Reviewed Book: Oden, Thomas C. The Living God: Systematic Theology, 1. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987

Muller, Richard A.

English

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The Living God: Systematic Theology, 1

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 13Issue 2 Canadian Lutheranism, Yesterday andTomorrowArticle 1411-1-1987The Living God: Systematic Theology, 1Richard 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. (1987) "The Living God: Systematic Theology, 1," Consensus: Vol. 13 : Iss. 2 , Article 14.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol13/iss2/14Book Reviews 99The final chapter of the book points toward the future as McDermottsuggests “Prospects for the Theology of Grace" in the areas of religiousexperience, liberation, and the relation of humanity to the rest of God’screation. Here the strengths and weaknesses of the Augustinian /Thomistictradition show through. McDermott handles well the areas where gracerelates to human development but ignores those points where God’s gracechallenges human values. The revolutionary nature of the cross gets a bitlost.Given the price of books these days, you will get good value for yourmoney in What Are They Saying About the Grace of Christ? It is excellent.Robert A. KellyWaterloo Lutheran SeminaryThe Living God. Systematic Theology: Volume OneThomas C. OdenSan Francisco: Harper Row, 1987XV plus 430 pp., $41.95Numerous systematic theologies appear and, often, fortunately disap-pear in every decade. A few remain as standard text books not becauseof brilliance or originality and not even because they succeed in graspingand addressing the crucical questions of an age—but primarily becausethey have none of these qualities and can, therefore, serve equally well(or poorly) in a wide variety of classroom situations. The Living God, byThomas Oden of Drew University Theological School, is an important ex-ception to these generalizations: we have here the first volume of a projectedthree-volume systematic theology in which the presentation of doctrine isnormative without being antiquated, contemporary without being time-bound. catholic in breadth without being platitudinous. Oden commentsin his preface (p. x) that “This book is especially for those who have be-come wearied with ever-changing modern theologies and who now hungerfor a plausible restatement of classical Christian teaching of God”. Morespecifically, the system is developed at an introductory level, suitable foruse by beginning theology students, but directed (as the author indicates)primarily at pastors. Its intention, moreover, is not to be an ultimate ordefinitive statement of theology in and of itself but rather to be a point ofentry for Christians into the great insights of the tradition of the church.It is certainly in this underlying attitude and direction that the strengthof Oden’s work lies. He argues from the outset that theology cannot be amatter of personal preference or of idiosyncrasy. His discussions bear con-tinuous and consistent witness to the resources of scripture and tradition100 Consensuson theological formulation in the present, and he makes a point of statingthat he presents “no revolutionary new ideas, no easy new way to salvation”(p. xiii)—and we might add, no easy new way to theology. Oden strivesfor the centrist, ecumenical teaching of the church, citing copiously fromsuch writers as Clement of Alexandria, Ambrose, Basil of Caesarea, Hi-lary of Poitiers, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, John of Damascus, ThomasAquinas, Bonaventure, Luther, Calvin, Wesley—and even such authors asthe Protestant scholastics, Calov, Quenstedt, Turretin and Hollaz. Theteaching here is orthodox in the best sense of the term and it continuallypoints the reader toward the great tradition of the church. Students willgain much from this volume because of its clarity of theological argument:they will gain far more if they take up the challenge of the author to enterinto dialogue with the church via his footnotes.Ought this book to become a standard text? That, of course, is thebasic question that must be asked of such a book—and it can be given withcertainty only after the appearance of the second and third volumes of thesystem. For the present, we can say that Oden’s work will probably be-come the basic text in places where the ecumenical, multi-denominationaland traditional emphases predominate. The “post-modern orthodoxy” to-ward which Oden pointed in his insightful Agenda for Theology is givenfirmer ground here than in any other contemporary systematics— and thenon-polemical catholicity of the book assures its broad usefulness. On theother hand. Oden’s work will not carry the day in contexts where thedistinctive features of a particular tradition demand close exposition inthe basic course in systematic theology. Thus the more conservative Re-formed schools will continue to use Berkhof’s Systematic Theology while asomewhat less conservative school will probably favor Weber’s Foundations;on the Lutheran side. Oden wdll not replace Pieper’s Christian Dogmaticsin .Missouri Synod seminaries or the Braaten-Jensen Christian Dogmaticsamong other Lutherans. In all of these cases, however. Oden’s work shouldbecome a valuable adjunct, a collateral reading, that stands for the wholechurch, beyond the polemic. And in the case of the Barthian tendency ofWeber and the Hegelian-Pannenbergian tendency of Braaten-Jensen, Odencan be used to provide not a view beyond the Reformed and Lutheranrootage of these respective systems, but beyond the time-bound “modern’*tendencies underlying their arguments. Neo-orthodoxy has already ceasedto be a major force in twentieth century theology, Hegelianism probablydid not deserve to be resurrected, and Pannenberg’s importance is prob-ably also only temporary: the tradition to w’hich Oden points and fromwhich he draws materials for contemporary definition will stand as long asthe church itself.Richard A. MullerFuller Theological SeminaryPasadena, California

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