Finney’s Unpublished Lectures On Theology Finney’s Unpublished Lectures On Theology

[or, Introductory Lectures and Preparation to the Study of Theology]

Retyped by Rick Friedrich in August of 1998.

EDITORIAL REMARKS.

LECTURE I, II. – INTRODUCTORY.

Define the study upon which we are about to enter – Some of the requisite personal qualifications for this study – Some of the advantages to be derived from the study of Systematic Theology – Some things to be avoided – Remarks.

LECTURE III. – INTRODUCTORY – CONSCIOUSNESS AND SENSE.

Do we know anything? – How do we know ourselves? – What do we know of ourselves in consciousness? – What is meant by sense?

LECTURE IV. – INTRODUCTORY – REASON.

What we mean by the reason, as distinct from the other functions of the intellect – First truths of reason have the following characteristics – Examples of some first truths of reason – How these truths are developed in the reason – Division of first truths of reason – Second class of truths of reason – How this class of truths (second class) is developed in the reason – Remarks – Truths of conscience – How the ideas of conscience are developed.

LECTURE V. – INTRODUCTORY – THE UNDERSTANDING, JUDGMENT, AND FREEDOM OF THE WILL.

The understanding – The judgment – The will.

LECTURE VI. – INTRODUCTORY – IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

Argument from consciousness – Moral argument – The Bible argument – Objections.

LECTURE VI-b. – INTRODUCTORY – EVIDENCE.

The importance of a correct and thorough knowledge of the laws of evidence – What is evidence and what is proof, and the difference between them – Source of evidence in a course of theological inquiry – Kinds and degrees of evidence to be expected – When objections are not, and when they are fatal – How objections are to be disposed of – Where lies the burden of proof – Where proof or argument must begin.

LECTURE VII. – THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

Several ways in which God may reveal himself to rational beings – Two revelations – What God is as known to us in the irresistible convictions of our minds – Principle terms to be used in discussion of God’s existence – Some self-evident truths of reason – Argument for the existence of God – Argument for the existence of God as Moral Governor.

LECTURE VIII. – THE EXISTENCE OF GOD (CONTINUED).

Argument from final causes; or, from apparent ultimate design – Facts and self-evident truths – The following positions are manifest – Propositions – Stating the substance of the above propositions in another form – Argument from consciousness of the existence of God – First objection – Second objection – Method of the natural reason – Summary remarks.

LECTURE IX. – THE NATURAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

What is a natural attribute? – What are the natural attributes of God? – Self-existence – Immutability – Absoluteness – Infinity – Liberty – Omniscience – Omnipotence – Eternity – Ubiquity or omnipresence – Spirituality – Moral agency – Unity – Independence – Natural perfection.

LECTURE X. – THE MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

What is moral character, and what are moral attributes? – God is morally and infinitely good – Two objections that have been made to the benevolence of God – What are the moral attributes of God? – Justice – Mercy.

LECTURE XI. – THE MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD (CONTINUED).

Veracity – Disinterestedness – Forbearance – Long-suffering – Self-denial – Impartiality – Beneficence – Sovereignty.

LECTURE XII. – THE MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD (CONTINUED).

Firmness – Severity – Efficiency – Simplicity – Immutability – Infinity – Holiness – Remarks.

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