Ryken's thought provoked two of my own. The first is that this is why church history/historical theology is so important. Last night, I lectured on the development of 19th century theology and the point that I kept making over and over was that if you don't understand this story, you won't understand modern theology. For example, Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels aren't saying anything that Schleiermacher, Baur, or Strauss (or a number of other 19th century Protestant liberals) didn't say and say better. Hence, our theological students might be better served wrestling critically with Schleiermacher's Christian Life or Strauss' Life of Jesus than Ehrman and Pagels.
But the second thought was on what should be considered "the great works of theology." What ten books, say, should be considered the canon of great works of theology? Here is the list with which I came up:
- Augustine, On the Trinity
- Anselm, Why God Became Man
- Aquinas, Summa Theologica
- Luther, Bondage of the Will
- Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
- Edwards, Religious Affections
- Schleiermacher, Christian Life
- Hodge, Systematic Theology
- Machen, Christianity and Liberalism
- Barth, Church Dogmatics
[Disclaimer: obviously I don't agree in every respect with these theologians. For example, I reject the sacredotalism of Aquinas, the liberalism of Schleiermacher, and the existential neo-orthodoxy of Barth. Still, they are worth Christian engagement, even when they move in erroneous directions, because they impact the Christian tradition in significant ways. In addition, reading Aquinas, Schleiermacher, and Barth would help us to understand what happens to Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism in various eras. Learning the tradition is as much discovering wisdom about the consequences of ideas as warming one's own heart.]
11 comments:
My two-cents worth...
As a first alternate I'd suggest the Westminister Standards (all of them). They are IMHO, the most accurate, yet consice corpus of orthodox Christian theology ever produced.
That list is amazingly similar to what I would have suggested, with only one or two differences.
Wyclif: What would be your differences? sml
David: Yeah, I thought of the Standards, obviously. But I also thought that these were ten theologians and their key works in a "theological canon." Another interesting question would be, which ten confessional statements should be considered key doctrinal symbols in the Christian tradition (n.b. not necessarily ones with which we would agree, but ones that shape the tradition)? sml
When I try looking up Augustine's On the Trinity, I get only Books 8-15 in Amazon.
Any suggestions?
Whoops! I stand corrected. See here!
Thanks for the list!
What about Berkof? I tend to believe his theological work holds a distinct place in Christian thinking. I'd probably place him before Schleiermacher, maybe Barth.
David: Good point about Berkhof. I was trying to think of the most significant books in the history of Christian theology, not necessarily the most important books for the Reformed tradition or even the most important books for feeding one's heart. If I was trying to answer those two questions, then certainly Berkhof would find a place.
But as someone who works on American Presbyterians specifically and American religious history generally, it would be hard to overestimate the impact/signifiance of both Schleiermacher and Barth.
Best,
Sean
I would definitely add Athanasius' "On the Incarnation" to the beginning of the list. That book still knocks my socks off.
Sean: Do you think John Owen would be a worthy addition to your list?
Attycortes: Again, my question would be how influential Owen has been within the larger Christian tradition and Christian story. I think that for Reformed types, he is hugely important. But for the larger story, perhaps not as much.
In that regard, perhaps the one name on my list with which I would quibble might be Machen. I put that there because it was very important in the Modernist-Fundamentalist Controversy of the 1920s and continues in print almost 75 years later. But I wonder if there are other books that might be more important (such as the book Barlow suggested, Athanasius' On the Incarnation, which was so important during the 4th century Trinitarian controversies).
Best, sml
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