Principles of Christian Theology

by John MacQuarrie

This text poses the question "what is theology?" and goes on to discuss issues of methodology, the relation of theology to other disciplines and different theological perspectives. It also investigates topics in the fields of philosophical theology (human existence; revelation; the language of theology; and Christianity and other religions), symbolic theology (triune God; doctrines of creation; the problem of evil and suffering; the person of Jesus Christ; and eschatology) and applied theology (the Church; ministry and mission; word and the sacraments; worship and prayer; and ethics).

Genres: Theology, Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published September 22, 1970

About the author

John Macquarrie FBA TD was a Scottish-born theologian and philosopher. Timothy Bradshaw has described Macquarrie as "unquestionably Anglicanism's most distinguished systematic theologian in the second half of the twentieth century."

Reviews

[Daniel Clemence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Principles of Christian Theology is an overview of Christian Theology. There are multiple different aspects of theology that are looked at including philosophical theology, human existence, revelation being and god, language and theology, the trinity, the work of Christ, the Church among other things.

The introduction nicely introduces the different subjects but I feel in part that it weakens itself by playing down the influence of society on theology. It does argue that humans are part of community but doesn't want to argue that society impacts a person's theology. This turns out to be one of the biggest problems of the book. Does society impact a person's theology. Absolutely and theology books need to be infused with at least some understanding that a society can impact the theology generated. However, I wouldn't say society is merely the only thing that impacts theology and it is a two way process. Other than that the introduction is good at setting out the arguments.

What are the best chapters? The ones I liked most would be The Tasks of Philosophical theology, the language of theology, the person of Jesus Christ as being the most useful in setting out theological ideas. Language is particularly useful because so much is used in theology and Christianity.

Some points might not be liked. For example, the book seems to be quite scathing of Calvinism arguing it is an outlier in Christianity. Some of its arguments are thought provoking as it argues that Christianity at times is closer to the views of other religions than with other parts of Christianity.

The other thing I like about the book is that it appreciates philosophy far more than a lot of other theology books. In many ways, theology is the philosophy of religion. There are theologians such as Barth and Tertullian who disliked religion but John Macquarrie uses a lot of philosophers to point out the influence of philosophy in theology.

[Brendan Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Macquarrie's masterwork, in which he reinterprets Christian theology from an existentialist perspective. Anglican priest, Christian theologian and philosopher, "an existentialist without angst", "an extraordinary gift to the Church".

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the required text in my first graduate course in systematic theology back in 1971. For reasons I cannot now recall, I did not use it as a text when I began to teach theology in graduate school. Having just reread it, I wish now that I had used it. Enough said!

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Macquarrie’s theology is somewhat outdated, but will speak significantly to those interested in existentialism and/or epistemology. Where Tillich mirrors Sarte in a religious way, Macquarrie does so more with Heidegger. He then proposes a symbolic interpretation of theology which offers an interesting, albeit restated, contribution to contemporary religious epistemology. A good systematic theology, natural companion to Tillich.

[pjr8888 · Rating 4 out of 5]

St Patrick's Seminary

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is dated. If you want to know what Christian theologians thought in the 1950s, this is your book. Otherwise, stick with the books mentioned above.

[Santhosh J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is wonderful introduction to Christian Theology.

[John Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book for m Intro to Christianity class in 1973. It allowed me to open up m thinking.