Justification (2 volumes)

The doctrine of justification stands at the center of our systematic reflection
on the meaning of salvation as well as our piety, mission, and life together.
In his two-volume work on the doctrine of justification, Michael Horton seeks
not simply to repeat noble doctrinal formulas and traditional proof texts, but
to encounter the remarkable biblical justification texts in conversation with
the provocative proposals that, despite a wide range of differences, have
reignited the contemporary debates around justification.
Volume 1 engages in a descriptive task - an exercise in historical theology
exploring the doctrine of justification from the patristic era to the
Reformation. Broadening the scope, Horton explores patristic discussions of
justification under the rubric of the great exchange." He provides a map for " contemporary discussions of justification, identifying and engaging his
principal interlocutors: Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John
Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Gabriel Biel, and the magisterial reformers. Observing the assimilation of justification to the doctrine of penance in
medieval theology, especially via Peter Lombard, the work studies the
transformations of the doctrine through Aquinas, Scotus and the nominalists
leading up to the era of the Reformation and the Council of Trent. He concludes
his first study by examining the hermeneutical and theological significance of
the Reformers' understanding of the law and the gospel and the resultant
covenantal scheme that became formative in Reformed theology.
This then opens the door to the constructive task of volume 2 - to investigate
the biblical doctrine of justification in light of contemporary exegesis. Here
Horton takes up the topic of justification from biblical-theological,
exegetical, and systematic-theological vantage points, engaging significantly
with contemporary debates in biblical, especially Pauline, scholarship. Horton
shows that the doctrine of justification finds its most
ecumenically-significant starting point and proper habitat in union with
Christ, where the greatest consensus, past and present, is to be found among
Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant theologies. At the same time, he
proposes that the union with Christ motif achieves its clearest and most
consistent articulation in forensic justification. The final chapter locates
justification within the broader framework of union with Christ.