{"id":6171,"date":"2015-10-22T19:04:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T02:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=6171"},"modified":"2015-10-22T19:04:04","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T02:04:04","slug":"does-god-need-my-help-to-reveal-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/does-god-need-my-help-to-reveal-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"Does God Need My Help to Reveal Himself?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"move<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cChristian Theology\u201d, by Alister E. McGrath, is a comprehensive look historically and theologically at the foundational tenants of the Christian faith.\u00a0 McGrath says in the opening \u201cTo the Reader:\u00a0 How to Use this Work\u201d, \u201cYou must not be frightened by the amount of material the volume includes; you do not need to master it all.\u201d (pg. xviii) The amount of information can be perceived as overwhelming.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I enjoy Millard J. Erickson\u2019s, \u201cChristian Theology\u201d[1]<\/a> and his robust way of intricately dissecting the doctrines of the Christian faith.\u00a0 McGrath is thorough in content, but much easier to read.\u00a0 McGrath inserts two Contents pages, one that is brief and the other exhaustive.\u00a0 This creates an easy access to pertinent information.\u00a0 I am not implying that McGrath\u2019s work is \u201ctheology-lite\u201d.\u00a0 McGrath is an Oxford professor that understands quite well the nuances and challenges of Christian theology and presents them quite well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

McGrath addresses, in a scholarly fashion, every major doctrine of the Christian faith from the doctrine of God, the doctrine of the trinity, the person of Christ, the doctrine of salvation in Christ, the doctrine of human nature, the doctrine of the church, the sacraments, and the doctrine of last things.\u00a0 He methodically weaves history and the doctrines in an easily assessable form.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interesting is McGrath\u2019s approach to lay down a historical timeline to help see the progress of humanity in the process of theology.\u00a0 You cannot divorce human thought process from theological progression.\u00a0 McGrath references Barth by claiming that \u201cChristian theology was not in any sense dependent upon human philosophy, but was autonomous and self-supporting.\u00a0 God was perfectly capable of revealing himself without any human assistance.\u201d (pg. 153)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McGrath balances well the human process of information absorption combined with factual evidence to help support Christian theology.\u00a0 As the cohort has bantered back and forth between the five categories of theology from \u201cfolk theology\u201d and \u201cacademic theology\u201d[2]<\/a>, McGrath takes an approach that his brand of theology can be self-taught or used as an academic reference.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGod was perfectly capable of revealing himself without any human assistance.\u201d (pg. 153) So does God need my help to reveal Himself?\u00a0 I would immediately respond, No!\u00a0 But He does allow me to cooperate with Him in my revelation of Him to me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I read through \u201cChristian Theology\u201d, I was challenged again to \u201csee\u201d Him clearer, not just comprehend multiple layers of theology.\u00a0 I agree with McGrath that the study of an unfamiliar subject must begin with the question, \u201cWhere should you begin?\u201d (pg. 152) The saga of understanding theology \u201cshould start has become known as the \u2018question of prolegomena\u2019.\u00a0 The Greek term prolegomena<\/em> could be translated as \u2018forewords\u2019 \u2013 in other words, things that need to be said before beginning the study of theology.\u201d (pg. 152) The foundation of understanding will determine the \u201cbuilding\u201d that will have formulated on top of that understanding.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I believe that we must be involved in theological understanding that is not static. \u00a0This does not account for us helping God out.\u00a0 It is more from the aspect that God is helping us out as we understand Him more thoroughly and build continually on the previous foundation of revelation that He has given.\u00a0 \u201cChristian Theology\u201d is a like a \u201cgeneral contractor\u201d that is helping us oversee the construction of our understanding of Jesus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What defines and delineates the difference of helping to assist God in His revelation versus God revealing Himself without any human assistance?\u00a0 One word, motive!\u00a0 The motivation behind the pursuit can take many directions and give a multitude of destinations.\u00a0 We again touch on Grenz and Olson\u2019s five categories of theology and where we are and where we hope to go to.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Does God need me to reveal Himself?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 But I sure do need Him to reveal Himself on a continual basis to me.\u00a0 Authors such as McGrath and Erickson challenge me to \u201csee\u201d God through revelation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, Third Edition<\/em> (Grand Rapids, MI:\u00a0 Baker Academic, 2013)<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson, Who Needs Theology, An Invitation to the Study of God <\/em>(Downers Grove, IL:\u00a0 InterVarsity Press, 1996), 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Introduction \u201cChristian Theology\u201d, by Alister E. McGrath, is a comprehensive look historically and theologically at the foundational tenants of the Christian faith.\u00a0 McGrath says in the opening \u201cTo the Reader:\u00a0 How to Use this Work\u201d, \u201cYou must not be frightened by the amount of material the volume includes; you do not need to master […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[713,199,128],"class_list":["post-6171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-erickson","tag-mcgrath","tag-theology","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6178,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6171\/revisions\/6178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}