Oliver Crisp

University of St Andrews · Department of Theological Studies

What is Christian Doctrine? This Companion guides students and scholars through the key issues in the contemporary practice of Christian theology. Including twenty-one essays, specially commissioned from an international team of leading theologians, the volume outlines the central features of Christian doctrinal claims and examines leading methods...

Reformed accounts of infant baptism are usually covenantal and promissory in nature. They are about bringing the child into the ambit of the visible church in the hope the infant will own the faith upon reaching the age of reason. This paper sets out an alternative Reformed account of baptism, drawing on the Scottish confessional tradition. On this...

Recent philosophical-theological discussion of prayer has focused mainly on analyses of intercessory prayer or impetration, understood in terms of a two-way contingency: (Very roughly) a person asks God to bring about something he otherwise would bring about. However, this is not the only form of prayer. This chapter focuses on prayer as complaint,...

This volume draws together a range of theologians and philosophers to deal with different approaches to prayer as a Christian practice. The chapters deal with issues pertaining to petitionary prayer, prayer as reorientation of oneself in the presence of God, prayer by those who do not believe, liturgical prayer, mystical prayer, whether God prays,...

Over the past decade, a growing number of theologians and philosophers from a variety of sub disciplines have expressed an interest in the possibilities of a “science-engaged theology.” The specific projects that fall under this somewhat broad conceptual umbrella are rather diverse, but at its most basic, science-engaged theology is a form of inqui...

T. F. Torrance is widely thought to be one of the most important recent theologians in the Anglophone world. There has been quite a lot of research done on his soteriology. This essay contributes to that discussion by assessing five soteriological themes in his thought. These comprise: his account of the vicarious humanity of Christ, the notion of...

In recent work on the doctrine of atonement there has been little positive said about the view that Christ's work is principally a moral example. This article addresses that lacuna. It sets out two versions of the moral example doctrine, which are often conflated in the literature. According to the first, Christ is merely a moral example. Such a vi...

The doctrine of Augustinian realism is a way of construing how sin is transmitted in the doctrine of original sin that has fallen out of fashion in recent dogmatics. In this article, I attempt to say something on its behalf. I give an account of the doctrine, drawing on the work of several nineteenth-century systematic theologians. I then address s...

In the past decade analytic theology has established itself as a flourishing research program that includes academic journals, monograph series, a dedicated annual conference, research centers on several continents, and a growing and diverse body of work produced by scholars drawn from philosophy, theology, and biblical studies. In this short monog...

Many recent treatments of divine simplicity have been highly critical of traditional accounts of the doctrine. Critics have challenged whether the doctrine is coherent and whether it can be squared with a robust theology of the triune God. Yet the theological tradition is largely persuaded that the doctrine of divine simplicity is not only coherent...

In the recent literature there has been a spate of essays, articles and books discussing the question of whether Christ had a ‘fallen’ human nature. This article offers a new argument for the conclusion that Christ had a fallen but not sinful human nature that was ‘healed’ of its fallenness at the moment of assumption by the Word – what we shall ca...

Douglas A. Sweeney , Edwards the Exegete: Biblical Interpretation and Anglo-Protestant Culture on the Edge of Enlightenment (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 391. $74.00. - Volume 70 Issue 2 - Oliver D. Crisp

It is often said that analytic theology is not really systematic theology; it is something else entirely. However, specifying what this “something else” amounts to has proven a little more difficult. In this article I argue that analytic theology may be a species of systematic theology. I show that there is no agreed view on the nature of systemati...

Reformed theology is often thought to be antipathetic to virtue theory. However, Jonathan Edwards is a counterexample to this way of thinking. In this article, I offer an account of Edwards’s moral thought as a case study of Reformed theology that is also a species of virtue theory, focusing on what he says about the formation of character. I argue...

