Holistic Theology for the Whole World: A Review of Christian Theology Vol. 1: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ by T. A. Noble [Firebrand Big Read]

By Didgeman

In 1823, British Methodist theologian Richard Watson pioneered the tradition of Wesleyan systematic theology by publishing the first volume of his Theological Institutes. Two-hundred years later, Scottish Nazarene theologian T. A. Noble has decisively furthered this tradition in the new millennium by publishing the first volume of his Christian Theology (The Foundry Publishing, copyrighted 2022 but released March 2023). His work deserves a wide readership among those in the pan-Wesleyan family who want an orthodox, evangelical, erudite, and globally conscious articulation of their faith. Professor Noble is research professor of theology at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City (USA) and research fellow at Nazarene Theological College, an affiliate institution of the University of Manchester (UK). His projected three-volume systematics is denominationally commissioned as the successor to H. Orton Wiley’s magisterial mid-twentieth-century three-volume work of the same name, Christian Theology. The title, scope, and author’s provenance also recall the apex of nineteenth-century Methodist divinity, Manchester dogmatician William Burt Pope’s three-volume Compendium of Christian Theology. 

Christologically Controlled, Integrative Theology

Watson, Pope, Wiley, and Wesleyan systematicians in general—including more recently Geoffrey Wainwright in his Doxology (1980), Tom Oden in Classic Christianity (2009), and Beth Felker Jones in Practicing Christian Doctrine (2014, 2023)—have followed the order of the creeds and Matt. 28:19 in treating doctrines appropriated to the Father (revelation, the existence and attributes of God, creation, providence, humanity, and sin) prior to the doctrines of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Here Noble breaks with the status quo and fulfills the plea of Dennis Kinlaw’s 2005 book, Let’s Start with Jesus: A New Way of Doing Theology. Using 2 Cor. 13:14 as his guide, Noble devotes his first volume to “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” (the doctrines of the person of Christ and his atoning work). Volume Two will explore “the love of God” (the doctrines of the triune God, creation, providence, election, and theological method). Volume Three will consider “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (the doctrines of the Holy Spirit, humanity, the church, personal salvation, and Christian ethics). 

Noble’s Chapter Four offers an extensive rationale for frontloading Christology. Rather than starting the task of systematics high in an ivory tower with a throat-clearing discussion of theological method or a philosophically derived doctrine of God and only later condescending to speak of Christ and his gospel of salvation, Noble prioritizes the gospel proclamation of Jesus as Messiah, Lord, and Savior. Every doctrine in a truly Christian theology must take its bearings from Christ: through him we know God as Father; through him all creation exists; by looking to him we see humanity’s intended design and how far short of it we’ve fallen; and so on through the whole course of doctrines. Noble’s systematic theology thus echoes the order of Wesley’s Standard Sermons, which begin not with epistemology or metaphysics but with the gospel. 

This does not mean that Noble ignores issues of method and philosophy. His concern is simply that they serve the evangel and not vice versa. He describes his project as “an Integrative Theology in the Wesleyan tradition” (Part One, xxii; emphasis his). Under the overarching framework and aims of a systematic theology, Noble integrates biblical, historical, philosophical, and practical theology. Volume One especially synthesizes biblical and historical studies with systematics. Volume Two will put Christian dogma in dialogue with philosophy and the hard sciences. In Volume Three, the social sciences will come to the fore in service to practical theology (Part One, xv; 81–87). Nor does the integration end there. Noble strives to counter sectarianism by incorporating Wesleyan theology into ecumenical orthodoxy—there’s no need for a distinctively Wesleyan version of every doctrine, he protests (10, 24, 42)! Likewise, he brings the largely androcentric and Eurocentric theological tradition into conversation with female and Majority World voices. Another element of integration balances reason with emotion and infuses Volume One with a worshipful tone: from Chapter Eleven onward, each chapter begins with a hymn of praise (usually from Charles Wesley’s pen). Noble’s is indeed a holistic theology for the whole world.

Doing justice to all the disciplines and interests being integrated in this project demands lengthy exposition. This first volume alone spans over a thousand pages! The publisher prudently has followed the precedent of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics and has divided Volume One into three separately bound part-volumes. Thankfully, Noble proves to be an excellent tour guide: he frequently pauses along the route through his content to remind readers of where they’ve been, how they’ve arrived where they are, and what lies ahead. In that same spirit, below I offer prospective readers a roadmap to Volume One before turning to compare Noble’s project with two other ongoing endeavors in multivolume systematic theologies so as to clarify his unique contribution. Those who don’t feel the need for a map may skip ahead to the comparative section.

