Systematic Theology at a Glance
When I was developing the model for Bible Interpretation Choices at a Glance (BICaaG: feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/bible-interpretation-choices-at-a-glance), I began to wonder whether it could be applied to theology, and decided it could.
In theory, it could cover all aspects of theology, but I needed a starting point and took the bestselling Systematic Theology resource on Logos (Wayne Grudem’s), combined it with the Lexham Survey of Theology and blended in the ‘many views’ books, such as the Zondervan Counterpoints Series.
I used the newer key from BICaag and mapped Grudem and Thiselton (which I happened to be reading at the time) to check whether it worked. I think it does.
This spreadsheet is the result: 1057.Systematic Theologies Grid - 31 March 2023.xlsx
Scroll right for the ‘many views’ books.
I’d appreciate feedback. Would it be worth developing this further? Would it be worth suggesting that Logos develop this in feedback.faithlife.com? How would you improve it?
If you haven’t come across the Bible Interpretation Choices at a Glance idea yet, go to community.logos.com/forums/t/208162.aspx
You can vote for Logos to adopt it here: feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/bible-interpretation-choices-at-a-glance
Thanks.
Comments
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Thank you again Andrew for your amazing work! I think Logos should hire you to bring these great ideas (and others) to life!
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Andrew this is amazing and lively for biblical-theological researchers. This is much like a database but built like a referential schematic. Many configurations of Logos now include a section in the Passage Guide called Systematic Theologies. At its base, it analyzes the way Systematic Theologies use the Bible in discussion of theological issues. You should look at that.
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Thanks for the feedback, PL and Christian.
Another part of the jigsaw is showing how different Bible interpretation choices affect our theology, so I wondered how easy it would be to decide which verses to include for each aspect of theology. Again it needs a better format (Logos?), but here is a grid of the verses included in the Lexham Survey of Theology for each aspect, as a start: 7178.Theology Verses.xlsx
The next stage for Logos would be to add the Bible Interpretation Choices at a Glance data. If you haven't yet voted for this, you can do so here: feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/bible-interpretation-choices-at-a-glance.
Thanks.
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Pretty neat summary of various views. Must have taken you a lot of time. Appreciate you sharing it! Let us know of updates.
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Thanks, Ted.
In putting this together, I did a little analysis of the Lexham Survey of Theology, to see how even-handed it was, and whether I could use this as a basis for further work. The two people who contributed the most are Gerald Bray (25 entries) and Jack Kilcrease (17 entries). While Jack refers to Bavinck in 82% of his entries, Bray refers to Bavinck in just 4% of his entries, suggesting that each contributor was given a great deal of freedom in choosing who to refer to, and so the survey is far from neutral, never mind comprehensive. This suggested I needed to look elsewhere for balance, although the survey definitely still has its uses.
If anyone would like to see the mini spreadsheet showing this, it's available here: 4174.LST Contributors.xlsx
See the first post above for details of what this project is about. If you haven't yet voted for Bible Interpretation Choices at a Glance, you can do so here: feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/bible-interpretation-choices-at-a-glance.
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Some forum users suggested their preferred Systematic Theology resources (https://community.logos.com/forums/t/215801.aspx), so I've added them to the spreadsheet, creating a second tab for them (Grid+).
Here's the updated spreadsheet:5342.Systematic Theologies Grid - 19 May 2023.xlsx
Don't forget to vote for the next stage of the project here: feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/bible-interpretation-choices-at-a-glance
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