Michael Allen (editor) - A Companion to the Theology of John Webster

As someone who was Johns student from the age of seventeen in Oxford and then his colleague for several years as a professor in Aberdeen, I cannot begin to estimate the significance of his work on my own theological development. This collection of essays on his work offers for the first time a clear and helpful introduction to Websters theology in the hope that others, too, might benefit from his wisdom. The authors are trustworthy guides to anyone wishing to become more familiar with the work of one of the greatest theologians of his generation.

Tom Greggs

University of Aberdeen

What a wonderful volume! Like Webster himself, these essays bear a cheerful witness to the God of the Gospel and are unapologetic about theological theology. Websters thought did develop through his career, and these essays helpfully take his ideas and mature proposals seriously, though not uncritically. There is much to learn from them, and more importantly, they point us in meaningful ways back to Websters corpus itself. The result will not simply be that we understand Webster better, but that our theology might become more faithful in the process.

Kelly M. Kapic

Covenant College

With contributions from some of todays finest theologians, this volume is a labor of love that honors the rich legacy of John Websters theology and points towards ways to further it. Those who already know his work will find much of value here, and those who are new to Webster will find an outstanding introduction to the breadth and development of his thought, along with the reminder that, in Websters own words, positive Christian dogmatics is a wise, edifying, and joyful science.

Suzanne McDonald

Western Theological Seminary

John Websters work was wide-ranging, profound, and, owing to his untimely death, all too provisional. While we can only lament that he was unable to complete the comprehensive theological statement that his Systematic Theology would have been, this exquisitely crafted volume provides an indispensable vade mecum for understanding Websters tireless pursuit of a truly theological theology.

Ian A. McFarland

Candler School of Theology and University of Cambridge

This is a superb introduction to a major, if still underappreciated, theologian whose reputation will only continue to grow. Websters constructive powers grew out of careful and creative study of earlier modern Protestant systematicians, whose work he was able to reconfigure within broader catholic and evangelical perspectives, profoundly scriptural and Trinitarian. He produced one of the richest and most rigorous theological visions of our era. Allen and Nelson have assembled a group of theologians, significant in their own right, to provide a us with a well-lit entry into Websters sophisticated project. Helpfully ordered, crystal clear, yet also filled with appropriate detail, this volume will define the shape of future research on Webster and is indispensable for scholar and student alike.

Ephraim Radner

Wycliffe College

This companion is a celebration of John Websters theology and a declaration of gratitude to John Webster the theologian. The contributions serve as an ideal travel companion, following the itinerary of John Websters theological thinking, carefully retracing his steps, and surveying the coordinatesthe dogmatic lociwhich provided orientation for his theology. The rich abundance of reflections on the true subject of theology is a most fitting tribute to a theologian who counted humility among the chief theological virtues and who had an acute sense of theology always being on the way, not yet having reached the ultimate destination of Gods plan with his creation.

Christoph Schwbel

University of St. Andrews

This collection is a fitting tribute to a theologian beloved by many of us. Yet these essays avoid fawning; they advance constructive, critical understanding of Websters thought. John would be pleased that ultimately this book celebrates the perfection and presence of the Triune God, not the imperfect testimony of a particular theologian, however insightful.

Daniel J. Treier

Wheaton College

John Webster was probably the most creative and intellectually rigorous Protestant theologian in the English-speaking world in the last few decades, and his tragically early death robbed us of a uniquely joyful, insightful, and nourishing perspective on Christian revelation. This first-class collection of essays shows how his prolifically diverse writings converge toward a truly comprehensive and magisterial theological vision of apostolic faith for our generation.

Rowan Williams

104th Archbishop of Canterbury

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

www.eerdmans.com

2021 Michael Allen and R. David Nelson

All rights reserved

Published 2021

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN 978-0-8028-7674-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

For John

Kevin J. Vanhoozer

John Webster was born for such a between-the-times as this. While many twentieth- and twenty-first-century theologians have feared to set sail because of the storm-tossed waves of the modern academy or the prevailing winds of postmodern culture, John cheerfully waded into the dogmatic deep and bade us follow: Come on in, the waters fine!

The contributors to the present volume are but the vanguard of many who are indeed following John into the deep waters of dogmatics. Thanks to his example, they are experiencing the joy of rediscovering the helpfulness and truthfulness of the Christian confession and the wine of theological theology. The essays herein are a tribute to the man and his project, a work in progress cut tragically short by his premature entry into glory. Yet John was already on the way to glory before his death, as evidenced by the steady stream of essays that, like the jewels they are, refract in often breathtaking ways something of the perfections of the God who is light.

In many respects, John was only getting startedor rather restarted. Arguably, his chief contribution to the discipline of systematic theology was to put it on proper dogmatic footing. Having labored early on to satisfy his modern taskmasters, collecting various methodological straws in order to make doctrinal bricks, John eventually freed himself from bondage to untheological theology by retrieving Scripture and tradition. Persistent cheer and robust confidence mark his later essays, as well as scrupulous concern for tracing the external works of God back to the eternal Trinitarian processions that comprise Gods own perfect life. Beginning with the perfect life of the triune God in himself was perhaps Johns signature dogmatic movecall it his principle of immanent domain. By this I mean two things: first, that John believes theologians should meet contemporary challenges with the resources of dogmatics themselvesnamely, the doctrinal and exegetical materials of the Christian tradition; second, that he reduces (traces back) the economic missions of the Son and Spirit to their ground in the immanent Trinity. The second is an illustration of the first.

I was privileged to witness, sometimes at close range albeit a few steps behind, the three stages of Johns development. We first met in 1985 in England. Both of us studied theology at Cambridge University, but he had just finished, and I was preparing to submit. John and I were encouraged by our Cambridge teachers to respond to the problem of modernity by finding the right language, method, and conceptual scheme for making God-talk intelligible. He hitched his wagon to Eberhard Jngel, I to Paul Ricur. The need to justify theologys place in the university (preferably with a respectable metaphysics or epistemology) weighed heavily on us both.