Gunton - The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine

CAMBRIDGE COMPANIONS TO RELIGION

A series of companions to major topics and key figures in theology and religious studies. Each volume contains specially commissioned chapters by international scholars which provide an accessible and stimulating introduction to the subject for new readers and non-specialists.

Titles Published

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

edited by Colin Gunton

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

edited by John Barton

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO LIBERATION THEOLOGY

edited by Christopher Rowland

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

edited by John W. de Gruchy

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO KARL BARTH

edited by John Webster

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO CHRISTIAN ETHICS

edited by Robin Gill

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO JESUS

edited by Markus Bockmuehl

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO FEMINIST THEOLOGY

edited by Susan Frank Parsons

Forthcoming

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE GOSPELS

edited by Stephen C. Barton

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO ST PAUL

edited by James D. G. Dunn

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO ISLAMIC THEOLOGY

edited by Tim Winter

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO REFORMATION THEOLOGY

edited by David Bagchi and David Steinmetz

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO MARTIN LUTHER

edited by Donald K. McKim

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO JOHN CALVIN

edited by Donald K. McKim.

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO FRIEDRICH SCHLEIERMACHER

edited by Jacqueline Maria

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO HANS URS VON BALTHASAR

edited by Edward T. Oakes and David Moss

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO POSTMODERN THEOLOGY

edited by Kevin Vanhoozer

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

Constructive Christian doctrine was for a long time in the doldrums, its contents progressively brought into question by representatives of intellectual modernism. But recent years have seen something of a revival in its fortunes. This is due to a number of factors, among them the critique of modernism and a stress on the particular and relative independence of the distinctive intellectual disciplines.

Theology has always taken a shape related to the culture in which it is set, and The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine is no exception. The fourteen chapters, written by established theologians from Britain and America, attempt to develop the promise inherent in the changed intellectual situation, while at the same time introducing some of the central topics of theology. The book is divided into two parts, with the first six chapters examining Christian theology in its current setting, and the second eight treating major topics among those traditional in Christian doctrine. While it has not been possible to include an account of everything, there has nevertheless been built a framework within which detailed treatment of other doctrines could be developed. The advantage of the compression is that topics are brought into relation which might be worse treated in relative isolation.

New readers and non-specialists will find this an accessible and stimulating introduction to the content of the main themes of Christian doctrine, while advanced students and specialists will find a useful summary of recent developments which demonstrates the variety, coherence and intellectual vitality of contemporary Christian thought.

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

Edited by Colin E. Gunton

Kings College London

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Cambridge University Press 1997

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1997

13th printing 2012

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-521-47695-9 Paperback

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Contents

COLIN GUNTON

STANLEY HAUERWAS

GERARD LOUGHLIN

FRANCIS WATSON

BRUCE D. MARSHALL

JEREMY BEGBIE

RALPH DEL COLLE

COLIN GUNTON

KEVIN VANHOOZER

TREVOR HART

ROBERT W. JENSON

DAVID FERGUSSON

KATHRYN TANNER

GEOFFREY WAINWRIGHT

Notes on contributors

Jeremy Begbie is Vice Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He lectures in systematic theology there and in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He was originally trained as a musician and has worked on the interface between theology and the arts. He is author of Music in Gods Purposes (Edinburgh: Handsel Press, 1989) and Voicing Creations Praise (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1991).

Ralph Del Colle is Assistant Professor of Theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He is the author of Christ and the Spirit: Spirit-Christology in Trinitarian Perspective (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

David A. S. Fergusson is Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Aberdeen, and is the author of Bultmann (London: Chapman, 1992) and the editor of Christ, Church and Society: Essays on John Baillie and Donald Baillie (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1993).

Colin Gunton has been Professor of Christian Doctrine at Kings College London since 1984, and since 1975 Associate Minister of Brentwood United Reformed Church, Essex. Among his recent books are The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1991); The One, the Three and the Many. God, Creation and the Culture of Modernity. The 1992 Bampton Lectures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); A Brief Theology of Revelation. The 1993 Warfield Lectures (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1995); Theology Through the Theologians: Selected Essays, 19721995 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1996).

Trevor Hart is Professor of Divinity in the University of St Andrews. Recent publications include Justice the True and Only Mercy. Essays on the Life and Theology of Peter Taylor Forsyth (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1995); Faith Thinking: The Dynamics of Christian Theology (London: SPCK, 1995); Sinlessness and Moral Responsibility: A Problem in Christology (Scottish Journal of Theology, vol. 48.1, 1995, pp. 3754); Barth and Kng on Justification (The Irish Theological Quarterly, vol. 59.2,1993); The Word, the Words and the Witness: Proclamation as Divine and Human Reality in the Theology of Karl Barth (Tyndale Bulletin, vol. 46.1, 1995).

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at the Divinity School of Duke University. He has published such books as