Someone asked the above question. Here's my reply to him, though I've added a bit more than was in my original reply. And my reply reflects my Reformed commitments, though of course there are many other good resources for evangelicals in general (e.g. Millard Erickson, Alister McGrath, Norm Geisler).
My general advice is:
1. Discipleship. This is absolutely foundational. The priority or emphasis (especially for new Christians) should be discipleship over systematic theology as such. Specifically, the priority or emphasis should be learning how to read and study the Bible, how to pray, how to worship, how to serve, how to give, how to evangelize, how to make disciples. In essence, learning how to love the Lord and how to love others.
For example, I became a Christian in college, like many others. I was in part taught and discipled by InterVarsity. One thing we learned was something called manuscript Bible study. Basically an entire book of the Bible (or a section of a long book) was printed off for us. All headings, chapter and verse numbers, and pretty much everything else except the biblical text itself were removed. We would go through the text during our group Bible studies. We'd begin by noticing the author and the audience addressed. We'd try and place section breaks where we thought they might go. We'd highlight and/or underline key terms that seemed significant - people, places, events, repeated words, and so on. After doing this on our own for a few minutes or so, say like 10 or 15 minutes, we'd discuss our findings together. See if others got the same or similar results - passage breaks, significant people, significant events, etc. The Bible study leaders would help make sure we stayed on the right track. Next we'd move onto what we thought the text was saying in context. And finally we'd end with how the text might apply to us today. In short, it was the tried and true "observation, interpretation, and application" (OIA) method of Bible study. Not that anyone necessarily said so explicitly, at least not to my memory, but that's what we were learning to do in learning how to study the Bible. This is one of the key things I have in mind for a new Christian to prioritize or emphasize over reading systematic theology per se.
And, to be frank, I don't think the rest of my reply is really all that necessary in comparison to this very first point. Honestly all that's really needed for the new Christian is the Lord and his Word in a good Bible translation (or better yet in multiple good Bible translations, such as those available in a free Bible app like Logos, The Literal Word, BibleArc, STEP Bible, or a plethora of others), regular committed prayer, and simply getting to know and love fellow Christians in a good church. The rest will come in time and with personal interest. In that respect, the rest of my reply is just addenda.
2. Creeds, confessions, and catechisms. These are underrated ways to learn theology. I'd recommend the book Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader's Edition edited by Chad Van Dixhoorn. Ligonier also has a good one volume collection titled We Believe: Creeds, Catechisms, and Confessions of Faith. It has more creeds, confessions, and catechisms than Van Dixhoorn's work, but Van Dixhoorn has all the essentials and fundamentals.
The Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Shorter Catechism are excellent entry points. The former is more practically edifying in orientation (guilt-grace-gratitude), while the latter is more theologically precise in orientation. And I’d encourage people to look up every single biblical reference cited.
If longing for more, then consider the Westminster Larger Catechism and/or the Westminster Confession of Faith. Or the 2nd LBCF (1689) for Reformed Baptists or at least Reformed and Baptistic types. By the way, Crossway is planning to release later this year a book titled the Westminster Confession of Faith: A Comprehensive Commentary on Its History, Theology, and Application (edited by J.V. Fesko, John Muether, and D. Blair Smith). It will include contributions from the likes of James Anderson, Gray Sutanto, Sinclair Ferguson, and many others.
Keep in mind we don’t need to agree with everything (I certainly don’t) in order to learn from the creeds, confessions, and catechisms.
