The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking E-Book

David S. Dockery

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 157

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

A college education becomes truly meaningful when faith affects what happens in the classroom every day. According to David Dockery and Timothy George, it's only by stepping into the great tradition of Christian thinking that students can take hold of the true power of their education. They demonstrate that vibrant, world-changing Christianity is not anti-intellectual; instead, it assumes a long tradition of vigorous Christian thinking and a commitment to the integration of faith and scholarship as essential to the preparation of a next generation of leaders in the church, the academy, and the world. As the first volume in a new series, this book introduces an approach to the Christian tradition that is not simply historical overview, but will also help students engage with contemporary challenges to their faith in various academic fields. This reader-friendly guidebook shows how to address those challenges by reclaiming the best of the Christian intellectual tradition. With illustrations, reflection questions, and a list of resources for further study, this book is sure to be a timely tool in the hands of believing students in both Christian and secular universities. Part of the Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition series.

Leseprobe

“David Dockery and Timothy George are veterans of long and distinguished service in both church and academy. The wisdom they bring to their recommendation of the Christian intellectual tradition is biblical, seasoned, experienced, trustworthy, and encouraging. It is a book to enjoy both in itself and as a welcome guide to much, much more.”

Mark A. Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

“David Dockery and Timothy George are among the preeminent Christian intellectuals of the current age. This book demonstrates why. The volume courses with biblical conviction, evangelical vitality, and a breadth that interacts with the great cloud of witnesses from every place and era of the church of Jesus Christ. I commend this book heartily to students, professors, and church leaders.”

Russell D. Moore, Dean, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“In a clear and concise presentation of the great thinkers of the church, the authors of this book launch a new series that promises to provide students with an important key to unlock the treasure store of the Christian tradition. They show us once again how exciting Christianity is and why it has captured the minds of successive generations. At a time when our faith is being challenged as never before, this introduction to its riches promises to equip the saints of the next generation to claim their inheritance and extend it further to the glory of God.”

Gerald Bray, Distinguished Professor of Historical Theology, Knox Theological Seminary

“This appeal to Christian educators to take the great tradition of Christian thinking much more seriously, to find our place within it, and to renew it today has arrived in the nick of time. For despite the common invocation of ‘integration’ language at our Christian universities, our schools are all too often led by pragmatists beholden to the forces of the market more than the life of the Christian mind. David Dockery and Timothy George herein remind us of our heritage, our very reason for being. I pray that God will use their efforts in the lives of countless students, teachers, and Christian college leaders, inspiring passionate commitment to the values and the virtues that attracted us to Christian education in the first place.”

Douglas A. Sweeney, Professor of Church History, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“David Dockery and Timothy George have written a compelling volume that makes a strong case for the pivotal role that the Christian intellectual tradition should fulfill in a serious liberal arts education. Although the volume was written as a student’s text, individuals who care about Christian higher education (administrators, faculty, and trustees) will benefit from reading and applying the principles articulated in this thoughtful work.”

Kim S. Phipps, President, Messiah College

“Don’t be misled by the modesty of this book’s title. While the book surely is a winsome and accessible introduction to the subject for any inquiring student, it has much more than that to offer. Its authors are two of the most eminent figures in the field of Christian higher education, and their book reflects the immense range of their learning and experience, even though it wears its learning lightly. The result is a compact but powerful work that will be an invaluable tool for all of us who wrestle with the great task of integrating faith and learning and of showing others how the good, the true, and the beautiful find their ultimate source and meaning in God.”

Wilfred M. McClay, SunTrust Chair of Excellence in Humanities, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

“David Dockery and Timothy George, two experienced and wise Christian educators, have produced the first volume of what promises to be an important series of guides—aimed at students—intended both to recover and instruct regarding the Christian intellectual tradition. This volume, and no doubt the series as well, meets a significant need, not only for students but also for ministers and academics who are charged with the responsibility of helping us all think and live faithfully as followers of Christ. In light of our deeply flawed world, every generation needs a fresh retelling—in literature, theology, the arts, philosophy, or public policy—of the central truths of all human and natural experience, as revealed by the one true and living God through his Son and as authoritatively and indispensably taught in Holy Scripture.”

Robert B. Sloan, President, Houston Baptist University

ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE SERIES

“Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition is an exciting project that will freshly introduce readers to the riches of historic Christian thought and practice. As the modern secular academy struggles to reclaim a semblance of purpose, this series demonstrates why a deeply rooted Christian worldview offers an intellectual coherence so badly needed in our fragmented culture. Assembling a formidable cohort of respected evangelical scholars, this volume promises to supply must-read orientations to the disciplines for the next generation of Christian students.”

Thomas Kidd, Department of History, Baylor University

“To say that this project is overdue is perhaps the understatement of the century. I’m grateful that David Dockery and Timothy George, two exemplars of the Christian intellectual tradition, are blazing this trail for us. Many of us have been the happy beneficiaries of their scholarship over the past two decades; many will be the appreciative heirs of their work as this series develops.”

