Review of Christian Dogmatics by van der Kooi and van den Brink

Christian Dogmatics
An Introduction
Cornelis van der Kooi and Gijsbert van den Brink
Translated by Reinder Bruinsma with James D. Bratt
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans
Hbk, 820pp, £34.99
ISBN 978-0-8028-7265-4

Publisher's website here





In their Preface, van der Kooi and van den Brink pose the question: ‘Who in their right mind would consider publishing a book with this title?’ Fortunately, Eerdmans have.
The book is extremely well laid out and each chapter follows a similar well-framed structure:

Aim
Making Connections
The main text
List of references

The aim highlights what each chapter attempts to do and serves as the skeleton of the discussion. Making connections poses some questions that will aid understanding of the subsequent chapter, they also provide opportunities for self-reflection. These would make excellent seminar materials for students studying the book. Each chapter is concluded by one or two pages of references - this supplements the surprisingly brief bibliography at the end of the book.

Van der Kooi and den Brink write from a Dutch Reformed perspective and this provides a refreshing approach. Kuyper, Dooyeweerd, sphere sovereignty, common grace and the cultural mandate all get a mention. As well as the usual topics of the Trinity, the attributes of God, the doctrine of revelation, the doctrine of creation, anthropology, sin and evil, the covenant, Christology, Soteriology, pneumatology, the doctrine of scripture, ecclesiology and eschatology.

If you can afford only one book on Christian Dogmatics or Systematic theology then this is the one to get.

Below I have provided a tabular comparison with Michael Bird’s Evangelical Theology and Grudem’s rather dated Systematic Theology. My original comparison was here - I’ve since updated it with rows on 'Kuyper mentions' and 'views of common grace'.

