Preface
Preface
The great Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886–1968) offers us a vision of Christian theology at its finest. It is, he suggests, like the great landscapes of Tuscany or Umbria, which move both our heads and our hearts, holding us in awe on account of the breathtaking views which they offer. Even the most distant perspectives seem incredibly clear. Barth is but one of many theologians to have stressed the sheer intellectual excitement that the study of Christian theology can impart, not to mention its capacity to bring new depth to the life of faith. To study theology is to set out on a voyage of discovery that is at times enriching, at times challenging, but always profoundly interesting.
This book is written in the conviction that Christian theology is one of the most fascinating subjects anyone can hope to study. As Christianity enters into a new phase of expansion, especially in the Pacific Rim, the study of Christian theology will continue to have a key role to play in modern intellectual culture. It also remains of seminal importance to anyone wishing to understand the central issues and preoccupations of the Middle Ages or the European Reformation, as well as many other periods in human history.
Yet, as a professional teacher of Christian theology at Oxford University for more than thirty years, I have become painfully aware that this sense of enthusiasm and excitement seems rare among university and seminary students of theology. They are more often baffled and bewildered by the frequently confusing vocabulary of Christian theology, the apparent unintelligibility of much recent writing in the field, and that writing's seeming irrelevance to the practical issues of Christian living and ministry. As someone who believes that Christian theology is among the most rewarding, fulfilling, and genuinely exciting subjects anyone can ever hope to study, I have worked hard to try to remedy this situation. This book, which arises out of more than three decades of teaching theology to undergraduates and seminarians at Oxford University and beyond, is a response to that concern. It took me ten years to work out how best to present and explain many of the ideas conveyed in this work, using student lecture audiences as testing grounds for the various approaches I conceived.
I wrote this book back in 1993 because it was obvious that there was an urgent need for an entry-level introduction to Christian theology. Too many existing introductions of that age made what experience shows to have been hopelessly optimistic assumptions about how much their readers already knew. In part, this reflects a major religious shift within western culture. Many students now wishing to study Christian theology are recent converts. Unlike their predecessors in past generations, they possess little inherited understanding of the nature of Christianity, its technical vocabulary, or the structure of its thought. Theology thus needs to be introduced and explained to these students, whose enthusiasm for their subject outweighs their lack of base knowledge. This book is a genuine introduction, assuming that its readers know nothing about Christian theology. Everything is introduced clearly, and set out as simply as possible. Simplicity of expression and clarity of exposition are the core virtues that have been pursued in writing this work.
For some, this will mean that the resulting work lacks sophistication and originality. Those qualities are certainly valuable in other contexts. They are not, however, appropriate to a book of this kind. Originality implies novelty and development; in writing this book, I have deliberately avoided imposing my own ideas as if these were of any interest or importance. Educational considerations have been given priority over everything else. My aim in this work has not been to persuade, but to explain. I have no interest in imposing my own views on anyone; my hope is simply to provide a gateway to the riches of Christian theology.
This book is therefore descriptive, not prescriptive. It does not seek to tell its readers what to believe, but rather aims to explain to them what has been believed, in order to equip them to make up their minds for themselves. It does this by describing options available to them, and those options' historical origins, and enabling them to understand the options' strengths and weaknesses through a process of analysis and reflection.
As the title and contents make clear, this is an introduction to Christian theology, rather than any specific form or school of Christian theology. It engages with the core themes of the great tradition of Christian thought down the centuries, which are common to all Christian denominations and groups. Recent years have seen the emergence of a “theology of retrieval and reappropriation” across the entire spectrum of Christian thought, as theologians have realized the importance and usefulness of theological dialogue with the past. This book is ideally placed to help its readers gain an appreciation of the rich resources of the Christian tradition. Although this is not a work of Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant theology, great care has been taken to ensure that Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant perspectives and insights are represented and explored.
Inevitably, this approach means that the discussion of many questions of Christian theology – especially questions of method – is somewhat limited. If my own notes are anything to go by, it would take a volume nearly five times the size of this one to do anything even approaching justice to the complexities of many of the issues raised. Readers therefore need to appreciate that what is being offered is an introduction, a sketched map, in order that they can pursue these questions in greater detail, having at least gained some understanding of what is at stake. My own experience strongly suggests that students stand a far better chance of understanding and appreciating seminal issues if someone is prepared to take the trouble to explain the background to the discussion, the nature and significance of the questions being debated, and the terminology being used. I have assumed that my readers will know no language other than English, and have explained and provided a translation of every Latin, Greek, and German word and phrase that has become an accepted part of the theologian's vocabulary.
Sadly, there is not space to discuss every theological development, movement, or writer which one might hope to include in a work of this sort. Time and time again, pressure on space has forced me to leave out some material which many readers will feel ought to have been included, or give a less full account of some questions than I would have liked. I can only apologize for these shortcomings, of which I am only too painfully aware. The selection of matters to be discussed – and the manner in which they were discussed – in the first edition of this work was based upon first-hand recent experience of teaching and on careful surveys of student opinion in many countries that aimed to discover both what students thought ought to be included in this volume and what they find difficult to understand, and hence what requires extended explanation.
This survey was extended for the purposes of subsequent editions to include a large number of those involved in the teaching of systematic theology; wherever possible, their suggestions for alterations and improvement were included. The fourth edition involved more extensive consultation than usual, and led to a major rewriting of the text, with substantial changes being made at several points. The “Acknowledgments” section details those who were kind enough to assist in this way. It is clear that these improvements were widely welcomed. The entire text was reviewed for clarity of presentation, while including a significant amount of additional material requested by many users. After twenty years, however, it became clear that the structure of the work needed modification to reflect more accurately the way in which theology was being taught in colleges and seminaries. The sixth edition includes a new chapter on the Holy Spirit, which many readers have requested. This welcome development means that some material has had to be rearranged to allow the best possible presentation of ideas. Readers who are interested in these changes might like to consult the brief section of this work which sets them out fully and clearly (see “The Structure of the Book: The Fifth and Sixth Editions Compared”).
It is my hope that this new edition of this work, published to mark the 25th anniversary of its original publication, will help its readers to discover the intellectual and spiritual riches and riddles, delights and debates of Christian theology. I count it a privilege to be your guide as you begin the exploration of the vast territory of the mind that lies ahead. Both the publisher and I would be delighted to have any suggestions you might like to make about how this journey of discovery might be made easier, more interesting, or more worthwhile.
Alister E. McGrath
Oxford University