If you were wondering what my personal chapter is about in our (mine and Myk Habets’) edited book Evangelical Calvinism: Essays Resourcing 
The Continuing Reformation Of The Church, which is entitled: Analogia Fidei or Analogia Entis: Either Through Christ Or Through Nature; then you’re in luck. Because I just ran across a paragraph from Kevin Vanhoozer in his book Remythologizing Theology that describes in a nutshell what I am after in my mostly descriptive and suggestive chapter. He writes:
The order of topics in the post-Reformation Protestant doctrine of Β God β treating the unity and nature of God before the biblical names for God and doctrine of the Trinity β merits special comment, not least because Brunner identiο¬ es this move with βthe metaphysical, speculative perversion of the doctrine of God.β Brunnerβs βJβaccuseβ charges these sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theologians with βfallingβ into rationalism and natural theology β of subordinating Godβs revelation in history and in Jesus Christ to the conceptual demands of substance metaphysics. Karl Barth harbors a similar Β concern, wondering whether these theologians are really thinking about the God of Jesus Christ: βIt is hard to see how what is distinctive for this God can be made clear if . . . the question who God is, which it is the business of the doctrine of the Trinity to answer, is held in reserve, and the ο¬rst question to be treated is that of the That and What of God, as though these could be deο¬ned otherwise than on the presupposition of the Who.β Treating De Deo Uno apart from the history of salvation and the mystery of the Trinity ultimately means that βthe one divine essence as a whole is spoken about in isolation from Godβs own intrinsic personal relationality.β [Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Remythologizing Theology, 88]
What I do, in addition to developing, somewhat, what Vanhoozer describes above; is that, of course, I unfold how it is that an Evangelical Calvinist prolegomenon (according to my approach) appropriates the so called Torrancean version of the ‘analogy of faith’ V. a classical theist (and Thomist, in my chapter) rendition of the so called ‘analogy of being’. I then apply this to how the Westminster and Belgic Confessions followed this kind of analogy of being/classical theist prolegomenon in the way that they ordered their respective confessions (I contrast this with the Scot’s Confession and Heidelberg Catechism, noticing how these are much more in line, anachronistically, with something like the ‘analogy of faith’ and the front-loaded Trinitarian approach to doing theological work). Vanhoozer identifies something that I work out in this latter section of my chapter; viz. the effect that an incipient classical theist approach can have upon theologians as they order and prioritize the structure of their confession making (of course within the post-Reformed tradition).
Hello,
I joined this blog because I was trying to gain permission to use one of your pictures for my book. I have not received it.
In the mean while I have received several of your blogs. Iβm not sure what your ministry is. Will you be looking to receive from our Savior, Well Done Good and Faithful Servant, You Were Doctrinally Correct?
Excuse me for being blunt. A man with you intellect should do something useful in the harvest instead of mental gymnastics and self gratification! Maybe Brother Calvin will be anxious to meet you at judgment to cheer the Lordβs well done!
Sincerely,
Steve Bragg
@Steve,
You’re not being blunt; you’re being out of line! What is your motivation in writing such a comment? Do you believe that your ministry is more noble than mine? My blog is not a ministry, per se; it is a place where I put my current thinking out for others to read or not. If the Lord is able to minister through them, then I am humbled by that. I don’t engage in mental gymnastics, at all; I engage in trying to love the Lord with all my mind, strength, and heart. And to be honest, Steve; I have seen great fruit, evangestically, as a result. Your comment comes across as very ‘holier than thou’; maybe those four fingers pointing back at you should cause a moment of pause for you to consider your own heart and mind; i.e. which would allow you to make such a cutting presumptuous comment in the first place.
May God bless your ministry, and may he deal with your heart, so that he might indeed bless your ministry in the Philippines. Wow! …
Oops! Well…what I see you doing, Bobby, is be a part of living out one of my favorite scriptures – Malachi 3:16. The Lord loves it when we get together and talk about Him – so much that He writes it down in a book of remembrance! Wonderful!
@Jerome,
Thank you! That is a sweet passage of scripture; I’ve always liked that one too π ! I think I will do a post off of Steve’s comment; sometimes a ‘defense’ needs to be mounted against the anti-thinkism that is prevalent in segments of the church today. One has to wonder where the church would be w/o the teachers whom God has given to his Church for its edification. One has to wonder which Jesus we would be proclaiming today w/o the theological grammar provided through the grueling work done during the era of the ecumenical Church councils. One has to wonder which God we would be proclaiming to the nations w/o the nitty gritty process of precise thought given to articulating a grammar that allows us to speak of the Christian God as Triune. It is interesting to come across people like, Steve; people in the Church who seem to think that thinking Christianly is some sort of game which is unnecessary for the edification of the Church. One must wonder if Steve believes that every part of the body is the foot; would this mean that if the whole body was the foot that it is a dead foot w/o the rest of the body, including the head which provides orientation for the foot, etc.? I cannot really understand Steve’s motivation; other than he really didn’t think before he spoke; that’s what happens when all you have is a foot with no head.
Hey Steve, what’s that comment about? On that basis one can’t preach sermons, write books or articles, or perhaps even go into much detail in conversation with a friend for fear of thinking too much, doing mental gymnastics, or some such! Out of line mate. If you don’t like it – don’t read it. What is happening on blogs like this across the world is that people are being the church in a specific way and learning from each other, sharpening each other, and equipping the saints for ministry. May you come to see this and join the discpleship.