BST-03 Propositions in Systematics

In courts of law throughout the world, lawyers try to convince a judge or jury of their point of view. It’s always crucial to their arguments that everyone understands the basic facts of the case. So, frequently near the end of a trial, lawyers review the facts stating them as plainly as possible in a series of propositions. “This is a fact.” “That is a fact.” “This happened.” “That happened.”

Well in many ways, the same kind of thing is true in systematic theology. Systematicians also have to establish certain facts, certain theological facts. So, they present their cases in straightforward theological propositions.

This is the third lesson in our series Building Systematic Theology and we’ve entitled this lesson “Propositions in Systematics.” Traditional systematic theologians are committed to exploring, explaining and defending sound Christian theology. And as we will see in this lesson, an essential part of that commitment is expressing Christian beliefs in theological propositions.

Our lesson will divide into three main parts. First, we’ll gain a general orientation toward propositions in Systematics. What are they? And how do they fit within the process of building systematic theology? Second, we’ll explore how propositions are formed in systematic theology. And third, we’ll examine some of the values and dangers of this focus on propositions. Let’s begin by focusing our attention on some preliminary considerations, a general orientation toward this aspect of building systematic theology.

Our orientation toward propositions in systematics will touch on three issues. First, we’ll provide a general definition of propositions. Second, we’ll focus on their legitimacy. And third, we’ll describe the place of theological propositions. What role do they have in the whole process of building a systematic theology? Let’s look first at our definition of theological propositions.

I suppose that most of us sense that theology can be expressed in a variety of ways. When we pray, sing hymns, evangelize, tell bible stories to our children, or discuss our faith with our friends, we’re expressing Christian theology. But in the discipline of systematic theology, there is one main way theology is verbalized, and that is in the form of theological propositions. For our purposes, we’ll define theological propositions in this way: