Most Christians learn what theology they know from the
preaching and teaching of their pastors. For some churches in the Reformed tradition,
this has been accomplished by expository preaching in the morning service and
catechetical preaching in the evening service. Expository preaching moves
through books of the Bible, explaining and applying the teaching of the
biblical text. Catechetical preaching uses one of the Reformed confessions or
catechisms as the basis for explaining the doctrines of the Scriptures in a
systematic fashion. In our day, however, this dual approach is uncommon, and
the biblical and theological knowledge of people in the pews is scattered and
unsystematic. Though people may have some vague ideas of the general content of
the Bible, and some similarly vague ideas of such basic Christian doctrines as
the Trinity and the full humanity and full deity of Christ, their knowledge is
weak. The following suggestions are provided for those who want to learn more
about the Bible and more about the basic doctrines of the Christian faith.
Bible Content
I recommend Michael Williams’ little book How to Read the
Bible Through the Jesus Lens. This book devotes about half a dozen pages to
each book of the Bible. He gives a theme verse for each book, a summary of the
content of the book, and a brief treatment of how that book points to Christ.
It is very helpful to read the section, then read the book of the Bible that
the chapter discusses. This works very well with a Bible reading program that
goes through the Bible in a year. Another useful tool is the KJV Reformation
Heritage Study Bible. This gives commentary on each chapter of the Bible
designed to help the reader understand and apply the text. The Reformation
Study Bible is also quite helpful, with detailed introductions to each
book, as well as commentary throughout, and additional essays on key topics.
Theology
I recommend here Louis Berkhof’s Manual of Christian Doctrine.
This is an abbreviated version of his Systematic Theology, which in turn
is something of a condensed presentation of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed
Dogmatics. It was done originally for high school and college students as a
summary presentation of systematic theology. Another good resource is Basic
Christian Doctrines, edited by Carl F. H. Henry. It is a collection of
forty-three short essays by a variety of evangelical scholars. They were
originally published in Christianity Today in the 1950s and were
collected into one volume in 1962. It is available used at a very modest cost,
and is also available in PDF form online: http://www.veritasseminary.com/wenix/Library/Carl%20Henry/CARL%20F%20H%20HENRY%20CONTEMPORARY%20EVANGELICAL%20THOUGHT%20VOL%2003%20BASIC%20CHRISTIAN%20DOCTRINES.pdf
Another useful book is Archibald Alexander’s A Brief
Compendium of Bible Truth. Alexander was one of the first professors at
Princeton Theological Seminary and, though written in the nineteenth century,
his presentation is clear and accessible.
For those in Reformed churches, the classic confessions and
catechisms also provide a solid foundation for the beginning reader. My
recommendation would be to start with the Westminster Shorter Catechism which
is available online in both its original form and in modern English. From
there, the reader can move to the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster
Confession and Larger Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort.
Commentaries are available on all these documents. The Westminster documents
were written in the middle of the seventeenth century to provide a standard for
the Church of England, though the Church of England never adopted them. The
Belgic Confession was written in the sixteenth century for the churches in the
Netherlands. The Heidelberg Catechism was another sixteenth-century document
from the German Reformed churches. The Canons of Dort came out of the disputes
over the teachings of Jacob Arminius in the early seventeenth century. These
resources are all available online.
The person who studies these is well-equipped to move on to
more substantial reading regarding both the Bible and systematic theology.
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