Proving Doctrine: The Uses of Scripture in Modern Theology

How does properly interpreted scripture bear on Christian theology and ethics? That is the question addressed in the Trinity Press edition of this classic text, which includes a new preface by the author. The issue is not so much how to interpret scripture as what to do with it once one has interpreted it. The book therefore explores not what theologians have said about scripture’s authority for theology, but the sense in which scripture serves as authority in their actual practice of theology. It offers a set of brief case studies of theologians authorizing or “proving” a theological proposal by scripture, and based on these studies, an analysis of the concept of “authority for theology” implicit in them. Finally, it teases out of the cases implicit assumptions about what the concept of scripture means and why appeal ought to be made to it to “prove theology.” “Kelsey has given us a book that deserves the serious attention not only of professional theologians but also of pastors and all those in the Christian community who understand their personal identity and the identity of their community to be shaped in some sense by scripture.” — Theology Today David H. Kelsey is Luther Weigle Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and Yale Graduate School.