Adam Cheung interviews Tom Schreiner about his forthcoming volume New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ. A few things come to mind:
- In light of several things (including influences diverse as Wrede, Ladd, Marshall, Thielman, and Carson), I have recently come out in favour of the corpus-by-corpus approach as opposed to the thematic approach when it comes to doing New Testament Theology. Although I recognize that the thematic approach (e.g. Guthrie, Caird, Schreiner) provides a better synthesizing element than does the corpus-by-corpus approach, I take the latter to be superior in terms of analysis of the actual texts themselves.
- In the interview, Schreiner offers an excellent description of the differentation between systematic and biblical theology.
- This volume looks like it will be a synthesis of Piperesque and Laddian view points when it comes to the framework of a New Testament Theology, which is probably a good combination.
3 comments:
I have only read parts of Ladd and Thielman, but just finished Schreiner's book and it is extrememly helpful.
Hi Michael
First of all, many thanks for a stimulating and informative blog that I always look forward to reading! My family are in Scotland at the moment, I hope you and they are not having too much bad weather.
I can, of course, see that both approaches have their supporting arguments. However, I do wonder if we subconsciously succumb to the 'corpus by corpus' approach because the alternatives are not regarded as kosher by other academics.
I say this, not by way of criticism, after all we all have our bread to earn and compromise is always the order of the day despite what the purists may think. (We are all Anglicans at heart!)
However, for those who base their preaching on the Bible and those who read the Bible to grow thereby, I rather imagine the corpus by corpus approach is the least useful.
It's all about audiences. Sadly, the one that holds the Bible in least esteem is the one who pays the piper, whereas the one who needs the scholarship spiritually - rather than merely academically - is willing to make sacrifices simply to have people in there playing the game.
Theological Catch-22, methinks.
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