Reading for Aspiring Theologians
(rev. 4/27/2005)
Recently a colleague asked me to imagine I were an Oxford tutor. Which ten texts would I choose for a bright undergraduate to study and discuss (in the English tradition)? Here is my evolving draft of such a list. Its various degrees of difficulty, which skiers will recognize (
), aim to offer flexibility for students with differing degrees of prior exposure to theology.
N.B. As I am not a tutor at Oxford (or I would have used a European rather than American color code system), you should take these recommendations accordingly.
1. One of the following basic overviews:
- John H. Leith, Basic Christian Doctrine.
- James Wm. McClendon, Jr., Doctrine.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church.
2. One of the following guides:
- David F. Wright, ed., New Dictionary of Theology.
- Alan Richardson, ed., Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology.
- Colin Gunton, ed., Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine.
- E.A. Livingstone and F.L. Cross, eds., Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.
Adrian Hastings, ed., The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought.
3. One of the following ancient theologies or summaries:
- Augustine, Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love.
- Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography.
- Thomas F. Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith.
4. One of the following histories:
- Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology.
- Richard Harries and Henry Mayr-Harting, eds., Christianity: Two Thousand Years.
-
- Robert A. Cunliffe-Jones, ed., A History of Christian Theology.
5-6. Two of the following systematics:
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion.
- Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline and Selections from the Church Dogmatics.
- Francis Schussler-Fiorenza and John P. Galvin, Systematic Theology, 2 vols.
- Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology, (Triune God, Works of God), 2 vols.
- James Wm. McClendon, Jr., Systematic Theology (Ethics, Doctrine, Witness), 3 vols.
- Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, 3 vols.
7. One of the following Christologies/eschatologies:
- N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God.
-
- Heiko Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil.
- Walter Kasper, Jesus the Christ.
- Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope.
- Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ.
- Geoffrey Wainwright, Eucharist and Eschatology.
- Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale.
8. One of the following on method:
- Fergus Kerr, Theology After Wittgenstein, 2d ed.
- Brad Kallenberg, Ethics as Grammar: Changing the Postmodern Subject.
- R.R. Reno, In the Ruins of the Church: Sustaining Faith in an Age of Diminished Christianity.
Telford Work, Living and Active: Scripture in the Economy of Salvation. (Hey, I'm not above assigning my own stuff.)
9. One of the following revisionist theologies:
- Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation.
- Rebecca Chopp and Mark L. Taylor, Reconstructing Christian Theology.
- Major J. Jones, The Color of God.
10. One of the following ecclesiologies:
- Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God.
Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (text on-line).
- Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness.
11. One of the following liturgies or liturgics:
- Book of Common Prayer.
- Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology.
