Reviewed Book: Garrett, James Leo, Jr. Systematic theology: biblical, historical, and evangelical, v 2. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995

Muller, Richard A.

English

Scholars Commons

Systematic theology: biblical, historical, and evangelical, v 2

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 23Issue 1 Essays in the History of Interpretation Article 105-1-1997Systematic theology: biblical, historical, andevangelical, v 2Richard A. MullerFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationMuller, Richard A. (1997) "Systematic theology: biblical, historical, and evangelical, v 2," Consensus: Vol. 23 : Iss. 1 , Article 10.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol23/iss1/1084 Consensusas a fatalistic determinism—but at the same time he did assume that theinfection was inescapable. Sorry, Professor Guthrie, “You do got to.”Yet another example of the utter absence from this volume of compe-tent research and, indeed, of appreciation of the richness of the Christiantradition, is its brief denunciation of Anselm and the “satisfaction theory”of atonement as “unbiblical” . This view must be unbiblical, Guthrie avers,because Scripture never uses the word “satisfaction” (p. 258). (Of course,this very same problem—the failure of Scripture to use a term—does notprevent Guthrie from advocating his own version of the doctrine of theTrinity.) After offering a caricature of Anselm’s teaching—as if it restedon the assumption that “Jesus came” to “change God’s mind”—a view ofGod’s nature entirely foreign to Anselm—Guthrie appeals to Calvin as theauthor of an alternative position. Once again, Calvin; “Christ allowed him-self to be condemned. . .to make satisfaction for our redemption” and again,“Christ was offered to the Father in death as an expiatory sacrifice thatwhen he discharged all satisfaction through his sacrifice, we might ceaseto be afraid of God’s wrath” (Institutes^II.xvi.5, 6). If Anselm’s theory isunbiblical because of its use of the term “satisfaction”, so too is Calvin’s.Guthrie ought not to appeal to Calvin for support. And if the concept iden-tified by both Anselm and Calvin by the term “satisfaction” is a biblicalconcept (an assumption held nearly universally by the Reformers, the Re-formed confessions, and the orthodox Protestant tradition), then Guthrieis neither biblical nor Reformed.The preceding paragraphs do not, perhaps, constitute a politically cor-rect review. But it is also the case that, with the publication of every reviewof a textbook, the intellectual, religious, and spiritual formation of youngminds is at stake. A polite or consciously innocuous review of a poorlydone book may contribute to the perpetuation of error, incompetence, orinanity. This reviewer will not accept that burden.Richard A. MullerCalvin Theological SeminaryGrand Rapids, MichiganSystematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, Evangelical.Volume IIJames Leo GarrettGrand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995X + 872 pp. $45.00In this second and final volume of his Systematic Theology^ ProfessorJames Leo Garrett of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary com-pletes his highly instructive journey through all of the traditional topics ofBook Reviews 85theological system. Volume one (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990) offeredprolegomena followed by chapters on “Revelation and the Bible”, “God theHoly and Loving Father; the Trinity”, “Creation, Providence and Suprahu-man Beings”, “Humankind and Sin”, and “The Person of Jesus Christ”.Volume two presents the topics of “The Work of Jesus Christ”, “The HolySpirit”, “Becoming a Christian and Christian Life”, “The Church”, and“The Last Things”. This second volume lives up to Garrett’s promise toprovide the outlines of a theology that rests on biblical and historical foun-dations without intrusion of a particular philosophical perspective. As inthe first volume, the author has literally “done his homework” in the reviewand assimilation of a vast array of sources, ranging from the biblical textitself, to commentaries and essays on aspects of biblical theology, to classictreatises on theology from the patristic period down to modern times, tocontemporary historical and theological works bearing on the various topicsof theological system, to standard theological systems of this century.One of the characteristics of Garrett’s system that needs especially tobe noted is its balanced, judicious, and nearly invariably objective presen-tation of materials. While holding true to the teachings of his own Baptistfaith, Garrett so carefully and judiciously presents alternatives—notablydoctrines concerning sacraments as means of grace, infant baptism, anddiverse eschatological perspectives—that teachers and students from otherconfessional and denominational positions will find his work instructive.Some may find this broad and irenic approach problematic: it is at oncethe strength and the weakness of Garrett’s system that he states all viewsso clearly and in their best light, leaving much of the burden of the dispu-tative or assertive task to the professor in the classroom. This breadth andcare to state all positions is perhaps most evident in Garrett’s discussionof eschatology, specifically, of various millennial views. The strengths andweaknesses of all positions are noted and the conclusion looks, just a bitwistfully, toward the possibility that some as yet unidentified “key” mightbe found to formulate an “amalgam” that “would utilize the strengths orthe four major existing views” (II, p. 769).The two volumes serve well as a broadly evangelical or traditionalProtestant dogmatics which would, presumably, be supplemented withmore strictly confessional materials. They can function, moreover, as abasic seminary text or, indeed, as a guide to the neophyte instructor whostands in need of bibliographical support and analysis of a wide series ofbasic issues in his or her first core course preparation.Richard A. MullerCalvin Theological SeminaryGrand Rapids, Michigan

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1601&amp;context=consensus

Systematic theology: biblical, historical, and evangelical, v 2

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Scholars Commons

Wilfrid Laurier University