Reviewed Book: Muller, Richard A. Post-reformation reformed dogmatics, V 1: prolegomena to theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Bk House, 1987

Cooke, Timothy R.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 16Issue 1 Hermeneutics: Theory and Practice Article 165-1-1990Post-reformation reformed dogmatics, volume 1:prolegomena to theologyTimothy R. CookeFollow 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 CitationCooke, Timothy R. (1990) "Post-reformation reformed dogmatics, volume 1: prolegomena to theology," Consensus: Vol. 16 : Iss. 1 ,Article 16.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol16/iss1/16122 Consensusof religion and then, echoing the Apologists of the second century, the supe-riority of Christianity. In its vision of the highest good of the human race,Grotius argues, Christianity preserves the truths known to natural religion,to ancient philosophy and to ancient Israel, while at the same time drawingthem together into a higher form. Throughout the work, the reader is im-pressed by Grotius’ gra^p not only of the materials of the Christian religionbut of classical literature and philosophy as well—and by Grotius’ obviouscLssumption that Christianity cannot be discussed apart from the valuesand insights that it shared with and in many cases gained from classicalantiquity.Like the Arminian and, indeed, like the Lutheran theologians of hisday, Grotius argues that Christianity, els a religion, is essentially practical:it is a form of knowing that tends toward a goal. This argument, how-ever, leads him beyond the polemics of his day to the conclusion that therighteous or ethical life is the center of Christian teaching and not the much-controverted dogmas of then-contemporary debate. This is not to say thatGrotius viewed Christianity as lacking doctrine: he identified fundamentaldoctrinal issues, decreta, such as the essence and attributes of God, God’srelation to the created order, human nature els created in the image of God,and human nature as now troubled by evil. All of these decreta functionas the grounds for ethical official the issue, for Grotius, is to direct hisreaders toward the fundamental intention of the Christian religion, livingrightly in accord with God’s will, not disputing fine points of dogma. Heconcludes his work with a plea for tolerance.The importance of this volume lies not only in the new and clearer per-spective that the Meletius itself gives on the life and work of an importantthinker of the seventeenth century, but also in the major contribution madeby its editor to our understanding of the intellectual life of the Netherlandsin Grotius’ time. The introduction and commentary are models of schol-arship that offer insight into the workings of theology, theological politics,classical study and scholarship in the seventeenth century.Richard A. MullerFuller Theological SeminaryPost-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. I, Prole-gomena to TheologyRichard A. MullerGrand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987365 pp. $12.95 U.S.This volume is the first installment of a planned trilogy analysing thetheology of post-Reformation Reformed Scholasticism. The present workBook Reviews 123includes theological foundations, hermeneutics and the doctrine of God.The author is eager to restore more accuracy to historical judgements ofthe Protestant Scholastics, neither viewing them as normative for theologytoday (cf. Robert Preus) nor dismissing them as hopelessly obscurantistand of little use for contemporary theological reflection. Muller’s thesisis that the achievement of the Baroque theologians “was the creation ofan institutional theology, confessionally in continuity with the Reformationand doctrinally, in the sense of the larger system of doctrine, in continuitywith the great tradition of the church” (p. 13). Far from representinga degenerated ossification of the Reformation, the Protestant Scholasticspreserved the Reformation for posterity by codifying it under the threatof a resurgent Catholicism without and the bullying of Protestant rulerswithin. Moreover, in Muller’s view, the imposing doctrinal edifice theyerected remains influential in Protestant theology today.Muller surveys the course of Protestant Orthodoxy through threephases of development: the early period from 1560 to 1630; the high pe-riod from 1630 to 1700; and the late period extending from 1700 to themiddle of the century. To account for the rise of Protestant OrthodoxyMuller adduces four contributing factors: the polemical threat of RomanCatholic apologists; the need for a stable pedagogical foundation under theProtestant churches; the resolution of certain intra-Protestant dogmatic is-sues; and the search for a philosophical elaboration of the vision of theReformation.One factor which Muller discounts is the “controlling theological cate-gory” or Leitprinzip^ whose importance has been considered quintessentialof Reformed Orthodoxy since the nineteenth century. Muller argues thatthe idea of a Leitprinzip as forming a particular system of theology is aproduct of Romanticism and the importation of the idea into the study ofReformed Scholasticism has caused theologians such as Heppe, Barth andBizer to misread the Reformed Orthodox as creatures of Calvin’s succes-sor Beza, dominated by rationalism and predestinarianism. Muller rejectsthe accuracy of these labels and asserts the continuity of Christian Aris-totelianism, albeit in a different form from late Medieval or Reformationtheology. As a form of Christian Aristotelianism, Orthodoxy was neitherrationalist nor fideist. When Descartes and Locke replaced Aristotle andthe scholastic method, Protestant Scholasticism was also eclipsed.This volume has much to commend it to the prospective reader. It isresearched and written well, offers insight into an important but often mis-understood and overlooked period of dogmatic history, and is very reason-ably priced. Muller has made a valiant effort to rehabilitate the ReformedScholastics from charges of torpidity and obscurity. What remains to be124 Consensusseen from the results of his second and third volumes is whether he cansustain the thesis of continuity with the first generation of the Reformationand relevance for the present.Timothy R. CookeSt. Peter’s Anglican ChurchThe Christ of the Ignatian ExercisesJuan Luis SegundoMaryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1987The Christ of the Ignatian Exercises is Juan Luis Segundo’s fourthvolume in his series “Jesus of Nazareth Yesterday and Today”. Previousvolumes have included: Volume One Faith and Ideologies; Volume Two,The Historical Jesus of the Synoptics; and Volume Three, The HumanistChristology of Paul.Edited and translated from the Spanish by John Drury, the presentvolume finds its place in what will no doubt be, when it is complete, amajor theological opus by one of the century’s most articulate “liberation”theologians.It is not ecLsy going; the pages are theologically and syntactically denseand closely-reasoned; you will find yourself re-reading many a paragraph—or even page!—to follow and comprehend. But it is worth the struggle; Se-gundo makes a convincing case that Jesus of Nazareth belongs to the ages,in the words of Pelikan’s recent argument. More than that, he makes a con-vincing case that Jesus of Nazareth belongs to the revolution-impassionedatheist as much as to the committed baptized.And that is the accumulated force of the material Segundo presentshere; he is a kind of evangelist—he might not select that term for himself,but that is how he must be read—eager to present a winsome portrait ofthe Center of our faith in terms that are attractive and also credible to thecentury’s “cultured despisers”. Among these, not surprisingly, the thought-ful and committed revolutionary laboring for justice for the oppressed findsa special place in Segundo’s affections; one harbors the impression, in read-ing these pages, that their author feels a special sense of urgency in makingJesus both credible and attractive to a non-Christian audience thought-fully and passionately committed to social justice. “Blessed are those whohunger and thirst for righteousness. . ..”Segundo organizes his material into seven chapters, with an introduc-tion and an appendix, and fully twenty pages of endnotes. The Introduc-tion sketches out the parameters of his project: “Christologies in ChristianSpiritualities”. Chapter One is entitled “Jesus and God: Approach to

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