CONTENTS

Part 1. Foundations Maker of Heaven and Earth -- pg. 1

Chapter 1. Establishing: The Doctrine of Creation -- pg. 3

1. The Mediation of Creation -- pg. 3

2. The Meaning of the Doctrine of Creation -- pg. 10

Creator and Creation -- pg. 15

Chapter 2. Providence -- pg. 20

4. The Historical Context: Modern -- pg. 20

5. The Historical Context: Ancient -- pg. 23

6. The Content of the doctrine of Providence -- pg. 33

Chapter 3. Man and Woman -- pg. 38

8. Matter and spirit -- pg. 38

9. Personal being -- pg. 43

10. The blessings of Finitude -- pg. 47

11. Scripture and Theology -- pg. 51

12. Conclusion to Part 1: God the Father -- pg. 55

Part 2. ‘His Only Son, Our Lord’ -- pg. 57

Chapter 4 ‘Suffered Under Pontius Pilate’:
A Theology of Salvation -- pg. 59

13.The Concept of Sin -- pg. 59

14.Creation and Salvation -- pg. 63

15.The People of the Promise -- pg. 68

16.The Achievement of Salvation -- pg. 71

Chapter 5. The Identity of Jesus Christ -- pg. 78

17.To Set the Scene -- pg. 78

18.The Framework of Christology -- pg. 85

19.The Problem of Dogma -- pg. 91

Chapter 6. ‘And Was Made Man’: The Incarnation and
Humanity of Christ -- pg. 97

20.The ‘Becoming’ of God the Son -- pg. 97

21.Death and the Kingdom -- pg. 102

22.Priesthood Realized -- pg. 109

23.Conclusion to Part 2: God the Son -- pg. 114

Part 3. The Perfecting Cause: ‘And in the Holy Spirit’ -- pg. 117

Chapter 7. Christian Community and Human Society -- pg. 119

24. Some Lessons of Christian History -- pg. 119

25.The Words of Proclamation and of Scripture -- pg. 123

26.The Elect Community -- pg. 126

27. The Church and the Social Order -- pg. 135

Chapter 8. The Shape of the Christian Life -- pg. 139

28.Justification: Living by Faith Alone -- pg. 139

29.Baptism -- pg. 145

30.Sanctification : Living in the Realm of the Holy -- pg. 147

31.Resurrection -- pg. 152

32.Spirit of Freedom -- pg. 155

Chapter 9. The Last Enemy -- pg. 157

33/ Death -- pg. 157

34. Judgement -- pg. 161

35. Rdemption -- pg. 166

Conclusion -- pg. 173

Chapter 10. The Triune God of Christian Confession -- pg. 175

36. Experience Redeemed -- pg. 175

37. 'Economic' and ' Immanent' Trinities -- pg. 179

38. The Difference the Trinity Makes -- pg. 188

General Index -- pg. 192

Index of Biblical References -- pg. 195

This wide-ranging volume is a condensation of the author’s lifetime of study and thought about the Christian faith. Broad in scope, the book deliberately follows the pattern of Schleiermacher’s great nineteenth-century dogmatics. Professor Gunton, however, uses a different method and approach and ends with a far more robust treatment of the objective existence of the eternally triune God.
The book is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three main divisions of the creed. Beginning with consideration of creation and providence, it moves on to the person and work of Christ, and then to the human appropriation of belief and eschatology. A concluding chapter brings together, in a treatment of the Trinity, a discussion of the divine attributes and the doctrine of God that has been revealed in the process of the book’s argument.
This concise statement of the contents of Christian teaching will prove invaluable to students of introductory theology, as well as anyone interested in the central claim of the Christian faith to be true.