1. Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction
Chapter 5
Getting Started
Preliminaries
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

2. Defining Theology A working definition of theology
Sources
Development
Relationships
Applications
The historical development of the idea of theology
Early Christianity and polytheism
The doctrine of God
The discipline of sacred learning
Religious studies
The development of theology as an academic discipline
The founding of universities in western Europe, 12th century
A theoretical or a practical discipline?
Justification of the place of theology in universities
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

3. The Architecture of Theology
Biblical studies
Knowledge of Jesus Christ
Debated relationship between biblical studies and systematic theology
Systematic theology
Clear and ordered overview of main ideas of Christian faith
Organization around a particular method
Philosophical theology
Clarification of Christian ideas
Critical reactions: Tertullian and Karl Barth
Historical theology
Connection between historical/social context and theology
Provisional or conditional elements in theology
Pastoral (practical) theology
Edward Farley and Don S. Browning
Spiritual or mystical theology
Thomas Merton ( )
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

4. The Question of Prolegomena
Prolegomena = “forewords” (where to begin?)
Starting-point in basic human experience:
F.D.E. Schleiermacher: “feeling of absolute dependence”
Paul Tillich: “method of correlation”
Karl Rahner: urge to transcend limitations of human nature
Critique: Karl Barth
Prolegomena as “the things that must be said first in theology”
The doctrine of the Word of God
Reaction against preoccupation with method
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

5. Commitment and Neutrality in Theology
Arguments for detachment and neutrality
Detachment is necessary to avoid prejudice in the quest for truth
A critical environment forces one to ask hard questions
Arguments for commitment
Liberation theology: truth demands commitment
All scholarship has precommitments and presuppositions
Christian theology arises in response to the faith of a community
Seminaries and “faculties of religion”
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

6. Orthodoxy and Heresy Historical aspects Theological aspects
Walter Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity
Early tolerance of diverse views
Power of the Roman church to impose its views
Criticism of Bauer’s hostility to doctrinal norms
Theological aspects
F.D.E. Schleiermacher’s Christian Faith
Fundamental notion of God’s redemption of humanity through Christ alone
Inadequate understandings of redemption:
Ebionitism
Docetism
Pelagianism
Manichaeism
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

7. The Theology of the Relation of Christianity and Secular Culture
Justin Martyr (c.100-c.165)
Christianity and Platonism
Tertullian (c.160-c.225)
What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?
Augustine of Hippo ( )
Critical appropriation of classical culture
H. Richard Niebuhr ( )
Christ against culture
Christ of culture
Christ above culture
Christ and culture in paradox
Christ the transformer of culture
Wiley-Blackwell 2010