Theology for the Community of God

Stanley J. Grenz

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 1994 by Broadman & Holman Publishers

This edition published jointly 2000 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

www.eerdmans.com

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grenz, Stanley, 1950–

Theology for the community of God / Stanley J. Grenz.

p. cm.

Originally published: Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 978-0-8028-4755-3 (pbk.)

1. Theology, Doctrinal. 2. Evangelicalism. I. Title.

BT75.2.G74 2000
230′.04624—dc21	99-088899

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Scripture marked RSV is from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952 © 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission.

To

David S. Dockery

scholar, friend, and “kindred spirit”

Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION:

THE NATURE AND TASK OF THEOLOGY

The Theological Task

The Historical Development of Theology

Developments in the Meaning of the Term

The Need for Theology in the Church

The Task of Theology and the Church

The Relationship of Theology to Other Concepts

Theology and Faith

Theology and Religious Studies

Theology and the Science

Theology and Truth

The Ongoing Nature of the Theological Task

Dangers in the Theological Enterprise

Substitution

Dogmatism

Intellectualism

Theological Method

The Sources for Theology

The Reformation Debate

Contextualization and Experience

The Threefold Norm of Theology

The Integrative Motif of Theology

Representative Alternatives

The Kingdom of God

The Community of God

The Eschatological Community

The Structure of the Theological System

Theology and Ethics

PART 1

THEOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF GOD

1. THE GOD WHO IS

The Reality of God in an Era of Atheism

In the Era of the Bible: Which God?

The Rivalry of the Gods

The Universality of God

In the Christian Era: Does God Exist?

The Ontological Argument

The Cosmological and Teleological Arguments

The Moral Argument

The Rise of Intellectual Atheism

The Critique of the First Cause

The Critique of the Concept of God

The Elimination of the Idea of God

Theology and the Modern Situation

The Assertion of the Uniqueness of Christianity

The Reformulation of the Proofs

The Appeal to Anthropology

Christian Faith in the Contemporary Context

Knowledge of God in an Era of Agnosticism

The Claim to Know God and Intellectual Agnosticism

Epistemological Agnosticism

Logical Positivism

Agnosticism and the Incomprehensible God

The Means to Knowledge of God

Knowledge of God through Reason

Knowledge of God through Religious Experience

Knowledge of God through ...