A Theology in Outline: Can These Bones Live? - Hardcover

"One encounters but rarely that exquisite simplicity which only a master of things immensely complex can produce. Such is this book [We] hear wisdom so finely distilled that it could equally serve as an introductory text for college freshman as a bracing refresher for pastors, a study text for a congregational group as a first encounter with the gospel for those who have never heard it."--Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, Lutheran Forum "I would recommend Jenson's book as a quick read for all who want to think about teaching the Christian faith in a post-Christian culture...his account is an engaging and insightful outline of theology for the contemporary world."--Concordia Theological Journal "'The oneness of God is the oneness of the story he lives with his people.' This is the kind of straightforward remark that makes this book so special. In these lectures presented to undergraduates Jenson states the basics of the Christian faith with the theological insight that has characterized his work from the very beginning. We now have a book we can give friends who ask, 'What is all this Christian stuff about?"-Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law, Duke Divinity School "Robert Jenson has always been a master teacher. His books rightly carry the label of being classics. He writes theology with a clarity unmatched in the English-speaking world. This little gem of a book is both a study in theological clarity and an instant classic. It will become a basic text for introducing undergraduates to the study of theology and hopefully the Christian intellectual life."-Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, Yale University "As Karl Barth observed long ago, 'greatness' is not something a theologian should aspire to; it is an honorific which may be bestowed by others but not something to be sought. But it is right and proper, then, for me to say of Robert Jenson that he is, in my view, the greatest living Protestant theologian in the English-speaking world. What is given to us here is an 'outline of dogmatics'--and much more... We all owe a great debt to Adam Eitel for transcribing and editing these lectures so that so that we might have them in monograph form." --Bruce McCormack, Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary

In 2008, preeminent theologian Robert Jenson delivered his last set of lectures, "Can These Bones Live?: An Introduction to Christian Theology", at Princeton University. Adam Eitel, Jenson's teaching assistant at the time, recorded and transcribed the twenty-three lectures in the series. Jenson and Eitel have since worked together to revise and prepare these lectures for publication in order to share the atmosphere and immediacy of Jenson's classroom.

A Theology in Outline gives an overview of Christian theology as well as an introduction to Jenson's thought. Each chapter treats a major doctrine in Christianity―God, Israel, Resurrection, the Trinity, Creation, and Sin, among others. Unlike Jenson's previous work, this book is influenced by his recent interest in Biblical exegesis. He frames the whole series as a response to an exegesis of the question, "Son of man, can these bones live?" from Ezekiel 37:3. He considers whether the story that God lives with his people can continue, and if the Christian faith itself has become a valley of dry bones.

The lectures provide a single sequence of illustrative conversations for the purpose of introducing beginners to Christian theology. Moreover, A Theology in Outline marks the genuine development in Jenson's thought―a unique work unto itself.