The Doctrine of God: A Global Introduction

by Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

A Christian's understanding of God is crucial to how he or she views everything else. In The Doctrine of God: A Global Introduction, Veli-Matti Karkkainen surveys what the church has traditionally thought about God. He also examines what the church today, both in North America and around the world, thinks about God and shows how the insights of Christians from various cultures can enrich an understanding of God.
Karkkainen's book will reward pastors and laypeople with a much fuller understanding of who God is and how we can enter into a deeper relationship with him.

Genres: Theology, Religion

316 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2004

About the author

Veli-Matti Käkkäinen is professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He has published numerous articles in international journals of theology.

Reviews

[Steve Irby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quarantine-Book #30:

I just finished "The Doctrine of God; A Global Introduction: A Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Survey," by Veli Matti Karkkainen.

I have finally reached book three of this trilogy. I should have read these three books as my starters some four years ago. Karkkainen follows a similar format as he did in his Pneumatology (vol. 1) and his Christology (vol. 2) which means we are going to cover all schools of thought since "in the beginning...." including Biblical theism to classical theism on into process and open theism.

Karkkainen begins in the Hebrew scriptures respectfully letting Brueggemann and Goldingay guide us. Moving to the NT Karkkainen places emphasis on God being most perfectly revealed in Jesus who preached a forthcoming Kingdom (rule) of God. From here the plurality of the Godhead begins to emerge.

Karkkainen's chapter on classical theism reads well. His dive into its substance (haha) and history. He does a good job being a tour guide and neutral, though I don't think he cares for classical theism/scholasticism. If theology is to drive one to doxology I don't see how the ancients ever could glorify God. This section ends with the magisterial Reformation thought Luther and Calvin, and then the enlightenment thought of Descartes, Pascal, Kant, et al.

He next jumps into modern contextual Doctrines of God beginning with Barth, Tillich, before analyzing Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians. Then he deals with Pannenberg, Moltmann and Hick. Though only a few pages for each scholar a good job was done to analyze the Doctrine of God for each. (I think Karkkainen is a Moltmann fan.)

The next sections deal with schools or movements in the North American context and outside of it beginning with the death of God movement of the 60's. (Thank you for the clarification and categorization in this family; it helped me much more than the foaming-at-the-mouth preachers of my youth on the topic.) Next is process theology followed by open theism (this bit on OT was quite fair, thank you). Following this is Carl Henry and Millard Erickson on evangelical theology (classical theism revisited).

Moving on Karkkainen addresses movements that are non-eurocentric and North American originated beginning with Native American theologies (this was interesting and my first taste of this movement). Next Karkkainen covers the black theology movements or stages, Latinx, Asian, theologies in North American contexts. The Asian theologies were very informative. Followed by a variety of feminist, womanist, and Latina/mujerista theologies.

Now we deal with the Doctrine of God in non-western contexts beginning with an awesome chapter on African theologies and moving to Latin American liberation theology, then Asian and Minjung theologies.

A really awesome book and trilogy that I wish I had found 4 years ago. Thank you.

#DoctrineOfGod #Karkkainen #Umlaut #Trinity #ClassicalTheism #OpenTheism #ProcessTheology #DeathOfGod #BlackTheology #LatinxTheology

[Lydia Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of how God has been presented and communicated throughout history. The deep dive into various forms of contextualized theology that have emerged in the 20th century was especially interesting.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the history of Christian theology.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a concise, approachable, summary of theological/philosophical thought around the world, this book is remarkably successful. At several points, I found my head spinning at the diverse and varied doctrines that have been created throughout the history of Christian thought. This will certainly be a volume that I will refer to again and again as I delve deeper into certain strands of thought. Furthermore, and perhaps this is the reason I loved it so much, I found myself discovering completely new thinkers/writers that I have every intention of exploring further. The summarizations of European theology, process thought, and open theism were all helpful surveys.

The only knock against it would be the minimal amount of truly global content. The last several chapters survey African, Latin American, and Asian theologies, and is it a very small section compared to the number of pages devoted to Western thought. I wanted much more!

Overall, as a survey of both philosophy and theology, I believe you would be hard-pressed to find a more readable, relatively short, helpful volume. Highly recommended to anyone with a philosophical bent.

[Nicholas Quient · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise and globally minded introduction. VMK goes through the biblical texts, church history, and explored the DoG through multiple prominent theologians (Barth, Moltmann, et al). Highly recommended.

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

partially read for systematic theology class. Very well written, incorporating and succinctly summarizing numerous approaches to the theology of God. Ecumenical approach.

[Tony]

p. 273