Some observations on Alister McGrath's The Nature of Christian Doctrine, with a constructive response

This paper offers an appreciative account of McGrath’s recent significant new work on the nature of Christian doctrine. It asks some questions about the health of leaving behind not only traditional doctrines of sin, but also of salvation, as worked out in the sphere of the will. In doing so, it looks to an older but influential work (that of Albrecht Ritschl) and a recent and much-discussed work (that of Simeon Zahl). It concludes with a call to return to more traditional categories and for a systematic theology that stays closely in touch with ‘biblical revelation’.