DESCRIPTION:

This course is designed to provide a resource for Christian thought, life, and ministry by examining Christian beliefs about revelation, reason, and faith; the nature and authority of Scripture; the existence of God and the way we think about divine attributes; the Holy Trinity; creation and providence; human beings as the image of God; the fall and sin.

The purpose of the course is to assist students to think for themselves theologically by developing a method which seeks to identify the issues, examine what others have said about them, reexamine the teaching of Scripture, and give their own answers.

The class meets daily for four-hour sessions for lectures and discussion.

There is no set textbook. Students are encouraged to read widely from a variety of primary and secondary texts. Selected works will be placed on the reserve shelf of McAlister Library. Further details of literature on particular topics are given in the required Course Syllabus, available from the Fuller Bookstore. The following general works contain material relevant to the course:

Brown, C. Christianity and Western Thought, Vol. 1: From the Ancient World to the Age of Enlightenment. InterVarsity Press, 1990.

_______. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. 4 vols. Zondervan, 1986.

_______. "Trinity and Incarnation: In Search of Contemporary Orthodoxy." Ex Auditu 7 (1991): 83-100.

Clines, D. J. A. "Humanity as the Image of God in Man." In On the Way to the Postmodern. Sheffield Academic Press, 1998, 2:447-97.

Cooper, John W. Body, Soul and Life Everlasting. Eerdmans, 2000.

Ferguson, S. B. and Wright, D. F., eds. New Dictionary of Theology. InterVarsity Press, 1988.

Jewett, Paul K. with Marguerite Shuster. Who We Are: Our Dignity as Human. A Neo-Evangelical Theology. Eerdmans, 1996.

Lane, Anthony N.S., ed. The Unseen World: Christian Reflections on Angels, Demons and the Heavenly Realm. Baker, 1996.

Moreland, J. P. & S. B. Rae. Body & Soul: Human Nature & the Crisis in Ethics. InterVarsity, 2000.

Schaff, P. The Creeds of Christendom. 3 vols. 1877, reprint ed. Baker, 1983 and later reprints.

Swinburne, Richard. The Evolution of the Soul. Rev. ed. Clarendon Press, 1977.

_________. Providence and the Problem of Evil. Clarendon Press, 1998.

Van Till, Howard J., et. al., Portraits of Creation: Biblical and Scientific Perspectives on the World's Formation. Eerdmans, 1990.

Submission of course notes and an essay. The notes are to include coverage of topics treated in the course, critical comments on 3 topics chosen by the student, and a 6-page report on a book dealing with ethnic and cultural issues. Titles for the book report are listed in the syllabus. Students completing their Systematic Theology courses may choose to write a Credo in lieu of these assignments.