Wednesday 22 September 2010

Michael S. Horton on Systematic Theology

Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, forthcoming 2011), 960pp., ISBN 9780310286042.


This one-volume systematic theology has been promised for a while, and is now slated for publication in January 2011. I’m looking forward to it, and will take the time to read it through when it comes out.


In a series of four significant volumes (a quadrilogy?) published over a number of years, Michael Horton has been seeking to integrate biblical theology and systematic theology on the basis of Scripture’s own categories, particularly covenant. ‘Covenant’, he holds, is highly suggestive given its emphasis in Scripture, and it can shed light on a variety of traditional theological topics in systematic theology, like God (the covenant maker), anthropology (the covenant partner), christology (the covenant mediator), soteriology (the covenant blessings), ecclesiology (the context of the covenant), eschatology (the covenant’s consummation).


The books to check out are:


Michael S. Horton, Covenant and Eschatology: The Divine Drama (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002).


Michael S. Horton, Lord and Servant: A Covenant Christology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005).


Michael S. Horton, Covenant and Salvation: Union with Christ (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007).


Michael S. Horton, People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008).


These are academic in tone, heavily footnoted, and necessarily engaged in discussion with scholarly peers, so I’m hoping that the new volume will bring Horton’s insights to a wider range of people who wouldn’t normally work through the more demanding tomes.

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