This Companion offers an introduction to Reformed theology, one of the most historically important, ecumenically active, and currently generative traditions of doctrinal enquiry, by way of reflecting upon its origins, its development, and its significance. The first part, Theological Topics, indicates the distinct array of doctrinal concerns which...

An important Christological question is whether the incarnation depends on human sin. This paper sets out one version of an “incarrnation anyway” doctrine, i.e. the view according to which Christ would have been incarnate without a fall (an issue that has begun to receive more attention in the recent theological literature). This version of incarna...

Huldrych Zwingli's understanding of original sin is usually sidelined in contemporary Reformed theology. In this paper I argue that Zwingli's views are worthy of theological retrieval for contemporary dogmatics. His position offers a moderate version of the doctrine that has ecumenical promise. It also avoids well-known objections to some later Ref...

Michael J. McClymond and Gerald R. McDermott (eds), The Theology of Jonathan Edwards (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. xvi+757. £40.00. - Volume 68 Issue 3 - Oliver D. Crisp

This article sets out a constructive account of original sin that attempts to take seriously the Christian tradition (particularly, the Reformed tradition), and that avoids the serious theological drawback of the doctrine of original guilt. I dub this account the moderate Reformed doctrine of original sin. I also argue that an adequate understandin...

In recent systematic theology versions of the Ransom account of the atonement have proliferated. Much of this work uses Gustav Aulén's Christus Victor as a point of departure. In this paper I first distinguish between models and theories of atonement. Then I discuss three recent theological perorations of the Ransom model as a prelude to setting ou...

Jonathan Edwards had some strange ideas. He was an idealist like Berkeley. He denied that the world persists through time, claiming that it is continuously created out of nothing by God moment-by-moment. He also denied creaturely causal action in his doctrine of occasionalism. Moreover, he thought that the world is the necessary output of the essen...

Amongst his other writings, the nineteenth century American Presbyterian theologian John Girardeau (1825–1898) composed a book-length critique of Jonathan Edwards’ doctrine of free will. In the place of Edwards’ unrelenting determinism, Girardeau appealed to an older Reformed tradition which allowed that in mundane actions human beings often have l...

Deviant Calvinism seeks to show that the Reformed tradition is much broader and more variegated than is often thought. Crisp’s work focuses on a cluster of theological issues concerning the scope of salvation and shows that there are important ways in which current theological discussion of these topics can be usefully resourced by attention to the...

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is widely regarded as a philosopher and theologian of the first rank, sometimes even as "America's Theologian." This study offers a major revisionist account of his views on the relationship between God and creation, and a fresh analysis of other central issues in Edwardsian philosophical theology, such as the divine na...

Along with the Introduction, this postscript is a bookend. It argues that the chapters in this volume have shown that the New England Theology is a source of important theological development in nineteenth-century American theology and that it had a significant international impact as well. The ideas of Edwards, the taproot of the movement, were tr...

In the past half century there has been a significant amount of scholarly attention paid to the thought of Jonathan Edwards so that he is now one of the most studied figures in American history. Much less attention has been directed toward the theological movement that took its point of departure from Edwards, namely, the New England Theology. Yet...

In response to a paper by Professor Gavin D’Costa on being a Roman Catholic theologian, this paper offers some reflections on being a Reformed theologian, what this means, and why collegial, ecumenical, Reformed theology has an important role to play today in both the Academy and the Church.

MarsdenGeorge M., A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), pp. xii + 152. $14.95/£8.99 (pbk). - Volume 64 Issue 3 - Oliver D. Crisp

In recent years a number of new approaches to theology have emerged. In 2009 a major international symposium was published by Oxford University Press entitled Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology. In it, the editors and contributors set out the prospect of analytic theology — very roughly, a method of doing theology utilising...

In the recent literature, the Spirit Christology of the puritan theologian John Owen has been offered as a constructive contribution to Christian theology. In this article, Owen's Spirit Christology is set out and criticized. Although there is much to commend in Owen's approach, it is deficient in several important respects. In its place, an “Oweni...

