Wayne Grudem’s "Systematic Theology": A Brief Review

I like studying theology. In fact, I’ve read a handful of systematic theologies throughout the years and liked every one of them. If theology simply means “the study of God” then it would figure that most Followers of Jesus should engage in theology at some level. So if you find yourself wanting to better ground your mind and heart theologically let me highly recommend Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.

It is clear, accessible and sincere. When you read it you don’t feel like you must have an interpreter with a seminary Ph.D next to you whispering what the text says in a layperson’s language. And yet for all of its “down-to-earth” nature it is robustly comprehensive, fair-minded when presenting diverging views and saturated with Scripture (not just Scripture references). It is a serious theology for serious Christians.

Grudem is upfront about his perspective (biblically-based and defended) being Reformed. He is responsibly (and I stress responsibly) charismatic and follows a Baptist perspective on baptism. Yet along with these convictions he graciously highlights other views from the church on these issues leaving you with a corpus that feels both focused and ecumenical.

This fall I’ve led our church’s Spiritual Formation Team through this book. I think I can say with confidence that each person thoroughly enjoyed his work. Even those who had never studied systematic theology before were greatly taken with Grudem’s effort. His theology so well mirrors our church’s that we’ve used his smaller Christian Beliefs as the doctrinal instruction for our small group leaders. Needless to say, we feel very blessed to have encountered Dr. Grudem’s work.

This evening I finished the last two chapters (the entire book is around 1200 pages in length) and thought I’d give it a plug before putting it on the shelf (though I’m confident it will come down from it frequently).

Go pick yourself up a copy, read it in community and grow in the grace and knowledge of God.

UPDATE: Here is the reading schedule I put together for our team.