Andrew Westmoreland, President, Samford University

“This new series is exactly what Christian higher education needs to shore up its intellectual foundations for the challenges of the coming decades. Whether students are studying in professedly Christian institutions or in more traditionally secular settings, these volumes will provide a firm basis from which to withstand the dismissive attitude toward biblical thinking that seems so pervasive in the academy today. These titles will make their way onto the required reading lists at Christian colleges and universities as they seek to ensure a firm biblical perspective for students, regardless of discipline. Similarly, pastors on secular campuses will find this series to be an invaluable bibliography for guiding students who are struggling with coalescing their emerging intellectual curiosity with their developing faith.”

Carl E. Zylstra, President, Dordt College

The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking: A Student’s Guide

Copyright © 2012 by David S. Dockery and Timothy George

Published by Crossway                     1300 Crescent Street                     Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Jon McGrath, Simplicated Studio

First printing 2012

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AT are the authors’ translation.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-2513-1

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-2515-5

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-2864-4

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3488-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The great tradition of Christian thinking : a student's guide / David S. Dockery and Timothy George, editors.

        p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 978-1-4335-2513-1 (tp)

    1. Church history. 2. Christianity. 3. College students--Religious life. 4. Education, Humanistic--Curricula. I. Dockery, David S. II. George, Timothy.

BR145.3.G74         2012

230.09—dc23                                 2011045934

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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14   13   12   11  10   9    8   7    6    5    4    3    2    1

To

Bob Agee, president, Oklahoma Baptist University, 1982–1998

Clyde Cook, in memoriam, president, Biola University, 1982–2007

Jay Kesler, president, Taylor University, 1985–2000

Duane Litfin, president, Wheaton College, 1993–2010

Remarkable leaders, Special friends, Treasured colleagues and mentors

CONTENTS

Series Preface: Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition

Authors’ Preface

1   The Beginning of the Great Tradition

2   The Development of the Great Tradition

3   The Shaping of the Great Tradition

4   The Theological Commitments of the Great Tradition

5   The Application and Advancement of the Great Traditio

Questions for Reflection

Timeline

Glossary

Resources for Further Study

Consulting Editors

SERIES PREFACE

RECLAIMING THE CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION

The Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition series is designed to provide an overview of the distinctive way the church has read the Bible, formulated doctrine, provided education, and engaged the culture. The contributors to this series all agree that personal faith and genuine Christian piety are essential for the life of Christ followers and for the church. These contributors also believe that helping others recognize the importance of serious thinking about God, Scripture, and the world needs a renewed emphasis at this time in order that the truth claims of the Christian faith can be passed along from one generation to the next. The study guides in this series will enable us to see afresh how the Christian faith shapes how we live, how we think, how we write books, how we govern society, and how we relate to one another in our churches and social structures. The richness of the Christian intellectual tradition provides guidance for the complex challenges that believers face in this world.

This series is particularly designed for Christian students and others associated with college and university campuses, including faculty, staff, trustees, and other various constituents. The contributors to the series will explore how the Bible has been interpreted in the history of the church, as well as how theology has been formulated. They will ask: How does the Christian faith influence our understanding of culture, literature, philosophy, government, beauty, art, or work? How does the Christian intellectual tradition help us understand truth? How does the Christian intellectual tradition shape our approach to education? We believe that this series is not only timely but that it meets an important need, because the secular culture in which we now find ourselves is, at best, indifferent to the Christian faith, and the Christian world—at least in its more popular forms—tends to be confused about the beliefs, heritage, and tradition associated with the Christian faith.

At the heart of this work is the challenge to prepare a generation of Christians to think Christianly, to engage the academy and the culture, and to serve church and society. We believe that both the breadth and the depth of the Christian intellectual tradition need to be reclaimed, revitalized, renewed, and revived for us to carry forward this work. These study guides will seek to provide a framework to help introduce students to the great tradition of Christian thinking, seeking to highlight its importance for understanding the world, its significance for serving both church and society, and its application for Christian thinking and learning. The series is a starting point for exploring important ideas and issues such as truth, meaning, beauty, and justice.

We trust that the series will help introduce readers to the apostles, church fathers, Reformers, philosophers, theologians, historians, and a wide variety of other significant thinkers. In addition to well-known leaders such as Clement, Origen, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and Jonathan Edwards, readers will be pointed to William Wilberforce, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers, C. S. Lewis, Johann Sebastian Bach, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, George Washington Carver, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Michael Polanyi, Henry Luke Orombi, and many others. In doing so, we hope to introduce those who throughout history have demonstrated that it is indeed possible to be serious about the life of the mind while simultaneously being deeply committed Christians. These efforts to strengthen serious Christian thinking and scholarship will not be limited to the study of theology, scriptural interpretation, or philosophy, even though these areas provide the framework for understanding the Christian faith for all other areas of exploration. In order for us to reclaim and advance the Christian intellectual tradition, we must have some understanding of the tradition itself. The volumes in this series will seek to explore this tradition and its application for our twenty-first-century world. Each volume contains a glossary, study questions, and a list of resources for further study, which we trust will provide helpful guidance for our readers.

