Introduction to BlackXanthus’ Systematics

I have long been contemplating embarking on an attempt to write Systematic Theology. Though I’m hoping, of course, that this will be somewhat different.

I don’t have a “system” that I’m attempting to explore, I’m not really trying to find the place of Grace in the great contemporary issues of the day, or looking at Salvation, and how it affects the rest of the theology you use.

I am, however, attempting to look at different modern issues, and trying to build up a fully worked out theology of my own. If this helps people along the way, great. If it doesn’t, then at least I will better know where I stand.

It is likely that people will disagree with me. It is increasingly likely that my thoughts will dance along the lines that people consider Orthodoxy, but I am comforted by the fact that many great theological breakthroughs took the same line. Not that I think that I have anything new or startling to say on any subject, for there is nothing, really, new under the sun.

No, rather these selections of theological thinking are done so that I can know better how things tie in. They won’t be arranged on the blog in a logical manner, because they will be written as they come to me, and as the research is at hand. I also fully expect my thinking to change as I am challenged by my own ideas, the ideas of the theologians that I read, and how all that, combined, impacts on my faith, and my understanding thereof.

Anglicans, in general, resist Systematics as a discipline. Many Archbishops have found the area wholy ineffective for dealing with the wide variety of truly held, authentic beliefs found in Anglicanism.

ArchBishop Rowan Williams said:

To be introduced into relation with [Jesus Christ] is to encounter what is not exhaustible in word or system.. it is to step into faith (rather than definitive enlightenment) (Anglican Theology, Mark Chapman (T&T Clark, London:2012) p 180)

It’s something that I hope people will bear in mind as I work my way through these thoughts.

~BX