Primary Authors & Sources
Joining locus history with biblical doctrine and the modern history-of-dogma debate, students read the historians and biblical theologians who map how doctrine was argued. William Cunningham’s Historical Theology reviews the church’s principal doctrinal discussions with Reformed clarity, teaching students how contested loci were argued rather than merely listed. George Smeaton’s paired volumes on the atonement as taught by Christ and by the Apostles keep soteriology tethered to the New Testament’s own teaching before later systems. Benjamin B. Warfield’s Biblical Doctrines models essay-length doctrinal construction from Scripture on Trinity, incarnation, and related heads. Adolf von Harnack’s History of Dogma (seven volumes on the shelf) is the major critical narrative of dogmatic development students must know in order to answer liberal developmentalism without ignorance of it. James Orr’s Progress of Dogma offers an evangelical counter-survey of how dogma advances under Scripture’s pressure. Together they train historically informed confession without surrendering the Bible’s authority to the history of ideas.
What You Will Study
Students examine how major Christian doctrines developed historically while remaining rooted in biblical revelation, moving from creation and covenant through Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. The course integrates biblical theology's redemptive-historical narrative with systematic formulation, drawing on patristic, medieval, Reformation, and post-Reformation sources within a confessional Reformed framework. Readings pair Scripture with selections from church fathers, Reformers, and modern Reformed theologians who model historically informed doctrinal reflection. Students analyze how doctrinal development responds to heresy, cultural pressure, and exegetical discovery without treating tradition as equal to the Word of God. Weekly assignments trace single doctrines across Testaments and centuries to show organic growth under the Spirit's guidance through the church.
Course Objectives
Objectives include describing the relationship between biblical theology and systematic theology, tracing doctrinal development on Trinity, Christ, grace, and church with historical accuracy, evaluating theological proposals against Scripture and confessional standards, and writing clear doctrinal summaries supported by exegesis. Students will identify how cultural context shaped doctrinal debates without reducing doctrine to mere historical construct. The course aims to produce teachers who can explain why Christians believe what they believe with both biblical and historical warrant. Students will compare Reformed articulations of justification, covenant, and sacraments with alternative traditions while maintaining charitable but firm confessional conviction.
Ministry & Life Application
Historical-biblical theology equips pastors and elders to teach doctrine as living truth grounded in God's Word and confirmed through the church's faithful struggle for clarity. Graduates can address contemporary errors by showing their historical precedents and the church's tested biblical responses. House church teachers gain confidence that Reformed doctrine is neither novelty nor mere intellectual tradition but Scripture's own testimony refined through centuries of faithful exposition. This foundation supports pastoral ministry across the Florida Keys, where believers need shepherds who can connect ancient faith to modern questions about salvation, church, and the Christian hope. Doctrinal depth sustains worship, discipleship, and evangelistic witness in every gathering.