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Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic
This one-volume introduction to systematic theology draws deeply on the catholic and Reformed heritage to present the major doctrines of the Christian faith, displaying the power of theological retrieval for the church's renewal. Leading Reformed theologians, such as Kevin Vanhoozer, John Webster, Michael Horton, and Oliver Crisp, offer the "state of the question" on standard theological topics and engage in both exegetical and historical retrieval for the sake of theological analysis. The book represents the exciting new theological trajectory of Reformed catholicity.
416 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 2016
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About the author
R. Michael Allen
28 books24 followersR. Michael Allen (PhD, Wheaton College) is Kennedy Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is ordained in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and is the author of several books.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 2, 2025
This book is a mixed bag with contents ranging from spectacular (Webster's essays) to dull (a good portion of them) to bad (Crisp on sin and MacLeod on Christ's work accomplished). The Webster essay on creation is only to be found here, but his one on providence is in God Without Measure.
The quality of the essays ranges so broadly that I don't think this should be a go-to resource for people looking to become acquainted with dogmatics or Reformed Catholicity. Some authors are very interactive with scholarship (Allen, Swain, Vanhoozer, Treier); others take a more proclamatory tone (Webster, Horton, Gaffin, Nimmo); and Crisp says that he's putting forward A view of original sin while clearly not really believing it himself (incredibly unsatisfying). Swain and Allen's little book on Reformed Catholicity was excellent, but the range of quality, insight, and wisdom make this one mediocre at best. Where it is good, it is very good; where it is bad, it can be very bad.
The quality of the essays ranges so broadly that I don't think this should be a go-to resource for people looking to become acquainted with dogmatics or Reformed Catholicity. Some authors are very interactive with scholarship (Allen, Swain, Vanhoozer, Treier); others take a more proclamatory tone (Webster, Horton, Gaffin, Nimmo); and Crisp says that he's putting forward A view of original sin while clearly not really believing it himself (incredibly unsatisfying). Swain and Allen's little book on Reformed Catholicity was excellent, but the range of quality, insight, and wisdom make this one mediocre at best. Where it is good, it is very good; where it is bad, it can be very bad.
October 4, 2016
A very nice collection of essays on the major loci of theology. Though certain essays are a bit quixotic, each chapter on the whole is an excellent presentation of the doctrine. The strength here lies in that every contributor is conversant with not only the Reformed tradition, but catholic and contemporary theology as well. In my mind, this is what is most helpful about this book: integration of the breadth of the church's tradition, with a distinctively Reformed flavor. It's not often that you can learn about Tertullian, Irenaeus, Bonaventure, Thomas, Luther, Calvin, Maastricht, Ursinus, Turretin, Schleiermacher, Warfield, Hodge, Bavinck, Vos, Barth, Pannenberg, and Moltmann (to name just a small sampling) all in one book!
Swain and Allen have given an excellent primer on doing dogmatic theology in both method (Reformed Catholicity) and now in practice (Christian Dogmatics). May the Church continue to be sanctified in her speech and thought through the work of these faithful doctors!
Swain and Allen have given an excellent primer on doing dogmatic theology in both method (Reformed Catholicity) and now in practice (Christian Dogmatics). May the Church continue to be sanctified in her speech and thought through the work of these faithful doctors!
February 18, 2019
What a rich volume! Apart from the obvious quibbles a baptist is bound to have with some of the content (like some parts of Horton's chapter on *The Church* or Billings' chapter on *Sacraments*), every chapter was outstanding. The one exception to this was Oliver Crisp's chapter on *Sin.* I really don't know what it was doing in this volume...
Particularly noteworthy chapters were Michael Allen's on *Knowledge of God,* Kevin Vanhoozer's on *Holy Sripture,* Scott Swain's on *Covenant of Redemption,* and Richard Gaffin's *The Work of Christ Accomplished* (whose very brief section therein on sin all but makes up for Crisp!).
Particularly noteworthy chapters were Michael Allen's on *Knowledge of God,* Kevin Vanhoozer's on *Holy Sripture,* Scott Swain's on *Covenant of Redemption,* and Richard Gaffin's *The Work of Christ Accomplished* (whose very brief section therein on sin all but makes up for Crisp!).
June 18, 2016
This is a good systematic theology. Each loci (or topic) is written by someone (presumably) well versed in that field. So instead of a single author you get multiple authors who share the same theological foundation.
It's also short (400 pages) so each chapter can only devote about 30 pages to each topic. But it covers nearly the whole theological encyclopedia.
All in all it's worth the read.
It's also short (400 pages) so each chapter can only devote about 30 pages to each topic. But it covers nearly the whole theological encyclopedia.
All in all it's worth the read.
