Periodical Reviews -- By: Robert D. Ibach, Jr.

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 160:639 (Jul 2003)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Robert D. Ibach, Jr.


Periodical Reviews

By The Faculty and Library Staff of
Dallas Theological Seminary

Robert D. Ibach

Editor

“Who Needs Systematic Theology When We Have the Bible?” Michael Horton, Modern Reformation 12 (January/February 2003): 13-22.

In some Christian circles systematic theology is maligned as an unwarranted imposition on the clear teachings of the Bible. Some people believe that reading the Bible in light of doctrinal commitment compromises its message by imposing alien, philosophical categories on the text, thereby substituting the word of man for the Word of God. This perspective, which might be called “biblical positivism,” has a long pedigree in evangelical circles; and although its adherents seek to safeguard the truth from the baneful influence of doctrinal error, it has more often resulted in doctrinal shallowness and a theological faddishness that unwittingly commits the very sins it proscribes.

Horton engages this antitheological bias in this excellent article, though he is careful to balance his criticism with the realization that some theologians commit the opposite error by paying inadequate attention to careful exegesis. Nevertheless his primary concern is the woeful ignorance of systematic theology that characterizes so much of contemporary evangelicalism. He compares an exegete who ignores theology to a heart surgeon who ignores the rest of the body’s systems (e.g., circulation), and indeed the accumulated wisdom of the medical field. He writes, “Exegetical expertise that ignores the ‘big picture’ (served by systematic and historical theology) is bound to confuse old errors with ‘new insights’ and leave preachers and their congregations without a unified perspective on biblical teaching” (p. 16).

The synoptic vision that only theological study can provide is achieved through a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning, placing both the theologian and the exegete squarely in the midst of the hermeneutical spiral. He describes the latter as a “delicate dance” and cautions that it must be undertaken in full awareness of the spiral and the consequences of ignoring it. “Imposing a system on Scripture makes the Bible a slave to tradition, while assuming that we are the first to read it just as it is at face value renders Scripture a slave to unacknowledged personal prejudices” (p. 15).

Horton examines four theological test cases culled from church history to illustrate his point. He demonstrates how the doctrines of the Trinity,

the Incarnation, divine sovereignty and human freedom, and sola Script...

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