To the Student: How to Use This Book
To the Student: How to Use This Book
Christian theology is one of the most fascinating subjects it is possible to study. This book aims to make that study as simple and as rewarding as possible. It has been written assuming that you know nothing about Christian theology. Obviously, the more you already know, the easier you will find this volume to handle. By the time you have finished this work, you will know enough to be able to follow most technical theological discussions and arguments, benefit from specialist lectures, and get the most from further reading.
Precisely because this book is comprehensive, it includes a lot of material – considerably more than is included in most introductions of this kind. You must not be frightened by the amount of material that this volume includes; you do not need to master it all. Considerable thought has been given to the best way of organizing the material. Grasping the structure of the work – which is quite simple – will allow it to be used more effectively by both students and teachers. The book is divided into three major parts.
The first part, entitled “Landmarks,” deals with the historical development of Christian theology. These four chapters give historical information which introduces some key terms and ideas that you will encounter in your study of theology, some of which will not be explained again. This volume works on the basis of “explain it the first time round.” To understand fully the key theological issues you will encounter later in this work, you need to know a little about their historical background.
You also need to know something about the debates over the sources and methods of Christian theology – in short, where Christianity gets its ideas from. The second part of the work introduces you to these issues, and will equip you to deal with the material covered in the third part.
The final part of the book, which is also the longest, consists of ten chapters dealing with the major doctrinal issues of Christian theology – what Christians believe about God, Jesus Christ, and heaven, to mention only three of the important topics covered in this section. This material is organized thematically, and you should have no difficulty in finding your way to the material appropriate to your needs. The “Contents” pages will give you a good idea of where each specific discussion is to be found. If you have any difficulties, use the index. The order of presentation of the material in this section has been altered from that in the fifth edition, in response to extensive consultation with users: for details, see the section “The Structure of the Book: The Fifth and Sixth Editions Compared.”
However, there is no need to read every chapter in this book, nor need you read them in the order in which they are set out. Each chapter can be treated as a more or less self-contained unit. The book includes internal cross-references, which will ensure that you can follow up related matters which arise in the course of each and every chapter. Once more, it must be stressed that you must not let the sheer length of the book intimidate you; it is long because it is comprehensive, and gives you access to all the information that you will need. It aims to be a one-stop freestanding reference book which will cover all the material that you are likely to need to know about.
If you are using the book to teach yourself theology, it is recommended that you read the chapters in the order in which they are presented. You will find the video and audio material available on the publisher's website helpful in introducing the overall approach of this textbook and how to get the most out of using it; these materials also provide introductions to each chapter. However, if you are using the book in conjunction with a taught course, you can easily work out how the sections of the book relate to the materials used by your teacher. If in doubt, ask for guidance.
If you come across terms which you do not understand, you have three options. First, try the glossary at the end of the work, which may give you a brief definition of the term. Second, try the index, which will provide you with a more extensive analysis of key discussion locations within the volume. And, third, you can carry out a search on the Internet for a definition and discussion of the term in question.
Full references are provided to the sources of all major quotations within this work. The “Sources of Citations” section will allow you to track down the quotation and study it at length in its proper context. Full extracts of many of these texts are provided in the widely used companion volume to this introduction, The Christian Theology Reader, now in its fifth edition. Appropriate cross-references will allow you to take things further if you want to, without placing you at a disadvantage if you do not.
A dedicated website has been established for this work, and it includes extensive and detailed bibliographies for every chapter and video and audio resources (including podcasts) that will help you begin to study theology and use this textbook. This website will be updated regularly, and will help you to identify suitable material for further reading. This website is not password protected. The address is: www.wiley.com/legacy/wileychi/mcgrath.
Finally, be assured that everything in this book – including the contents of this work, the way in which the material has been arranged, the style of writing used, and the explanations offered – has been checked by student audiences and individual readers in Australasia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The work is probably about as user-friendly as you can get. But both the author and publisher welcome suggestions from teachers and students for further improvement, and these will be included in later editions of the work.