BIB 215: New Testament Theology
The theology that develops across the New Testament — continuity with the Old, and the doctrines that take shape in early Christianity.
Course Description
BIB 215 introduces students to the theology of the New Testament — the doctrinal development that takes shape across the gospels, Acts, the epistles, and Revelation. The course works through questions of continuity and discontinuity with the Old Testament, asking how the early Christian movement understood itself in relation to what came before.
Special consideration is given to the origins and development of doctrines that emerged within early Christianity — the role of the law, Christology, soteriology, and eschatology among them. Rather than treating the NT as a collection of disconnected writings, BIB 215 reads it as theology in motion: doctrines being articulated, contested, and consolidated as the church learned to confess what it believed.
The course pairs naturally with BIB 315 Old Testament Theology — together, they form the biblical-theology half of the BA's Theology Concentration core.
Prerequisites
- None
Corequisites
- None
Learning Outcomes
Trace NT Doctrinal Development
Follow how key doctrines emerged and took shape across the New Testament writings.
Engage Continuity and Discontinuity
Address how the NT carries forward, transforms, or reframes Old Testament themes and structures.
Examine Christology
Study how the New Testament writers presented the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Engage Soteriology and Eschatology
Work through New Testament teaching on salvation and last things.
Address the Role of the Law
Examine how the early Christian movement understood the Mosaic law and its ongoing significance.
Biblical Worldview Connection
A Biblical Worldview takes the New Testament's theology seriously as theology — not just as a record of what early Christians happened to believe, but as Scripture's own witness to what Christians ought to believe. BIB 215 reads it that way, attending to both historical development and theological authority.
Explore Programs With This Course
BIB 215 anchors the biblical-theology half of ACU's Theology Concentration. Explore the programs that include it.
