Christian Doctrine: A Guide for the Perplexed

Geoff Thompson addresses multiple questions concerning Christian Doctrine in an engaging narrative, beginning with in-depth discussion of the origins of doctrine in the various catechetical, polemical and apologetic pressures the church encountered as it sought to articulate and teach its confession of faith in Jesus Christ. In then providing an overview of some of the classic and historically influential doctrinal projects, Thompson employs ten case studies that illustrate the overlapping influences of tradition and contexts - both ecclesial and cultural - on doctrinal discourse.

Thompson takes the reader from those historical and paradigmatic case studies into some of the great contemporary debates about doctrine, including those which have been shaped by the critique of doctrine associated with the European Enlightenment alongside the challenges and contributions of theologians of the majority world. He pays particular attention to the influence of these diverse cultural, ecclesial and academic contexts on the shape and content of particular doctrines. This leads into an engagement with George Lindbeck's seminal The Nature of Doctrine as well as the more recent proposals of Kevin Vanhoozer and Christine Helmer. This guide concludes by developing the idea of a Christian social imaginary as the framework for holding together doctrine, practice, truth, diversity and context.