A Syllabus of Systematic Theology (Classic Reprint)

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt from A Syllabus of Systematic Theology 1. This is a Syllabus. It presents only a brief outline for school and class. A few subjects are treated at some length because, either they have been matters of controversy, or have special interest at the present time, e.g., Miracles, Election, Justification, Atonement, and Christs Second Advent. 2. The Scriptures are the authoritative source of Christian theology. We have used to some extent a proof-text method, well aware of the modern objection to proof-texts. We believe that the exhibition of Scriptural teaching is the true method of Christian theology, and when a proof-text is properly interpreted according to its context and the analogy of faith it is not only a legitimate method, but absolutely authoritative. Biblical theology has its place and gets due weight in the formulation of doctrine, but cannot appear at length in a syllabus, and must depend at any rate upon the proper interpretation of the text. Proof-texts may be and have been sadly misused. Some minds have the faculty of finding, in any text, whatever they are seeking even when it is not there. But the abuse of a method is no refutation of its proper use, and we hope we have used the method, where it is used, in a legitimate way. The true method of theology is inductive, the gathering and classifying of facts, chiefly from the Scriptures, supported by any evidence from external sources, and thus providing the basis for doctrinal definition in accordance with the induction. The vital question for the Christian theologian is: What has God said? Modernistic attempts at theology are largely speculative, with no authority but the ipse dixit of the writer. For an example see "Christianity in its Modern Expression, " by the late Prof. Geo. B.Foster. The Biblical source and the inductive method exclude no light from other sources. The field of induction is as wide as the universe and as deep as being. No field opens so wide a vista as theology. All science, all philosophy, all psychology, all realms of knowledge lay down their contributions to "the queen of the sciences." 3. Much criticism has been directed, in late years, against theology, as if it were an outgrown and useless science. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.