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Bruce Lindley McCormack (born 1952) is Charles Hodge Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. His work focuses on the history of modern theology.^[1] McCormack has proposed that Karl Barth's view of Scripture has been misinterpreted, and has proposed a "Neo-Barthian" interpretation.^[2]

Background and career

After graduating from Point Loma Nazarene University and earned the bachelor degree in economic/business administration and religion in 1976, McCormack began his journey of theological education in the Covenant Theological Seminary (Missouri) in the late 1970s. In 1978, he transferred his studies to his original denominational seminary, Nazarene Theological Seminary and earned his M.Div. degree there in 1980. He recalled being moved from a Wesleyan-Arminian perspective to a Reformed one in Nazarene Theological Seminary after he was disappointed by John Wesley’s doctrine of prevenient grace.^[3]

In 1980, he got married with Mary Schmidt McCormack who is now serving as the director of women’s ministries in Stone Hill Church of Princeton.

He received his Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1989.

He was awarded the international Karl Barth Prize by the Board of the Evangelical Church of the Union in Germany in 1998. This was given to his publication Karl Barth’s Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology (1995), in which a paradigm shift of reading Barth was proposed in the studies of Karl Barth. He also holds an honorary doctorate of theology awarded by the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena in Germany in 2004.

Teachings

McCormack served as the Lecturer in Reformed Theology in the University of Edinburgh from 1987-1991. He later returned to his alma mater, Princeton Theological Seminary and took the role of Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of Systematic Theology from 1991-1998, and became the Weyerhaeuser Professor of Systematic Theology starting from 1998 onwards. Since 2009, McCormack served as the Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology until now.

He was also invited to be the speaker of The T.F. Torrance Lectures (2008, titled “The Humility of the Eternal Son: A Reformed Version of Kenotic Christology”) in the University of St. Andrews, The Croall Lectures (2011, titled “Abandoned by God: The Death of Christ in Systematic, Historical, and Exegetical Perspective”) in the University of Edinburgh, and The Kenneth Kantzer Lectures (2011, titled “The God Who Graciously Elects: Seven Lectures on the Doctrine of God”) in the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Works

Books

• McCormack, Bruce L. (1993). For Us and Our Salvation: incarnation and atonement in the Reformed tradition. Studies in Reformed Theology and History, v. 1, no. 2. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Theological Seminary. OCLC 28396230.
• ——— (1995). Karl Barth's Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development, 1909–1936. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-198-26337-1.
• ———, ed. (2006). Justification in Perspective: historical developments and contemporary challenges. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. ISBN 978-0-801-03131-1. OCLC 69331677.
• ——— (2008). Orthodox and Modern: studies in the theology of Karl Barth. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. ISBN 978-0-801-03582-1. OCLC 182738008.
• ———, ed. (2008). Engaging the Doctrine of God : contemporary Protestant perspectives. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. ISBN 978-0-801-03552-4. OCLC 166368585.
• ———; Bender, Kimlyn J., eds. (2009). Theology as conversation : the significance of dialogue in historical and contemporary theology : a festschrift for Daniel L. Migliore. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-802-84859-8. OCLC 301948462.
• ———; Anderson, Clifford B., eds. (2011). Karl Barth and American Evangelicalism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-802-86656-1. OCLC 702941742.
• ———; Kapic, Kelly M., eds. (2012). Mapping Modern Theology: a thematic and historical introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. ISBN 978-0-801-03535-7. OCLC 729346779.
• ———; White, Thomas Joseph, eds. (2013). Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth: an unofficial Catholic-Protestant dialogue. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-802-86976-0. OCLC 827256100.
• ——— (2021). The Humility of the Eternal Son : "reformed" kenoticism and the repair of Chalcedon. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-51829-8. OCLC 1310221702.

Articles and chapters

• ——— (2002). "What Has Basel to Do with Berlin? Continuities in the Theologies of Barth and Schleiermacher". The Princeton Seminary Bulletin. 23 (2): 146–173.
• ———; Barth, Karl (2002). "The Significance of Karl Barth's Theological Exegesis of Philippians". The Epistle to the Philippians. Louisville, KY: Westminster, John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-6642-2420-2. OCLC 50542377.
• ——— (2002). "The Barth Renaissance in America: An Opinion". The Princeton Seminary Bulletin. 23 (3): 337–40.
• ——— (2004). "Participation in God, Yes, Deification, No: Two Modern Answers to an Ancient Question". In Dalferth, Ingolf Ulrich; Fischer, Johannes; Grosshans, Hans-Peter (eds.). Denkwuerdiges Geheminis: Festschrift fuer Eberhard Juengel zum 70. Geburtstag. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-1614-8522-0.
• ——— (2006). "Karl Barth's Christology as Resource for a Reformed Version of Kenoticism". International Journal of Systematic Theology. 8 (3): 243–51. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2400.2006.00212.x.
• ——— (2007). "Seek God Where He May Be Found: A Response to Edwin Chr. van Driel". Scottish Journal of Theology. 60 (1): 62–79. doi:10.1017/S0036930606002663. S2CID 170257440.
• ——— (2010). "Let's Speak Plainly: A Response to Paul Molnar". Theology Today. 67 (1): 57–65. doi:10.1177/004057361006700107. S2CID 170141996.

References