May 4, 2017
Essays vary in quality but worth the price just for John Webster's mind-blowing chapters on Creation and Providence. Still thinking about them months later!
May 23, 2017
There are lots of works that contain, compilations of essays, yet most of the time it is a collection of essays in memorandum of a highly praised scholar or exegete. Other works are collections of essays which seek to prove a point, these types of compilation volumes are usually highly scholarly and are not much of use the pastor or Layman. It is a rare feat in which a collection of essays can be aimed at the Scholar, useful to the pastor, and understandable to the Layman. Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic is one of those rare fetes. This work, edited by Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain of Reformed Theological Seminary, is a fantastic and worthwhile read. Allen & Swain have brought together some of the greatest living adherence to reformed theology, in an attempt to write about important topics which affect Christendom as a whole. These scholars all wright from a staunchly reformed theological based position, which is guided by their interpretation of Holy Scripture, with a heavy reliance on reformed creeds and confessions as explanations of scripture.
These scholars wright on topics such as the knowledge of God, the Holy Trinity, sin, the work of Christ, the Church, and scripture just to name a few. All of these topics are in debate in many Christian circles and a defense of the reformed biblical understanding of these topics was desperately in need. Each of these articles are not only relatively short in length but relatively non verbose, and applicable to the daily Christian life.
Another important note is the understanding of the title of this work. Many misunderstand that the word catholic does not mean the Roman Catholic Church, rather the term catholic means universal (notice the little c), meaning the worldwide Church and not a specific group. So when you are reading the title or any part of this book when the term catholic is used in the text please do not misunderstand this term or be put off by it. These authors are trying to show the reformed view of the church bad supplies to all of Christendom, eg. The Church catholic. In the end I highly recommend this compilation work to any and all Christians to understand the Reformed Theological position on important matters pertaining to the Christian faith. No matter who you are scholar, pastor, and Lehman this book Bridges the gap between popular and scholarly level reading and is therefore aimed at everyone, a rare feat indeed.
This book was provided to me free of charge from Baker Academic Publishing in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.
Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic
© 2016 Edited by Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain
Publisher: Baker Academic
Page Count: 416 Pages
ISBN: 978-0801048944
These scholars wright on topics such as the knowledge of God, the Holy Trinity, sin, the work of Christ, the Church, and scripture just to name a few. All of these topics are in debate in many Christian circles and a defense of the reformed biblical understanding of these topics was desperately in need. Each of these articles are not only relatively short in length but relatively non verbose, and applicable to the daily Christian life.
Another important note is the understanding of the title of this work. Many misunderstand that the word catholic does not mean the Roman Catholic Church, rather the term catholic means universal (notice the little c), meaning the worldwide Church and not a specific group. So when you are reading the title or any part of this book when the term catholic is used in the text please do not misunderstand this term or be put off by it. These authors are trying to show the reformed view of the church bad supplies to all of Christendom, eg. The Church catholic. In the end I highly recommend this compilation work to any and all Christians to understand the Reformed Theological position on important matters pertaining to the Christian faith. No matter who you are scholar, pastor, and Lehman this book Bridges the gap between popular and scholarly level reading and is therefore aimed at everyone, a rare feat indeed.
This book was provided to me free of charge from Baker Academic Publishing in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.
Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic
© 2016 Edited by Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain
Publisher: Baker Academic
Page Count: 416 Pages
ISBN: 978-0801048944
March 12, 2019
This is an okay modern dogmatics. I think there is a place for a more modern dogmatics that is deeply interested in questioning the tradition and how it's done, but this book is both a bit too traditionalist and boring while at the same time including a lot of modern material, some helpful, some intellectual junk food, and some more okay.
Webster's essays are the best. He's an actual modern theologian that did real dogmatics and approached some questions between the Reformed and patristics in a balanced fashion. His two essays are a head and shoulders above the rest and should probably just be scanned and assigned to every Reformed Systematics class on this topic.
Crisp on Original Sin was initially invigorating, but quickly became my least favorite: he essentially trades out the older reformed view for one that is equally problematic in all the ways he critiqued it. Gaffin I like a lot too, but for more personal reasons: by pointing me to Rom. 8, he convinced me of the Reformed doctrine of perseverance.
Kapic's essay on anthropology seemed a bit weepy and noncommital. I don't remember Treier having anything interesting or memorable (but I think it was good). I also have good vibes from MacLeod giving a good defense of the finality of the atonement. Horton's essays are okay, including some interesting Biblical theology and avoiding some of his usual errors, but not being particularly bold or creative. Billings I really liked too, since he gives a pretty decent defense of paedobaptism and credocommunion, though admitting some of the Reformed were paedocommunion. He gets some stuff amazingly right.
