Systematic Theology and Exegesis
Should your reading of a passage of Scripture be informed by your systematic theology ?
David Murray talks about that here.
Three weeks in Blighty
We just spent three weeks in the UK. The first week was spent at our mission, UFM's, Summer Conference. We've always enjoyed these times - the conference centres are always clean and comfortable and you get catered for - our children used to think they were hotels. In addition you get some preaching and teaching - this time from an old acquaintance from Northern Ireland - and reports from people who serve in amazing places. We always feel like weaklings alongside the folk who paddle their way up the Amazon, or who work in remote parts of Central Asia. We had to do a seminar on preparing for retirement, which was well-received. Ella took us quietly and smoothly up to Caen for the ferry and we stayed overnight near the terminal before taking the early morning crossing. To get to the conference centre we had to use the M25, and it lived up to its promise. The second week was spent with my sisters and a nephew in a holiday cottage in Tenby. This was a straightforward trip down t...
Comments
Yes, I understand what you say, and I have heard similar sentiments expressed by other friends, too, especially by people who have "discovered" Biblical Theology after years of following Christ.
I reflected on my answer as I was brushing my teeth last night, so you can see it's particularly well thought-out.
You know how there are people who preach on the Bible and they seem to consider a book, say Romans, as a loose collection of passages to preach on with no overarching theme to the whole book ? They're good at analysis of the verse or paragraph, but they don't do the work of synthesis of what the whole book is for. I know this is something that you work at at Cornhill.
Well it seems to me that systematic theology is the next level up. It is seeing how each book of the Bible contributes to the overall teaching of the Bible on God, man, sin, salvation, etc... It's the next level up of synthesis.
Now when we read James 2 we read it in the context of James' whole letter, but we also read it in the context of the New Testament letters (including Romans) and also the whole Bible (including Genesis), and that's where systematic theology helps us - it systematises the teaching of the whole of the Bible.
Because the Bible is a very rich book and our understanding is very poor, we do need to reform our systematic theology as we understand better, just as we need to reform our biblical theology. (For example I read a little quote about Romans yesterday, saying how the letter aimed to get the various house-churches co-operating, and I want to set aside some time to think about that...)
That doesn't mean that what went before is worthless. Just like all human knowledge, it's all work in progress ! There's always more to find out !