This book offers a series of studies in the Christology of key representatives in the Reformed tradition engaging their thought for contemporary dogmatics. Thinkers from each of the five centuries in which Reformed theology has flourished are represented - John Calvin; John Owen; Jonathan Edwards; William Shedd; Donald Baillie; and Kathryn Tanner....

Evangelical theology has traditionally had a somewhat ambivalent relationship to the notion of "experience," understood here as some event lived through, of which one is consciously aware. This article examines the role of religious experience in the formation, sustenance, and development of Christian doctrine. It also considers the relationship be...

MacDonaldGregory (a pseudonym), The Evangelical Universalist (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, A Division of Wipf & Stock, 2006), pp. 201. $14.40; £12.60. - Volume 63 Issue 3 - Oliver D. Crisp

SwinburneRichardWas Jesus God? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) 192 pp. £9.99, $24.95 (Hbk), £7.99, $14.95 (Pbk). ISBN 978 0 19 920311 6 (Hbk), 978 0 19 958044 6 (Pbk). - Volume 46 Issue 2 - OLIVER D. CRISP

Sang Hyun Lee's account of Jonathan Edwards's ontology has become the benchmark of many recent discussions of Edwards's thought. In this paper, I argue that this Lee interpretation is flawed in several crucial respects. In place of Lee's understanding of Edwards I offer an account of Edwards's work according to which Edwards is an idealist-occasion...

In a previous article entitled ‘Augustinian Universalism’, I argued that the principles of Augustinianism are compatible with universalism. For those who reason to Augustinianism on the basis of biblical-theological arguments, this may not be terribly troubling. However, if the logic of Augustinianism is consistent with universalism this sets up an...

In the recent literature there have been several accounts of Jonathan Edwards's doctrine of God (Theology Proper). In this paper, I offer a rather different interpretation of Edwards, showing that his understanding of the divine nature is much more in keeping with the Reformed scholastic tradition in which he was educated, despite the fact that he...

Philosophy in the English-speaking world is dominated by analytical approaches to its problems and projects; but theology has been dominated by alternative approaches. Many would say that the current state in theology is not mere historical accident, but is, rather, how things ought to be. On the other hand, many others would say precisely the oppo...

This chapter presents a possible research programme that could provide a fruitful means of thinking theologically. The theological model under consideration draws upon one stream of current philosophical thinking, namely, analytic philosophy of religion. Analytic theology is an approach that is characterized by (a) explanatory/metaphysical ambition...

The New England Puritan theologian, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) famously changed his mind on the question of the qualifications for communion in his church, a matter that led to his dismissal from the pastorate at Northampton. This paper sets Edwards' contribution to the Communion Controversy in New England into the broader context of his thought,...

The atonement is one of the central and defining doctrines of Christian theology. Yet the nature of the atonement - how it is that Christ's life and death on the cross actually atone for human sin - remains a theological conundrum. This article offers a new argument for an old theory of the atonement, namely, penal substitution. First, it sets out...

The incarnation is the central and defining event of Christian theology. The doctrine that the second person of the Trinity assumes human nature, becoming a man, in order to bring about the salvation of fallen human beings lies at the heart of the traditional teaching of the church. Although concern for a creedally orthodox Christology has not alwa...

In modern theology the election of Christ is often associated with the work of Karl Barth. In this paper, I offer an alternative account of Christ's election in dialogue with the Post-Reformation Reformed tradition. It turns out that, contrary to popular belief, there is no single 'Reformed' doctrine of election; a range of views has been tolerated...

There are two broad historic approaches to the so-called governmental view of the atonement (which is better described, from its defining characteristic, as penal non-substitution): the Grotian or Arminian version, and the New England or Calvinistic version. The important differences of emphasis between these two approaches are re-examined. One ver...

