Customer Reviews

Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have taught theology at the college level for 15 years (including among my students "Captain Bloodloss," one of this book's reviewers), and have found it consistently to be the finest, most readable introduction to Christian theology on the market. Migliore has the genius to draw traditional ideas and formulations into creative interaction with contemporary concerns about ecology, justice and sexism.

His central motif is the doctrine of the Trinity as the church's testimony to the self-giving, other-receiving, community-forming love that God has demonstrated to the world through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. I think he hews consistently and beautifully to this motif as his theological norm. His writing breathes new and exciting life into every doctrine he considers.

I love this book.

In 'Faith Seeking Understanding'. Migliore has in this book put together one of the clearest, accessible systematic theologies available today. It is written in a crisp, concise, and engaging style which is short on technical and differently-defined terms, and long on meaning and substance.

Migliore addresses all of the major issues of a Christian systematic theology -- the nature of God, the nature and mystery of the Trinity, the person and work of Jesus Christ, the authenticity of sources and norms, eschatology and the future of faith, as well as other topics. He does a very good job at briefly introducing each topic in a modern historical context, bringing up topics from the past that have impacted upon the development of theological ideas, and then presenting the diversity of current theological positions.

This text is used in systematic theology courses in ecumenical seminaries -- it is particularly well suited for the task because it does not shrink from important issues of faith or morality, but does not force the reader into a particular set of beliefs. All who read this will variously agree and disagree with the author, with historical authorities, and with contemporary theologians at some point or another in the text.

However, this is no mere textbook. It is a wonderful introduction to theological thought processes. Whether your theological framework is medieval catholic or liberation or process or non-denominational; whether your approach to biblical authority is literalist or free-form or skeptical; whether your faith is strong, weak, agnostic, or atheist, this book will give you things to think about. It is in no way preachy, and doesn't even pretend to try to convince. This is the point of faith seeking understanding -- one will not come to faith by simple academic exercise. But this book can help clarify whatever faith is already there.

I wanted to add my voice to the reviews listed here, as I read this book first when I was doing religious studies in college. In my senior theology class, we read two books, the first was a "systematic theology" from the traditional conservative evangelical protestant tradition of christianity (its such a same that many adjectives are required.) The second was this book. The former only rehashed all the dogmatic assertions and creedish recitations that I had heard all my life. However this book took those same topics and grently nudged me to think on them in new and reflective ways. As I began to read this book more, I found myself inspiried and strongly influence. It opened up deeper levels of understanding of the issues in Christian theology, and it inspired a lot of my later writing, and well as years of continued study and personal soul searching.

I would call this book and excellent starting point. It's STYLE is the biggest plus in its favor. It is graceful, fluent and never agressive. Migliore encourages the reader to think -- but that's it. There's little in his writing that has the tone of "authoritarian" or dogmatic. That's not to say he writes likea push over. It is to say rather that his book was like a dialoge of seeking and serious reflection, rather than a monologe of some "authority" telling me the right and wrong way to think, period.

Most importantly, it is very beautiful. Migliore's emphasis is on the hope that is possible, on the joy that is rightfully ours, in a life lived in fullness and vitality, with deep meaning and great sigificance. It is a book that can remind a person why Christianity should be relevant in the first place, and speaks without shame about the many different ways in which the true heart of the message of grace has been neglected and lost by the contemporation church institution.

A very excellent book to start with. If you are interesting in seeking understanding, I can almost promise you that this will not be the last book you read, but only the first, and that you'll almost immediately want to do more reading and studying after this one.

What a challenging and refreshing perspective on Christianity! Somehow, Prof. Migliore is able to teach without being didactic, to describe the very essence of what the Christian faith is all about. He is bold to include such controvertial issues as liberation theology - so easily ignored in our culture of so many rich Christians. This text is both theological and pastoral - it inspires one to act with a faith that is challenged to truly rely on God - a strongly Trinitarian one.

Migliore is not afraid to gently challenge the typical evanglical view of scripture, to claim that it never CAN be scripture unelss read in community. It is only within the church of Christ can Scripture become the Word of God, proclaimed tot he world. This is such a refreshing and welcome view for believers.

For anyone wanting to go deeper and to stretch their beliefs, this book will take you a long way.

Faith Seeking Understanding, An Introduction to Christian Theology, Daniel L. Migliore, 2nd Edition.

If it were possible, I would give the book 4 1/2 stars, as I just finished reviewing Placher's 'Elements of Christian Theology', giving it 4 stars; but, as an introduction, Migliore's book is superior for being most of the things Placher's book is not.

Migliore has coherence, a uniform approach to all his subjects, befitting a work done by a single author. This is the second class in which I have used Migliore as a text (along with Placher) in a seminary. The first was in a 'Continuing Education' class which may have been roughly comparable to a Freshman undergraduate class in college. For that class, it seemed just right, except that the instructor did not pay a lot of attention to the material in the text. In the graduate level 'Introduction to Theology' class, the book pops up again. Here, the book seems just a bit out of its depth. When I am at the graduate level, I am far happier reading doctrines in their original statements, by Augustine, Athanaius, Tertullian, Basil, Abelard, Luther, Schleiermacher, and Barth. It is telling that on several subjects we did,in fact read Luther and Barth as our primary sources.

There are two things, however, that Migliore does very, very well. The first is reflected in his title. Anyone who tries to live by the words in the Bible, unpolished by any interpretation, is soon lost in a swamp of seeming inconsistancies. Half the time, Jesus sounds like a Catholic, and half the time he sounds like a Lutheran, and another half the time he sounds likd a Methodist. So which is it? Another example of something in the need for theological understanding is the pastoral approach to 'abused' women and children. There are opinions that the doctrine that suffering is 'good for you' has been used as an excuse to hold off on rescuing victems of such abuse from their situation, or for punishing those who perpetrate that violence. When we are speaking of 1st and 2nd century martyrs, there may have been an element of truth there, but not in modern cities, social policies, and sensibilities. Once upon a time, there may have been circumstances which gave proper voice to doctrines. Those situations may have passed. Migliore is successful in showing the pursuit of theological doctrine is a journey, not a skyscraper.

The second major contribution to the study is when Migliore, in his introduction, says that 'Theological reflection must play an important role in the life of the church because the church must be self-critical.' Theology is NOT the same as coming up with good liturgies or hymns or 'contemporary worship' services or ways to help the needy. Theology answers the why questions of Christian praxis and is thereby the handmaiden of Christian ethics. Christians don't do things SIMPLY because the Bible told them so. That course leads to trouble. Even faith needs critical reflection.

My final reason for witholding the last star from the review is that I have not yet had the chance to read Alister McGrath's introductory text on Theology, which is often considered the gold standard. I will be back after I get that under my belt.

Migliore's dialogues at the back of the book are a hoot, unless you are a fan of Rudolph Bultmann. The glossary is great, but it should not give you the impression that it is in any way a complete list of important terms. It is a handy tool while you are using the book.

This is an excellent treatment of all the major tenets of systematic theology, though Milgliore does not call them such or use the traditional names (soteriology, pneumatology, eschatology, etc.). This is to his credit as it keeps the book on an accessible level semantically without sacrificing quality of content. Migliore's style is very readable and the depth of his scholarship is profound. While the serious theology student will springboard from this book into more specialized works, this is an outstanding place to begin for anyone interested in theology. Highly recommended.

"If Christian faith causes us to think, this is not to say that being Christian is exhausted in thinking, even in thinking about the doctrines of the church. Christian faith causes us to do more than think." Daniel Migliore, The Task of Theology



Daniel Migliore chooses Anselm's motto, 'Faith seeking understanding', as the mission of his book, and in attaining its vision, he proved his name (Italian; Migliore: superior) to be his brand for theological teaching. The Princeton Doctor (teacher) articulates an integral answer to Anselm's question, 'Cur Deus Homo?'
Why did God become human, is the core of Christian theology, which he presented in an ecumenical milieu. While theology, defined by its initiator Origen, as the knowledge of God, developed in a profound systematic approach, guided by an intimate perception of scripture. His corner stone, of natural theology, sustains the fundamental essence in the spiritual life of every Christian. Yet, for contemporary seekers of Christians theology, it is a strange domain, mainly philosophical and greatly unappealing, a perception which Migliore worked faithfully to change by engaging the reader in a vivid book whose presentation is so pleasant.

The task of Migliore's theology essay as he portrays it is faith raising questions, "in this book we take up that aspect of the larger theological task of the community of faith, that is called systematic theology." His book, popularizes two of Anselm's concepts, to build a biblical understanding of the basic Christian doctrines, discussing classical dogmatic positions and controversies, discerning the concepts that once divided Christian traditions, and became the motive beyond church reform. Yet, he defends the tradition from a post modern and disbelieving secular vision. He thus describes Jesus full humanity in a mystical expression, "a concrete human being who is like us in all respects, except in that alienation from the hostility to the grace of God, which is the essence of sin."

He sums up his theological project in a statement of the content of Christian hope. Professor Migliore has shown that the triune God's ultimate purpose has been to share His life with his creation, building a community of love, in which all are united without barriers. This concept of integral inclusion of the true tradition is building throughout the chapters. Yet, at the end dialogue of political theology, the reader is left wondering with Barth, if a lack of clear consensus there are really hard choices to be faced by the Christian tradition in the face of the forces of religious pluralism and globalization that are playing out on the world.

Theology for the novice is a scary word.
I am in my first year of seminary course work and found this book to be informative but not elementary.

I have to wonder if the folks who wrote the first reviews read the same text that I did! This was my basic text for an intro. theology course I took at Princeton, where Dr. Migliore was teaching. He is classically trained, very disiplined, and a real gentleman. But, as this book demonstrates, he can't be termed a great theologian.
While he claims to be a Barthian, and he does use Barth's categories, he would not be recognized as such by Barth. He might be described as more a "string of pearls" thinker -- he takes things he likes from a variety of contradictory sources, with no apparent anchor or controling principle. What you get is more of a "mood" than a tangible response to God's voice in Scripture.

This is a very weak, very inconsistent, very frustrating work. I hardly ever score things poorly on Amazon, but I had to comment on this when I saw the other glowing reviews. There are all kinds of good theology texts, both to the "left" and to the "right" of Migliore. Louis Berkof, for example, is a classic that is clear and helpful.

The book is an outstanding overview of major Christian doctrines. It was balanced and fair in presenting a wide range of viewpoints. The last section dealing with imaginary dialogues between such notables as Barth, Neibuhr, Bultmann, Moltmann, etc.. is interesting although familiarity with the basic tenets of these thinkers helps in understanding the subtleties of their arguments.