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Because scholars have tended to use the term in different ways, Biblical theology has been notoriously difficult to define. [1] The academic field of biblical theology is sub-divided into Old Testament theology and New Testament theology.
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Because scholars have tended to use the term in different ways, Biblical theology has been notoriously difficult to define. [1] The academic field of biblical theology is sub-divided into Old Testament theology and New Testament theology.
Mark Bowald, writing for Grace Theological Seminary, stated that "four areas of focus" of theology "include biblical theology, historical theology, systematic (or dogmatic) theology, and practical theology". [2]
Biblical theology is the study of the Bible's teachings as organic developments through biblical history, as an unfolding and gradual revelation, with increasing clarity and definition in the latter books, and embryonic and inchoate in form in the earlier books of the Bible. [3] Although most speak of biblical theology as a particular method or emphasis within biblical studies, some scholars have also used the term in reference to its distinctive content. In this understanding, biblical theology is limited to a collation and restatement of biblical data, without the logical analysis and dialectical correlation between texts that systematic theology emphasizes. [4]
Some scholars focus on the Old Testament (OT) or Hebrew Bible and falls in the field of Old Testament theology. The field started out as a Christian endeavor and aimed to provide an objective knowledge of early revelation, working as much as possible only with these biblical texts and their historical contexts, in the twentieth century it became informed by other voices and views, including those of feminist and Jewish scholars, which provided new insights and showed ways that the early work was bound by the perspectives of their authors. Key scholars have included Walther Eichrodt, Gerhard von Rad, Phyllis Trible, Geerhardus Vos, and Jon Levenson. [5] : xv ff
Others focus on the New Testament (NT); the field of New Testament theology likewise seeks understanding from within the bounds of these documents and their historical contexts. Key scholars have included Rudolf Bultmann, Hendrikus Boers, and N. T. Wright. [6]
In Evangelicalism, biblical theology is a discipline of theology which emphasises the progressive nature of biblical revelation. Graeme Goldsworthy explains the relationship between biblical theology and systematic theology as follows:
Biblical theology, as defined here, is dynamic not static. That is, it follows the movement and process of God's revelation in the Bible. It is closely related to systematic theology (the two are dependent upon one another), but there is a difference in emphasis. Biblical theology is not concerned to state the final doctrines which go to make up the content of Christian belief, but rather to describe the process by which revelation unfolds and moves toward the goal which is God's final revelation of his purposes in Jesus Christ. Biblical theology seeks to understand the relationships between the various eras in God's revealing activity recorded in the Bible. The systematic theologian is mainly interested in the finished article - the statement of Christian doctrine. The biblical theologian on the other hand is concerned rather with the progressive unfolding of truth. It is on the basis of biblical theology that the systematic theologian draws upon the pre-Pentecost texts of the Bible as part of the material from which Christian doctrine may be formulated. [7]
The work of Gregory Beale, Kevin Vanhoozer, Geerhardus Vos (Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments), Herman Nicolaas Ridderbos (The Coming of the Kingdom), Meredith Kline (Kingdom Prologue), Graeme Goldsworthy (According to Plan, Gospel and Kingdom), Vaughan Roberts (God's Big Picture), James Hamilton (God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment), and Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum (Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants) [8] have helped popularize this approach to the Bible. [9] Especially important for bringing this field of study into the confessional tradition was Old Princeton theologian, Geerhardus Vos (Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments). [10] They summarize the message of the Bible as being about "God's people in God's place under God's rule and blessing" (in Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom, Paternoster, 1981).
In the 17th century, attempts to prove that Protestant dogmatic theology was based in the Bible were described as biblical theology. These early works explained biblical texts according to standard outlines used in systematic theology. In the 1770s, Johann Salomo Semler argued that biblical theology needed to be separated from dogmatic theology. [11]
Johann Philipp Gabler's 1787 lecture "On the Proper Distinction Between Biblical and Dogmatic Theology" is considered the beginning of modern biblical theology. Gabler believed the Bible was "the one clear source from which all true knowledge of the Christian religion is drawn". For Gabler, dogmatic theology must be based on a biblical theology that is "pure and unmixed with foreign elements". Gabler identified two tasks for biblical theology. The first task was to provide an accurate historical description of the ideas found in the Bible. [12] He argued that the interpretation of biblical texts needed to be informed by the language and customs of the relevant historical period. Significantly, Gabler did not assume that the Old Testament and New Testament possessed a uniformity in beliefs. [11] Gabler's second task was to compare biblical ideas with each other to discover universal scriptural truths on which dogmatic theology could be based. [12]
Taking up Gabler's first task, George Lorenz Bauer wrote separate biblical theologies for the OT (1796) and the NT (1800–1802). [11] This marked the beginning of OT theology and NT theology as independent disciplines. However, Gabler's second task was forgotten. According to biblical scholar Frank Matera, "Instead of becoming a servant of dogmatic theology, biblical theology soon became its rival." [13]
The biblical theology movement was an approach to Protestant biblical studies that was popular in the United States, particularly among Presbyterians, between the 1940s and early 1960s. Heavily influenced by Neo-orthodoxy, the movement sought to escape the polarization of liberal theology and Christian fundamentalism. Important themes included: "1) The Bible as a theological resource; 2) The unity of the Bible; 3) The revelation of God in history; 4) The Bible’s distinctly Hebraic mentality; and 5) The uniqueness of biblical revelation." [14] Scholars included G. Ernest Wright, Floyd V. Filson, Otto Piper and James D. Smart. [15]
Dispensationalism is a theological framework for interpreting the Bible which maintains that history is divided into multiple ages called "dispensations" in which God interacts with his chosen people in different ways. It is often distinguished from covenant theology. These are two competing frameworks of Biblical theology that attempt to explain overall continuity in the Bible. Coining of the term "dispensationalism" has been attributed to Philip Mauro, a critic of the system's teachings, in his 1928 book The Gospel of the Kingdom.
Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible "is without error or fault in all its teaching"; or, at least, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact". Some equate inerrancy with biblical infallibility; others do not.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christian theology:
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was an American professor of Reformed theology at Princeton Seminary from 1887 to 1921. He served as the last principal of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1886 to 1902. After the death of Warfield in office, Francis Landey Patton took over the functions of the office as the first president of seminary. Some conservative Presbyterians consider him to be the last of the great Princeton theologians before the split in 1929 that formed Westminster Theological Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Covenant theology is a Biblical Theology, a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall structure of the Bible. It is often distinguished from dispensational theology, a competing form of biblical theology. It uses the theological concept of a covenant as an organizing principle for Christian theology. The standard form of covenant theology views the history of God's dealings with mankind, from Creation to Fall to Redemption to Consummation, under the framework of three overarching theological covenants: those of redemption, of works, and of grace.
Meredith George Kline was an American theologian and Old Testament scholar. He also had degrees in Assyriology and Egyptology.
Paul King Jewett (1920–1991) was an American Christian theologian, author and prominent advocate of the ordination of women and of believer's baptism. He taught systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is credited with helping develop Fuller into one of the largest seminaries in the country.
Graeme L. Goldsworthy is an Australian evangelical Anglican theologian specialising in the Old Testament and Biblical theology. His most significant work is a trilogy: Gospel and Kingdom, Gospel and Wisdom, and The Gospel in Revelation. Goldsworthy has authored several other books including According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, and Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture. He holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge in England, and Master of Theology and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia.
Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. is a Reformed theologian, and an ordained minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly. He is particularly known for his support for and publication on the topics of orthodox preterism and postmillennialism in Christian eschatology, as well as for theonomy and Young Earth creationism. He holds that each of these theological distinctives are logical and theological extensions of his foundational theology.
Louis Berkhof was a Dutch-American Reformed theologian whose works on systematic theology have been influential in seminaries and Bible colleges in the United States, Canada, Korea and with individual Christians in general throughout the 20th century.
Redemptive-historical preaching is a method of preaching that emerged from the Reformed churches of the Netherlands in the early 1940s. The debate concerned itself with the question: "How are we to preach the historical narratives of the Bible?"
Geerhardus Johannes Vos was a Dutch-American Calvinist theologian and one of the most distinguished representatives of the Princeton Theology. He is sometimes called the father of Reformed Biblical theology.
The Federal Vision is a Reformed evangelical theological approach that focuses on covenant theology, Trinitarian thinking, the sacraments of baptism and communion, biblical theology and typology, justification, and postmillennialism. A controversy arose in Reformed and Presbyterian circles in response to views expressed at a 2002 conference entitled The Federal Vision: An Examination of Reformed Covenantalism. The ongoing controversy involves several Reformed denominations including the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA), and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (RPCUS), and the Protestant Reformed Churches in America (PRCA).
Vern Sheridan Poythress is an American philosopher, theologian, New Testament scholar and mathematician, who is currently the New Testament chair of the ESV Oversight Committee. He is also the Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Biblical Interpretation, and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary and editor of Westminster Theological Journal.
Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. is a Calvinist theologian, Presbyterian minister, and was the Charles Krahe Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2008. He became the Professor Emeritus, Biblical and Systematic Theology in 2008.
Old Testament theology is the branch of Biblical theology that seeks theological insight within the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. It explores past and present theological concepts as they pertain to God and God's relationship with creation. While the field started out as a Christian endeavor written mostly by men and aimed to provide an objective knowledge of early revelation, in the twentieth century it became informed by other voices and views, including those of feminist and Jewish scholars, which provided new insights and showed ways that the early work was bound by the perspectives of their authors.
Owen Palmer Robertson is an American Christian theologian and biblical scholar. He taught at Reformed Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary, Covenant Theological Seminary, Knox Theological Seminary as well as at the African Bible Colleges of Malawi and Uganda. He also served as principal of the latter institution. Robertson was the first elected male SGA president of Belhaven College in 1957.
William P. Brown is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, author, biblical theologian, and the William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary.
New Testament theology (NTT) is the branch of biblical theology that concerns the study and interpretation of the New Testament (NT). It seeks to explain the meaning of NT texts in their own grammatical, historical and cultural terms. It is separate from dogmatic theology and systematic theology. It is related but distinct from historical theology.
