Proper Theological Methodology

One of my favorite systematics is A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith by Robert L. Reymond (Thomas Nelson Publishers). Though I've never read it in its entirety (it is my goal to begin reading it this month from cover to cover), every time I've referred to it I've never been disappointed by it. R. Kent Hughes describes it as "a theology which will cast a gracious shadow into the next millennium. Students will turn again and again to this book, not only because it bears the grandeur of the best of Reformed thinking, but because the writing is so relevant and warm" (backcover). Buy it here.

Here is how Reymond describes his theological methodology, which I wholeheartedly agree with, and is itself worth the purchase:

"It must be ultimately God-centered in all its pronouncements and resist every human effort to intrude an unbiblical 'analogy of being' (analogia entis) into the biblical thought forms, that is to say, to put an 'and' or 'plus' where the Bible puts 'only' or 'alone.' For example, in theological methodology it must not say, 'I understand and I believe,' but 'I believe in order that I may understand'; in soteriology it must not urge 'God and man,' but rather 'God only' as Savior; it must not teach 'faith and good works' as the instruments for justification, but ratehr, 'faith alone'" (p.xix).

By the way, this quote reminds me of what Anselm of Canterbury, the brilliant medieval theologian, once wrote:

"I acknowledge, Lord, and I give thanks that You have created Your image in me, so that I may remember You, think of You, love You. But this image is so effaced and worn away by vice, so darkened by the smoke of sin, that it cannot do what it was made to do unless You renew it and reform it. I do not try, Lord, to attain Your lofty heights, because my undertanding is in no way equal to it. But I do desire to understand Your truth a little, that truth that my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that 'unless I believe, I shall not understand [Isa.7:9]" (Prosologian in Anselm of Canterbury The Major Works, p.87).