Description
A Dogmatic Exploration of the Christian Life
What is Christian life? Although we often use this phrase, we rarely take the time to understand its theological basis. In this volume in Zondervan Academic's New Studies in Dogmatics series, theologian Kelly M. Kapic reflects on Christian life: its foundation, its nourishment, and its goal.
Kapic contends that Christian life is, first and foremost, one that is lived in response to the love of God. But to properly frame this love, Kapic contends we need to consider divine and human agency. What we discover is that not only did the triune God first love us, but the incarnate Son also first loved God for us. And now we respond to God’s love as those who have been united to Christ and his people by the Spirit. Shaped by the community of faith, especially through corporate worship, Christians thus participate in this love of God and neighbor. What is true of the whole discipline of theology is thus reflected in Christian life: Christ is its foundation, Christ is its source of nourishment, and Christ is its goal.
Praise for Christian Life
“I’m always interested in what Kelly Kapic writes, and his Christian Life exceeds my usual high expectations! One key reason is the originality and conventionality of his approach, which yields “a theology of Christian life [that] will feel fresh and vibrant yet also somewhat familiar” to us. So we are well acquainted with traditional topics such as love, grace, worship of and communion with the triune God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the church, and Christian rituals. At the same time, a freshness emerges as discussions exhibit cultural awareness without becoming contextually bound, presentations are corporately oriented as well as personally appropriated, and directives stimulate a faith that is both catholic and particular. Be sure to read this book!”
—Gregg R. Allison, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“At a time when Christian life, worship, and ecclesial identity are often reduced to polarized options, Kelly Kapic offers a theologically rich and pastorally grounded vision of communion with the triune God as the source, means, and end of life in Christ. Through Christ’s prophetic, priestly, and kingly work and the Spirit’s enlivening presence, we are called to worship and to lives poured out in love for God, neighbor, and creation. Saturated with Scripture and drawing deeply from the wisdom of the historic Christian faith, this book is a beacon amid today’s troubled waters—abounding in theological insight, pastoral clarity, and joy.”
—J. Todd Billings, Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI
“What does it mean to be a Christian? The answer of Kelly Kapic is both simple and profound: Christian life is the grateful response to the love of the triune God and is anchored in the church as worshiping community. This theology has far-reaching implications, especially for modern evangelicals whose spirituality is often experience-centered and individualistic. But it is not just a book for evangelicals. Its balanced approach and ecumenical breadth would appeal to Christians of other traditions. This book is such a delight. Over and over I felt like shouting ‘Amen and Amen.’”
—Simon Chan, former Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Theological College, Singapore
“One of the most pressing tasks for Christians of every generation is to articulate the tangible difference Christ makes to our lives. Kelly Kapic’s Christian Life displays in dazzling detail the shape of Christian life as a response to what God has done and is doing in Christ, the Righteous One, who serves as both the object and leader of Christian worship. A work of a theologian par excellence operating at the height of his powers, you will find yourself comforted, convicted, and encouraged to pursue a life of communion with God rooted in our union with Christ. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”
—Daniel Lee Hill, Assistant Professor of Christian Theology, George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University
“Gathering the jewels of scriptural teaching as well as a glittering array of sources across the centuries, Kapic gives us here a masterpiece. Deconstructing familiar dichotomies, this is the most edifying exploration of the Christian life I have seen in a long time. Let Kapic show you the riches of Christ for you and in his body, the church.”
—Michael Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California
“The richness of Christian life is on display in this marvelous work of Reformed theological scholarship. Kapic writes about what he knows—and so this book is filled with the humility of love, with a liturgical sensibility, with the Spirit's power in uniting us to Christ our Savior, and with a realistic and vibrant appreciation of the church. There is much here for all Christians and for all who are seeking true life!”
—Matthew Levering, James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary
“This alert and elegant theology of Christian life begins and ends in the right place: with the life and love of God the Holy Trinity. In light of God’s goodness and grace, Kelly Kapic offers a rich theological vision—both Reformed and catholic—of Christian life as life in communion with God and with one another in Christ and by the Spirit. Highly recommended.”
—Matthew Mason, Assistant Director, Pastors’ Academy, London
“Kelly Kapic's Christian Life lays out, as winsomely as finite words can convey, the enormity of the triune God's love for us and our invitation to respond. How wonderfully fitting, then, that a book about the whole of Christian life being an act of worship would draw readers to that same end.”
—Christa McKirland, Dean of Faculty and Lecturer, Systematic Theology, Carey Baptist College, New Zealand
“This wonderful book is brimming with theological insight and pastoral guidance. Animated by the conviction that the Christian life is a response to God’s love, Kelly Kapic sets forth a comprehensive theological vision that trains readers to receive and embrace life in communion with God. A wise and timely study.”
—Adam Neder, Associate Dean, Professor of Theology, Belmont University
“Kelly Kapic’s book offers a rich and thought-provoking reflection on the foundations of Christian life, grounded in Scripture and in a capacious, generous, and ecumenical appropriation of Christian theological traditions.”
—Barbara Pitkin, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, Stanford University
“What a relief! We have long needed such an account of Christian life: resting in the threefold work of the triune God, responding to grace, reconciling law and gospel. This book is more than just the next clever theological program. Kapic is clever enough to know how to keep out of the way and let the big, central doctrines do the work.”
—Fred Sanders, Torrey Honors College, Biola University
“There is a temptation for works on humanity and the Christian life to focus on the negatives, such as our sin or fallenness—and these are certainly part of the story. However, in Kelly Kapic's volume on the Christian life, he gets to the root of it all: the love of God toward humanity. This book is a deeply biblical and soundly theological reflection on the triune God's love and how this love shapes Christian life and worship. Kapic's ability to move between theology and doxology is masterful and should be a model for others.”
—Brandon D. Smith, Chair of the Hobbs School of Theology and Ministry and Associate Professor of Theology and Early Christianity, Oklahoma Baptist University
“Often both underdeveloped and amorphous, the doctrine of the Christian life is reinvigorated by Kapic through his vision of God’s self-giving love. Weaving together theology and a call to worship, Kapic’s account of the Christian life refuses to divide doctrine from doxology, the individual from the ecclesial, or the objective from the subjective. Here is a rigorous and robust articulation of life in Christ giving a clarion call to respond to the God of love.”
—Kyle Strobel, Director of the Institute for Spiritual Formation, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
“We have long needed an entryway to show that the Christian life is holistic—not one-sidedly about learning doctrine or about practices, not merely about one local expression or another, and not merely about prioritizing the present over the past or vice versa. In the most accessible volume in the New Studies in Dogmatics series yet, Kapic shows us in holistic ways that the Christian life is about responding to the love of God, doing justice to the corporate yet personal, catholic yet particular, and reasoned and embodied nature of what it means to live in light of God’s mercies. This book is no mere exposition but also an invitation for life in communion with God.”
—N. Gray Sutanto, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary
“Courses in human flourishing attract hundreds of college students, but a good life is hard to find, much less define. Kelly Kapic sets forth a theological thesis that is as comprehensive as it is concise: The good life, for which men and women were created, is a God-centered life, a life that returns God’s love for us by loving God and everything that God has created. Christian Life is chock full of biblical, historical, and doctrinal direction for wise living with and right worship of the triune God."
—Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
“Christian existence is a response to God's love. Yet this response is also God's grace, led by Jesus himself and shaped in us by his Spirit. Our communion with God flows from our union with Christ. Against this backdrop, Kelly Kapic triangulates Christology, the individual, and the church community to situate the arc of Christian life in the worship of the totus Christus. This is a dogmatically serious treatise, brimming with insight. Kapic seamlessly joins depth and clarity, doctrine and doxology, to illuminate the liturgy of Christian living for all Christ's people. His book is a gift to both church and academy.”
—Tyler R. Wittman, Associate Professor of Christian Theology, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
About the Author
Kelly M. Kapic (PhD, King's College, University of London) is Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College. He is the author of numerous books, including You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News, Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering, and A Little Book for New Theologians, and the co-author of Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty is Not the American Dream and The God Who Gives: How the Trinity Shapes the Christian Story.
