Systematic Theology: Volume 1, The Doctrine of God
The mystery of Almighty God is most properly an explication of the oneness of God, tying the faith of the church to the bedrock of Israel’s confession of the lord of the covenant, the lord of our Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of divine attributes, then, is set out as a reflection on Holy Scripture: the One God as omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient, and all these as expressions of the Love who is God. Systematic theology must make bold claims about its knowledge and service of this One lord: the Invisible God must be seen and known in the visible. In this way, God and God’s relation to creation are distinguished—but not separated—from Christology, the doctrine of perfections from redemption. The lord God will be seen as compatible with creatures, and the divine perfections express formally distinct and unique relations to the world.
This systematic theology, then, begins from the treatise De Deo Uno and develops the dogma of the Trinity as an expression of divine unicity, on which will depend creation, Christology, and ecclesiology. In the end, the transcendent beauty who is God can be known only in worship and praise.
This systematic theology, then, begins from the treatise De Deo Uno and develops the dogma of the Trinity as an expression of divine unicity, on which will depend creation, Christology, and ecclesiology. In the end, the transcendent beauty who is God can be known only in worship and praise.
- Publisher Fortress Press
- Format Hardcover
- ISBN 9781451482843
- eBook ISBN 9781451496659
- Dimensions 6 x 9
- Pages 539
- Publication Date June 1, 2015
Endorsements
“Astonishing in scope and breadth, beautiful in language, profound in spiritual perception, this is a monumental work, comparable to Rowan Williams and T. F. Torrance at their best. I expect it to be a standard point of reference in Christian theology for years to come.”
—George Hunsinger
Princeton Theological Seminary
“This first volume of Professor Sonderegger’s Systematic Theology presents one of the most distinguished treatments of the Christian doctrine of God in recent decades. It is a reflective expansion of a single, utterly arresting thought that oneness is the fundamental divine perfection by which all talk of the attributes of God is to be governed. As it follows the prompting of Holy Scripture, its exposition of the divine nature, and of God’s omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, and love is at times cross-grained, uneasy with some elements of contemporary Trinitarianism and with the christological inflation of some modern dogmatics. But, above all, it offers a deeply impressive commendation of the first and greatest matter of Christian faith. The study unites delicacy of judgment with purposiveness and originality of mind, and communicates that appetite for divine things without which wholesome theological work is not possible. This is theology of enduring intellectual and spiritual substance.”
—John Webster
St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews
“The first volume of Katherine Sonderegger’s systematic theology starts with the heart of the matter: the doctrine of God. She opens new vistas on the doctrine by doing what almost no one (with the possible exception of Barth) has done so well: making ‘the perfections of God’ exciting. Over and above the theology itself, Sonderegger’s book moves with personal energy through Scripture and tradition and contemporary theologians and philosophers—an energy that will make readers enthusiastically seek the next volume of her remarkable project.”
—James J. Buckley
Loyola University Maryland
—George Hunsinger
Princeton Theological Seminary
“This first volume of Professor Sonderegger’s Systematic Theology presents one of the most distinguished treatments of the Christian doctrine of God in recent decades. It is a reflective expansion of a single, utterly arresting thought that oneness is the fundamental divine perfection by which all talk of the attributes of God is to be governed. As it follows the prompting of Holy Scripture, its exposition of the divine nature, and of God’s omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, and love is at times cross-grained, uneasy with some elements of contemporary Trinitarianism and with the christological inflation of some modern dogmatics. But, above all, it offers a deeply impressive commendation of the first and greatest matter of Christian faith. The study unites delicacy of judgment with purposiveness and originality of mind, and communicates that appetite for divine things without which wholesome theological work is not possible. This is theology of enduring intellectual and spiritual substance.”
—John Webster
St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews
“The first volume of Katherine Sonderegger’s systematic theology starts with the heart of the matter: the doctrine of God. She opens new vistas on the doctrine by doing what almost no one (with the possible exception of Barth) has done so well: making ‘the perfections of God’ exciting. Over and above the theology itself, Sonderegger’s book moves with personal energy through Scripture and tradition and contemporary theologians and philosophers—an energy that will make readers enthusiastically seek the next volume of her remarkable project.”
—James J. Buckley
Loyola University Maryland
Reviews
Review on Faith and Theology
Author
Katherine Sonderegger is the William Meade Professor of Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. She is the author of That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew: Karl Barth’s “Doctrine of Israel” (1992).