III' The Sources and Methods of Theology

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III. The Sources and Methods of Theology
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III. Sources and Methods

• The sources of theology
• 1. The canon and text of Scripture
• 2. Scripture and its interpretation
• 3. Scripture and its use
• Theological method
• 1. Modern approaches
• 2. Key ideas revisited
• 3. Suggestions on method

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III. A. The Sources of Theology
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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 1. The canon and text of Scripture

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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 2. Scripture and its interpretation
• Your thought always dwells in the past, with
  such intensity of historical recollection that it
  seems to be compensating for unhealthy defects in
  its mystical memory. We believe the theologian
  must offer his own testimony to this world a
  testimony arising from the inner memory of the
  Church. Only the inner memory of the Church fully
  brings to life the silent testimony of the
  biblical texts.

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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 2. Scripture and its interpretation
• A one-source view
• No sharp distinction between Scripture and its
  interpretation (tradition)
• A two-source view
• Scripture and tradition are distinguished.

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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 2. Scripture and its interpretation
• Multi-source views
• Anglican Wesleyan Reformed
• Scripture Scripture Scripture
• Reason Reason Nature
• Tradition Tradition Providence
• Experience Experience

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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 2. Scripture and its interpretation
• Another look at multi-source views
• Anglican Wesleyan Reformed
• Scripture Scripture Scripture
• --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
• Reason Reason Nature
• Tradition Tradition Providence
• Experience Experience

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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 2. Scripture and its interpretation
• The contemporary situation ??
• Scripture
• --- --- ---
• Experience Reason/Nature
• - - - - - - -
• Tradition/Providence

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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 3. Scripture and its use
• -- What is actually revealed?
• Propositional truth
• Human experiences of God
• God himself

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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 3. Scripture and its use
• -- How does Scripture dictate our actions?
• What is not forbidden is permitted.
• What is not commanded is forbidden.
• What is commanded is required.

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III. A. Sources of Theology

• 3. Scripture and its use
• -- How does Scripture guide us?
• Read the Bible, and then
• do what you see the Church doing.
• do what you see God doing.
• do as your conscience guides.

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III. B.Theological Method
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III. B. Theological Method

• A quotation for discussion
• The Bible is to the theologian what nature is
  to the scientist, a body of unorganized or only
  partly organized facts. God has not seen fit to
  write the Bible in the form of a systematic
  theology it remains for us, therefore, to gather
  together the scattered facts and to build them up
  into a logical system.

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III. B. Theological Method

• 1. Modern approaches
• --What is actually revealed in Scripture?
• Propositions
• Experience
• Stories

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III. B. Theological Method

• 1. Modern approaches
• --Where does theology start?
• Scripture
• Our world

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III. B. Theological Method

• 1. Modern approaches
• --By what sort of reasoning should theology
  proceed?
• Deductive
• Inductive
• Accommodative
• Correlative
• Narrative

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III. B. Theological Method

• 1. Modern approaches
• As a result, various possibilities--

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III. B. Theological Method

• 2. Key ideas revisited
• Deification
• State before God / Relation to the Church
• Aspiring to union with God
• Let God be God.
• Personal, individual experience of God
• Universality and progress of religious
  experience
• God is wholly other, yet revealed in Christ.
• Tension between present age and future kingdom
• Need for individual experience of salvation

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III. B. Theological Method

• 3. Suggestions on method
• --What is revealed?
• Not just propositions, experience, or stories,
  but God himself

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III. B. Theological Method

• 3. Suggestions on method
• --What is the starting point?
• Neither Scripture nor our world, but again, God
  himself

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III. B. Theological Method

• 3. Suggestions on method
• --What kind of reasoning?
• Historical (esp. redemptive historical)

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III. B. Theological Method

• 3. Suggestions on method
• Key idea
• Gods sharing with us the relationships he has
  within the Trinity

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III. B. Theological Method

• 3. Suggestions on method
• Some observations on this method
• Christocentricity, but not dialectical theology
• History, not just story
• Covenant theology, but more than this