A Grammar of Christian Faith

Joe R. Jones

doi:10.5771/9781461665373

Summary

A Grammar of Christian Faith is a two-volume set that aims to confront the widespread disarray in the language and practices of Christian faith today. As a 'grammar,' it explains how Christian faith provides special ways of speaking and acting that make sense of human life by giving it meaning, practicality, and hope. It advances the thesis that learning how to speak Christian language in worship and life is crucial to learning how to be a Christian. Rather than supposing that Christian language and theology need continual updating in order to be relevant to the world, Jones urges the church to recover anew how Christian concepts and understanding are intended to form Christian life in all its rich depths. Construing theology as confessional theology in the context of the church, Jones understands the church as that liberative and redemptive community called into being by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to witness in word and deed the triune God for the benefit of the world. The full range of doctrinal themes that are deemed essential to the witness of the church are explored, including clear explanations of why they are essential and how they are to be understood. In pursuit of a truthful and beneficial witness of the church, the work centers on a trinitarian understanding of God, in which God freely and lovingly interacts with the world as Creator, Reconciler, and Redeemer. The work throughout affirms the belief that the gracious triune God is the Ultimate Companion who will redeem all creation.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2002
ISBN-Print: 978-0-7425-1310-5
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4616-6537-3
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 798
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
3. Abbreviations No access
1. Language, Grammar, and Understanding No access
2. On Clarifying the Concepts of Pragmaticsand Practice No access
3. Some Basic Theses about Language No access
4. Proposals for the Meaning of 'Theology' No access
5. A Theological Definition of the Church No access
6. The Church's Witnessas Summoned to Accountability No access
7. The Task of SystematicTheology No access
8. Systematic Theology, Dogmatics, and Apologetics No access
9. The Dialectic between Church and World No access
10. Some Diagnostic Points about the Situation of the North American Church and the World Today No access
1. Biblical Notes No access
2. Notes from Traditions No access
3. Interlude: Some Diagnostic Notes about Knowings No access
4. Epistemology and Confessional Theology No access
5. The Grammarof God's Self-Revelationin Jesus Christ No access
6. God's Self-Revelation, the Bible, and Human Discourses and Practices No access
7. The Grammar of Faith as Knowledge of God No access
8. Knowledge of God Apart from God's Special Self-Revelations No access
9. Jesus Christ and Continuing Revelation in the Church No access
10. Further Notes on the Christian Grammar of 'Truth' No access
1. Theology and the Presiding Model of the Gospel No access
2. The Basic Sources of Theology No access
3. The Bible as the Church's Holy Scripture No access
4. Church Traditions No access
5. Grammar and the Development of Doctrine No access
6. Theology as the Discourse of Dialectical Confession and Profession No access
1. Language about God No access
2. Patriarchy and 'Father' Language No access
3. Some Notes from Church History No access
4. Puzzles in the Contemporary Discussions of Trinity No access
5. The Grammar of God's Self-Identifications: The Economic Trinity No access
6. The Grammar of God's Unity, Multiplicity, Relationality, and Complexity No access
7. The Grammar of God as the Triune One Who Loves in Freedom No access
8. The Grammar of God's Essence and God's Actuality No access
9. The Grammar of the ImmanentTrinity No access
10. The Grammar of God's Essential Attributes No access
11. The Grammar of God's Self-Determined Relational Attributes No access
12. The Grammar of God's Transcendence and Immanence No access
1. Orientation to the Doctrine No access
2. Biblical Notes No access
3. Basic Elements of the Grammar of God the Creator No access
4. The Grammar of the Providence of God No access
5. Further Issues in the Grammar of God's Action in Relation to the World No access
6. The Grammar of Evil and Theodicy No access
7. Creation Pragmatics No access
1. Human Being as Creaturely Being: Creature among Creatures No access
2. Human Being as Personal Being: Person among Persons No access
3. Human Being as Spiritual Being: Spirit among Spirits No access
4. Jesus the True Human Being No access
5. Preliminary Observations on Human Sin No access
6. Knowledge of Sin in Jesus Christ No access
7. The Origin of Sin No access
8. Exploring the Multiple Shapes and Faces of Sin No access
9. The Consequences of Sin and Jesus Christ No access
1. Orientation to Christology No access
2. Some Problems of Faith and History No access
3. A Theological/Historical Schematic Narrative of the Actual Jesus No access
4. The Grammar of Christological Titles in the New Testament No access
5. Notes from Church History No access
6. The Grammar of the Identity of the Human Jesus as the Incarnate God No access
7. The Grammar of Jesus' Identity as the Messianic Bearer of the Spirit No access
8. Some Further Questions No access
1. Some Elements of the New Testament Witness No access
2. Atonement Issues and the Salvific Work of Jesus No access
3. The Grammar of Jesus the Prophet No access
4. The Grammar of Jesus the Priest No access
5. The Grammar of Jesus the Victor No access
6. The Grammar of Jesus' Work and Human Salvation No access
7. Narrative and the Rationale ofGod's Salvifie Work No access
1. The Trinitarian Context of the Doctrine No access
2. The Witness of Scripture No access
3. Notes from Tradition No access
4. A Constructive Grammar of the Holy Spirit No access
5. A Schematic Grammar of Salvation No access
1. The Grammar of Just Deserts and Justification by Grace No access
2. The Grammar of Faith and the Christian Life No access
3. The Grammar of Christian Freedom No access
4. The Grammar of Sanctification No access
5. The Grammar of Discipleship No access
6. The Grammar of the Works and Passions of Agapic Love No access
7. The Grammar of Christian Vocation No access
8. Summary No access
1. Images of the Church in the New Testament No access
2. Notes from Church History No access
3. Basic Ecclesial Grammar No access
4. The Ecclesial Grammar of the Practices of the Body of Christ No access
5. The Nurturing Practices of the Body of Christ No access
6. The Outreach Practices of the Body of Christ No access
7. The Administrative Practices of the Body of Christ No access
8. The Ecclesial Grammar of Unity, Diversity, and Boundaries No access
9. The Dialectic between Church and World No access
1. The Grammar of Proclamation No access
2. The Grammar of 'Sacrament' No access
3. The Grammar of Baptism No access
4. The Grammar of the Lord's Supper No access
5. The Grammar of Prayer No access
1. The Grammar of Hope as a General Human Phenomenon No access
2. The Grammar of Christian Hope as Eschatological Existence No access
3. The Grammar of Hope and Historic Redemption: Everyday Futurity No access
4. The Grammar of Hope and Historic Redemption: Works of Love and the Kingdom of God No access
5. Interlude: Is There a Dual Destiny? No access
6. The Grammar of Hope and Ultimate Redemption: Death and Eternal Life No access
7. The Grammar of Hope and Ultimate Redemption: The End of All Things in God's Absolute Future No access
Bibliography No access Pages 749 - 764
Index of Subjects No access Pages 765 - 778
Index of Names No access Pages 779 - 782
Index of Scripture References No access Pages 783 - 794
About the Author No access Pages 795 - 798