3. Prayers and hymns. Past and present prayers and hymns. These are also underrated ways to learn theology as well as doxology. I think Banner of Truth publishes little books on prayers from the likes of John Calvin and Charles Spurgeon and several others. Not to mention the Valley of Vision. By the way, A Way to Pray by Matthew Henry is wonderful. And Jonathan Gibson has a series of fine liturgical type books published by Crossway (e.g. Be Thou My Vision). Many of these are free to download on places like CCEL, Monergism, Project Gutenberg, and Standard eBooks, though the quality can vary. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1662) offers much more than prayers but certainly not less. Crossway has the ESV Prayer Bible too, which was done by Don Whitney, I think. Prayer is where one can really see a Christian’s heart toward the Lord and the things of the Lord. Nothing is more important in our walk and life of faith than prayer, for prayer is communion with the Lord (Scripture and fellowship are equally important). And of course there are countless wonderful hymns across church history. A good hymnal or good music in general can perform wonders on our soul. For example, Reformed Presbyterians have good reason to value the Trinity Hymnal. There are other good ones.
4. Online material. TGC has a huge swathe of great resources, from biblical commentaries on every book of the Bible to systematic theological topics, and so much more. All written by godly evangelical scholars, often the very best scholars in their field (e.g. Don Carson, Tom Schreiner, John Frame). All for free too. Likewise other ministires like Ligonier have solid material (despite their recent troubles, from Lawson to Nichols). Also, there are so many good lectures online today. Lectures on systematic theology, biblical theology, church history, and so on. Reformed Theological Seminary has a good app to access their lectures, Phoenix Seminary is developing some great material too, and I’m sure many other seminaries aka Bible colleges aka theological colleges have great resources as well. I'm not a MacArthurite, though I have attended GCC and heard MacArthur preach and teach and have greatly appreciated him and his ministry, but several scholars at TMU/TMS have been doing phenomenal work over the years and making much of it accessible to the public (e.g. Abner Chou, William Barrick, Nathan Busenitz).
5. Books. Of course, it’s good to read good authors or good books. That should be generally encouraged. Reading good authors or good books can spur one to read other good authors or good books too!
A. Loci. There are some good single volume systematic theology books, but even the best can’t necessarily do a single locus or topic of systematic theology the justice it deserves. As such, it might be better to read a good book or two on each locus of systematic theology or subtopics of each locus than a single volume systematic theology that summarizes the whole. Such as a book on the doctrine of God aka theology proper, a good book on Christology, pneumatology, the atonement, eschatology, etc. I love John Frame’s volumes in the Lordship series for instance. Crossway has a series called Short Studies in Systematic Theology that's pitched at an introductory level.
That said, there is certainly a place and a time for both. Both the big picture or forest generalist overview of systematic theology as well the zoomed in or trees-branches-leaves specialist approach too.
B. Referential use of systematic theologies. It’s good to use systematic theology works as reference tools, while keeping the Bible front and center. Such as using Berkhof or Grudem or Frame or whoever to reference what the Bible says when one has a question.
C. Classic systematic theologies. The classics are classics for good reason. For the Reformation era Calvin and Turretin are standouts. For the English Puritans, I’d say Owen - and maybe Perkins who used to be far more famous. Jonathan Edwards of course. Shedd is good. I wish Thomas Murphy's Practical Theology was better known. Likewise William Cunningham. For the Dutch Reformed, Kuyper and Bavinck, though I hear earlier predecessors like van Mastricht are solid too (and van Mastricht was Edwards’ favorite). Bavinck’s Wonderful Works of God is his own distillation of his four volume Reformed Dogmatics for laypeople, though it’s much more, and it's so worth reading in its own right, because Bavinck brings such a breathtaking freshness to knowing and loving the Lord our God who is our highest good. For Old Princeton, Hodge, Vos, Warfield, and Machen are the standouts. And so on and so forth. The ones I find most useful to reference on specific theological questions and concerns are probably Turretin's Institutes of Electric Theology (recently reissued and beautifully redesigned) and Bavinck's very complex and sophisticated Reformed Dogmatics in 4 glorious volumes.
A caveat is some never wrote a proper systematic theology, but their systematic theology is found strewn across their works (e.g. Warfield never wrote a systematic theology, he would always defer to his great mentor Hodge, though Fred Zaspel published a great book that brings together Warfield’s thinking into something like a systematic theology).