Anyway, there's more essays but I probably won't read them. Life is short, and I think older theology and modern scholarship are better reading for these questions.
Webster's essays are the best. He's an actual modern theologian that did real dogmatics and approached some questions between the Reformed and patristics in a balanced fashion. His two essays are a head and shoulders above the rest and should probably just be scanned and assigned to every Reformed Systematics class on this topic.
Crisp on Original Sin was initially invigorating, but quickly became my least favorite: he essentially trades out the older reformed view for one that is equally problematic in all the ways he critiqued it. Gaffin I like a lot too, but for more personal reasons: by pointing me to Rom. 8, he convinced me of the Reformed doctrine of perseverance.
Kapic's essay on anthropology seemed a bit weepy and noncommital. I don't remember Treier having anything interesting or memorable (but I think it was good). I also have good vibes from MacLeod giving a good defense of the finality of the atonement. Horton's essays are okay, including some interesting Biblical theology and avoiding some of his usual errors, but not being particularly bold or creative. Billings I really liked too, since he gives a pretty decent defense of paedobaptism and credocommunion, though admitting some of the Reformed were paedocommunion. He gets some stuff amazingly right.
Anyway, there's more essays but I probably won't read them. Life is short, and I think older theology and modern scholarship are better reading for these questions.
January 29, 2025
A mixed bag of essays, made more difficult by the fact that about half of them centre around questioning the ministerial tradition, while the other half laud it to the heavens. The breach in quality between essays is broad and deep, and I probably would not recommend this, on the whole, although, there are a few essays that are well-worth your time.
In order by which they appear, essays that stood out (for good or bad reasons):
Webster's essay on Providence excellent. Kapic's essay, 'Anthropology', weird and sentimental to the point of undermining established understandings of the topic. Crisp's essay on Sin utterly bizarre, assuming a strange proto-Zwinglian understanding of the economy of sin which only blows more confusion into the narrative than the federal understanding he is so vehemently against. MacLeod's essay, 'The Work of Christ Accomplished', probably my favourite one of the lot, reading so doxologically. Horton's essays, 'The Church' and the 'Kingdom of God', not terribly good, and fairly boring and uninspiring. Where this book is good, it is very good, and where it is bad, it is very bad, but that is to be expected of a compilation.
In order by which they appear, essays that stood out (for good or bad reasons):
Webster's essay on Providence excellent. Kapic's essay, 'Anthropology', weird and sentimental to the point of undermining established understandings of the topic. Crisp's essay on Sin utterly bizarre, assuming a strange proto-Zwinglian understanding of the economy of sin which only blows more confusion into the narrative than the federal understanding he is so vehemently against. MacLeod's essay, 'The Work of Christ Accomplished', probably my favourite one of the lot, reading so doxologically. Horton's essays, 'The Church' and the 'Kingdom of God', not terribly good, and fairly boring and uninspiring. Where this book is good, it is very good, and where it is bad, it is very bad, but that is to be expected of a compilation.
August 7, 2024
I thought this volume on “Christian Dogmatics” was an excellent offering of essays on the subject matter. The book has a nice list of scholars providing the essays, which in itself is worth the effort to read. Not sure of all the writers, but the majority are coming from a Presbyterian perspective. I believe Michael Horton is in the United Reformed Church tradition. These differences could possibly impact your thought process on the essays of the “Church” and “Sacraments” and “Kingdom”. However, I do think there is more than enough to affirm in each essay to be helpful.
Overall, this book is worth the price and time to read. The list of authors is a who’s who in modern day reformed theology. That makes this volume a nice addition to any library. Again, there will probably be differences in the readers mind; however, give the book a try and see what you think.
I would recommend “Christian Dogmatics” to anyone.
“Take Up and Read” - St. Augustine
Overall, this book is worth the price and time to read. The list of authors is a who’s who in modern day reformed theology. That makes this volume a nice addition to any library. Again, there will probably be differences in the readers mind; however, give the book a try and see what you think.
I would recommend “Christian Dogmatics” to anyone.
“Take Up and Read” - St. Augustine
January 5, 2021
This was a dense but good systematic theology text book. In just under 400 pages, the authors address the common headings of systematic theology. However, it doesn't read like a classic ST but more a compilation of essays on each topic.
It was a bit confusing the overarching goal of the book since each author seemed to take a different approach. Some authors succulently offered a summary and defense of the teaching of the Reformed Confessions (Swain on the Trinity, Gaffin on the work of Christ, Horton on the church, Billings on the sacraments). Others seemed to offer a minority voice (Treier on the Incarnation, Horton on the Kingdom of God) and others a correction to the confessional consensus (Crisp on sin).