	Grudem	Bird	Van der Kooi & Van den Brink
No of pages	1296pp	912pp	820pp
Cost	$49.99	$49.99	$45.00
Intended aim/ purpose	Written primarily it for students … “but also for every Christian who has a hunger to know the central doctrines of the Bible in greater depth.”	To produce a textbook for Christians that represents a biblically sound expression of the Christian faith form the vantage point of the evangelical tradition.	“This book is a complete unit, from beginning to end, which means that the sequence of topics is of great importance. Each chapter, however, has been written as a complete discussion of its topic, which allows readers to profitably study any single chapter.”
Intended audience	Students and all those who want to know the Bible	To be accessible to laypeople, seminary students and leaders in the evangelical churches	“…first of all have students in mind, with the intellectual equipment and skills that the present generation is expected to possess… we hope that others besides theology students will profit from this book. … We are also thinking of pastors who want to refresh their knowledge, of academics in other branches of scholarship, and of journalists who may not themselves share in the Christian faith but are nevertheless expected to write about it in a professional manner.”
Author’s stated theological position	Holds to a “conservative view of biblical inerrancy, very much in agreement with the “Chicago Statement” of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy … and a traditional Reformed position with regard to questions of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility …, the extent of the atonement …, and the question of predestination.	Ex-Baptist post-Presbyterian Anglican. Reformed, evangelical and Calvinist	“We admit at the outset that we write from within the context of the Reformed faith tradition.”
Overview of Contents	Part 1 Doctrine of the Word of God Part 2 Doctrine of God Part 3 Doctrine of Man Part 4 Doctrine of Christ and the Holy Spirit Part 5 Doctrine of the application of redemption Part 6 Doctrine of the church Part 6 Doctrine of the future	Part 1 Prolegoma: Beginning to talk about God Part 2 The God of the gospel: the triune God in being and action Part 3 The gospel of the kingdom: the now and the not yet Part 4 The gospel of God’s Son: The Lord Jesus Christ Part 5 The Gospel of salvation Part 6 The promise and power of the Gospel: The Holy Spirit Part 7: The Gospel and humanity Part 8: The community of the gospelized	1. Dogmatics as Disciplined Thinking about God Definitions and Aims 2. Is There a God?  Prolegomena 3. God as Three in One  The Doctrine of the Trinity 4. “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” The Names, Attributes, and Essence of God 5. Encountering God  The Doctrine of Revelation 6. Existence Given  The Doctrine of Creation 7. Human Beings and the Image of God Theological Anthropology 8. Existence Ravaged Sin and Evil 9. Israel, the Raw Nerve in Christian Theology The Doctrine of the Covenant 10. The Person of Jesus Christ  Christology 11. “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” Jesus Christ as Victor, Redeemer, and Mediator 12. Holy Spirit, Giver of Life Pneumatology 13. The Book of God and of Humans The Doctrine of Scripture 14. Renewal of God’s Community Ecclesiology 15. Renewal of the Human Being Justification and Transformation 16. Renewal of God’s World Eschatology
Prolegomena	No	Yes	Yes
Indexes	Author Hymn Scripture Subject	Scripture and Apocrypha Subject Author	Names Subjects Scripture references
Definition of (Systematic) Theology	Uses the following definition of John Frame: “Systematic theology is any study that answers the question, “What does the whole Bible teach us today?” about any given topic.”	The study of the living God. “It is the attempt to say something about God and God’s relationship to the world. It is thinking about faith from faith. In a sense, theology is very much akin to the study of philosophy, worldview, religion, ethics, or intellectual history; it is a descriptive survey of ideas and the impact of those ideas.”	“…we defined theology as “reflecting about faith in God.” Such a definition is rather rudimentary. We may define theology a little more precisely as the attempt of thinking believers to clarify the nature and content of their faith.”
No of Kuyper mentions	4 (in bibliographies)	0	29
Position on common grace	“We may define common grace as follows: Common grace is the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation. The word common here means something that is common to all people and is not restricted to believers or to the elect only.”		“Reformed theology coined the expression “common grace” (gratia communis), which refers to the form of divine grace that makes it possible for the world to stay inhabitable, since people—despite all their limitations and sinfulness—nonetheless often want the best for each other. This grace is mediated by the Spirit in many different ways, just as is the “special grace” that enables people to live in a restored relationship with God…” “Abraham Kuyper … developed the concept of common grace into a positive evaluation of human cultural development.”
Position on charismata	“all the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the New Testament are still valid for today, but that “apostle” is an office, not a gift, and that office does not continue today.”	not all of the gifts and offices have to endure ... For instance, I think it likely that the offices of prophet and apostle, which were eschatological ministries to provide the “foundation” for the church (Eph 2:20), no longer persist because the foundation has been laid, and the apostolic office and prophetic voice is largely subsumed into Christian preaching, witness, and teaching.	“The use of ‘charismatic’ as an adjective dates back little more than a century and is unknown in the Old and the New Testaments. In our time this adjective suggests that we are dealing with a personal quality, but this sense is not found in the Bible. People receive the charismata, but they do no become ‘charismatic’ as a result.”
Position on women	“neither traditional nor feminist, but ‘complementarian’— namely, that God created man and woman equal in value and personhood, and equal in bearing his image, but that both creation and redemption indicate some distinct roles for men and women in marriage .. and in the church.	Not made explicit here. Elsewhere in Bourgeois Babes, Bossy Wives, and Bobby Haircuts he argues for almost an egalitarian position.	“Admittedly, there are intrinsic differences between men and women, and neither persons nor societies will function optimally when they are ignored. But more needs to be said because much of what we consider to be typically male or female is undoubtedly culturally determined.” “No human being exists in isolation. All men and women together compose humanity.”
Position on eschatology	Premillennial and post-tribulation.	“I would seriously like to be amillennial. It is so much simpler. It recognizes the already’ and ‘not-yet’ of biblical eschatology and avoids the eccentricities of postmillennialism and dispensational premillennialism”… “I conclude that the biblical eschatology is best described as historic premillennialism.”	“The motif behind this chiliastic expectation is fully biblical. It resists letting the salvation that Christ brings evaporate in a spiritualized interpretation.” “If God is the Creator of heaven and earth and if Christ is the Judge of our history, the Yes that God has spoken in Christ also affects time, history, and the cosmos as we know it. These too will be brought to fulfillment, will be sanctified and thereby completed. In this respect, millennialism is correct. But how it all happens is not visible to us; it is truly hidden. The real core of Christian eschatology is that Christ will come and that his rule over time and history, over work and culture, will be revealed.”
Treatment of ethical issues	The emphasis is on systematic theology, though it applies theology to life “where such application comes readily. Still, for a thorough treatment of Christian ethics, another textbook similar to this in scope would be necessary.”		“There is no doubt that in practice dogmatics, ethics, and hermeneutics constantly need and presuppose each other. There is much to be said for keeping them together.”