Not Every Spirit - 2nd Edition by Christopher Morse (Paperback)

About the Book

Not Every Spirit explores the notion of Christian faith as disbelief and how the task of "testing the spirits" develops and comes to be understood within Christianity as a theological discipline called dogmatics. It also focuses on uncovering disbeliefs of the Christian faith concerning the Word of God, the being of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, creation, salvation, humanity, the church, and the life to come. This book is a fresh and timely dogmatic text that will take its place as a standard work on Christian teachings.

Book Synopsis

To believe in God is not to believe everything. To trust everything without awareness of what is untrustworthy is not genuine faith in God. In a biblical understanding of faith in God, then, what is the role of the call not to believe every spirit? What disbeliefs does faithfulness require? Are there some things that Christian faith refuses to believe? If so, how do we come to recognize what they are? "The presence of faithful disbelief in the church," Professor Morse suggests, "gives the church's teaching and practice its timeliness in every cultural situation." Part One of his book therefore explores the notion of Christian faith as disbelief and how the task of "testing the spirits" develops and comes to be understood within Christianity as a theological discipline called dogmatics. Part two focuses on uncovering disbeliefs of the Christian faith concerning the Word of God, the being of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, creation, salvation, humanity, the church, and the life to come. Here, then, is a fresh and timely dogmatic text that will take its place as a standard work on Christian teachings. "Professor Morse's meticulous scholarship in this book convinces Christians to examine not only what they believe but also to give attention to what they are called to disbelieve. In today's world of turmoil, distrust, and violence, Morse's work challenges Christians to reflect seriously on what they are to believe and what they are to do." -Delores S. Williams, Union Seminary, NY Christopher Morse holds the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair in Theology and Ethics at Union Seminary, New York, and is the author of The Logic of Promise in Moltmann's Theology.

Review Quotes

An important book.
Theologische Literaturzeitung (Bloomsbury translation)

I have used several different introductory theology texts for teaching my basic courses, and Morse's book is by a good margin the most thoughtful and provocative. Although regularly invoking (in a way that feels neither authoritarian nor antiquarian) an impressive range of traditional voices, what is most impressive about this text is the way in which Morse manages to communicate a powerful and contemporary theological vision of his own without failing to give the reader a sense of the broad range of possible approaches to any given theological problem.

I would recommend Morse to students who have no doubts about their faith and to students whose faith is constituted by their objections to it.
Religious Studies Review

Not Every Spirit is an outstanding introduction to Christian Theology. Christopher Morse creatively illuminates a wide range of crucial contemporary issues. Arguing that the Christian faith entails not only beliefs, but also disbeliefs, Morse shows the theoretical and practical significance of these disbeliefs in a provocative and insightful way. The result is a theology that is both critical and affirmative.

Professor Morse's meticulous scholarship in this book convinces Christians to examine not only what they believe but also to give attention to what they are called to disbelieve. In today's world of turmoil, distrust, and violence, Morse's work challenges Christians to reflect seriously on what they are to believe and what they are to do.

Someone once said that most thinkers are either "clumpers" or "splitters", people who can think imaginatively and paint in bold strokes, or people who can think very precisely and analyze. Christopher Morse is among those unusual people who can do both. He understands the grand sweep of the gospel, of God's love poured out on a creation that groans in travail, and he knows how to help Christians think rigorously about what they believe - and what they disbelieve. Not every spirit is Christ's Spirit; sometimes the Church must say "no." It is part of Morse's gift to place such nay-saying in the service of God's truth.

There is no introduction to Christian doctrine that does a better job of equipping students to ask the questions that the church needs to ask about its faith and practice. By understanding doctrine as a reflection of what Christians refuse to believe about God, Christ, and the world around them, Christopher Morse offers a genuinely novel approach to systematic theology that is deeply rooted in Scripture and the life of the church. Neither trendy nor traditionalist, this book exemplifies a generous orthodoxy that provides unparalleled resources for disciplined yet charitable dialogue across even the most seemingly intractable confessional divisions.

This is a really distinctive voice in current theology with an important fresh approach. Exploring the disbeliefs that lie at the heart of Christian faith in accessible, concise, and original ways, Morse proves the truth of his own maxim that a good dogmatics is the best antidote to dogmatism about both faith and morals.

This is the finest one-volume dogmatics available in English today.

Written during postliberalism's height and first published a decade prior to current philosophies and theologies of "the event", Morse's Not Every Spirit expertly delivers a concise, yet comprehensive, Christian dogmatics predicated on the notion of grace as event. For Morse, the Gospel is not a narrative in search of supplementation by human performance; it is something that happens, first and foremost. Accordingly, this book functions as a call to the church to stop acting and start witnessing - and for systematic theologians to put away the scripts and pick up the seismographs. It has fundamentally changed the way I think about, and do, Christian theology.

About the Author

Christopher Morse holds the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair in Theology and Ethics at Union Seminary, New York, and is the author of The Logic of Promise in Moltmann's Theology.