Leaven Leaven

Volume 8 Issue 3 Theology and Ministry Article 11

1-1-2000

A Selected Bibliography of Theology A Selected Bibliography of Theology

Paul Casner

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148 Leaven, Fall 2000

A Selected Bibliography ofTheologyForMinisters and ChurchMembers

BY PAUL CASNER

IntroductionThis bibliography intends to

provide some resources by whichpeople who have read few, if any,theological works may gainaccess to theological literature,especially contemporary theo-logical literature. Since doingtheology is in essence learninghow to acknowledge and appreci-ate what God has done for us inJesus Christ, this bibliographyattempts to aid us in our medita-tion on Christ. Without suchmeditation, all that we attempt asa church will be unsteady at bestand foolhardy at worst. As youscan the entries, keep in mindthat the list offered is far fromexhaustive. It is both a place tobegin and an invitation to do SO.1

Electronic Theological Librar-ies for Ministers

It does no good to produce abibliography like this withoutoffering access to a theologicallibrary-or a lot of money. Unfor-tunately, most theological librar-ies offer little help to ministers or

laypersons attempting to doserious research. This problemhas been eased somewhat by theVanderbilt Divinity School. ItsKessler Circulating Libraryenables ministers from all de-nominations to access the Divin-ity School Library through theWorld Wide Web and to check outlibrary resources through themail. Photocopies and referenceinformation are also available.This program does require regis-tration, and no more than twoitems may be checked out at atime; still, it is a wonderfulresource for ministers withoutaccess to a good theologicallibrary. For more information, goto the Vanderbilt Library homepage at http:/ /acorn.library.vanderbilt.edu. Forthe Kessler program, click" otherdatabases," "site index," then"divinity."

Church HistoriesA good knowledge of church

history is crucial to understand-

ing the development of Christiantheological ideas. The best re-source for the uninitiated is theconcise, yet scholarly, overviewby Martin E. Marty entitled AShort History of Christianity, nowin its second edition (Philadel-phia: Fortress, 1987). Eerdmans'Handbook to the History of Chris-tianity, ed. Tim Dowley (GrandRapids: Eerdrnans, 1977), is out ofprint but available in manylibraries. Williston Walker, AHistory of the Christian Church (rev.ed.: New York: Scribner, 1985), astandard one-volume work, andthe two-volume set by Justo L.Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity(San Francisco: Harper & Row,1984), provide fuller resources forthe maturing student. A goodintroductory resource for Ameri-can church history is Eerdmans'Handbook to Christianity inAmerica, ed. Mark A. Noll,Nathan O. Hatch, George M.Marsden, David F.Wells, andJohn D. Woodbridge (GrandRapids: Eerdmans, 1983).

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Histories of TheologyThe place to go after consult-

ing the appropriate churchhistories is a narrative history ofChristian theology. For a schol-arly and accessible work, seeWilliam C. Placher, A History ofChristian Theology: An Introduction(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983).Getting into primary sources (thewritings of historical figures, asopposed to writings about them)is essential to cultivating anunderstanding of the history ofChristian thought. Plachers two-volume set, Readings in the Historyof Christian Theology (Philadel-phia: Westminster, 1988), offers aconcise, yet well-selected, seriesof primary readings.

It is also important to beconversant with the theologicalhistory of your particular tradi-tion. Richard T. Hughes' recentwork, Reviving the Ancient Faith:The Story of Churches of Christ inAmerica (Grand Rapids:Eerdrnans, 1996), is a helpfulintellectual history of theChurches of Christ. A usefulsupplement to this work isRichard T. Hughes and C.Leonard Allen, Discovering OurRoots: The Ancestry of Churches ofChrist (Abilene: ACU Press, 1988).The standard histories of theRestoration movement should beconsulted as well.? along withHans Rollmann's Restorationmovement site on the WorldWide Web (www.mun.ca/rels/restmov /restmov.html).Rollmann's Web site includes awealth of material, especiallyprimary sources of early Restora-tion leaders.

Theological Dictionaries andHandbooks

Once you have a grasp of thegeneral development of Christiantheology, you may want to focuson the history of a certain doc-trine or on a particular theolo-gian. The place to begin is atheological dictionary or encyclo-pedia. These offer a brief intro-duction to an idea or personunder consideration and a bibli-ography. Unfortunately, there isno good one-volume theologicaldictionary suited for pastors andlaypersons. In light of this,perhaps the best place to start isThe Westminster Dictionary ofChristian Theology, ed. AlanRichardson, rev. John Bowden(Louisville: Westminster /JohnKnox, 1983). A good deal ofinformation, as well as biblio-graphical material, can begleaned from The Oxford Dictio-nary of the Christian Church, ed.Frank L. Cross and Elizabeth A.Livingstone. This standard workhas recently been released in athird, but highly expensive,edition (New York: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 1997). In The Cam-bridge Companion to ChristianDoctrine (New York: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1997), a workedited by the British theologianColin E. Gunton, you can findscholarly and up-to-date discus-sions of the main themes ofChristian doctrine, as well as auseful summary of recent devel-opments. An accessible workproduced from an evangelicalpoint of view is Eerdmans' Hand-book to Christian Belief, ed. Robin

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Keeley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1982).

