Sung Wook Chung, ed. Karl Barth and Evangelical Theology: Convergences and Divergences. Baker, 2007. 302 pp.
This is the second of the two Barth books that I read while on holiday. (See here for my impressions on his Evangelical Theology: An Introduction). This title is a compilation of essays on key ideas in Barth’s theology by leading evangelical scholars. All are agreed that Barth is worth studying and that evangelicals have something to learn from him. Most of the essays are appreciative and yet critical of his theological proposals.
The book has twelve chapters, each by a different scholar. The contributions vary in quality and tone. Several of the essays are really outstanding. The opening essay on Revelation by Gabriel Fackre helpfully introduces and critiques Barth’s understanding of this vital subject. In his A Person of the Book? Barth on Biblical Authority and Interpretation, Kevin Vanhoozer reflects on hostile reaction to Barth’s doctrine of Scripture by evangelicals. . . .
Reviewed by Guy Davies.
Read the entire review here.
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David Crump. Knocking on Heaven’s Door: A New Testament Theology of Petitionary Prayer. Baker, 2006. 345 pp.
With a glut of books on prayer in the Christian market, here is a scholarly addition to the mix, worthy of the serious reader’s time. The books on prayer tend to be light and devotional in nature, like Murray’s classic With Christ in the School of Prayer, or the more recent and popular The Prayer of Jabez and Secrets of the Vine. The recent popular works especially tend to promise more than they can deliver, or are products of the “Health and Wealth” television preachers.
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R. C. Sproul. Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification. Baker, 1997. 221 pp.
Sproul has produced a very lucid and insightful theological work dealing with the Reformation teaching concerning sola fide in relationship to the situation facing the modern day church. It is written on a level that can be read with profit by pastors, teachers, students, and laymen alike. In our age of tolerance and neglect of “divisive” doctrine, Sproul’s book is a much needed cry for the importance of dealing with the doctrines of salvation with knife-edge precision.
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Edwin H. Palmer. The Five Points of Calvinism. Baker, 1972. 132 pp.
Palmer’s book is a small summary of Reformed soteriology written as an introduction for the uninformed layman, containing an average of twenty study questions at the end of each chapter. It is not for the theologically astute, although it does have some good insights, especially in the latter chapters. The title of the book can be misleading, because five points cannot adequately express what Calvinism is, and because the five points were not Calvin’s devising (5). The breadth of Calvinism is in a sense as broad as the Bible, and Calvinism is, at its heart, really “an attempt to express all the Bible and only the Bible” (5). Calvinism is not and was not a novelty or an invention, but rather a rediscovery of truths that were for many years absent from the church (6).
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B. B. Warfield. Christology and Criticism. Baker, 2000. 459 pp.
This volume, Christology and Criticism, is the third of ten volumes in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield. It is a collection of essays and articles previously published in various encyclopedias and journals. Warfield’s writings are not for the casual reader. In-depth interaction with higher-critical theories pervades these discussions. Scattered throughout are words and phrases in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German, often without any translation. Profuse footnotes occupy many of the pages. As always, however, the reader who is willing and able to work through this material will profit from this great scholar and theologian.
The book contains discussions of the divine Messiah of the Old Testament, the divine Christ of the New Testament, the two natures of Christ, the blasphemy of the Son of Man, Jesus’ alleged confession of sin, the supernatural birth of Jesus, and the twentieth-century Christ.
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Michael Horton, ed. Christ the Lord: The Reformation and Lordship Salvation. Baker, 1995. 237 pp.
Although slightly outdated, this book edited by Michael Horton helps to bring into focus some important issues that relate to the Lordship/non-Lordship debate. The various chapters are authored by seven different writers who seek to follow in the tradition of the Reformers: W. Robert Godfrey, Michael Horton, Kim Riddlebarger, Rick Ritchie, Rod Rosenbladt, Paul Schaefer, and Robert Strimple (preface by Alister McGrath). Horton is the president of Christians united for Reformation (CURE). It is written on a non-technical level so that the average Christian can read the book with profit.
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