Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

Product Information

This is part of a discussion about the scientific character of theology, about whether, following Schleiermacher, the subject matter of theology ought to be the scientific study of human religious states. When the usual charges are leveled against Hodge, but this time from a highly-regarded theologian in the Reformed family then it's high time to set the record straight.

Scholar, educator, churchman, and distinguished American Presbyterian systematic theologian of the nineteenth century, Charles Hodge was born in Philadelphia in 1797. What Hodge affirms is that it is possible by careful attention to the data, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, (another vital factor about our situation), to come to a true understanding of the teaching of Scripture even though there is a sense in which the theologian is involved in a never-ending process of revisiting the data. So the facts to which the systematic theologian attends are already 'laden' with the conclusions of the biblical theologian. the mighty creation of the Word of God furnishes the material for Theology in this scientific sense, but is no Theology.The good news is there are plenty of good resources that have served the church well and will strengthen your understanding of the faith. He understands Hodge as applying to Scripture the Baconian experimental method of (1) collecting the facts, (2) framing an explanatory hypothesis for them, and testing the hypothesis experimentally, though actually he does not take these points from Hodge himself but from Robert McCheyne Edgar. The location or situation of the interpreter is irrelevant: the glory of the inductive method is that close observation allows the facts to emerge, regardless of who is doing the observing. Bray’s approach is unique in that (1) he has organized an entire systematic theology around the love of God and (2) he cites nothing but the Bible. In 1812 Hodge’s mother moved the family to Princeton in hope of matriculating her sons at Princeton College.

Unfortunately, Professor Vanhoozer's negative comments about Charles Hodge's systematic theological method are not novel. In fact, what Hodge does is he'll set up a theological problem, he'll present the different views, and then he'll say, “But the best way to think about this theological issue is in the words of Turretin,” or in the words of some other theologian, and then he will quote the Latin. Biblical Theology exhibits to the student of the Word the organic structure of the truth therein contained, and its organic growth as the result of revelation.

On the evangelical left John Franke, in Beyond Foundationalism, speaks pejoratively of Hodge’s scholasticism and rationalistic foundationalism. Simultaneously, on the evangelical right, Kevin Vanhoozer, in The Drama of Doctrine, charges Hodge with de-dramatizing Scripture and wrongly attempting to create an “epic” theology that reduces the Bible to a collection of propositions. For anything pretending to supplant Dogmatics there is no place in the circle of Christian Theology…. In the coming decade, Hodge would be assisted by the linguistic talent and philological expertise of Joseph Addison Alexander.