A Roadmap of Volume One

Part One of Volume One bears the title “Faith and History.” Section A introduces the discipline of theology, surveying its historical development from the era of the church fathers through the Middle Ages and Reformation to the nineteenth-century rise of theological liberalism and the more recent flourishing of postliberal, evangelical, and global theologies. Within this wider survey, Noble narrates the theological journey of Wesleyanism from its eighteenth-century origins to the twentieth- and twenty-first-century rediscovery of the Wesley brothers as theologians in their own right. He concludes this section with his rationale for ordering his volumes according to 2 Cor. 13:14. Sections B and C act as historical prolegomena (that is, historical preliminaries) to Christology by retracing the past three centuries’ quests to unearth the historical Jesus. The skeptical presuppositions of many questers have led to dead ends of doubt about Jesus of Nazareth, but scholars involved in the so-called Third Quest have recognized correctly that they must understand him in light of his context in Second Temple Judaism. Noble draws on New Testament expert N. T. Wright and theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg to argue that there is strong historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, with its earth shattering implications for his identity. Using the methodological tools of modern secular historical study, we arrive at the very threshold of faith.

Part Two, “Christology: The Doctrine of the Person of Christ,” begins by revisiting that threshold. From a historical perspective, we confront the empty tomb and find ourselves confronted with a choice: to step forward in the belief that a miracle has happened or to step backward in the belief that miracles don’t happen. Either move involves a prerational assumption about the nature of reality. Only in faith inspired by the Holy Spirit may we step forward, but if we do, we cross the line from historical preliminaries to Christology itself. Section A canvases the Christology of the New Testament and discovers a recurring “One-in-two” pattern: Jesus’ preaching of the one Kingdom of God that is both already and not yet becomes the story of his own life as the one Jesus who is both crucified and risen, which in turn reveals his identity as one person who is both truly human and truly God. This raises a crucial theological problem: Can a human being be God? Section B recounts the establishment of the orthodox answer to that question by the ecumenical councils of the ancient church (Nicaea, Constantinople, Chalcedon); the extension of that answer through the medieval and early modern eras (including among Wesleyan theologians); the challenge to orthodoxy posed by classical liberal, existentialist, process, and pluralistic Christologies; and the renewal of the “One-in-two” answer by modern theologians, preeminently Karl Barth. Section C unfolds a contemporary confession of Christ as one person in two natures, divine and human. Noble insists on Christ’s unique deity against religious pluralism and evenhandedly evaluates the contributions and limits of contextual Christologies (such as feminist and liberation theologies) in relation to Christ’s humanity. Noble compares the Chalcedonian formula (Christ is one person with two natures) to the models used in physics to represent mysterious phenomena like electromagnetism and wave-particle duality. The pastoral payoff is that Christ perfectly reveals the heart of God toward us and, conversely, conforms us to his perfect humanity in relationship to God. Part Two concludes with a hymn of response.

Part Three, “Soteriology: The Doctrine of the Work of Christ,” Section A overviews the biblical terminology associated with salvation: grace, redemption, covenant, atonement, justification (including both Reformation and New Perspective interpretations of this term), and so on. In order to move from the biblical data to a systematic doctrine of Christ’s saving work, Noble introduces a schema beloved by Wesley and other key figures in church history: the threefold office of Christ, that is, Christ as prophet, priest, and king. The threefold office allows the various metaphors and concepts of salvation arising from biblical and historical theology to be held together as complementary models of atonement instead of competing theories of atonement. Section B focuses on Christ’s royal office. Here Noble defends a Christus Victor model of atonement as humanity’s deliverance from the powers of darkness. Without succumbing to superstitious speculations about the details of the demonic realm, Noble rejects a demythologized devil. He also links the concerns of liberation theology to Christ’s kingly role. Section C takes up Christ’s priesthood and tracks the historical outworking of this motif from Anselm onward. While denying the caricature of “divine child abuse,” Noble affirms a carefully nuanced model of penal substitution as true to Scripture (as recognized by Methodist New Testament scholars I. Howard Marshall and Ben Witherington III) and to Wesley’s own view of atonement. Yet Noble faults the Anselmic tradition for shortchanging Christ’s priestly office by neglecting its implications for our sanctification. Section D concentrates on Christ’s prophetic role. As the Word made flesh, Christ not only announces but embodies God’s truth and will. Thus, there is space under the banner of Christ as prophet not only for a model of atonement as moral influence (whether advocated by classical liberals, feminists and womanists, pacifists, or disciples of Rene Girard), but also for a model of atonement as the healing and deification of our very nature—that is, God the Son sanctifies human nature by becoming human himself so that we in turn may share in the life of God. Part Three wraps up the entirety of Volume One with an epilogue on preaching. A theology that begins with the gospel of “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” must prioritize the proclamation of that gospel. The evangel must issue forth in evangelism!

