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This chapter explores a vision of systematic theology as analytic theology, describes in general terms what that might involve, addresses some objections, and illustrates how it might proceed by taking up two loci of systematic theology and shows what analytic theology might look like in practice. The chapter provides some suggestions on the division of labour between analytic theology and the epistemology of theology as this crops up in the place of prolegomenon in systematic theology.

The book's argument is surveyed in this chapter: systematic theology has in the past been unhelpfully defined by a genre definition, because of suspicion of the notion of ‘system’. Christian theology, it is suggested, is inherently systematic. The structure of theological arguments are located in relation to debates in philosophical epistemology over the relative merits of foundationalism and coherentism. The interpretation of theological warrants (scripture, tradition, and reason) is surveyed; these have functioned rather differently in theological arguments from the way in which past debates have claimed. Theology, it is argued, is a form of double mimesis in its rationality and relationality, mirroring the qualities of its two chief subjects, God and humanity. Theological aesthetics is examined, and specifically, the notion that the beauty of argumentative structures may distract away from truth. Finally, the book suggests that theology, in its systematicity, may be viewed as a prelude to contemplation.

Chapter fifty-four examines the crowning achievement of Hodge’s publishing career, his three-volume Systematic Theology. Rather than simply compile and edit his theological writings of the past half century, Hodge took the opportunity to write his Systematic as an organic whole. Certain new stresses appear in the volumes. He emphasized Baconian scientific method and the role of the intellect in theological study to a degree that had not been the case in his theological lectures. He used his Systematic to argue for the importance of the intellect (over the emotions) in theological study, and he made his volumes and apologetic for God’s goodness and benevolent work in the world, even after the devastating events of the Civil War.

This chapter discusses theology in the twentieth century, which was largely dominated by a set of issues that were generated ultimately by the diffusion of the critical approach to the Bible. The survey presented in the chapter determines that the ‘dogmatic’ or ‘systematic’ theology in England and Wales has both benefitted and suffered from its slightly tangential relation to mainstream academic theology.

The chapter provides an analysis and characterization of theology and distinguishes “systematic theology” from other subdisciplines. The chapter states that theology is a continuing consultation and is not the adding of proposition to proposition in the steady construction of a planned structured knowledge. It is further explained that theology is a reflection to do something, and the thing to be done is to carry on with a specified message, whether as proclamatory word from God or as appeal of petition and praise to God, and whether with the signs of a language or with the gestures and meaningful objects of sacrament and sacrifice. Theology is “hermeneutic” besides being “practical” and “speculative.”

The history of the manuscript firmly ties it to a Miltonic provenance. Its physical condition shows clear evidence of how the blind Milton worked on so challenging a project. The manuscript is that of a work-in-progress. There is no evidence that Milton worked on the manuscript after 1660. It shows an expert command of Latin, typical of Milton's other Latin works. The stylometric analysis indicates Miltonic authorship. Its theology is characteristic of the theology of other treatises in the same genre. The manuscript rightly belongs in the Milton canon.

Chapter Eleven looks at the years Charles Hodge studied at Princeton Theological Seminary. His studies included classes with Archibald Alexander (in systematic theology and biblical criticism among other subjects) and Samuel Miller. The beginnings of what would later become known as “the Princeton Theology” began to take shape during these years.

Chapter thirty-eight treats the threat of German Idealist thought as it came to influence the thinking of those who considered themselves part of the Reformed tradition. Particularly important in this regard stand: John Williamson Nevin, Charles Finney, and Horace Bushnell. Hodge considered each of these men as dangerous threats to traditional Reformed orthodoxy as they spread their own versions of the redemptive power of human moral intuition.

This chapter develops the theoretical account revelation that will form the basis of the grounded account. In order to avoid a shallow misconstrual of Tillich’s complex theory an in-depth analysis is presented in four stages, seeking to understand his theology of revelation in the context of his wider oeuvre. Tillich’s autobiographical statements are considered along with his pre-exilic German writings before a third stage develops the reading in conversation with the most complete statement of his theory in the Systematic Theology (ST1-3). At this point Tillich’s encounter with Alessandro Botticelli’s painting, Madonna with Singing Angels, is used to organise and structure the account. Finally, the debate engendered by Tillich’s theology, including his Christology, is briefly surveyed. Overall, the analysis uncovers a complex but compelling account of revelation through culture that emphasises the salvation and healing occurring in revelatory experiences rather than their communicative potential.

