Non-Evangelical Systematic Theology and Theology Resources

Nathan Parker

I completed my PhD entrance interview with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The professors conducting the interview are wanting me to look into broadening my scope of Systematic Theology and Theology reading beyond mainline evangelical theologians (which has been the bulk of my reading).

Some specifics include: Catholic, Orthodox, Pannenberg, Barth (I do own Barth's Church Dogmatics), Rahner, Liberation Theology (just briefly touch on it), Moltmonn (probably misspelled that one), as well as other mainstream theologians outside of evangelicalism. Jewish or Messianic Jewish resources would interest me as well due to my heritage.

Preferably resources in Logos would be great. If I have to venture outside of Logos, I can as well (whether another Bible study platform, eBook platform, or print).

I am still working to nail-down my research proposal for my PhD dissertation. Some areas in Systematic Theology that interest me are: Trinitarian Theology, Ecclesiology, and Eschatology, although Trinitarian Theology is quickly becoming an area of major interest the more I research on the subject.

Any insights would be much appreciated. I do own the Global Dictionary of Theology so I may browse some of those articles to get a feel for them.

Sean

Big topic! I'll give a few suggestions now but may try to write more later.

The Big 5 of Western theology across the ages are very widely agreed upon: Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Calvin, Schleiermacher, Barth. That right there is a lot of reading so you'll have to be selective and use guides particularly for Augustine. Get into Calvin's Institutes and you'll see where a large portion of your evangelical STs come from. Schleiermacher's Christian Faith is key to seeing where modern/liberal theology came from and why it went where it did. The older translation is a horrible slog but the newer version in Logos is probably better. Barth is rather better to read but horribly long. In general, I've found summaries of Scheliermacher's theology to be largely accurate. Summaries of Barth, by and large, are not (particularly, I'm sad to say, evangelical ones. Avoid van Til and the many who largely repeat him because Barth is too long for them to read themselves.)

Of mainstream reformed thought, I'm partial to Bavinck and Berkouwer; both are in Logos.

The greatest 5 of the East would be much harder to determine as they are very broad and extensive. I'm a big fan of Irenaeus (who was also Western). Origen, Athanasius, the Cappodocians are not to miss.

Returning to modern theology: Tillich is supposedly important. Brunner is a great introduction to neo-orthodox thought, somewhat more liberal than Barth but more approachable and much shorter; get his 3 volume Dogmatics (not in Logos). Moltmann and Pannenberg are both important, if somewhat overrated. Most of the former's major works are in Logos as is the latter's ST.

G. Gutierrez's A Theology of Liberation is the seminal work in that field. There are many other works about liberation theology, but to be honest once you get the basic idea, don't feel the need to branch out too extensively unless you need to. There's a lot of repetition.

Finally, a few guides to modern theology: H.R. Mackintosh's Types of Modern Theology was a good older one. I loved Modern Christian Theology which I read as a Logos Now preview book. Roger Olson's Journey of Modern Theology is probably also good (I have the older edition, which I gained a lot from.)

Hope that helps to start with. Have fun reading--it can be extremely edifying, even the ones you know you're going to disagree with.