A System of Biblical Psychology
Overview
A System of Biblical Psychology builds off of nearly 40 years of work and Franz Delitzsch’s dissertation on the elements of the nature of man, particularly “whether the soul, so far as it is distinguished from the spirit, belongs by its nature to matter or to spirit.” The text addresses ideas and concepts Delitzsch discusses in his other books, but emphasizes the distinctions between soul and spirit found in Scripture. Recognizing and comprehending the simultaneous unity and distinctions between soul and spirit, he believes, is essential to understanding the psychology of Scripture. Delitzsch provides a thorough introduction to understanding biblical psychology and a multitude of daring ideas.
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Key Features
- Presents an interpretive system for processing the psychology within Scripture
- Clarifies the unity and distinctions of soul and spirit in the Bible
- Includes a sketch of Franz Delitzsch’s life and work
Contents
- Prolegomena
- The Everlasting Postulates
- The Creation
- The Fall
- The Natural Condition
- The Regeneration
- Death
- Resurrection and Consummation
Top Highlights
“But no otherwise than in this procession is He absolute Life living itself forth. The conscious will of the Father, itself stimulating itself, finds its satisfaction only in comprehending itself in the exactly counterpart conscious will of the Son; and while the latter lovingly turns back to the former as to the bosom of its origin, and the mutual operation of both is diffused as if by breathing itself forth, there arises a third conscious will, which concludes the unfolding of the nature of the Godhead—that of the Holy Spirit.” (Page 57)
“It is a process of everlasting becoming without resting, and yet, moreover, of everlasting completion without deficiency; and although the Godhead is not the product of this procession, yet its Being subsists in the threefold producing of this procession. It is exactly this interaction of being and becoming which is the life of the Godhead.” (Page 58)
“We perceive and acknowledge on scriptural ground, (1) that the idea of man as such is an eternal idea of God; for when Elohim says (Gen. 1:26), ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,’ that is no decision come to in time, but only the revelation of an eternal purpose: for the whole six days’ work was à priori intended to concentrate itself finally on the man, and the man as such was thus the substance of God’s eternal plan even before the beginning of the temporal carrying into effect of this plan.” (Pages 47–48)
“Thus God Himself does not pass through the ideal that is everlastingly present to Him in His counsel historically, until the world does, and He interweaves into it His agency according to that purpose, and now also with corresponding meaning and motive, as on the other hand, in the divine counsel the moments of realization are inwoven into the world of His thoughts of love.” (Page 52)
Praise for the Print Edition
. . . A mine of wonderful depth and fertility . . .
—Reverend Robert Ernest Wallis, senior priest-vicar of Wells Cathedral
This admirable volume ought to be carefully read by every thinking clergyman . . . we know no work which is better calculated as a guide to minds already settled on lines of sound theological principle, than [A System of Biblical Psychology].
—Literary Churchman
However different the psychology of the present day may be from that which Professor Delitzsch finds in the Bible, it cannot be denied that his work is both suggestive and helpful to all students of man, and to all students of the Scriptures, but especially to students of both.
—Freeman
For profound acquaintance with the letter of Scripture, interpreted by a spirit of rare metaphysical acuteness, we suspect Dr. Delitzsch’s treatise on Biblical Psychology has few parallels in modern theology.—London Review
- Title: A System of Biblical Psychology
- Author: Franz Delitzsch
- Edition: Second Edition
- Series: Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Fourth Series
- Volume: XIII
- Publisher: T&T Clark
- Print Publication Date: 1885
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 585
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible › Psychology
- Resource ID: LLS:SYSBBLPSYCH
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T06:14:10Z
Franz Delitzsch (1813–March 4, 1890) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Born in Leipzig, he held the professorship of theology at the University of Rostock from 1846 to 1850, at the University of Erlangen until 1867, and after that at the University of Leipzig until his death. He wrote A Commentary on Hebrews and A New Commentary on Genesis.