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A Primer for Christian Doctrine
Penned by a Christian teacher who has led thousands of students through the unfamiliar terrain of systematic theology, A Primer for Christian Doctrine serves as a friendly guide to theology's topics, debates, and terminology. Telling you what you need to know as you begin your study of theology or doctrine, the book is an ideal companion to more comprehensive texts.
After a brief introduction defending the continued need for doctrine, Jonathan Wilson clearly and concisely maps out each of the main topics of Christian belief in separate chapters. He also traces the differing emphases of theologians while suggesting reasons for their differences.
Whether as a first taste of theology or as a readable summary of its present state, Wilson's Primer for Christian Doctrine will be an invaluable resource for students and small groups pursuing a deeper knowledge of what Christians believe.
After a brief introduction defending the continued need for doctrine, Jonathan Wilson clearly and concisely maps out each of the main topics of Christian belief in separate chapters. He also traces the differing emphases of theologians while suggesting reasons for their differences.
Whether as a first taste of theology or as a readable summary of its present state, Wilson's Primer for Christian Doctrine will be an invaluable resource for students and small groups pursuing a deeper knowledge of what Christians believe.
145 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan R. Wilson
12 books4 followersJonathan R. Wilson (PhD, Duke University) is Pioneer McDonald Professor of Theology at Carey Theological College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He previously taught at Acadia Divinity College and Westmont College and has served as a pastor. He currently serves as Senior Consultant for Theological Integration with Canadian Baptist Ministries and is a Teaching Fellow at Regent College. He is the author of numerous books, including Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World, A Primer for Christian Doctrine, and God So Loved the World.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 30, 2013
My friend Jonathan Wilson has written a book so useful that I'll be assigning it to beginning theology students this year.
It's a bit of an odd book, though, as Jonathan himself suggests in the front matter. It's sort of a small book of theology, but it's not a handbook or a catechism per se. Instead, it's intended to "prime" students for the study of systematic theology, helping them to understand something of what's going on in this discipline.
Jonathan's voice is one of the main blessings of the book. He combines concern for conceptual clarity with warm-hearted piety, ecumenical charity with a commitment to orthodoxy, respect for tradition with openness to innovation, and a wide-angle lens on the whole earth as loved by God without ignoring the gospel's application to you or me as individuals.
The following concerns keep me from ranking it even higher:
1. I don't agree with Jonathan's decision to include quite liberal, even obviously heretical, views among the options presented here, just because some "other theologians" have thought them. Jonathan's touch is too light here, in my opinion, to the point where the line between orthodoxy and heresy frequently disappears from view. I don't think that serves my pedagogical purposes best, and I'm surprised Jonathan thinks it would serve his.
2. His prolegomena in each chapter seem to be often rather woolly. For instance, while he properly wants to remind readers that doctrines connect with each other, he makes this point too generally and loquaciously when a couple of well-chosen examples would do the trick quicker and better.
3. I would like more from Jonathan as to why the study of theology matters. For someone who has pastored churches, taught ethics, and inspired the "New Monasticism," he is surprisingly and disappointingly terse about why passionate and active Christians would want to bother with theology much at all. I know he could say much more here, and I wish his editor had asked him to do so.
Still, it's a very useful little volume and I look forward to discussing it with my students. As serious teaching seems to continue to dwindle in our churches, along with Bible study and substantial Christian reading in our homes, we need more books to initiate spiritual education at an appropriate level. Jonathan Wilson's book is a good model for that.
It's a bit of an odd book, though, as Jonathan himself suggests in the front matter. It's sort of a small book of theology, but it's not a handbook or a catechism per se. Instead, it's intended to "prime" students for the study of systematic theology, helping them to understand something of what's going on in this discipline.
Jonathan's voice is one of the main blessings of the book. He combines concern for conceptual clarity with warm-hearted piety, ecumenical charity with a commitment to orthodoxy, respect for tradition with openness to innovation, and a wide-angle lens on the whole earth as loved by God without ignoring the gospel's application to you or me as individuals.
