Systematic Theology- Reading Order?

[RamistThomist]

Shedd's unbalanced nature doesn't really concern me, actually. Every systematician has to decide which issues are more important in his time and place than others. He is also a good writer. However, he has some quirks. He is not what I would call a vanilla Presbyterian. He holds to traducianism, three parts to the human person, and most concerningly, some of his Trinitarian formulations are suspect.

He does the same thing in his History of Doctrine. It looks like he is reinterpreting some passages of Augustine around Coleridge's idealism, and I never thought that was a great idea.

 

[RamistThomist]

Back to the OP: something that will help is reading up on key philosophical terms: being, essence, substance, etc. Almost all older writers used these terms and if they have dropped from our vocabulary, we are at a loss in reading the older writers. I recommend a text like Mortimer Adler's Great Ideas.

 

[sgemmen9]

Hello, I am wanting to read through some particular systematic theologies over the next ten years and was wondering if anyone could help me order them insofar as difficulty and prerequisite knowledge are concerned? These are the texts:

-Calvin, Institutes - Easy
-Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology - Moderate
-a’Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service - Easy/moderate
-Hodge, Systematic Theology - Moderate
-Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics - Expert
-Henry, God, Revelation and Authority - Moderate
-Berkouwer, Studies in Dogmatics - Moderate
-Thomas, Summa Theologiae - Expert
-Barth, Church Dogmatics - Expert
-Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith - Expert
-Pannenberg, Systematic Theology - Expert

 

[sgemmen9]

Hello, I am wanting to read through some particular systematic theologies over the next ten years and was wondering if anyone could help me order them insofar as difficulty and prerequisite knowledge are concerned? These are the texts:

-Calvin, Institutes
-Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology
-a’Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service
-Hodge, Systematic Theology
-Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics
-Henry, God, Revelation and Authority
-Berkouwer, Studies in Dogmatics
-Thomas, Summa Theologiae
-Barth, Church Dogmatics
-Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith
-Pannenberg, Systematic Theology

Personally, life is short and you're not likely to get to all of them. I'd read the institutes entirely and then Bavinck, then Brakel. Other stuff I'd simply reference as needed or curious.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

Hodge is great, but he has a habit of quoting people in their original language without providing a translation. Which for those of us unlearned (at least in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew) can a bit challenging.

Agree entirely. This is why Crossway is now producing a new complete Hodge's ST with all languages translated into English.

It will take some time as we just started the process (Alan Gomes is heading the project; projected publication is about 3+ years out). I am serving as a contributing editor and will have in it essays on Hodge's life and his doctrine of the church (since it's not contained in the ST). We think that this new edition of Hodge will make this work more accessible and open up Hodge to a new generation of readers.

Peace,
Alan

 

[dsanch1120]

Agree entirely. This is why Crossway is now producing a new complete Hodge's ST with all languages translated into English.

That’s really cool to hear, I’ll have to keep my eye out for that. It’ll be great to have some of his ecclesiology views as well!