Chris Morgan and Robert Peterson did it again. They’ve successfully addressed an important topic with a theological method that grounds its systematic and practical theology in exegesis and biblical theology (and historical theology informs it).
Christopher W.Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, eds. Heaven. Theology in Community. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014.
Look inside here to see the contributors in the Table of Contents.
Related:
I just reviewed this book for 9Marks:
Christopher W. Morgan and Kendell H. Easley, eds. The Community of Jesus: A Theology of the Church. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2013. 288 pp. 10-page sample PDF.
Excerpt:
When you have a solid grasp of how a theme develops across the Bible’s storyline in Scripture, you are able to trace that theme from a number of starting points. For example, you may be preaching or teaching through the Gospel of John and come to John 2:19: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” You may then zoom out so that you can trace the trajectory of the temple theme across the Bible’s storyline—from Eden, to the tabernacle, to Solomon’s temple, to Ezekiel’s temple, to Zerubbabel’s temple, to Jesus as the temple, to the tearing of the temple’s curtain, to the church as the temple, to the individual Christian’s body as the temple, to the heavenly temple, and all the way to its culmination in Rev 21:22: “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” Then you could zoom back in to John 2 and reflect on the significance of that passage in light of how it fits in the trajectory from Eden to the new heavens and new earth.
This new book on sin has an impressive lineup of contributors and makes a good series even better:
Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, eds. Fallen: A Theology of Sin. Theology in Community. Wheaton: Crossway, 2013. 314 pp.
The 32-page PDF sample includes D. A. Carson’s chapter “Sin’s Contemporary Significance.” [Read more…] about Fallen: A Theology of Sin
In this chapter Robert Peterson marshals five arguments for the deity of Christ:
Robert A. Peterson, “Toward a Systematic Theology of the Deity of Christ,” in The Deity of Christ 
(ed. Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson; Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 193–227.
(You may preview the book at WTS Books [click the Google Preview button] or Amazon [click on the book cover to “Look Inside”].)
1. Jesus is identified with God.
2. Jesus receives devotion due God alone.
Christopher W. Morgan, “Inclusivisms and Exclusivisms,” in Faith Comes by Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism (ed. Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson; Downers Grove: IVP, 2008), 18, 26, 36:
The Traditional Classification
- Exclusivism: Jesus is the only Savior of the world, and one must believe God’s special revelation culminating in the gospel of Christ to be saved.
- Inclusivism: Jesus is the only Savior of the world, but one does not have to believe the gospel to be saved.
- Pluralism: All paths are valid and lead to God.
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Figure 1. What about those who have never heard the gospel? [Read more…] about Is there any basis for hope that those who do not hear of Christ in this life will be saved?
Chris Morgan is Associate Dean of the School of Christian Ministries and Professor of Theology at California Baptist University. He is author or editor of several books, and it’s the last of these that we discuss below:
(Cf. my summary.) (Cf. my interview with Chris on this book.)
Christopher W. Morgan, A Theology of James: Wisdom for God’s People (Explorations in Biblical Theology; Phillipsburg NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010). I recently mentioned six books “that preachers, teachers, and students will consult first and with most profit when studying the book of James.” Now I would expand that list to include Chris’s two books (#s 3 and 8 above).
1. Your first sentence in the book is this: “Non-Christians do not read the Bible; they read Christians” (p. xiii). What do you mean by that, and what does this have to do with the theology of James?
My point is that our lifestyle as the church communicates God to the world. When the church embodies love, holiness, truth, unity, and consistency, people will receive a viable portrait of God. When the world sees the church as filled with pettiness, division, and self-promotion, unbelievers’ understanding of God is inevitably distorted.
James forthrightly calls for consistency in the church. Such church consistency is crucial for our effective communication of God, and thus effective mission.
2. You mention that James helps us deal with a tension many pastors feel. What is that tension, and what do you mean by it?
Many of us as pastors and church leaders are inspired by knowing what the church can and should be. [Read more…] about Interview with Chris Morgan on the Theology of James