Comparing Christian Theology to Other Theologies

Noble’s is not the only multivolume systematic theology in progress. To catch a sense of what sets his project apart, it’s helpful to compare it with two other ongoing efforts in systematics: one by English Anglican Sarah Coakley and the other by American Presbyterian-turned-Episcopalian Katherine Sonderegger. I will summarize each of these projects before comparing them with Noble’s.

Coakley calls her systematics a “théologie totale”—that is, a theology that synthesizes a range of other disciplines in order to build up a well-rounded understanding of its subject matter. Her first volume, God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ (2013), weaves together the study of the early church fathers, contemplative prayer practice, Freudian psychology, postmodern and feminist philosophy, art history, literature, social-scientific field work on charismatics, and (a little bit of) Scripture. Her premise is that sexual desire is a signal pointing to the God who exists in a love-relationship both with the world and with Godself within the triune life. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit plays a foundational role in Coakley’s account: it is the Spirit who both incites yet also disciplines our desires, who through prayer both leads us to the Father and the Son yet also destabilizes the gendered connotations of the names Father and Son, so that we plunge into the bracing mystery of the God beyond our understanding. A key text for her is Rom. 8:14–17, 26–27. Coakley’s second volume, Sin, Racism and Divine Darkness: An Essay ‘On Human Nature,’ is due out this year, according to her website (sarahcoakley.com). She has planned for a third volume on atonement as viewed through the prisms of prisons and hospitals (working title: Punish and Heal) and a final volume (tentatively titled Flesh and Blood) on the Incarnation and the Eucharist.

Katherine Sonderegger’s project, simply called Systematic Theology, aims at five volumes. Volume One, The Doctrine of God (2015), starts with the radical oneness of God as confessed in Israel’s Shema (Deut. 6:4), then unpacks the divine perfections: omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, and love. Volume Two, The Trinity: Processions and Persons (2020), seeks to develop an Old Testament doctrine of the Trinity based on the Levitical sacrificial system: the one God is Offerer, Offering, and Return of the Offering as the smoke that ascends from the altar of sacrifice. These volumes include comparisons with science and mathematics (for instance, the omnipresence of energy in the universe and the concept of infinite sets), as well as various nods to the history of philosophy and extended imaginative meditations on Scripture. Sonderegger currently is working on Volume Three, Divine Missions, Christology, and Pneumatology, which will bring the doctrine of the Trinity into the New Testament. The final two volumes (as yet untitled) may address the doctrines of creation and the church, though that remains uncertain.

Noble, Coakley, and Sonderegger share an interdisciplinary approach to theology, a creative retrieval of Christian tradition, and a desire to put doctrine in service to the Church. Coakley offers her first volume as a path forward in her denomination’s debates over gender and sexuality, while her second volume tackles the tragic legacy of racism. Sonderegger shows a keen interest in improving the relationship between Church and Synagogue. Noble intends to build up the global Wesleyan and evangelical body of believers in sound doctrine. Given that Coakley and Sonderegger are both priests in the Anglican Communion, whose liturgical lodestar is the Book of Common Prayer, it’s unsurprising that prayer shapes their systematics profoundly. Coakley appeals to the experience of prayer (both contemplative and charismatic) as the experiential ground of her theologizing. Sonderegger writes in exalted, prayerful prose. Meanwhile, Noble’s Nazarene heritage shines through in his accents on preaching, evangelism, and the worldwide spread of the gospel, all to the music of Wesley hymns. 

