The Gospel Coalition interviews Gregg Allison

Yesterday the Gospel Coalition posted Collin Hansen's interview with Gregg Allison about the newly released Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine.

Together they cover questions like, "is it possible to find kinship with our Christian forebears?," and "what might evangelicals be surprised to read in Historical Theology?"

Below is Allison's answer to the question "How do you explain the importance of historical theology to skeptical evangelicals?" and you can read the rest of the interview here.

"Some evangelicals are skeptical of historical theology because they hold to the motto “No creed but the Bible” and thus reject input from any source other than Scripture. My approach to historical theology is to view it as offering wisdom from the past in terms of the interpretation of Scripture and the formulation of sound doctrine (which is enjoined upon us by Scripture; e.g., Titus 2:1). God has promised to guide his church, and historical theology must represent an aspect of that promised guidance.

I also try to point out that even they as skeptical evangelicals reply on historical theology for their articulation of the doctrine of the Trinity and their affirmation that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human. Those beliefs—and these are used as representative of many other possible examples—have been hammered out by the church of the past and transmitted down to us as sound doctrine (chiefly because they accord well with and summarize accurately the teachings of Scripture), and anyone who dares deny them would be a heretic. Skeptical evangelicals—and all Christians, for that matter—are helped to embrace orthodoxy (sound doctrine) and avoid heresy (false doctrine) by historical theology."