Big Berkhof

i attended a preaching conference at SMBC a couple of years ago now - one of the best things (apart from the teaching of course) was that their library was doing a bit of a clean out.
so anyway, the Don recommended, out of his talk on Systematic Theology, both Big Berkhof and Little Louis. and i went down to the library sale and picked up Louis Berkhof's Manual of Christian Doctrine (Eerdmans: 1931, reprinted 1981) - ie Little Louis.
and i can honestly say that it's been one of my most helpful para-biblical books - it goes through the issues, through all facets of Christian Doctrine, but straightforwardly (whoever would have thought the difference between supra- and infra-lapsarianism would be made straightforward?!), as well as showing the varying views of different denominational traditions, where they stand and where the important and trivial differences are.

he is fair to both sides, happy to say when there is good justification for either, but also not backward in pointing out, in all humility, the flaws in flawed standpoints.

with my doctrine exam looming nearer, a few weeks ago i decided i needed to step up - and get my hands on Big Berkhof - or Louis Berkhof's Systematic Theology (Eerdmans: 1938, reprinted 1996), and found it here for only 17 bucks, WITH his 1932 Introduction to the Study of Systematic Theology in the one volume!

BARGAIN!!!*

it's pretty thrilling - great quotes, such as this on the Holy Spirit:

The Bible never deals with the doctrine of the Trinity as an abstract truth, but reveals the Trinitarian life in its various relations as a living reality, to a certain extent in connection with the works of creation and providence, but particularly in relation to the work of redemption. Its most fundamental revelation is given in facts rather than in words. (ST p85)

Big Berkhof is not a book you'll read cover to cover, but it's by far my most used reference book. well, it will be - after Little Louis!
there was a stack of them at West Ryde Koorong - you just need to step over the realised eschatology section, block out the 'jesus is my boyfriend' music, and wear sunscreen to shield yourself from the glare of the gold-plated 'the message' 'bibles'. jokes, of course!

*i just checked Amazon - they're flogging it for double, plus that's US dollars, so super expensive

What is God like?

been reading Louis Berkhof's Manual of Christian Doctrine (also known as Little Louis).
got some questions for him:

how is God independent, yet all things depend on him?

how is God immutable yet ever creating, ever generating, ever sustaining?

how can we know about God's incommunicable attributes?
(that is, his independence, immutability, infinity, simplicity)


it does seem that there are two categories of attributes of God: Incommunicable and Communicable. That makes sense of a quote i read last night,

What appears as imperfect in man, exists in infinite perfection in God. (Systematic Theology (also known as Big Berkhof), p84)

which must be referring not to the incommunicable but the communicable. that makes much more sense.

Dogmatik im Grundriß I

finally started reading this after buying it way back when (see here).

despite a semester of Biblical Theology at bible skool, with a focus on how this is different to other 'theologies', i think it's only now in reading these 1947 lectures by Karl Barth that i've read a clear explanation of where Exegesis (which includes Biblical Theology), Dogma (Systematic Theology) and Practical Theology fit together.

Es gibt in der Theologie die Frage nach der Quelle, nach dem Woher des Wortes, und die Antwort auf diese erste Frage wird immer wieder zu geben sein in jener Disziplin, die wir Exegese nennen.

Auf der andere Seite aber erhebt sich auch die Frage nach dem Wie, nach der Form und Gestalt der Verkündigung, die der Kirche aufgetragen ist, und dort befinden wir uns auf dem Felde dessen, was man die praktische Theologie nennt.

Genau in der Mitte zwischen Exegese und praktischer Theolgie steht die Dogmatik oder umfassender ausgedrückt: die systematischer Theologie. In der Dogmatik fragen wir nicht: Woher stammt - und nicht: Wie gestaltet sich die kirchliche Verkündigung, sondern in der Dogmatik fragen wir: Was haben wir zu denken und zu sagen? [...] im Blick darauf, dass wir nicht nur theoretisch etwas zu sagen haben, sondern etwas in die Welt hinein rufen sollen.

so basically, in Exegesis we have the source (die Quelle), on the other side, asking 'how?', we have practical theology. and in the middle, coming out of the one, and informing the other, we then have Dogma, or ST, which is we have to think and to say. and it is not just in theory, but rather, Dogma is rather something we can cry out into the world.

i don't think i was ever encouraged to think of ST in this way. but ST, for example in creeds (see here for a fun discussion on creeds!), as Barth works through in the rest of this book, is what we believe, it is thus what we should speak to the world. not so much a how, but perhaps a what. this is i guess why creeds are so controversial (see aforementioned blog to see this played out), as simply stating what it is you believe, what you think, can be really confronting.

especially in a world of relativism and post-modernity, it is particularly important to wtate that we do believe something, something in particular, something to the exception of all else.

quotations from Karl Barth, Dogmatik im Grundriß, Theologischer Verlag Zürich: 1947 (2006 reprint), p12-13.

WSBI 2

Still trying to get topics together since my previous post:

it looks like WS may be better served with systematics, over early church history. now it's not because i don't like early church history - au contrare: as santayana says, "he who forgets the past is destined to repeat it."

however the point was made that people attending may be better served having a conversation about things they can engage with, as opposed to a didactic lecture; the idea was always to be interactive.
systematics will helpfully remain accessible, due to their biblical framework.

so with that in mind, what do we think of these as topics?

1. Sovereignty of God


2. Baptism


3. Eschatology


4. Sin Nature of the Atonement, Why Jesus?, Patripassianism


5. The Bible Canon LXX v Masoretic, Apocrypha/pseudepigrypha Gnostic gospels, DeadSeaScrolls

Predestination

6. The Holy Spirit


7. Christology Who is Jesus

WSBI

firstly: the new-look wild street church website is up! check it out on the sidebar.

secondly: next year the wild street bible institute is underway, and i am still thinking through possible topics. the format is to be (i'm thinking) 45 min talk, 45 min small group discussion. to be held monthly.
topics thus far are:

Carthage (the church of martyrs)
Alexandria (allegory)
Athens (historico-contextual method)
Rome (church governance/leadership)
Constantinople (esp 381 and trinitarian controversy)
Sin - the nature of the atonement
Source Criticism

got any suggestions as regards format of the time, other possible subjects?
any appreciated!