This chapter asks whether David Brown's forays into popular culture have gone far enough. It argues that Christian theology needs to be more self-critical about its cultural assumptions when relating to media and the arts. It must also be more inter-disciplinary, more attentive to actual religious practice and undertake even broader engagement with non-ecclesiastical experience and resources than Brown has ventured. In this way, the chapter suggests, a theological methodology more appropriate for Christian systematics today will emerge. Such a methodology would be more closely linked with the ordinary, human, social, affective practices in and through which people, religious and not, make meaning. It would also be more deeply shaped by incarnation, general revelation, common grace, the imago Dei and pneumatology.

This chapter examines how systematic theology professor Wilhelm Herrmann developed a theological system based on a form of Kantian epistemology. Kantian philosophy provided Herrmann the context in which to justify his rigorous distinction between the realms of faith and science. He used Kantian philosophy in defence of Christianity against its materialist and monist opponents in the early years of the 20th century. Herrmann was also influenced by Hermann Cohen, his colleague and a Jewish neo-Kantian philosopher.

This chapter deals with how Christian and Muslim thinkers began to confront and sort out the problems and questions that arose. Creedal formulations have historically often given impetus to developments in systematic theology as an intellectual religious discipline. In the story of both Christian and Islamic thought, systematic thinking became an essential vehicle for theological content as the faith communities expanded into new cultural, social, intellectual, and linguistic contexts and adapted accordingly the language and logic in which they communicated their creeds. Christian authors began to engage in the rudiments of systematic theology during the patristic period. They confronted an important challenge: how to translate the essential concepts of a faith tradition rooted in a reinterpretation of Semitic sources and culture into terms adaptable to the spread of Christianity to a Greco-Roman Gentile world. Muslim scholars similarly first confronted thorny theological issues as Arab conquests facilitated Islam's spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula into parts of the Byzantine Empire.

The Reformers called for the biblical grounding of all theological statements. That seems to be a last remnant of authoritarian ecclesial tradition. The compositions of continental Protestant doctrine in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries tried to build the topics of theology on so-called dicta probantia: biblical references collected and logically reflected according themes handed down since the church fathers and scholastic theology in the Middle Ages, added to or consolidated by the decisions of the Reformation era. The historical consciousness, heightened by the Enlightenment, challenged this way of arguing and set critical reconstructions of the emergence and the tradition of biblical texts against the development of church doctrine. Afterwards, systematic theology was often understood as a constructive arrangement based on a forming idea, such as religious consciousness, with few if any biblical references. The ecumenical dialogue fosters a new perception of the biblical canon as the faithful answer of church and theology to God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. This does not mean to establish a ‘canonical approach’ as John Barton rightly criticizes. But it asks for a revision of the understanding of ‘grounding’ of theological statements respecting the complicated process of the history of tradition of biblical texts until their canonization as well as the sense for unity of Scripture in the history of church and theology—a unity with many inner tensions and a wide spectrum of perspectives. The Bible is vivid within Systematic Theology as far as theological insights enrich and open the interpretation of biblical texts.

Chapter thirty-one analyzes Hodge’s most popular book, his devotional The Way of Life. Hodge took over the role of Professor of Theology from Archibald Alexander in 1840, and thereby became the lead professor at the Seminary. By 1845, he was co-teaching the core theology courses of the school with Alexander. His The Way of Life provides a unique window into the formative years of his systematic theological thinking and his commitment to personal holiness in the Christian life.

Chapter thirty-two explores the Didactic Theology lectures Hodge offered from the mid-1840s through the early 1870s. Hodge based these lectures on the doctrinal teachings found in the Westminster Confession. He paid great attention to the sacramental tradition of the Roman Catholics and Lutherans, and argued a hard line that the sacraments did not hold innate power, but were made effective by the faith of those who partook of them.