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March 10, 2009

D.A. Carson on Defining Biblical Theology

In his article, “Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology,” D.A. Carson gives a good summary definition of biblical theology in its constitution and trajectory. Here is what he wrote:

“[I]deally, biblical theology, as its name implies, even as it works inductively from the diverse texts of the Bible, seeks to uncover and articulate the unity of all the biblical texts taken together, resorting primarily to the categories of those texts themselves. In this sense it is canonical biblical theology, ‘whole-Bible’ biblical theology; i.e., its content is a theology of the whole Bible, not a theology that merely has its roots in the Bible, or merely takes the Bible as the place to begin. Such biblical theology is overtly theological, i.e., it makes synthetic assertions about the nature, will, and plan of God in creation and redemption, including therefore also the nature, purpose, and ’story’ of humanity. But it is not narrowly theological. Rather, precisely because so many of the theological claims of Scripture are claims about revelation in history, biblical theology is committed to using rigorous and responsible historical methods. Equally, because the texts are literary pieces, diverse in genre and other features, biblical theology seeks to be sensitive to literary structures.

While acknowledging that it can never be autonomous, biblical theology focuses on the inductive study of the biblical texts in their final form, seeking progression towards greater and greater faithfulness. While some part of the biblical theological enterprise may focus on the theology of one corpus, or on one or two themes across the corpora of Scripture, the discipline as a whole must strive toward the elucidation of the biblical documents along the axis of redemptive history, the canon itself providing the boundaries of the primary source documents. On the other hand, biblical theology will try to preserve the glorious diversity of the biblical documents; on the other, it will try to uncover all that holds them together, sacrificing neither historical particularity nor the unifying sweep of redemptive history. It will marshall the resources of rigorous exegesis, and it will try above all to uncover and understand how words and themes in earlier canonical texts are used in later canonical texts. Recognizing their finiteness, biblical theologians will want to pursue their calling not only in interaction with the work of twenty centuries of Christian witness, but in community with the living church. Moreover, insofar as the biblical theologian holds that the boundary of the canon is valid because the canonical documents are, finally, God-given and God-authorized, so far also must biblical theology become not a descriptive enterprise but also a normative enterprise, a confessional enterprise.”

- D.A. Carson, “Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Exploring the Unity & Diversity of Scripture, eds. T. Desmond Alexander, Brian S. Rosner, D.A. Carson, and Graeme Goldsworthy (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000), 100-01.

Labels: Biblical Theology, D.A. Carson, Grace Baptist Church | posted by TimBrister at 10:02 am | Categories: Biblical Theology, Sunday School Stuff |