D. Contemporary systematic theologies. For contemporary works, some good ones are: Robert Letham, though he’s more of a historical systematic theologian. I think Letham is perhaps the best single volume Reformed theology to start with because he writes well , clearly and cogently, so he's a pleasure to read; he's highly informed and intelligent, which unfortunately isn't always the case even in systematic theology; he surveys what other theologians past and present, and even some theologians whom most systematic theologies tend to bypass, have said; and he's pastoral and edifying and just enjoyable to read. Robert Reymond is good too, though he tends toward Clarkian views on knowledge and polemics or apologetics in general. I actually think Grudem is underrated by most Reformed Christians. I wouldn’t say Grudem is as intellectually on par with other systematic theologies, but he makes up for it by being so well organized and his work is very edifying, not at all dry like I'm afraid Berkhof is, at least to me, though Berkhof is a great reference. Stephen Wellum is well worth reading too, and he is a progressive covenantalist, which is contentious in Reformed Presbyterian and other circles, but many Reformed Baptists (or at least Reformed and Baptist) types love him. Wellum is a kind of hybrid of systematic theology and biblical theology. His systematic theology is projected to be three volume series, but he’s only published that first volume as far as I'm aware. Mr. Puritan himself, Joel Beeke, is a wealth of spiritual riches, though my favorite Puritan theology remains many of J.I. Packer’s works (e.g. A Quest for Godliness, "Fundamentalism" and the Word of God, God Has Spoken, Concise Theology, 18 Words). My favorite modern theologian is John Frame. I think Frame is the most intellectually astute and robust living systematic theologian. That is, Frame gets the closest to being a systematic philosophical theologian, whereas most Reformed systematic theologians are really systematic historical theologians. I say this even though I don’t entirely agree with Frame and even though he has many Reformed detractors especially in or associated with Westminster California. His colleague Vern Poythress is equally good. I love Frame and Poythress. They offer a lot of their material for free online. On theology proper, Frame's The Doctrine of God and Letham's The Holy Trinity in its second edition are the best, I think.
E. Biblical theology. For biblical theology, John Frame’s one volume Systematic Theology has a great section (“Part 2: The Biblical Story”) that is in essence biblical theology, which I don’t recall seeing in any other contemporary Reformed systematic theology. Otherwise I’d encourage reading authors like Geerhardus Vos (who also wrote a systematic theology in addition to his more famous biblical theology), Ed Clowney, Graeme Goldsworthy, O. Palmer Robertson, Alec Motyer, Don Carson, Tom Schreiner, Jim Hamilton, Mitch Chase, Michael Morales, Desi Alexander, Greg Beale, Benjamin Gladd, Stephen Dempster, Ian Vaillancourt, and so many more. Honestly we are living in the Renaissance of biblical theology, and I love it. These days I probably read more biblical theology than almost any other genre. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law!
For those who are just starting out, it’s not my favorite translation, but the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible serves as an excellent place to start to learn biblical theology. How the Bible fits together from Genesis to Revelation as a single story. Otherwise the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology is awesome, though I wish they'd update it since it's getting a bit long in the tooth. Perhaps my favorite advanced work is Dominion and Dynasty as an OT biblical theology. Back to introductory level material. Gladd and Beale have published The Story Retold: A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament, as well as the CSB Connecting Scripture New Testament, both excellent, and Gladd and Beale are reportedly working on The Story Foretold: A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old Testament and the CSB Connecting Scripture Old Testament. Gladd took over Don Carson’s editorial role for the generally excellent New Studies in Biblical Theology (NSBT) series as well. For an introductory level series, I'd recommend Crossway's Short Studies in Biblical Theology (SSBT). IVP's Essential Studies in Biblical Theology is somewhere between SSBT and NSBT, though generally closer to SSBT. Lexham has the Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary series which is also between SSBT and NSBT, I think, though generally closer to NSBT. There are several others (e.g. Biblical Theology of the New Testament Series with Zondervan), but the ones I've mentioned should be more than sufficient for now.
Hope that helps a wee bit.
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