Van A. Harvey, A Handbook ofTheological Terms: Their Meaningand Background Exposed in Over300 Articles (New York: Collier,1964) is old but still useful forconcise definitions of unfamiliarterms and phrases encountered intheological study. A more up-to-date wordbook is Donald K.McKim, The Westminster Dictio-nary of Theological Terms (Louis-ville: Westminster /john Knox,1996). While this volume offersdefinitions that are shorter thanHarvey's, it includes a muchlarger number of terms andphrases. For help with the. philo-sophical backgrounds to theologi-cal ideas, consult Diogenes Allen,Philosophy for UnderstandingTheology (Atlanta: John Knox,1985). It offers concise treatments

. of major thinkers in the Westerntradition, including Plato,Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, andothers, while addressing theirrole in the development of Chris-tian thought.

Several works offer fullerhistories of specific topics thancan be found in a theologicaldictionary or wordbook. Themost accessible is Alan F. Johnsonand Robert E. Webber, WhatChristians Believe: A Biblical andHistorical Summary (Grand Rap-ids: Zondervan, 1993). This work,however, has many drawbacks.The authors sometimes let theirconservative stances undulyinfluence their judgments-especially in the discussion ofscripture. The analyses of somefigures (that of Karl Barth, for

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instance) are inaccurate at times.Nevertheless, the readability ofthis volume and its straightfor-ward presentation make it usefulfor the uninitiated. From here,you should examine the treat-ment of your topic in a standardsurvey such as Linwood Urban, AShort History of Christian Thought(rev. ed.; New York:OxfordUniversity Press, 1995).

Surveys of ContemporaryTheologies

Perhaps the best summarytreatment of twentieth-centurytheology is David F.Ford, ed., TheModern Theologians: An Introduc-tion to Christian Theology in theTwentieth Century (2d ed.; Cam-bridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell,1997).It includes articles, writtenby respected scholars, that intro-duce the thought of leadingtheologians and movements ofthe twentieth century. It alsooffers a helpful introduction totwentieth-century theology byFord. A useful supplement toFord's work is Stanley J. Grenzand Roger E. Olson, Twentieth-Century Theology: God and theWorld in a Transitional Age(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity,1992).

An excellent collection ofprimary sources for leadingmodern theologians is the seriesedited by John De Gruchy of theUniversity of Capetown, SouthAfrica, entitled The Making ofModern Theology: Nineteenth-and Twentieth-Century Texts(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1987-).3The series includes volumes onnineteenth-century figures such

as G.W. F.Hegel, Adolf vonHarnack, and FriedrichSchleiermacher, as well as twenti-eth-century thinkers such as KarlBarth, Paul Tillich,ReinholdNiebuhr, and the liberationtheologian Gustavo Gutierrez.Each volume includes a helpfulintroduction to the life andthought of the theologian underconsideration, a large number ofselections written by that theolo-gian, and a bibliography.

Introductions to TheologyIntroductions to theology

provide a sepse of how the task ofdoing theology is currently beingaddressed by various thinkers,along with an author's ownattempt to do so. The betterintroductions do not endeavor tosay the last word on a topic, butinvite readers to do their owngrappling with the issues. Thebetter works also do their theolo-gizing within, and on behalf of,the church. The standard one-volume introduction is Shirley C.Guthrie, Christian Doctrine (rev.ed.; Louisville: Westminster / JohnKnox, 1994).Guthrie offers acontemporary Reformed ap-proach to theology. My favoriteone-volume work is Faith SeekingUnderstanding: An Introduction toChristian Theology (Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1991),written byDaniel L. Migliore, anotherReformed theologian.

Selected Leading Contempo-rary Theologians

In this section I survey severalleading theologians whose worksoffer fruitful means of entranceinto the current discussion. Some

of the works by these theologiansare difficult and not intended forthe novice, but I include them soas to give you an awareness ofimportant contemporary works.

