A bedrock of Reformed theology is the belief that God is one in essence, without body, parts, or passions. But has everything that can be said about the doctrine of God already been said? When it comes to the doctrine of the God we love and worship, are we limited to the words of long-dead theologians? Should we simply repeat and paraphrase the Reformed tradition?

The Holy Spirit continues to lead his church in truth. God is eager for us to continue to seek him more and know him better. As his children, we should strive to build upon the solid foundations of classical theism so that we can stand higher and see farther into the majesty of the mystery of God. 

This doesn’t mean we ought to reject the basic consensus of the doctrine of God derived from the Reformed tradition. It’s also not the case that everything that was said by the Reformed Scholastics is inscrutable. It might even be a myopic revisionism to say that the Reformed Tradition holds forth a singular doctrine of God.

But why ought we to be so concerned with the doctrine of God? We cannot worship God rightly if we don’t know him. Our doctrine of God is vitally important because it informs our worship, the way we live our lives, and the rest of our theology. That is to say, it informs our doxology,  orthopraxy, and orthodoxy.

With that being said, the task of the contemporary doctrine of God should be to expand upon the good work done by our theological ancestors—to build upon them from the text of Scripture, using rigorous exegesis in the original languages of the Old and New Testament. There is much work to be done, and even in glory our task will be eternally incomplete as we behold God and spend eternity growing in the knowledge of him.

During its fall conference, Westminster Theological Seminary, will dive into many of these questions. The three-day event titled, “The Unchanging God has Spoken,” will take place November 1–3 at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. 

At this conference, we will be addressing the questions of how we ought to think rightly about God, what he is like, what his attributes and characteristics are. As we address these deep and complex questions, we will not just be asking what the great theological minds of the Reformed tradition have said but what God himself has spoken regarding these things.

Learn more and register here. 

Brandon Smith serves on staff at Westminster Theological Seminary.