ABSTRACT
James McClendon's Doctrine: Systematic Theology, the long-awaited companion to his Ethics: Systematic Theology, continues those far-ranging conversations in ways that produce, in spite of their originality, an elegant synthesis of baptist faith that goes down smoothly. The practice of Christian doctrine requires the exercise of ourselves in living and thinking as Christians. Accordingly, architectonic theology tends to a reductionistic display of the various loci of Christian doctrine, trying to show that insofar as the various doctrines are rational, they all "mean" the same thing. That McClendon's Doctrine is structured eschatologically will certainly provoke many who assume that theology must begin at the beginning—that is, with God and creation. McClendon puts the matter clearly when he notes that his task was to show the Christian good news as good news about God. That McClendon first treats the atonement before developing his Christology is also a move of great significance.
