The Living God: Systematic Theology, Volume One
Overview
Oden divides this volume into four parts. Part One discusses the name, nature and character of God. Part Two looks at the reality of God—concentrating on the debate of God’s existence and Triune personhood. Part Three looks at the work of God as creator and sustainer. Sin and evil are deliberated, as are natural causality and general and special providence. Part Four considers whether God can actually be studied and how His self-revelation plays an epistemological part in knowing Him.
Top Highlights
“Three affirmations summarize the Christian teaching of providence: God is preserving the creation in being. God is cooperating to enable creatures to act. God is guiding all creatures, inorganic and organic, animal and rational creation, toward a purposeful end that exceeds the understanding of those being provided for.” (Pages 272–273)
“Revealed theology focuses on God’s search for humanity; natural theology focuses on the human search for God.” (Page 6)
“The method of studying revelation (to be more fully explored in Part IV) may be summarized: Christian teaching has its external source in God’s self-disclosure, whose record is Scripture as preserved, studied, and remembered by the living tradition, and its internal source in faith personally experienced and reasonably ordered.” (Page 26)
“‘God is a Spirit in and of Himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness and perfection; all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth’” (Page 29)
“In this sense it is not only possible but surprisingly easy to define God, for God is not finite, not time-bound, not many divisible things, not partial, not dependent, and so on. This approach is sometimes called apophatic theology (meaning that it proceeds by negation, from apophasis, denial).” (Page 28)
- Title: The Living God: Systematic Theology, Volume One
- Author: Thomas C. Oden
- Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco
- Print Publication Date: 1992
- Logos Release Date: 2008
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: God (Christianity); Revelation › Christianity
- Resource ID: LLS:LVGGODODENSTV1
- Resource Type: Systematic Theology
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:18:25Z
