Christian Dogmatics: An Introduction
Overview
A fresh, inviting text on the content of Christian faith in our contemporary context, this one-volume systematic theology offers an accessible, orthodox explication of the Christian faith for students, teachers, pastors, and serious lay readers alike. Cornelis van der Kooi and Gijsbert van den Brink not only cover all the traditional themes—God, creation, sin, Jesus Christ, Scripture, and so on—but also relate those classic themes to such contemporary developments as Pentecostalism, postmodernism, and evolutionary theory.
Consisting of sixteen chapters, the book is ideal for classroom use. Each chapter begins with several engaging questions and a statement of learning goals and concludes with a list of recommended further reading. Written in a student-friendly tone and style and expertly translated and edited, van der Kooi and van den Brink’s Christian Dogmatics splendidly displays the real, practical relevance of theology to the complexities of our world today.
- Offers an accessible, orthodox explication of the Christian faith for students, teachers, pastors, and serious lay readers
- Addresses contemporary developments including Pentecostalism, postmodernism, and evolutionary theory
- Establishes a link between the topic of each chapter and what is happening in our present-day society
- Dogmatics as Disciplined Thinking about God
- Is There a God?
- God as Three in One
- “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
- Encountering God
- Existence Given
- Human Beings and the Image of God
- Existence Ravaged
- Israel, the Raw Nerve in Christian Theology
- The Person of Jesus Christ
- “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”
- Holy Spirit, Giver of Life
- The Book of God and of Humans
- Renewal of God’s Community
- Renewal of the Human Being
- Renewal of God’s World
Top Highlights
“In Christ, God does nor save people from the creation but with the creation.” (Page 204)
“Bible, we find that the concept of freedom is more embedded in a soteriological than in an anthropological context. Freedom is not something we possess as creatures as a matter of course but something to which God has freed us.” (Page 278)
“It is, we believe, this deeply rooted need for a long-lasting completion of our own unfulfilled existence that forms the core of our sexuality.” (Page 285)
“True freedom is to serve God and live before him, because for this end we have been made” (Page 280)
“In dogmatics sin is first of all a theological and not a moral concept” (Page 299)
Deeply informed by biblical studies as well as the history of doctrine, van der Kooi and van den Brink engage a wide range of conversation partners and offer a crucial perspective for ecumenical conversation.
—Michael S. Horton, Westminster Seminary California
This fine work was widely praised by Dutch readers when it first appeared in the Netherlands, going through several printings. Now all of us English-speakers can see what the enthusiasm was all about. The subtitle correctly presents the book as an ‘introduction,’ but it is more than that. For me it has served—and will continue to serve—as a much-needed refresher course in how to bring new vitality to the exploration and twenty-first-century updating of the best of the theology that we have received from the past!
—Richard J. Mouw, Fuller Theological Seminary
Non-Dutch readers can now see for themselves why this Christian Dogmatics became such a best-seller in its native land. It provides a cogent, fresh, confident statement of the Christian faith that honestly engages the tough challenges our modern world throws at it. In addition, this work is a pedagogic success. . . . A great text for students of Christian theology that is also accessible to all who want to deepen their understanding of the faith.
—John Bolt, Calvin Theological Seminary
- Title: Christian Dogmatics: An Introduction
- Author: Cornelis van der Kooi and Gijsbert van den Brink
- Translator: Reinder Bruinsma and James D. Bratt
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 2017
- Pages: 820
- Resource Type: Introduction
- Topic: Systematic Theology
Cornelis van der Kooi is professor of systematic theology and director of the Center for Evangelical and Reformation Theology at the Free University of Amsterdam.
Gijsbert van den Brink is Professor for Theology and Science at the Faculty of Theology, VU University Amsterdam, and is an ordained minister in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. He is author of Philosophy of Science for Theologians and coauthor, with Cornelis van der Kooi, of Christian Dogmatics.
Reviews
1 rating