Billings' chapter on the sacraments was some of the most beautiful work I've read on the topic. Will be returning to it regularly.
It was a bit confusing the overarching goal of the book since each author seemed to take a different approach. Some authors succulently offered a summary and defense of the teaching of the Reformed Confessions (Swain on the Trinity, Gaffin on the work of Christ, Horton on the church, Billings on the sacraments). Others seemed to offer a minority voice (Treier on the Incarnation, Horton on the Kingdom of God) and others a correction to the confessional consensus (Crisp on sin).
Billings' chapter on the sacraments was some of the most beautiful work I've read on the topic. Will be returning to it regularly.
February 22, 2019
I've only read about half of the essays, but each one has been solid and several have been outstanding (unsurprisingly, Webster's essays stood above the rest, especially the essay on providence).
This volume would make a nice entry-point to the deep end of Reformed dogmatics. Though the descriptions and definitions and arguments are pretty rigorous, the focus of each chapter on a particular doctrinal locus and the necessary constraints on length in a volume like this one make the content of any given chapter accessible. You also get a good introduction to theology's technical vocabulary (much of it in Latin).
This would be a great volume for pastors and also for seminary students in the Reformed tradition.
This volume would make a nice entry-point to the deep end of Reformed dogmatics. Though the descriptions and definitions and arguments are pretty rigorous, the focus of each chapter on a particular doctrinal locus and the necessary constraints on length in a volume like this one make the content of any given chapter accessible. You also get a good introduction to theology's technical vocabulary (much of it in Latin).
This would be a great volume for pastors and also for seminary students in the Reformed tradition.
May 13, 2017
Wonderful book with contributions from Reformed theologians of a variety of stripes. These chapters are on traditional loci of systematics, but are approached from fresh perspectives. Well worth picking up.
November 23, 2024
The parts that were good were very good. But as is characteristic of a multi-authored volume, I didn’t care for a few of the chapters. I do appreciate the effort to provide a broadly Reformed (catholic) dogmatics. It was needed.
July 29, 2017
A marvellous feast in Reformed theology. Swain and Webster's chapters were outstanding
October 2, 2023
It's great but it is dense. Took me, personally, a long time to work through all the essays. But, my goodness, I found each entry theologically rich and informative.
December 5, 2025
Swain’s chapter on the Trinity and Horton’s chapter on the church are worth the price of the book.
December 27, 2019
Allen and Swain have assembled an all-star cast here in this book. In this text some of the best Reformed thinkers alive produce succinct, relevant, and interesting summaries of various dogmatic loci. This book includes such thinkers as Kevin Vanhoozer on Scripture, John Webster on Creation Out of Nothing, Richard Gaffin on Redemption Applied, Paul Nimmo on Ethics, and the ever entertaining Oliver Crisp on Sin. While every essay is strong and worth reading, some stand outs are Allen's chapter on the Knowledge of God, Vanhoozer on Scripture, Todd Billings on the Sacraments, Gaffin on Redemption Applied, and MacLeod on Redemption Accomplished. And of course, the essays from John Webster are a treat. I'd highly recommend this work for its engagement with a variety of thinkers, as well as its effort to engage contemporary questions and challenges.
Read
August 6, 2020Only read the following:
"Knowledge of God" by Michael Allen (ch. 1)
"Holy Scripture" by Kevin J. Vanhoozer (ch. 2)
"Divine Attributes" by Michael Allen (ch. 3)
"Divine Trinity" by Scott Swain (ch. 4)
Swain on Covenant of Redemption
Webster on Creation & Providence
"The Church" by Michael Horton (ch. 14)
"Sacraments" by Todd Billings (ch. 15)
"Knowledge of God" by Michael Allen (ch. 1)
"Holy Scripture" by Kevin J. Vanhoozer (ch. 2)
"Divine Attributes" by Michael Allen (ch. 3)
"Divine Trinity" by Scott Swain (ch. 4)
Swain on Covenant of Redemption
Webster on Creation & Providence
"The Church" by Michael Horton (ch. 14)
"Sacraments" by Todd Billings (ch. 15)
July 29, 2016
This really is a fantastic volume and follow-up to "Reformed Catholicity". I thought every essay was solid with some definite standouts. Both of Webster's essays, in particular, are gems and worth the price of the book in my opinion. Will be revisiting these essays again to be sure.
May 12, 2017
This book is an excellent collection of academic essays on theological topics. Other than the Webster essays being over my head the others essays were digestible. This book is highly academic, so I wouldn't recommend it for most. But if you are a bit of a Theology nerd and you want your heart and mind stirred this is a great collection. He essays by Karpov, Swain, Vanhoozer, Allen and Billings are gold. I'll reference this volume again.
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