The following concerns keep me from ranking it even higher:
1. I don't agree with Jonathan's decision to include quite liberal, even obviously heretical, views among the options presented here, just because some "other theologians" have thought them. Jonathan's touch is too light here, in my opinion, to the point where the line between orthodoxy and heresy frequently disappears from view. I don't think that serves my pedagogical purposes best, and I'm surprised Jonathan thinks it would serve his.
2. His prolegomena in each chapter seem to be often rather woolly. For instance, while he properly wants to remind readers that doctrines connect with each other, he makes this point too generally and loquaciously when a couple of well-chosen examples would do the trick quicker and better.
3. I would like more from Jonathan as to why the study of theology matters. For someone who has pastored churches, taught ethics, and inspired the "New Monasticism," he is surprisingly and disappointingly terse about why passionate and active Christians would want to bother with theology much at all. I know he could say much more here, and I wish his editor had asked him to do so.
Still, it's a very useful little volume and I look forward to discussing it with my students. As serious teaching seems to continue to dwindle in our churches, along with Bible study and substantial Christian reading in our homes, we need more books to initiate spiritual education at an appropriate level. Jonathan Wilson's book is a good model for that.
November 29, 2021
It’s only a primer, so in fact it is good for what it is. I just don’t value primers; I want something more substantive about these topic, but had to buy this for a class. For being a primer it seemed pretty good. One minor issue stands out in my memory though: while reading chapter 9 (on Salvation), separate mention is made to both the eucharist and baptism, and both mentions are followed by parentheses claiming “discussed in chapter 9,” as though it were a different chapter. Seems like an editorial mistake, but not a big deal.
December 25, 2021
I just finished "A Primer for Christian Doctrine," by Jonathan R. Wilson.
If you haven't read Wilson's very accessible Christology "God So Loved The World" then you really should check that out.
Wilson tells us in the intro that this can be read side by side an systematic theology text. I won't but will keep in mind that this is made for that form of cross referencing.
"Doctrine" means teachings, nothing more. So this is an expedition into Christian teachings rooted in scripture and developed by the tradition.
Wilson does a good way of addressing the differences between theological method, between roughly more conservative and roughly more liberal methodology without necessarily planting a flag. He also seeks to take social location and gender language into account throughout. By doing so he seeks to express how our experiences form us and what may be obvious to a person in one location may not be obvious to one from another location.
Attributes of God:
Communication and incommunicable attributes designate those attributes of God which are shared with humanity and those which are not. Wilson also covers concepts such a univocal and equivocal while keeping the concept easy to grasp.
The Trinity:
Wilson does a good job at showing why we as Christians are driven to the concept of the Trinity as people who hold scripture in high regard. He covers the immanent and economic Trinity well, spelling out where some see hang-ups in modern day. Later he moves into the east/west dispute over the Filioque, what exactly the issue is and what it means to us today. Wilson finally ends up at my oft asked question "what do you mean by 'person'?" He stresses removal of modern concepts of individualism in the way that he and the readers of the work are persons.
Language of God:
"It is important for us to note that the theologian these challenges [masculine language for the Divine and the significance of social location] are not, for thr most part, challenging God. Rather they are challenging our us of God....," p 28.
Willson points out that the NT doesn't say God became man but that the Word became Flesh. The tradition speaks to God becoming human. Similarly, social condition saw Greek metaphysics drive patristic construction of much of our Theological/Christological constructs.
The person of Christ:
Wilson makes a good move here to reclaim the teachings of Jesus from NT scholars and add it here. My often made argument is that the ethic of Jesus has been redacted and the resurrection has been overshadowed for the death. The Crucifixion doesn't do anything without the resurrection. The resurrection is God's yes to all of Jesus.
This section was very good. Wilson dealt with the ramifications of Chalcedon, who was in according to those boundaries and who was out; importantly he said why a nonChalcedonian Christology would not work. And this is due to the tie-in to the work of Christ: that which hasn't been assumed can't be redeemed. Not a lot of ink here but what was here was very good.
