In keeping with the classic Christian tradition, Great Is the Lord sets out the doctrine of God in a way that illumines the mind, moves the heart, and stirs the soul to praise the triune God. Ron Highfield introduces students, ministers, and others to the “traditional” doctrine of God held by the majority of the church from the second to the twentieth century: God is triune, loving, merciful, gracious, patient, wise, one, simple, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, omnipresent, immutable, impassible, and glorious.
Irenically challenging open theism and process theology, Highfield draws on Scripture, tradition, and widely esteemed theologians to correct common misunderstandings and superficial criticisms. He examines the modern practice, even among evangelicals and conservatives, of first rehearsing the shortcomings of “traditional” theological teaching and then claiming that classical doctrines paint God as uncaring, uninvolved, and threatening to human freedom. Great Is the Lord shows that the classical doctrine of God actually preserves our confidence in God’s love and his liberating action better than its opponents do. The traditional doctrine, Highfield argues, grounds our dignity and freedom in the center of reality, the trinitarian life of God.
Highfield’s work maintains the highest scholarly standards throughout even as it offers a true theology for the praise of God, concluding with a section on the ethics of the doctrine of God.
