Finishing the sentence began by exegesis with theology...

The church can and must, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, develop words, concepts, discourse of all sorts, out beyond the narrow confines of exegesis. That is what happened with Athanasius, holding out for the nonbliblical term homoousion to express, against Arius, the radically biblical view of the divinity of Jesus Christ. We cannot reduce the task of theology to that of biblical commentary.

N.T. Wright, Justification (Downers Grove: IVP, 2009), 81.

The Danger of Theological Systems

In effect, the scholastic theological agenda meant that the ongoing task of reading the Bible as text was superseded by the publication of the skilled theologian's magnum opus. If the goal of the theological inquiry was to extrapolate the system of propositions the divine Communicator had inscripturated in the pages of the text, it would seem that systematic theology could--and eventually would--make the Bible superfluous. Why should the sincere believer continue to read the Bible when biblical truth--correct doctrine--is more readily at hand int he latest systematic compilation offered by the skilled theologian? Why read, that is, for any reason except to determine for oneself that the theologian's conclusions are indeed biblical truth--that this theologian had captured the one, true biblical system of doctrine?...In this way, theologians exchanged the desire to give voice to the text itself for the attempt to read through the texts to the doctinal system the texts concealed. Despite the well-meaning, lofty intentions of conservative thinkers to honor the Bible as scripture, their approach in effect contributed to the silencing of the text in the church.

Stanley Grenz and John Franke, Beyond Foundationalism (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 63.

Theological/Dogmatic Summary

Meaning: In the system
Authority: Contemporary theological community
Question: Is this interpretation in keeping with sound theology?

Emerging Church Hermeneutics

A trademark feature of the emerging movement is that we believe all theology will remain a conversation about the Truth who is God in Christ through the Spirit, and about God's story of redemption at work in the church. No systematic theology can be final. In this sense, the emerging movement is radically Reformed. It turns its chastened epistemology against itself, saying, "This is what I believe, but I could be wrong. What do you think? Let's talk.”

Scot McKnight, “Five Streams of the Emerging Church,” Christianity Today, February 2007, 38.