The work of Christ:
This part is a shortened version of how Wilson covers atonement in his Christology, "God So Loved The World." He views what Christ did in three parts: victory, substitution and example. This leads him to discuss in plain language how different scholars articulate the resurrection of they do so at all.
The Holy Spirit:
Wilson rounds out the persons of the Trinity though many of the specific functions of the Spirit (Creation, Grace, Sanctification, etc.) have their own chapters. This was purposeful because not to have this chapter could be taken as a minimization of the Spirits divinity.
Creation:
Wilson places the common categories under here in "Providence," but what I believe he asks us to ask ourselves (by telling us questions theologians would seek to rectify in an ST) are questions like does God rule over all the cosmos? If not then in what way is God God? And he continues this for a nice paragraph before changing gears and asking questions on the existence of evil.
Salvation:
The heads-up that Wilson gives us here is taking what is often conceived as aggression between traditions (when and how is one saved) and looking at it in a loving and positive light: Salvation is so wonderful and multi-faceted that one tradition will emphasize one element while another tradition will emphasize a different one. This chapter ends with a quick explanation of the difference salvific views between the Roman and the (generic) Protestant traditions. Simple and very helpful.
Last things:
Wilson's eschatology is kind. That's all I really wanted to say: He was kind and unbiased in how he treated the Millennium debates. This is a "go and do likewise" moment for us to learn.
I need to note how generous Wilson is being in trying to give room to multiple views be it dogmatic (Gnostics vs Chalcedonian Orthodoxy) or doctrinal (sanctification by the Spirit in different traditions, i.e. Lutheran, Presbyterian, Wesleyan etc.) while not leveraging the platform to promote his own Baptist tradition; he took an outside observer approach. I appreciate a good descriptive theology as long as they are humble and graceful; he was.
This is such a good book. I would suggest it as the gateway for intro to theology texts like McGrath's "Theology: The Basics," and/or Gonzalez's "An Introduction to Christian Theology." One of the best walk-aways I found Wilson hi-lighting that isn't easy to detect if one begins by just reading a ST text are theological method and what "strings" a theologians methodology creates from subject to subject (how does one's view of salvation "connect" to one's conception of sin and to one's model of the atonement?) and why a topic may be in one location (Creation) rather than another (Doctrine of God).
#APrimerForChristianDoctrine #JonathanRWilson #JonathanWilson #Doctrine #Theology #SystematicTheology #KingDrugCo
If you haven't read Wilson's very accessible Christology "God So Loved The World" then you really should check that out.
Wilson tells us in the intro that this can be read side by side an systematic theology text. I won't but will keep in mind that this is made for that form of cross referencing.
"Doctrine" means teachings, nothing more. So this is an expedition into Christian teachings rooted in scripture and developed by the tradition.
Wilson does a good way of addressing the differences between theological method, between roughly more conservative and roughly more liberal methodology without necessarily planting a flag. He also seeks to take social location and gender language into account throughout. By doing so he seeks to express how our experiences form us and what may be obvious to a person in one location may not be obvious to one from another location.
Attributes of God:
Communication and incommunicable attributes designate those attributes of God which are shared with humanity and those which are not. Wilson also covers concepts such a univocal and equivocal while keeping the concept easy to grasp.
The Trinity:
Wilson does a good job at showing why we as Christians are driven to the concept of the Trinity as people who hold scripture in high regard. He covers the immanent and economic Trinity well, spelling out where some see hang-ups in modern day. Later he moves into the east/west dispute over the Filioque, what exactly the issue is and what it means to us today. Wilson finally ends up at my oft asked question "what do you mean by 'person'?" He stresses removal of modern concepts of individualism in the way that he and the readers of the work are persons.
Language of God:
"It is important for us to note that the theologian these challenges [masculine language for the Divine and the significance of social location] are not, for thr most part, challenging God. Rather they are challenging our us of God....," p 28.
Willson points out that the NT doesn't say God became man but that the Word became Flesh. The tradition speaks to God becoming human. Similarly, social condition saw Greek metaphysics drive patristic construction of much of our Theological/Christological constructs.