I am deeply grateful to the series editorial committee: Timothy George, John Woodbridge, Michael Wilkins, Niel Nielson, Philip Ryken, and Hunter Baker. Each of these colleagues joins me in thanking our various contributors for their fine work. We all express our appreciation to Justin Taylor, Jill Carter, Allan Fisher, Lane Dennis, and the Crossway team for their enthusiastic support for the project. We offer the project with the hope that students will be helped, faculty and Christian leaders will be encouraged, institutions will be strengthened, and churches will be built up, and, ultimately, that God will be glorified.

Soli Deo Gloria David S. Dockery, Series Editor

AUTHORS’ PREFACE

The opportunity to work together on another significant project is a privilege that we do not take for granted. Over the past twenty years we have participated together in nearly a dozen publications; the one you hold in your hands will be the fourth book that we have coauthored or coedited. In many ways our work on this project began even before that first coedited work in 1990.

In God's good providence we had the privilege of being introduced to one another in 1987 when David was invited to serve as a visiting faculty member for the summer term at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where Timothy already held a full-time appointment in the area of historical theology. That summer was the first of dozens and dozens of conversations that have followed since that time, many over lunch at one of Timothy’s favorite Mexican restaurants, about the nature and ideals of Christian higher education, as well as theological education. In 1988 Timothy was named the founding dean of the Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Shortly thereafter, David was named dean and vice president at The Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, where he served until moving to Union University about sixteen years ago to serve as president. As can be seen, our lives for the past twenty-five years have been closely connected and bound up with institutions associated with the work of what is often called the Christian intellectual tradition.

The series for which this volume serves as the introductory work is called Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition. Some of our initial publications, which were shaped by those earlier conversations, have been influential in what we have presented in this little book, which we have titled The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking. That thinking was exemplarily modeled by the major Reformers in the sixteenth century and described in Timothy’s publication called Theology of the Reformers (1988). David published a work called Biblical Interpretation Then and Now (1992), which looked at key turning points in biblical interpretation throughout the history of the church. The great thinkers represented in those two volumes have again surfaced as the primary shapers to which we have given much attention in this initial volume in this new Crossway series. It is our hope that the new presentation of these leaders who have shaped so many aspects of church history and Christian theology will encourage many to join us in the effort to seek to reclaim and advance the Christian intellectual tradition. It is our prayer not just to recover and present key aspects of Christian thought and history but to do so with the goal of strengthening the work of the people of God in the churches and particularly in Christian academic communities.

This work would not have taken place without the wonderful support of many people. We want to thank the Crossway team for their encouragement and enablement in this project; particularly we wish to express appreciation to Justin Taylor, Lydia Brownback, Jill Carter, Allan Fisher, and Lane Dennis. We also want to express our deep gratitude to Le-Ann Little, B. Coyne, and Cindy Meredith for their assistance. Our genuine thanksgiving is offered to Melanie Rickman, who has invested untold hours in this project. Without her tireless efforts, this work would have never seen the light of day. We also wish to thank our colleagues at Union University and Beeson Divinity School for their help and support along the way, as well as the editorial team for their oversight for this series.

Timothy also wishes to thank Denise, and David offers his gratitude to Lanese. We are blessed by their love, prayers, and support through yet another publishing project.

We have dedicated this volume to four men who have served as role models, friends, mentors, and guides for our work in the field of higher education. We offer thanksgiving to God for the ministry and influence of Bob Agee, Clyde Cook, Jay Kesler, and Duane Litfin. Ultimately, we offer this volume with the prayer that readers will be helped, that Christian institutions will be strengthened, that the gospel will be advanced, and that our great and majestic God will be glorified.

Soli Deo Gloria David S. Dockery Timothy George

1

THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT TRADITION

THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE

There can be no Christian intellectual life without reference to the writings of the prophets and evangelists, the doctrines of the church fathers, the conceptual niceties of the scholastics, the language of the liturgy, the songs of the poets and hymn writers, the exploits of the martyrs, and the holy tales of the saints.

Robert L. Wilken, “The Christian Intellectual Tradition,” First Things (1991)

All that is meant by tradition, then, is the faithful handing down from generation to generation of scripture interpretation consensually received worldwide and cross-culturally through two millennia.

Thomas C. Oden, The Rebirth of Orthodoxy (2003)

The calendars at the universities where we serve are filled with special events and activities, including dinners, banquets, receptions, and open-house gatherings. One of the privileges that is ours at the beginning of each semester is to invite new students to our homes, where we have opportunity to meet these young men and women and introduce them to other campus leaders. From these introductions, new relationships are started, and mentoring opportunities begin. At other times during the year, we open our homes for a seasonal open house, a gathering of faculty, staff, friends, donors, and trustees. On this occasion it is a treat to welcome them and introduce trustees to faculty, and staff to friends from the community. A joyful moment occurs for us when an interesting conversation develops and a new friendship is formed. Those examples seem to me to symbolize and demonstrate what is involved in the experience of reclaiming the Christian intellectual tradition.