Imputation and Impartation

by Evans, William B.

• ISBN13: 9781606084786
• ISBN10: 160608478X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-17
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

This book explores the history of the theme of 'union with Christ' in the Reformed tradition. After chapters on the legacy of Calvin and Reformed Orthodoxy, the author uncovers three trajectories in American Reformed theology in which salvation as union with Christ is understood in remarkably different ways. The subsequent twentieth-century history of the theme is also explored. This detailed examination of New England Calvinism, Princeton Calvinism, and the Mercersburg Theology highlights the historic diversity present in Reformed thought, and the implications of that diversity for contemporary Evangelical and Reformed thought.

Author Biography

William B. Evans is the Eunice Witherspoon Bell Younts and Willie Camp Younts Professor of Bible and Religion at Erkskine College in Due West, South Carolina, where he as taught since 1993. He holds degrees from Taylor University, Westminster Theological Seminary, and Vanderbilt University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Prologue
John Calvin: Influence and Ambiguity	p. 7
The Centrality of Union with Christ for Calvin	p. 7
Calvin's Doctrine of Unio in Recent Scholarship	p. 8
The Nature of Union with Christ	p. 14
Union by Faith and the Holy Spirit	p. 14
Union with Christ through Word and Sacrament	p. 17
Union with Christ in Baptism	p. 17
Union with Christ in the Lord's Supper	p. 19
"Substantial" Union with Christ	p. 23
Union with Christ and Applied Soteriology	p. 29
Sanctification through Union with Christ	p. 29
Justification through Union with Christ	p. 30
Justification as Forensic and Synthetic	p. 31
The Relation of Justification and Union with Christ	p. 32
The Structure of Calvin's Soteriology	p. 38
Reformed Orthodoxy and Union with Christ	p. 43
Reformed Orthodoxy and Scholastic Method	p. 44
Reformed Orthodoxy and the Loci Method	p. 45
Reformed Orthodoxy and Resurgent Aristotelianism	p. 46
Reformed Orthodoxy and the Ordo Salutis	p. 52
Federal Theology and the Bifurcation of Union	p. 57
Federal Theology and "Extrinsic Legalism"	p. 59
The Scottish Federal Reconceptualization of Union with Christ	p. 65
The Influence of Pietism	p. 75
Devotional Communion with Christ	p. 76
Puritans and the Sacraments	p. 78
Conclusion: The Federal Orthodoxy Dilemma	p. 81
The New England Trajectory: Imputation Eclipsed
Jonathan Edwards on Salvation and Union with Christ	p. 87
Edwards and the Reformed Tradition	p. 87
The Philosophical Context of Edwards' Thought	p. 89
The Religious Context of Edwards' Thought	p. 92
Edwards on the Nature of Union with Christ	p. 95
The Human Perspective-Faith as Union with Christ	p. 96
The Divine Perspective-Union with God	p. 97
Edwards on Applied Soteriology	p. 100
Justification by Faith	p. 101
Imputation and Original Sin	p. 104
The Relation of Justification and Sanctification	p. 107
Summary-Edwards on Union with Christ	p. 111
Later New England Thought: Samuel Hopkins and Timothy Dwight	p. 113
Hopkins' Contribution to New England Theology	p. 115
Hopkins on Applied Soteriology and Union with Christ	p. 122
Summary	p. 129
The Rational Evangelicalism of Timothy Dwight	p. 130
Dwight's Relation to Earlier New England Thought	p. 131
Dwight on Applied Soteriology and Union with Christ	p. 134
Conclusions and Observations	p. 136
The Mercersburg Soteriology
John W. Nevin and Organic Union with Christ	p. 141
Biography	p. 141
The Mercersburg Theology	p. 146
German Influences on the Mercersburg Theology	p. 147
Idealist Ontology and Epistemology	p. 148
Organic Views of History	p. 149
Christocentric Approaches to Theology	p. 150
The Mediating Theologians	p. 152
Nevin's Theological Method	p. 155
The Nature of Union with Christ	p. 158
Union with Christ and Applied Soteriology	p. 168
Sanctification in Christ	p. 168
Justification in Christ	p. 169
Union with Christ and the Sacraments	p. 175
Interpretive Questions and Observations	p. 181
Summary and Conclusions	p. 183
The Princeton Defense of Imputation
The Federal Theology of Charles Hodge	p. 187
Biography	p. 188
The Method and Context of Hodge's Theology	p. 189
Scottish Common Sense Realism	p. 189
Religious Experience	p. 193
The Reformed Tradition	p. 194
The Problem of Solidarity-The Defense of Imputation	p. 195
Original Sin and the Solidarity with Adam	p. 196
Soteriology and Solidarity with Christ	p. 202
Applied Soteriology-The Ordo Salutis	p. 208
Applied Soteriology-Justification	p. 211
Ecclesiology and the Sacraments	p. 215
The Later Federal Textbook Tradition: A. A. Hodge and Louis Berkhof	p. 229
Conclusions Regarding the Princeton Federal Trajectory	p. 235
Epilogue
Subsequent Developments	p. 241
The Academic Tradition	p. 241
Evangelical Theology	p. 254
Retrospect and Prospect	p. 259
Retrospective Observations	p. 259
Prospect	p. 261
A Spiritual and Eschatological Realism	p. 262
A Concrete and Christocentric Soteriology	p. 264
Benefits of a Revisioned Reformed Soteriology	p. 266
Bibliography	p. 269
Index	p. 293
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