Well wish harder! Wayne Grudem, the American Baptist theologian who is famous for writing a lovely and suitably shallow systematic theology for beginners and for conflating conservative American politics with evangelical faith, (who thinks it is a theologian’s job to publicly endorse a Presidential candidate?) is publishing a book called, wait for it, Politics – According to the Bible. The Bible, written across a couple of military empires and the royal monarchy of Israel doesn’t seem like a book that could directly inform the peculiar democracies of the western world but it seems like that won’t stop Grudem. According to the publisher his “comprehensive” text will cover issues like “protection of life, marriage, family, economics, environment, national defense, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and special interest groups.” The front cover, carrying an American flag flapping in the wind by the US parliament (can’t be the White House since that godless black man occupies it with his crazy commie ideas of health reform) should be saved by all preachers, teachers and theology lecturers onto their harddrives and backed up onto usb sticks, paper and freaking ogham stones for use in future presentations on syncretism.
Your Correspondent, A little known fact is that he invented boats
That Bourbon must have done its trick- the ‘damned faint praise’ invectives are flying. I’ve no idea what I might think of this Grudem offering but “suitably shallow systematic theology for beginners”? Come off it Kevin, he’s a respected commentator on the biblical text and a sharp theologian, whatever you think of his political views. I’ll await your 1300page systematics with pleasure….
I’m just gazing at my copy of Church Dogmatics here and wondering why you think I’d ever settle for anything less than 4000pages. Grudem’s systematic was the first one a I read (it was back in the IFESi days) and I will gladly debate with the man himself that it is far more Systematic than it is Theology. 😉
Good god. Even the cover smells of heresy.
I occasionally consider reading Grudem’s Systematic Theology just in order to gauge how much of it I disagree with (and, indeed, how much of it I’d happily agree with) but I have a feeling that it would leave me with very little hair.
Bob (from sunny Saudi Arabia).
Maybe he can make politics as boring as he made theology. Uhhh, on second thought, probably not.