Donald G. Bloesch's seven-volume series is a comprehensive, systematic theology for the twenty-first century. Bloesch contributes significantly to late modern evangelical theology, exploring what an ancient faith has to say to perplexing new times. Christian Foundations will be of great help to all who want to hold to orthodoxy and honestly engage contemporary thought.
"This splendid addition to Donald Bloesch's dogmatics delineates the meaning of his 'evangelical neo-orthodoxy' for the contested, slippery question of the meaning of the church. Soaked in Scripture and the history of theology, and insightfully evaluating a variety of alternative positions, Bloesch makes a strong case for a broadly evangelical understanding of the church that remains open to the ongoing dialectic of Word and Spirit."
"Ecclesiology is the cutting edge of serious theological work in the twenty-first century. And this is one of the most important books on the church to appear in several decades. As always, Bloesch is irenic yet tough minded, reformed but also catholic, steadily orthodox and vibrantly evangelical! This book ABOUT the church is a wonderful gift TO the church."
"[A Theology of Word Spirit] signals the appearance of a major theology by a leading evangelical who is immensely learned in the literature of theology past and present, and fully engaged in the life of faith today. Anything but a bland proposal, it is characterized by a striking view of theological method--being an adamant defense of revelational theism over against all efforts to ground the message intellectually, independent of faith. Here is an uncompromisingly confessional theology in strongest opposition to all forms of revisionism--liberal or evangelical. I can only compare it to the systematic theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg (also now being written) alongside which it will stand as the other major alternative for evangelicals. Bloesch proves to me that the Barthian project is far from dead or lacking in scholarly vitality. A great achievement is in the making."
"The refreshing character of [A Theology of Word Spirit] lies in its ethos as much as in its argument. Donald Bloesch's theology comes out of a believing heart, a lucid mind and a teacher's penchant for clarity and communication. Students of theology everywhere will profit greatly from this carefully nuanced guide through the labyrinth of contemporary theological approaches as well as the classical theological texts. Committed to the Anselmic tradition of credo ut intellagam (I believe in order to understand), Bloesch serves the evangelical world well by insisting on the central reality and authority of Jesus Christ as revealed in Word and Spirit through faith to faith. This is edifying as well as instructive reading. Few books on systematic theology leave the reader at the end, hungering for more, but this is an exception. I am left eagerly awaiting the next volume."
"Donald Bloesch's proposed seven-volume systematic theology may well become the evangelical summa of the twentieth century. This first volume demonstrates again the qualities characteristic of his many earlier works: an impressive blend of learning and lucidity, a prophetic forthrightness with a concern for the church and its mission. A Theology of Word Spirit is the impressive beginning of what will be a prodigious achievement."
"With A Theology of Word Spirit evangelical elder statesman Donald Bloesch launches his seven-volume magnum opus, a systematic theology based entirely on God's self-revelation. It is an evangelical theology for the entire church of God and boldly proclaims a Christocentric approach that avoids subverting the gospel to alien systems of thought. Those who have appreciated and benefited by Bloesch's theology in the past must read this volume (and the rest of the series) as it sums up his mature thinking and provides a ringing call to a return to a purely theological way of doing theology. Those who have not discovered Bloesch previously will find here a refreshing alternative to the current tendency to make theology into a tool for non-Christian ideologies and worldviews. This is a program for a purely theological theology."
"Bloesch argues convincingly for a theology of Word and Spirit, not of rationalism or mysticism. Like Luther and Calvin, Forsyth and Barth, his mentors, Bloesch believes that the power of the Word of God creates its own hearing. Christologically centered and biblically rooted, Bloesch is in continual dialogue with theologians past and present. He states that his desire in [A Theology of Word Spirit] is to produce 'an enlivening and liberating orthodoxy,' and he has succeeded."
"This work will be read by all who are interested in the renewal of systematic theology in our time. It is an inspiring, balanced, instructive, rigorous inquiry."
"I haven't read any theological work as biblically and historically rich, as intellectually satisfying, or as spiritually exhilarating as Bloesch's [early volumes of Christian Foundations] since Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics."
"Bloesch is unfailingly irenic as well as erudite. . . . As a guide to the current evangelical discussions, . . . he is indispensable."
"Holy Scripture could well represent the high-point of evangelicalism's dialogue with modern skepticism. There doesn't seem to be a problem dealing with Scripture that Bloesch hasn't heard about, wrestled with, and found a way of overcoming in the name of Christian orthodoxy. . . . [It] does a job no other book has done--tackling the critics on their own territory."
"Bloesch . . . aims at a more 'constructive' engagement with the modern theological situation dating from Schleiermacher and reaching its peak, or at least one of its peaks, in Karl Barth. He moves with erudite ease from Pannenberg to Tillich to Tracy to Ellul to Dulles. If successive volumes fulfill the promise [of A Theology of Word Spirit], Bloesch's project will be an admirable introduction to the Christian theological situation at the edge of the Third Millennium."
"[A Theology of Word Spirit is] a masterful reflection on the nature of scriptural authority and method."
"The publication of the first two volumes of Donald Bloesch's Christian Foundations series represents a signal advance in the maturation of evangelical theological scholarship. . . . When completed, Bloesch's seven-volume magnum opus will constitute the most substantial theological contribution of any American evangelical since Carl Henry's magisterial God, Revelation and Authority."
