IMPRINT: Weidner Institute RELEASE DATE: December 31, 2023
ENDORSEMENTS: "Cooper presents the reader with a helpful articulation of the historical Christian doctrine of God, in dialogue with key Medieval, Reformation era, and contemporary theologians. He shows that there is substantial agreement between Reformed, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic theologians on the doctrine of God, specifically in relation to key doctrines such as Simplicity, Immutability, and Impassibility. Cooper’s interaction with key Lutheran theologians is very helpful, and will be of interest to anyone interested in understanding Lutheran theology. This may be the most helpful work on the doctrine of God to be produced by a Lutheran theologian in recent years." David Haines, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Bethlehem College & Seminary
"Jordan B. Cooper has done us a great service by providing a book that bridges the gap between altogether non-technical books aimed at the lay reader and academic monographs aimed at the scholar. Theological curators and synthesizers are a criminally underrated and underrepresented guild. From among such an endangered class, Cooper has arisen as one of the best synthesizers of our day. Demonstrating a thorough grasp on the relevant scholarship and a clear interest in making complicated debates clear, Cooper presents the Classical vision of theology and fruitfully contrasts it with its modern alternatives." Samuel G. Parkison Associate Professor of Theology at the Gulf Theological Seminary, and author of Irresistible Beauty: Beholding Triune in the Face of Jesus Christ
TITLE: The Doctrine of God: A Defense of Classical Christian Theism SERIES: A Contemporary Protestant Scholastic Theology (Volume 2)
DESCRIPTION: Since the birth of Protestant Liberalism at the beginning of the nineteenth-century,the classical understanding of the doctrine of God, as formulated in the Augustinian and medieval scholastic traditions, has come under scrutiny. As philosophers lost confidence in the metaphysical conclusions reached by the ancient Greek philosophers, theologians began to implement different philosophical systems in their formation of the doctrine of God. This led to an abandonment of some of the central ideas of Classical Theism.
In this book, Jordan Cooper contends that these newer models have fallen short, and that a classical understanding of the divine attributes has greater philosophical coherency and remains a far better means to explain the entirety of the Scriptural testimony. Through an examination of four tenets of Classical Theism: simplicity, immutability, impassibility, and atemporality, along with an evaluation of Social Trinitarianism, Cooper contends with critics such as Robert Jenson, Jurgen Moltmann, and Wolfhart Pannenberg and offers a defense of the classical approach. This book is the second volume in a series titled A Contemporary Protestant Scholastic Theology.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jordan Cooper is an ordained Lutheran pastor in the American Association of Lutheran Churches, a Professor of Systematic Theology, the Executive Director of Just and Sinner, and the President of the American Lutheran Theological Seminary. He has also held positions in multiple Christian organizations on campus at Cornell University. Cooper has authored several books, including his ongoing A Contemporary Protestant Scholastic Theology series, as well as theological articles in a variety of publications, including: Credo, Modern Reformation, Logia, Conspectus, Sapientia, the Issues Etc. Journal, Rowan and Littlefield's Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation, and more. He has hosted the Just and Sinner Podcast since 2012, and also has a popular YouTube channel. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his wife Lisa and their two sons.