E-Book Overview
Continuing the project of 'Word and Church', this new collection gathers studies in three areas. Webster firstly produces studies on the nature of Christian theology and its relation to Scripture and the confessions of the church. He also produces an account of the theological style of the French Dominican theologian Yves Congar. In the second part we find studies on dogmatic topics, one on the theology of the person of Christ, and three on the attributes of God: omnipresence, holiness and love, and veracity. Thirdly and finally Webster studies issues in the doctrine of the church and of Christian practice: an account of the nature of the church in terms of visibility and invisibility; a study of the meaning of Christian hope; and a reflection on gospel freedom. Taken together, the essays are worked examples of 'theological theology', that is, Christian theology which takes its rise in the Christian confession of the gospel which it seeks to hear, celebrate and commend.
E-Book Content
CONFESSING GOD
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CONFESSING GOD Essays in Christian Dogmatics II
John Webster
Published by T&T Clark International A Continuum imprint The Tower Building 11 York Road London SE1 7NX
15 East 26th Street Suite 1703 New York, NY 10010
www.tandtclark.com Copyright # John Webster, 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 567 08377 2 (Paperback)
Typeset by Tradespools, Frome, Somerset Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain by MPG, Bodmin, Cornwall
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements Introduction
vii 1
Theology 1. Theological Theology 2. On the Clarity of Holy Scripture 3. Confession and Confessions
11 33 69
Dogmatics 4. The Immensity and Ubiquity of God 5. The Holiness and Love of God 6. Prolegomena to Christology: Four Theses
87 109 131
Church and Christian Life 7. On Evangelical Ecclesiology 8. Hope 9. Evangelical Freedom
153 195 215
Index of Biblical References Index of Subjects Index of Authors
227 229 231
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Some of the essays in this volume have been previously published as follows, and the author and publishers gratefully acknowledge permission to republish: ‘Theological Theology’ as Theological Theology: An Inaugural Lecture delivered before the University of Oxford on 28 October, 1997 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998). ‘On the Clarity of Holy Scripture’ as ‘Biblical Theology and the Clarity of Scripture’, in C. Bartholomew et al. (eds), Out of Egypt: Biblical Theology and Biblical Interpretation (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2004), pp. 349–82. ‘Confession and Confessions’, in C. Seitz (ed.), Nicene Christianity: The Future for a New Ecumenism (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2001), pp. 119–31. ‘The Holiness and Love of God’, Scottish Journal of Theology 57 (2004), pp. 249–68. ‘On Evangelical Ecclesiology’, Ecclesiology 1 (2004), pp. 9–35; also in M. Husbands and D. Treier (eds), The Community of the Word (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005). ‘Hope’, in G. Meilaender and W. Werpehowski (eds), The Oxford Handbook to Theological Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). ‘Evangelical Freedom’, in C. Sider-Hamilton (ed.), The Homosexuality Debate: Faith Seeking Understanding. Fidelity Essays (Toronto: Anglican Book Centre, 2003), pp. 109–23. Thanks are also due to Rob Price for his re