The Nature of Christian Doctrine: Its Origins, Development, and Function

by Alister E. McGrath

A groundbreaking account of the origins, development, and enduring significance of Christian doctrine, explaining why it remains essential to the life of Christian communities.Noting important parallels between the development of scientific theories and Christian doctrine, Alister E. McGrath examines the growing view of early Christianity as a 'theological laboratory'. We can think of doctrinal formulations as proposals submitted for testing across the Christian world, rather than as static accounts of orthodoxy. This approach fits the available evidence much better than theories of suppressed early orthodoxies and reinforces the importance of debate within thechurches as a vital means of testing doctrinal formulations.McGrath offers a robust critique of George Lindbeck's still-influential Nature of Doctrine (1984), raising significant concerns about its reductionist approach. He instead provides a more reliable account of the myriad functions of doctrine, utilising Mary Midgley's concept of 'mapping' as a means of coordinating the multiple aspects of complex phenomena. McGrath's approach also employs Karl Popper's 'Three Worlds', allowing the theoretical, objective, and subjective aspects ofdoctrine to be seen as essential and interconnected.We see how Christian doctrine offers ontological disclosure about the nature of reality, while at the same time providing a coordinating framework which ensures that its various aspects are seen as parts of a greater whole. Doctrine provides a framework, or standpoint, that allows theological reality to be seen and experienced in a new manner; it safeguards and articulates the core vision of reality that is essential for the proper functioning and future flourishing of Christiancommunities.

Genres: History

226 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 2024

About the author

Alister Edgar McGrath is a Northern Irish theologian, priest, intellectual historian, scientist, and Christian apologist. He currently holds the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, and is Professor of Divinity at Gresham College. He was previously Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at King's College London and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture, Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Oxford, and was principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, until 2005. He is an Anglican priest and is ordained within the Church of England.

Aside from being a faculty member at Oxford, McGrath has also taught at Cambridge University and is a Teaching Fellow at Regent College. McGrath holds three doctorates from the University of Oxford, a DPhil in Molecular Biophysics, a Doctor of Divinity in Theology and a Doctor of Letters in Intellectual History.

McGrath is noted for his work in historical theology, systematic theology, and the relationship between science and religion, as well as his writings on apologetics. He is also known for his opposition to New Atheism and antireligionism and his advocacy of theological critical realism. Among his best-known books are The Twilight of Atheism, The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine, Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life, and A Scientific Theology. He is also the author of a number of popular textbooks on theology.

Reviews

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A train journey to and from London (to see the truly arcane Anglican ceremony of a confirmation of a diocesan bishop) afforded me the time for concentrated reading of this short, punchy and theologically weighted book by Alister McGrath (I notice now that he adds the E in for his more academic works).

The Nature of Christian Doctrine puts forward the argument that Christian doctrine developed not out of the concern of "Orthodoxy" to crush competing "heresies" but in as in a laboratory where different explanations for the Christ event are put forward with most found to be wanting. Using his significant academic time in the two worlds of science and theology, McGrath looks at how scientific paradigm shifts along with other procedures and practices can illuminate our understanding of the first centuries of the Christian faith. Taking his cue from Mary Midgley amongst others he also brings in the importance of poetry and metaphor to help us grasp the inexpressible mysteries of the Trinity and the Atonement.

All this is rather a lot to fit into 160 pages of text and inevitably it feels like something of a whirlwind tour. I would have liked him to have spent a little more time with George Herbert, who was crammed into two pages. His thesis, though, seems to me essentially correct. Once the different threads of the New Testament revelation of Jesus Christ are combined with the early Christian experience of worshipping Jesus "as if a god" (Pliny) then only a limited number of explanations as to the meaning of the person and work of Christ could hold water. No Da Vinci code cover up here.