Stanley ]. GrenzA well-known evangelical

scholar from the Southern Baptisttradition, Grenz writes in amanner that is unusually acces-sible for the nonspecialist. HisWho Needs Theology? An Invitationto the Study of God (DownersGrove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1996),written with Roger E. Olson,offers a good starting place forthose intimidated by theologicalstudy. His A Primer onPostmodernism (Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1996)is an introduc-tion to postmodern trends inWestern culture. His most recentwork is Created for Community:Connecting Christian Belief withChristian Living (Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1998).

Stanley HauerwasHauerwas is a prominent

thinker whose works are readableand practical. Unfortunately, hecan sometimes be sarcastic andharsh, as well. Speaking prima-rily out of the Methodist tradi-tion, Hauerwas focuses on ques-tions of Christian ethics and therelationship between church andculture. Perhaps Hauerwas' mostinfluential work is Resident Aliens:A Provocative Christian Assessmentof Culture and Ministry for PeopleWho Know That Something IsWrong (Nashville: Abingdon,1989).Here Hauerwas insists thatthe church must learn to live as a

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minority voice in society as itendeavors not merely to "helppeople" but to tell people thetruth about Jesus. AmongHauerwas' other importantworks are Unleashing the Scrip-tures: Freeing the Bible from Captiv-ity to America (Nashville:Abingdon, 1993) and The Peace-able Kingdom: A Primer in ChristianEthics (Notre Dame: University ofNotre Dame Press, 1984).

Jurgen MoltmannJiirgen Moltmann was a

German soldier in World War IIwho converted to Christianity ata POW camp in Britain.Moltmann offers rich insight ontopics ranging from faith andsuffering to the importance of thedoctrine of the trinity for contem-porary social questions. Whilebeginners would not be advisedto start their theological questswith Moltmann, they shouldnevertheless be aware of him andmake engaging his works a goalfor the future. He offers a series of"systematic contributions totheology" under the title Messi-anic Theology. Notable works inthis series include The Trinity andthe Kingdom: The Doctrine of Godand God in Creation: A New Theol-ogy of Creation and the Spirit of God(both works trans. Margaret Kohl;Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993). ALutheran, Moltmann is professorof systematic theology at theUniversity of Tiibingen, Ger-many.

Thomas C. adenaden, who is from the Meth-

odist tradition and teaches at

Drew University in New Jersey,endeavors to write theologicalreflections that serve both theminister and the average Chris-tian reader. Among his popularworks are The Transforming Powerof Grace (Nashville: Abingdon,1993) and Requiem: A Lament inThree Movements (Nashville:Abingdon, 1995). His formalwork is Systematic Theology (3vols.; New York:HarperCollins,1987-92). This work is a goodsummary of Christian theologyfor the pastor to have on theshelf.

William C. PlacherPlacher's best work, Unapolo-

getic Theology: A Christian Voice ina Pluralistic Conversation (Louis-ville: Westminster / John Knox,1989), introduces trends inpostmodern thought, then showshow justification of claims toknowledge of God can be ap-proached within this context.Other important works byPlacher include The Domesticationof Transcendence: How ModernThinking about God Went Wrong(Louisville: Westminster / JohnKnox, 1996) and Narratives of aVulnerable God: Christ, Theology,and Scripture (Louisville:Westminster/John Knox, 1994).Placher is professor of philosophyand religion at Wabash College inCrawfordsville, Indiana. He isfrom the Presbyterian tradition.

Cornelius Plantinga Jr.A member of a famous theo-

logical family that includes hisbrother Alvin and his sister Amy,this minister of the Christian

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Reformed Church and professorof theology at Calvin TheologicalSeminary offers fresh perspectiveon theological topics. Alwaysreadable, his chief work is Not theWay It's Supposed to Be: A Breviaryof Sin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1995). See also his Assurances ofthe Heart. A Revised Edition ofBeyond Doubt: Faith-BuildingDevotions on Questions ChristiansAsk (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,1993).

Geoffrey WainwrightAwidely recognized author-

ity on the history of theology andworship, Wainwright writes inaccessible language with adesireto show the relationship betweengood theology and a life of praise.For an overview of his thought,see For Our Salvation: Two Ap-proaches to the Work of Christ(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997).Among his other works areEucharist and Eschatology (rev. ed.;New York:Oxford UniversityPress, 1981) and Doxology: ThePraise of God in Worship, Doctrine,and Life (New York:OxfordUniversity Press, 1980). Wain-wright is from the Methodisttradition and teaches at DukeDivinity School.

