Systematic Theology: The Complete Three Volumes

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The ESV Study Bible has significant articles on all the major loci, while the new ESV Systematic Theology Study Bible links up theological reflection with the text of Scripture. Systematic Theology is not founded on the direct and primary results of the exegetical process; it is founded on the final and complete results of exegesis as exhibited in Biblical Theology. The plethora of block quotes, not too mention Kelly’s own brilliance, make for hard reading at times, but there is plenty here to repay serious reflection.

Just published for the first time in English, this work represents theological exploration from a gifted young man who would later make his mark in the field of biblical theology (as opposed to systematics). This monumental work, now a standard for theological students, was written while Hodge served as a professor at Princeton, where he permanently influenced American Christianity as a teacher, preacher, and exegete. After he graduated from Princeton in 1819, he served in pulpit supply for about a year and then he was back in 1820 at Princeton as a professor, and he stayed there right up until his death of 1878. And 'Christ could not have had a finite intelligence' and 'the Logos was clothed with a human body' are examples of inferences drawn from an incomplete induction of such facts. So the source may rather be Kuyper's Encyclopaedia of Theology, (1898) the second volume of which has been translated for longer.

In divine revelation word and fact are always connected; it does not merely convey facts that we have to explain, but it itself clearly illumines those facts.

Vanhoozer's three charges Professor Vanhoozer first alleges that Hodge presupposes a subject-object dichotomy in which the mind observes mind-independent facts in which the situation of the interpreter is irrelevant.This four-volume work deserves more attention than it normally receives, for it combines the mature fruit of Protestant Scholasticism with the rich piety of the Dutch Second Reformation. Having been in print since 1872, this book has served as a primary textbook in many leading seminaries. Like the scientist, the theologian ought to carry out his induction as thoroughly and comprehensively as possible. The Bible clearly reveals what is otherwise dimly perceived, the character of the external works of God, our own consciousness and the laws of our nature, and our religious experience. 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.

As for the scientific elaboration of this God-given material, this must be held to lie beyond the Biblical period. From this it was inferred by some that He could not have had a finite intelligence, but that the Logos was clothed in Him with a human body with its animal life. These sentences bear certain familiar tell-tale signs, expressed in three charges against Hodge: that he presupposes a ‘subject-object dichotomy’ in which the mind observes facts (which are in some sense mind-independent), and in which the situation of the interpreter is irrelevant. The second task is to attempt to explain these facts by the presupposition of creation, fall, the deity of Christ, the inspiration of Scripture.From this it was inferred that He could not have had a finite intelligence, but that the Logos was clothed in Him with a human body with its animal life.

So of course, as is made obvious by a cursory reading of the material, Hodge insists on the importance of taking into account the situation of the interpreter.Help TGC bring biblical wisdom to the confusing issues across the world by making a gift to our international work.