Part 1 of 11 in the Doctrine of God series

Augustine: “In no other subject [doctrine of God] is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable.”

1. Why Study God?

   • Westminster Shorter Catechism Q1: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
   • The Church’s Foundations: Scripture: the cognitive foundation & God: the ontological foundation
   • The Challenge of “Theistic Mutualism”: God in our own image
   • Key Point: What we believe about God shapes how we pray, suffer, repent and hope

2. How Do We Study God? A. With humility and awe as his creatures i. Ad intra vs. Ad extra

   • Ad intra: God as He is in Himself (his attributes, triune)
   • Ad extra: God’s works in creation, providence, and redemption.

   ii. Archetypal vs. Ectypal theology

   • Archetypal theology: God’s (full) knowledge of God
   • Ectypal theology: Our (limited) creaturely knowledge of God

   iii. Limits of language

   • Univocal language: uses the same words in the same sense
     • E.g. I love my Aunt Stephanie and I love my Aunt Caroline
   • Equivocal language: uses the same words in entirely different senses
     • E.g. There’s a lot of bats at the baseball stadium. There’s also a lot of bats in this cave.
   • Analogical language: use the same words but in similar but distinct senses
     • E.g. This food is healthy. This economy is healthy.
   • When we speak of God, we are using analogical language.
     • E.g. God is our rock. The Lord make his face to shine upon you.
     • E.g. Luke 6:36: Be merciful as your Father is also merciful.

   B. With the Church

   • Scripture: Our final authority
   • The Dream Team (Appendix A): Our interpreters
   • Creeds: Our guardrails

5. What is the Study of God? Theology Proper: the study of God himself; God’s attributes + triune existence Our Structure:

   • 1. God’s Attributes (also called perfections, virtues, properties, excellencies); both communicable and incommunicable attributes
   • 2. The Trinity
   • 3. Anthropology + Christology (Incarnation)

   Appendix A: Our Trinitarian Dream Team

   Theologian	Work	Difficulty	Comments
   Athanasius	On the Incarnation	Easy	A must read devotional classic
   Basil the Great	On the Holy Spirit	Moderate	Another classic
   Gregory of Nazianzus	Theological Orations (Orations 27-31)	Challenging
   Gregory of Nyssa	On Not Three Gods	Challenging
   Augustine of Hippo	On the Trinity	Challenging	Profound and foundational but slow and abstract
   Anselm	On the Trinity	Challenging
   Thomas Aquinas	Summa Theologica (qq. 27-43)	Extremely Challenging	Do you like pain? If yes, this book is for you.
   John Calvin	Institutes of the Christian Religion	Moderate	A Protestant Classic
   John Owen	Communion with God	Moderate	Warm devotional but intellectually demanding
   John Gill	A Body of Doctrinal Divinity (Book 2)	Challenging	A great Baptist theologian
   Francis Turretin	Institutes of Elenctic Theology (Topic 3)	Extremely Challenging	Height of Reformed Scholasticism
   Herman Bavinck	Reformed Dogmatics (Vol 2)	Challenging	A great goal to work up towards

Foundational Modern Introductions

Quinn's path: Foundational --> Athanasius --> John Calvin --> Herman Bavinck --> Augustine