Sondra Ely WheelerWheeler is assistant professor

of Christian ethics at WesleyTheological Seminary in Wash-ington, D.C. She writes on Chris-tian ethics with the pastor inmind. In Wealth and Obligation:The New Testament on Possessions(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995),she claims that wealth is a gift

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from God and is intended to beused to serve others and toglorify God. She addresses thequestion of the role of the churchin medical ethics in Stewards ofLife: Bioethics and Pastoral Care(Nashville: Abingdon, 1996).

Nicholas WolterstorffWolterstorff teaches at Yale

Divinity School and has his rootsin the Christian Reformed tradi-tion. His works are demanding,and I would not include his namein a bibliography for beginners ifit were not for his profoundmeditational work, Lament for aSon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1987).It ranks among the mostpowerful contemporary Christianbooks I have read, reminiscent ofC. S.Lewis' A Grief Observed(London: Faber, 1961;San Fran-cisco: HarperCollins, 1994)in itspoignant reflections on the loss ofa loved one."Here Wolterstorffoffers meditations on his attemptto come to terms with his son'sdeath in a 1989mountain-climb-ing accident. This work is a mustfor those facing suffering andloss.

John Howard YoderThe late John Howard Yoder

is one of the greatest AmericanChristian thinkers of the twenti-eth century. His works offer richinsight into the relationshipbetween Christianity and culture,calling Christians to witness tothe power of God in the world byimitating the humble love ofChrist. His most influential workis The Politics of Jesus (2d ed.;Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994).

Originally published in 1972,it isa pioneering effort in Christianethics. Other important works byYoder include The Priestly King-dom (Notre Dame: University ofNotre Dame Press, 1984)and TheRoyal Priesthood: EssaysEcclesiological and Ecumenical, ed.Michael G. Cartwright (GrandRapids: Eerdmans, 1994).Yoder isfrom the Mennonite tradition.

ConclusionThe Christian church faces

many challenges today thatdemand that pastors and peoplein the pew learn to do theologythoughtfully and piously. Onlythrough careful meditation onJesus Christ can we respondfaithfully to God's love and callothers to do the same. I hope thatthis bibliography will encourageus to embark on these endeavors.

PAULCASNERholds a Ph.D. inhistorical and systematic theol-ogy from Marquette Universityand is minister of the West IslipChurch of Christ in West Islip,Long Island, New York.

NotesI This bibliography does not include

works -that reflect feminist traditions, cor-relational theologies, or liberation theolo-gies. These can certainly be fruitful, butthey are not, in my opinion, the places tobegin in learning how to do theology. Con-cerning the related field of Christian eth-ics, I follow Karl Barth, Stanley Hauerwas,and others in holding that ethics must func-tion within theology rather than operatingas a separate discipline associated with ageneral concept of "the good." Thus in mybibliography of authors below, I includetheologians who follow this approach-see, for example, Hauerwas, aden, and

Wheeler. These authors may be consultedfor information on ethics.

2 These include William E. Tucker andLester G. McAllister, Journey in Faith: AHistory of the Christian Church (St. Louis:Christian Board of Publishing, 1975);Winfred E. Garrison and Alfred T.DeGroot, The Disciples of Christ: A His-tory (St. Louis: Christian Board of Publi-cation, 1948); David Edwin Harrell, Quest

for a Christian America.' The Disciples ofChrist and A merican Society to 1866(Nashville: Disciples of Christ HistoricalSociety, 1966); Harrell, The Social Sourcesof Division in the Disciples of Christ,1865-1900 (Atlanta: Publishing Systems,Inc., 1973); James DeForest Murch, Chris-tians Only (Cincinnati: Standard, 1962);Earl Irvin West, The Searchfor the AncientOrder, 4 vols. (Indianapolis: ReligiousBook Service, 1950-79; Germantown,Tenn.: Religious Book Service, 1987); andLeroy Garrett, The Stone-Campbell Move-ment: An Anecdotal History of ThreeChurches (Joplin, Mo.: College Press,1981).

3 While this series is currently beingpublished by Fortress Press, some volumesin it have appeared under the auspices ofHarperCollins (San Francisco) and Orbis(Maryknoll, N.Y.).

4 Lewis' best work, besides A GriefObserved, is the classic Mere Christianity(New York: Macmillan, 1952). This bookis good for introducing the beginner toChristian theology if taken with somegrains of salt. First, Lewis places too muchemphasis on the question of God's reality,overshadowing his reflections on otherChristian doctrines. Second, Lewis' argu-ment for God's reality does not work as arational proof of God, in spite of the factthat Lewis apparently intended it as such.Rather, the argument works as a reason-able witness to God, an invitation to faithconsistent with the way many Westernersreason. Lewis' argument, in essence, datesfrom Plato and has been used by manyChristian theologians throughout history.A good contemporary version of it is found

(Notes continued on p. 134)

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