for reference books. I have also added a time chart after this preface, in response to requests to do so in reviews of my Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion. This allows for a comparison between the different dates of the thinkers listed.

 

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Hodge, Charles

 

Charles Hodge (1797-1871) studied under Ernst Hengstenberg, among others, and taught at Princeton for most of his life. He published solid commentaries on Romans (1835), Ephesians (1856), 1 Corinthians (1857), and 2 Corinthians (1859), and wrote the very influential three-volume Systematic Theology, published in 1871-1873. He suspected that original and creative thinking would lead scholars away from Reformed orthodoxy. Hence he stated proudly of Princeton: “A new idea never originated in this Seminary” (P. C. Gutjahs, Charles Hodge [Oxford: OUP, 2011], 368). He championed Calvinist and Reformed theology, in contrast to the more liberal theology of H. Bushnell at Yale.

 

In his Systematic Theology Hodge devoted forty pages to “the Protestant rule of faith” (1:151-90). Together with B. Warfield, he argued that the Scriptures were both infallible and inerrant, and advocated belief in their plenary inspiration. This inspiration is “supernatural” (154-55). Plenary inspiration includes “all parts of Scripture” (168), and “extends to words” (164-65; i.e., is verbal inspiration). On the other hand, Hodge hints at more flexibility than Warfield might seem to concede. Hodge acknowledges, “As to all matters of science, philosophy, and history, [the sacred writers] stood on the same level with their contemporaries” (1:165). It is difficult to overemphasize the influence of Hodge and Warfield among American evangelicals, and at one time also fundamentalism. (See also Evolution; Warfield, Benjamin B.)