Revelation and Reason in Christian Theology: Proceedings of the 2016 Theology Connect Conference (Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology) - Softcover

Green, Christopher C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1683590988 ISBN 13: 9781683590989

Publisher: Faithlife Corporation, 2018

Synopsis

Do revelation and reason contradict? Throughout the church's history Christians have been tempted to make revelation and reason mutually exclusive. But both are essential to a true understanding of the faith. The inaugural Theology Connect conference―held in Sydney in July 2016―was dedicated to surveying the intersection of revelation and reason. In Revelation and Reason in Christian Theology Christopher C. Green and David I. Starling draw together the fruit of this conference to provoke sustained, deep reflection on this relationship. The essays―filtered through epistemological, biblical, historical, and dogmatic lenses―critically and constructively contribute to this important and developing aspect of theology. Each essayist approaches revelation and reason according to the psalmist's words: "In your light we see light" (Ps 36:9). The light of faith does not obscure truth; rather, it enables us to see truth.

About this title

Review

This inaugural volume from the first Theology Connect conference lives up to its name and vocation: each chapter refuses the typical modern reflex of seeing reason and revelation as opposites and offers fresh insight into matters at the heart of Christian theology. Readers will find compelling biblical, historical, and theological arguments for beating what were once opposing epistemological swords into prolegomenal plowshares.

--Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

This stellar collection of essays on the relationship of divine revelation to human reason is persuasively coherent in its common focus and final conclusions, yet penetrating in its rich details. Ranging across exegesis, social philosophy and epistemology, ascetic theology, and dogmatics, the authors manage a startlingly beautiful reconfiguration of reason's shape within the particular realities of Christian faith and life. Instead of the modernist conception of reason as an instrument of human domination, for coercive good or ill, reasoning here emerges as a creature wonderfully nourished by God's self-giving in Christ and self-disclosure in Scripture, and thus capable of humbly yet truthfully engaging the world of God's making. Each essay in its own way, and all of them taken together, offer a vision that is evangelically profound and deeply hopeful, to be received with care and thanks.

--Ephraim Radner, Professor of Historical Theology, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

Christopher Green and David Starling have assembled a great cast of contributors for this collection of essays on revelation and reason, tackling topics related to how revelation and reason fit within a larger scheme of God's self-disclosure, human knowing, and church theologizing. A stimulating series of investigations on how to understand faith seeking a fusion of revelation and reason.

--Michael F. Bird, Lecturer in Theology at Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia.

About the Author

Christopher C. Green (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is Director of Theology Connect, Senior Adjunct in Theology at Azusa Pacific University, and Director of Christian Foundations at Plenty Valley Christian College (Australia). He is author of Doxological Theology: Karl Barth on Divine Providence, Evil and the Angels.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faithlife Corporation
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1683590988
• ISBN 13: 9781683590989
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272