In modern theology the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Christ, including the doctrine of his Virginal Conception, has been the subject of considerable scepticism. One line of criticism has been that the traditional doctrine of the Virgin Birth seems unnecessary to the Incarnation. In this essay I lay out one construal of the traditional argument fo...

McLeod Campbell is synonymous with the doctrine of atonement known as vicarious penitence, according to which Christ atones for human sin by repenting on behalf of fallen human beings. This understanding of Christ's work has been very influential, but not always clearly understood. In this article I set out a version of this doctrine, called non-pe...

A number of contemporary theologians deny that Christ is impeccable (incapable of sinning), opting instead for the weaker thesis that Christ was merely sinless (he could have sinned, but did not). In this article, I argue against this position, and for the traditional claim that Christ is incapable of sinning.

This essay is a response to the article by Michael O’Neil, ‘Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Election’, Evangelical Quarterly 76: 4 (October, 2004), 311-26. I show, contrary to O’Neil’s essay, that Karl Barth’s doctrine of election in Church Dogmatics II/2 is either incoherent or universalistic. However, if, an attempt is made to ‘see past’ the letter of w...

In his recent two-volume Systematic Theology, Robert Jenson offers an account of Christ's pre-existence that is, in several important respects, an original contribution to the literature. In this article, I offer a critical interaction with Jenson's doctrine. In particular, I show that what Jenson has to say about (a) divine eternity and (b) the re...

The doctrine of the Incarnation lies at the heart of Christianity. But the idea that 'God was in Christ' has become a much-debated topic in modern theology. Oliver Crisp addresses six key issues in the Incarnation defending a robust version of the doctrine, in keeping with classical Christology. He explores perichoresis, or interpenetration, with r...

The Dogmatic Theology of the nineteenth-century divine William Shedd has received little attention in the literature. Yet it contains a number of theologically interesting arguments. This article sets forth what Shedd has to say on the doctrine of the theanthropic person of Christ. I show that his doctrine of the person of Christ represents one imp...

Nineteenth-century Calvinistic theologians in the United States explored both ‘federalist’ and ‘realist’ accounts of the transmission of original sin from Adam to his progeny. An examination of the logic of three of these accounts, those of William Shedd, Augustus Strong (who were both realists) and Charles Hodge (who was a federalist), shows that...

This article considers several problems concerning the origin of the soul in the work of the nineteenth century American theologian, William G. T. Shedd. He opts for the traducian position, which is, that the soul is passed down from parents to child, in a way similar to the passing of physical seed from two human parents that fuse in syngamy to fo...

The doctrine of perichoresis has been important for a number of contemporary theologians. However, it has been given much less philosophical attention. This essay is a philosophical-theological examination of the doctrine of perichoresis. Whereas most contemporary theologians who write about perichoresis restrict its application to the Holy Trinity...

Recently, it has become common to claim that the human nature assumed by the Son was ‘fallen’, although sinless. This seems a difficult thing to say with a traditional understanding of original sin. This article explores this difficulty, proposes a possible solution, and then shows that the solution proposed also faces logical difficulties. The art...

The concept of divine justice has been the subject of considerable scrutiny in recent philosophical theology, as it bears upon the notion of punishment with respect to the doctrine of eternal damnation. In this essay, I set out a version of the traditional retributive view of divine punishment and defend it against one of the most important and inf...

Jonathan Edwards's doctrine of imputation has long been misunderstood. This essay sets out to redress the balance on this aspect of Edwards's hamartiology, drawing on both nineteenth- and twentieth-century analyses of Edwards's theory. I argue that what previous commentators have failed to see is that Edwards's doctrine was not an aberrant version...

In this article I assess the coherence of Jonathan Edwards's doctrine of divine simplicity as an instance of an actuspurus account of perfect-being theology. Edwards's view is an idiosyncratic version of this doctrine. This is due to a number of factors including his idealism and the Trinitarian context from which he developed his notion of simplic...