Fundamental Theology. A Protestant Perspective by Matthew L. Becker (review)

An accessible, learned, and persuasive case for Christian theology as a university discipline and as a member of the liberal arts, this book is designed to introduce theology to undergraduates. Becker ably summarizes, explains, and interprets theologians and theological questions in a way that would allow an undergraduate student of theology or beginner in systematic theology on the graduate level access to important stopping points that make up the complex of contemporary Protestant theology. Becker treats major theological figures while arguing for a specifically Lutheran position that acknowledges theology’s obligations to Scripture, tradition, and the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The book belongs to the genre of prolegomena to theology in the style of the contemporary collegiate textbook. Each chapter has concluding questions for study, an excellent glossary, and useful tables and summaries. Becker assembles these chapters in order to justify theology as a discipline worthy of inclusion in the university.

Becker prefaces the book with two chapters devoted to the history of Christianity and the history of Christian theologians. These two chapters orient readers to the diversity of theological traditions and offer them an important background knowledge to see why Christians think and act the way they do. These two chapters historically situate the more expressly theological matters that follow them.

Becker treats the core of theology by attending to the doctrine of revelation, which comprises for Becker both natural and special revelation, as well as the doctrine of Scripture. Becker defines theology as a “university discipline that invites critical and self-critical reflection” (109). This reflection is on the “revelation of God, the world, and human beings in the gospel of Jesus Christ” (106). In each chapter Becker treats major figures necessary for the accounts of these doctrines, only occasionally taking up ecclesial statements, whether those belong to the patristic, recent Roman Catholic, or Protestant tradition.

Becker acknowledges with many Christian traditions that human beings may know God without any specific divine aid. He uses a common term, “the natural revelation of God,” to designate a kind of orientation to God that all humans share (178). This orientation assumes thematic and discursive reality in questions, anxiety, and in human religiosity; for Becker this is the working of the hidden God and is not yet God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ. This discussion of revelation is clear and straightforward, acknowledging theological dissent but succinctly showing Becker’s own conclusions.

Becker’s account of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Bible, and biblical interpretation is the most careful and extensive part of the book. Already in his discussion of special revelation, he has set the stage for his understanding of the Bible’s role in theology through his prioritization of the gospel of Jesus as a kerygmatic act, though Becker might well reject that way of identifying the gospel as something separable from the biblical text itself (258). Taking as his point of departure the range of biblical accounts from historicism to biblicism, Becker shows the value and promise of the many streams of contemporary Christianity (320). Though Becker appears to spend more time developing the elements of a classical Protestant doctrine of Scripture, attending to the commonplaces of the inspiration, canon, and authority of the Bible, questions of history, criticism, and non-theological interpretation of the Bible are readily treated. Undergraduate students of many persuasions will obtain a fine appreciation of Christian thinking about the Bible and what the gospel of Jesus is.

Becker ably demonstrates the significance of theology as a university discipline. Becker articulates theology in a way that attends to the integrity of its own resources and traditions while being open to the manifold interests and insights of the world. He sees connections between theological and non-theological interpretations of the Bible so long as those connections “overlap” (271). Becker’s book is an excellent introductory work. It fills important needs in undergraduate education and I commend its wide use as a beginning...