The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical Linguistic Approach to Christian Doctrine Paperback – August 2, 2005

About five years ago, while Kevin J. Vanhoozer had his itinerant time at Wheaton, word of this book, his magnus opus, was buzzed as the book to read for eager students of theology. So, wanting desperately to learn more, I bought the book, read the first few pages, and closed the book. His verbosity dwindled my fragile excitement.Now years after the fact and having just finished the book, I both bemoaned my prior weak grit and celebrated how much I have learned since then. His verbosity, rather than stifling, was a delight to thumb through — he’s a word-wizard.The purpose and thesis of the book are fairly simple: to restore the Bible and doctrine as trusted twin sources of authorities for the glocal church. The scope and the means by which he staked his claim, however, are vast and deep. To be fair, I felt him to be a bit redundant, yet knowing the projected scope suggests to me that, perhaps, Vanhoozer even condensed and shorten some! Again, it was impressive how he juggled and argued on multiple fronts: against anti-intellectuals, reductionistic accounts, liberals, postliberals, modernists, and more. He constantly returned and re-tested his hypothesis, at times, to his readers’ grief and, at other times, their enlightenment.One of Vanhoozer’s great concerns and, consequently, the book’s strengths is the broken bridge between theology and praxis, theory and practice. As systematician and committed Church member, he bends over backwards to convince readers and fellow “in Christ” members of the role and benefits of doctrine for the local church. Originally, doctrines are meant to expand the mind and heart to overlap one another into truth, so that what Paul said of “renewing one’s mind” (Romans 12:2) is fundamentally a sanctifying endeavor. In other words, the more you know is not merely for knowledge’s sake, but for holistic integration of the Christian self to itself, to others, and, most importantly, to God.Just as I heard The Drama of Doctrine as the book to read for budding theologians five years ago, I cannot help but continue the buzz.sooholee.wordpress

Kevin J. Vanhoozer's The Drama Doctrine is by far one of the most challenging and rewarding books that I have worked through this year. In this magisterial volume, Vanhoozer wrestles with the role of doctrine in the church, interacting with insights from postmodernism and developing creative ways of speaking of the respective roles of Scripture, tradition, and theology in the life of God's people. His controlling - and creative - motif is that of drama, articulating the role of doctrine as "direction for the Christian's fitting participation in the drama of redemption, thus enabling one to continue the missions of the Son and the Spirit into new situations" (110).Using George Lindbeck's "cultural-linguistic" post-liberal approach to theology as his foil, Vanhoozer develops a "canonical linguistic" post-conservative approach. His approach to Christian doctrine integrates the insights of postmodernism (regarding the epistemological importance of community, culture, and language) while robustly maintaining historically orthodox views of Scripture and the knowledge of God. The result is a satisfying account of the importance of the church, Scripture, tradition, liturgy, and community in the Christian life, as well as the abiding value of doctrine for the church. Highly recommended!

Kevin Vanhoozer's Drama of Doctrine is a sweeping reconceptualization of Christian doctrine using the metaphor of drama. In an age when many pastors and theologians believe doctrine to be irrelevant or even divisive and dangerous; Vanhoozer's project cuts like a laser to reveal the importance, purpose, and practicality of biblical doctrine for the 21st century church. According to Vanhoozer, doctrine expounds to the church the Divine drama of the canonical scriptures in a way that allows the church to act within that continuing drama. Doctrine teaches us to improvise fittingly in God's continuing drama. As Vanhoozer puts it, "Canonical-linguistic theology attends both to the drama in the text--what God is doing in the world through Christ--and to the drama that continues in the church as God uses Scripture to address, edify, and confront its readers" (17). While this book is long, it is worthy of a wide reading by pastors, theologians, and churchmen and women around the world.

Bought this book brand new and some of the pages are individually falling out without applying any pressure to pull them. I don't know if it's the publisher or perhaps a bad one in the bunch. I don't believe it's the fault of the seller. Nevertheless, just a warning just in case. I'm sorry I can't speak to the content of the book as of right now.

I was glad to receive this book, written by a scholar,Dr Vanhoozer...

I gotta warn you, there's nothing like this book nowhere nohow. It's a grand slam tour de force of a work. Great art, great theology, great spiritual/character formation stuff all packed in one volume.All you Arminianists out there who have lost your way in all the drivel, I dare you to give this a try. It'll really stretch your brain.

A heavy read built too much on a theme.

I'm only a little into this book, but from what I've read it is shaping up to be a terrific read. I have made plenty of pencil markings already.