While all three theologians offer teaching on Christ, one structural difference in their systematics is where each locates Christology. For Noble, Christ is the cornerstone, the foundation of true doctrine; for Sonderegger, Christ is the keystone, set in the middle of her five-part systematic arch as the hinge point between Israel and the Church; for Coakley, Christ is the capstone, the crescendo toward which her project builds. Another striking divergence among the three writers is how each begins with a different Person of the Godhead. Coakley starts with the Spirit, Noble with the Son, and Sonderegger with the one God traditionally closely associated with the Father (note how she has a separate volume for Christ and the Spirit). There are benefits and hazards to each of these approaches. Beginning with experience (whether of gender or race or spiritual awareness or so forth) creates a sense of immediate relevance, and Scripture itself teaches that it is the Spirit who impels us to confess God as Father (Rom. 8:15) and Jesus as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3). The risk, though, is of refashioning God into an image molded by our own experience, especially when there is so little biblical engagement in Coakley’s writing to correct one’s faulty feelings and wishes. By the time we get to Christ in her fourth volume, will he be so obscured by the red haze of our erotic desires (Volume One) and the shadows of “Divine Darkness” (Volume Two) that he will look like no more than a reflection of ourselves? By contrast, Sonderegger’s sequence has the weight of tradition and even the order of Scripture’s grand narrative behind it, as Noble has acknowledged (1018–20). Besides, it allows Christian theology to capitalize on the common ground it shares with other monotheistic religions. But Noble is not wrong to worry that this theological pattern also tends to let philosophy prefabricate the doctrine of God, leaving it hard to make room later for the distinctively Christian dogmas of the Trinity and Christ. Another danger is of abstraction: God, the Trinity, and Christ can morph into beautiful notions only tenuously tethered to down-to-earth biblical data and Christian living. For all her artistry with Scripture, does Sonderegger fully skirt these pitfalls? Noble’s own approach combines Coakley’s initial appeal of relevance—the figure of Jesus is attractive to millions internationally—with Sonderegger’s devotion to an objective reality outside ourselves (but not an invisible, bloodless reality: a flesh-and-blood first-century Jew). Without presuming that we can simply argue people into conversion, Noble strategically starts with the evidence of history and its implications for faith, then explains how belief in Christ as both God and human and belief in God as three in one are not absurd, even though they are incomprehensible. Such a method of presentation would seem to work best with an audience that cares about history, facts, and logic (and accepts historians, scientists, biblical scholars, and the like as generally trustworthy authorities). Will it still be as effective in postmodern, post-truth, or mythologically minded cultures?

A final significant difference among these three systematic theologies is in their usefulness in the classroom. Sonderegger skimps on source citations and presumes a thorough knowledge of theological and philosophical history on the part of her readers. Her books appear to have fellow theologians and advanced seminarians as their target audience. Coakley wishes to be read by educated laity as well as theologues, so she helpfully includes annotated lists for further reading and a glossary of technical terms to assist those who may be unfamiliar with her subject matter. Noble intends his volumes to be used as textbooks in introductory graduate courses, but he has also worked through several chapters with an adult Sunday School class and, based on that experience, feels that educated laity could profit by them (Part One, xv). His pages include summaries of key writings from the history of theology so that students who have no background knowledge of the field are not left bewildered.

 In Conclusion: Theology for the Gospel’s Sake

Halfway through Volume One, Noble describes the goal of theologizing as being a “living relationship with the Lord as we hear the Gospel proclaimed and respond in praise and worship and mission” (544). From the beginning, the Wesleyan movement has stressed this “living relationship,” but often could take for granted that the broader culture had a familiarity with the basic doctrines of Christianity. That is no longer the case in an increasingly post-Christian West and a religiously pluralistic global context. If we are to fulfill the Wesleyan—not to mention biblical!—vision of perfect love toward God and neighbor, we must devote ourselves afresh not only to worship and service but to sound doctrine. Noble’s Christian Theology Vol. 1: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ is an important and timely contribution to that end.

Jerome Van Kuiken is Professor of Christian Thought at Oklahoma Wesleyan University and a member of Firebrand’s Editorial Board. He served as a proofreader of Christian Theology Vol. 1 for Professor Noble, who is his former doctoral supervisor.