The person of Christ:
Wilson makes a good move here to reclaim the teachings of Jesus from NT scholars and add it here. My often made argument is that the ethic of Jesus has been redacted and the resurrection has been overshadowed for the death. The Crucifixion doesn't do anything without the resurrection. The resurrection is God's yes to all of Jesus.
This section was very good. Wilson dealt with the ramifications of Chalcedon, who was in according to those boundaries and who was out; importantly he said why a nonChalcedonian Christology would not work. And this is due to the tie-in to the work of Christ: that which hasn't been assumed can't be redeemed. Not a lot of ink here but what was here was very good.
The work of Christ:
This part is a shortened version of how Wilson covers atonement in his Christology, "God So Loved The World." He views what Christ did in three parts: victory, substitution and example. This leads him to discuss in plain language how different scholars articulate the resurrection of they do so at all.
The Holy Spirit:
Wilson rounds out the persons of the Trinity though many of the specific functions of the Spirit (Creation, Grace, Sanctification, etc.) have their own chapters. This was purposeful because not to have this chapter could be taken as a minimization of the Spirits divinity.
Creation:
Wilson places the common categories under here in "Providence," but what I believe he asks us to ask ourselves (by telling us questions theologians would seek to rectify in an ST) are questions like does God rule over all the cosmos? If not then in what way is God God? And he continues this for a nice paragraph before changing gears and asking questions on the existence of evil.
Salvation:
The heads-up that Wilson gives us here is taking what is often conceived as aggression between traditions (when and how is one saved) and looking at it in a loving and positive light: Salvation is so wonderful and multi-faceted that one tradition will emphasize one element while another tradition will emphasize a different one. This chapter ends with a quick explanation of the difference salvific views between the Roman and the (generic) Protestant traditions. Simple and very helpful.
Last things:
Wilson's eschatology is kind. That's all I really wanted to say: He was kind and unbiased in how he treated the Millennium debates. This is a "go and do likewise" moment for us to learn.
I need to note how generous Wilson is being in trying to give room to multiple views be it dogmatic (Gnostics vs Chalcedonian Orthodoxy) or doctrinal (sanctification by the Spirit in different traditions, i.e. Lutheran, Presbyterian, Wesleyan etc.) while not leveraging the platform to promote his own Baptist tradition; he took an outside observer approach. I appreciate a good descriptive theology as long as they are humble and graceful; he was.
This is such a good book. I would suggest it as the gateway for intro to theology texts like McGrath's "Theology: The Basics," and/or Gonzalez's "An Introduction to Christian Theology." One of the best walk-aways I found Wilson hi-lighting that isn't easy to detect if one begins by just reading a ST text are theological method and what "strings" a theologians methodology creates from subject to subject (how does one's view of salvation "connect" to one's conception of sin and to one's model of the atonement?) and why a topic may be in one location (Creation) rather than another (Doctrine of God).
#APrimerForChristianDoctrine #JonathanRWilson #JonathanWilson #Doctrine #Theology #SystematicTheology #KingDrugCo
October 11, 2012
Very basic but fairly balanced. Very much a primer- good for a quick gloss to see what you want to study further.
March 8, 2018
I found this perfect for what I wanted. An overview of Christian doctrine, for a lay person but would serve as an introduction to more scholarly work (if I choose to dig a bit). I am preparing a course on the foundations of Christian faith, and this book will be a reference in the materials I use for the course.
While I attend an Evangelical church, I appreciated that this book incorporated doctrine differences from many branches of the body of Christ. What I didn't expect, but happened, was it personally challenged me to consider how my church experience has limited my personal doctrine and areas I will consider (via bible study and research) expanding my view of my faith.
While I attend an Evangelical church, I appreciated that this book incorporated doctrine differences from many branches of the body of Christ. What I didn't expect, but happened, was it personally challenged me to consider how my church experience has limited my personal doctrine and areas I will consider (via bible study and research) expanding my view of my faith.
December 22, 2015
A helpful introductory text that provides short, concise treatments on Christian doctrine.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews