Books and Publications
Key Writing on the Trinity
Church of the Triune God.
Edited by Michael Jensen, Aquilla Press, Sydney First published 2013 pp.224. ISBN 978-1-922000-85-9. Price $19.95
This book is written by a group of students of Dr Robert Doyle, who taught at the Anglican Moore Theological College in Sydney from 1982-2012. Their essays are intended to celebrate his ministry. It is thus in the form of the traditional Festschrift (book in someone's honour), which focuses on two of the main themes of Dr Doyle's teaching. They are the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity from the Church Fathers Athanasius, Augustine to Karl Barth and T.F. & J.B. Torrance, and the implication of the Trinity for the church's life and mission. Dr Doyle prepared his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor J.B. Torrance of Aberdeen, Scotland. Members of the ACC will recall a number of visits to Australia by Professor J.B. Torrance, through his close friendship and fellow teacher at Aberdeen, Professor George Yule. Many will have appreciated the lectures he gave on these visits.
There are 12 contributors and the papers cover the two themes of the Festschrift. One may be tempted to describe the contents as something like the curate's egg, ‘something that is at least partly bad, but has some arguably redeeming features'. This would be somewhat churlish as there is some excellent material in some of these essays. In particular, though lacking reference to Athanasius' major works against Nestorius and the Arians, which furnish the basis of his Trinitarian and Christological teaching, the writer, though concentrating on his Festal Letters, expounds some key aspects of Athanasius' understanding of the Trinity and the relationship of the church and the Trinity. One important conclusion he draws from Athanasius' teaching relates to the contemporary church's preoccupation with ‘ministry structures' in fulfilling its mission.
"So much of church life is niche-oriented rather than common - student ministries, men's ministries, women's ministries, children's, youth, seniors, marrieds ... (Athanasius') observation of the infinitely sufficient grace that we have in common in the life of the church ... suggests (that) by our practices, the grace of salvation is insufficient to meet the diverse needs of our congregation."
This observation follows an analysis of Athanasius' understanding of God's ‘accommodation' of himself to our needs, manifest above all in the incarnation of God in Christ for our salvation.
The essay on T.F. Torrance shows an appreciation of the depths of Torrance's teaching on the Christian doctrine of God as holy Trinity whilst providing some important information about his spiritual formation and motivation as a Christian teacher. It should be noted that Torrance did not teach courses on the Trinity, although the writer observes the oxymoron involved in the situation because Torrance was Professor of Christian Dogmatics at Edinburgh University.,. It was not until he retired that his magnum opus on the Trinity (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons) was published. This strange state of affairs came about because the laws of the Faculty of Divinity reserved teaching of the Trinity to the faculty of Divinity not Dogmatics! This was and is a prime example of the contradiction to which Karl Rahner draws attention, that in western theology the doctrine of the one God, as distinct from the Trinity, assumed primary importance. The Trinity in the West has become locked in splendid isolation. He observes that Western theologians speak,
"of the necessary metaphysical properties of God, but not of God as experienced in salvation history in his free relations to his creatures. For should one make use of salvation history, it would soon become apparent that one speaks of him whom Scripture and Jesus calls Father, Jesus' Father, who sends the Son and who gives himself to us in the Spirit." (Rahner, K. The Trinity. London: Burns & Oates, 1970, p.18.)
It is precisely this malaise in Western theology, beginning with Augustine that this book, The Church of the Triune God, seeks to address. Though it does not do so directly, the book does it by means of the practical orientation of the theological teaching of the one it seeks to honour. This endeavour, though concentrating on the experience of the Anglican Church of Australia and in particular the Sydney Diocese, is the critical task confronting the theological traditions of all Christian churches. It is obvious that the Sydney Anglicans at least know what the real problems are that confront the church in contemporary culture and attempt to offer an important clue as to where answers may be found. This is of no little importance and the authors are to be thanked for the offerings they have made.
Dr W. Gordon Watson, Port Macquarie NSW
Helping Families Stay Together
Review of All-In2night
Lynne Burgess
Published by Even Before Publishing/Wombat books. 140 pages
This volume is a sequel to this author’s earlier publication All-In Night, in which Lynne Burgess promotes a regular night each week where the whole family stays home and participates in a special activity with a treat (usually a dessert) to follow. The book is based on a concept that the author has actually put into practice with her own family of five children. In the dedication, Lynne Burgess writes that the “book is for parents who want their children to experience a relationship with Jesus so they can live a bold and victorious life, no matter what the circumstances”.
There are 40 activities involving an amazing array of what I would call psychological variables: self-esteem, courage, loneliness, patience, empathy, confidence, self-sabotaging, revenge, enthusiasm and so on. For each topic, the author provides a purpose so that the aim is clear to the parent who is leading the activity. These nights are not held in school holidays so that both the parents and the children have a break: hence, the 40 weeks. It is interesting to note that the author reports that her adult children who have left home still come back on Monday nights for All-in night.
For the topic courage, the purpose is “to help your child to develop courage so that they have the ability to face difficulties”; for priorities in life, the purpose is “to teach your child to understand priorities in their life and that priorities can change through different phases of life”; for pride, the purpose is “to explain what unhealthy pride is and to teach your children how to deal with it”. The purpose is generally followed by an explanation of the concept under consideration.
There is often a Scripture verse or verses to be shared with children to help them understand the biblical basis of the lesson. For self esteem, the verses are Psalm 139: 13-14; for eating healthy food, the verse is 1 Cor 6: 19; for patience, the verses are James 1: 2-5; for fear, Joshua 1: 9; for worry, Proverbs 12: 25. I was surprised at some of the topics that didn’t have a biblical verse, and was not sure why. Examples included ‘unhealthy pride’, ‘humility’, ‘jealousy’, ‘guilt and shame’, ‘criticism’ and ‘God has a unique purpose for your life’.
I think this book could be very useful for families of primary-school children, combining as it does, fun and serious learning about oneself and others. It is important to remember that these characteristics are produced in young people over years of stable, loving parenting and not in a single session focusing on a particular characteristic.
Patricia Noller
Emeritus Professor, School of Pyschology at the University of Queensland
Book Review: Teen Sex By The Book
Teen Sex By the Book (221 pages) rated MA 15+.
This relatively short book is quite easy to read and is a timely resource. I am not sure if young people will buy it – after all they are spending their time on the web (as the book recognises), so a suggestion later. One good aspect is the way the mobile world is highlighted, with the role of the smart phone replacing in a way the old idea of the computer that could be kept in the common family room and shared (and also an eye kept on what was being searched). Sex educator, researcher and therapist Dr Patricia Weerakoon accepts the reality of the situation for teenagers today and their sexual experiences and contact. For example, with regard to pornography, she is clearly not condoning, but also does not want to create a burdensome guilt, but to liberate and help those caught up or who could be caught in this web.
ACCatalyst readers may know Patricia as one of the panellists from the excellent ACL Webcast ‘Defining Marriage’ held in June 2012.
I see this book more for Christian kids before they are sucked into the contemporary mores and culture, but as I mentioned earlier it may be one parents and grandparents may need to buy. The discussion is clear and fulsome in parts, and has a helpful approach to a variety of sexual topics. I especially appreciated her subtle and reasonable approach to homosexuality. Overall this is a counter-culture book. It is actually refreshing to highlight the revolutionary aspects of a Christian approach to sex in a world where sex is devalued and exploited.
Some thoughts for further work:
1. Produce a series of short booklets based on the areas discussed to be given away.
2. Produce a more readable print edition (this may depend who really ends up reading this, but the print, some of the font and type used (eg, in the box and ‘colour’ design) are not helpful for print-based reading and also for making some points and issues stand out.
Having said this, I still believe this is a very helpful resource and reflective book for parents and grandparents. Helpful to know what is going on and also for the cyber world discussion, as your children or grandchildren probably know more than you do, or than you think. Further information at: http://fervr.net/teen-sex-by-the-book
Peter Bentley
The Alternative Gospel
The Alternative Christology of American Churches
Recently a friend gave me a copy of the book Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, written by Michael Horton and published in America by Baker Books. The book is a scathing critique of the American Church, both liberal and evangelical. Horton believes that the American Church has deviated from "the faith once delivered to the saints" in a number of inter-related ways.
Firstly, he says that American preaching and practice indicate that American Christians are focused more on themselves than on God and his saving work for all believers. "It seems," he says, "that we come to church less to be transformed by the Good News than to celebrate our own transformation and to receive fresh marching orders for transforming ourselves and our world rather than being swept into God's new world."
Horton's concern is that the American church is getting dangerously close to the place in every day life where the Bible is "mined for relevant quotes but is largely irrelevant on its own terms."
Sin has been trivialised in this theology. It no longer refers to a wrong against God but only a wrong against ourselves for failing to achieve our potential to be happy and to feel good about ourselves. There is no place in this theology for Psalm 51:4-5 where the author acknowledges "Against you (God), you alone have I sinned".
When sin is trivialised in the way it is by this alternative gospel and God's love takes care of any alienation that might occur there is no longer any place or need for reconciliation or atonement.
The question then arises, what is it that Christ does? The answer seems to be that Jesus Christ is "just a coach with a good game plan for our victory rather than a saviour who has already achieved it for us." Jesus' life and death can no longer be understood as atonement for sin or as a mediator between us and God. The most we can say about him is that he was a great philosopher, teacher, example, adviser and partner in helping us to achieve our own aspirations but we are left to do the hard work of achieving our goals and doing whatever it is we are called to do. This is not good news and not the gospel which the New Testament sets forth and the Church has affirmed through the centuries. It is more like the heresy of Pelagianism which troubled the Church in the fifth century which asserted that we must share the task of achieving our salvation.
The second major heresy Horton finds widely spread in American Christianity is Gnosticism. This heresy was a major challenge to orthodoxy in the early church. Gnosticism minimized the witness of the apostles and the Scriptures and maximized the inner experience of the individual. Truth is no longer to be found in creeds and confessions but in being alone with God. The tendency is well illustrated by the old hymn, "I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses". Certainly it is important that we should have a sense of God's presence through the Spirit but unless we have the highest respect for the historical witnesses there is no telling how we will end up.
These developments in American Christianity may seem to be of little relevance for us but with the constant flow of gurus from the USA we are bound to feel the influence of Christless Christianity here. Horton warns us to be wary.
I found the book very interesting, though not everywhere easy reading, but I would commend it to all Australian church leaders who are committed to the historic Christian teaching on the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
Gordon Dicker
Gordon Dicker is a past Moderator of the NSW Synod, and former Principal of UTC.
This review was first published in the Feburary 2012 edition of ACCatalyst.
Put an End to Big Porn Inc
Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry
Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Bray (Eds), Spinifex Press, 2011. RRP: $36.95 (310 pages)
I found it difficult to finish this book, not because it is boring, but because some of the chapters are very difficult to read. I often went to the local coffee shop to read, so I would not be distracted by emails and the phone. This book needs your full attention and consideration.
It is a collection of articles and essays, some written for the volume, some revised from previous articles, and others edited from unpublished writings and material in order to bring together all the areas that encompass the tentacles of the reach of pornography. Together it presents a wealth of material showing the links between the different parts of our sexualised culture, highlighting the increasing abuse of women and children through exploitation and sex-trafficking. The sections of the book focus on:
• The culture of pornography
• The industries which make up pornography
• Harm to children (these are extremely difficult chapters)
• Pornography and the state
• Movements and opposition to pornography.
It is sobering to see the various industries that are either helping or benefitting from the spread of pornography, including pharmaceutical groups and of course mobile phone and internet companies. The chapters on the development of the pornography industries in South Africa and India are among many illuminating and fundamentally disturbing studies. There is a helpful discussion through several pieces about the nature of ‘free speech', the concept of fair speech and the reality of censorship in society.
I especially recommend the article by Helen Pringle ‘A Studied Indifference to Harm: Defending Pornography in The Porn Report." This is very helpful, given the prominent coverage in October to The Porn Report and so-called popular pornography courtesy of the Fairfax media group through the publication in The Good Weekend of an article that actually confirms the whole thesis of this book. As well as academic material, the book is intertwined with personal story and real situations. Big Porn Inc. delivers a knock-out blow to those who trade on the idea that pornography is a harmless pastime.
It has substantial footnoting, and references, partly I believe to categorically place this book at the level it needs to be in terms of input into policy and government. I realise that given the themes and the academic nature, this is not a book that everyone will read or want to. However, perhaps you should consider how you can be involved in helping to stop the development of a pornified world. Many people say ‘this issue', or ‘that issue' is the great moral issue of our day, but I want to put this one on top, as it has growing implications for less-developed countries as well as the ‘technically sophisticated'. The exploitation of women and children has no boundary in terms of country, or indeed in terms of what is done to them in the name of profit and gain.
I encourage churches to consider buying a copy for your minister, or lay leader, and asking them to present a summary at a meeting to raise awareness, especially for parents and grandparents who may not even be aware of current issues among teenagers such as ‘sexting'. I also suggest publication of a suitably revised edition that is aimed at a wider audience, especially school students, which could include perhaps a page from each chapter. Another thought was the revision and publication of the 'Introduction' as a small booklet. The fifteen pages here represent one of the most helpful introductions to an edited work I have read. The final chapters in the book provide a helpful way forward for people to become involved in opposing pornography, and also help one not to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the information provided, and also the depths of depravity that need to be exposed.
You can find out more about the issues and order the book at: http://www.melindatankardreist.com
Peter Bentley
The Heresy of Orthodoxy
‘In the beginning was Diversity. And the Diversity was with God and the Diversity was God. Without Diversity was nothing made that was made. And it came to pass that that nasty old ‘orthodox' people narrowed down Diversity and finally squeezed it out, dismissing it as heresy. But in the fullness of time (which of course is our time) Diversity rose and smote orthodoxy hip and thigh. Now, praise be, the only heresy is orthodoxy'.
(D. A. Carson)
Carson's masterly irony refers to a widely and unthinkingly accepted reconstruction of the Bible and the Church which undergirds considerable scholarship on early Christianity. It surfaces today in not a few of our pulpits and conferences as well as Progressive Christianity and the push for pan-sexuality and same sex marriage under the mantra ‘Unity in diversity'. Theologically this phrase originally referred to the diversity of gifts in the church but is now used in the UCA to justify the variety of conflicting allegiances, moralities, interpretations, theologies and religions in our church. One of our leaders epitomized this position when defending Victoria's inaction over the heterodox teachings of Dr. McNab, saying in a mammoth understatement, ‘We are a broad church'. This reconstruction of Bible and Church fits in well with our present age which prides itself on its independence, rejection of authority, and embrace of pluralism. Truth is dead; long live diversity!
This reconstruction originates in the so-called Bauer Thesis. Walter Bauer in his book Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (1934) advanced the radical thesis that the Roman church rewrote the history of the early church, making its interpretation of primitive Christianity the ‘orthodox' view and depicting other early Christian teachers as heretical and immoral. According to Bauer, forms of Christianity that came to be understood as ‘heretical' were prior to and more widespread than the so-called orthodox teaching. Thus, many Christian movements in the early church commonly viewed as heterodox are claimed to constitute authentic primitive expressions of the religion of Jesus. Bauer claimed that before the 4th century Christianity was but a seething mass of diverse and competing factions, with no theological centre which could claim historical continuity with Jesus and his apostles.
One of the foremost proponents of the Bauer thesis in the twentieth century was Rudolf Bultmann who made the thesis the substructure of his New Testament theology which has had a large impact on generations of scholars. It was Bultmann who gave Christianity as ‘mythology' its classic theological description, expressing not an objective picture of the world in which we live but expressing man's understanding of himself in the world in which he lives. History is subordinated to subjectivity. Bultmann's students sought to escape pure subjectivity in a renewed quest for the historical Jesus. Since Bultmann had effectively disassociated the Christ of faith from the Jesus of history, people might have radical doubts about the Christ of faith. The goal of the new quest was to re-establish an historical foundation for the credibility of the Christian proclamation. Rather than escaping subjectivity the new quest has spawned a flood of popular and scholarly reinterpretations of the historical Jesus (e.g. the writings of John Selby Spong, the Jesus Seminar and the claims of Progressive Christianity), and not a few conspiracy theories about Christian origins, leading through some feminist theologies operating without scriptural boundaries to torrid fantasies such as The Da Vinci Code. As Ernst Kaemann warned in 1953 ‘The issue today is not whether criticism is right but where it is to stop'.
Bauer's thesis did not appear in English until 1971 and drew a series of powerful critiques against it. Yet many today who advocate accepting any and all beliefs as being equally Christian base their position on the thesis of Bauer and his contemporary disciple Bart Ehrman, a prolific scholar who has written over twenty books (some becoming best sellers). Ehrman has promoted Bauer's thesis in an unprecedented way in publications such as Time, The New Yorker, and Washington Post, appearing on Dateline NBC, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, The History Channel, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, the BBC, NPR and other major media outlets. (see http://www.bartdehrman.com). Others have popularized Bauer's thesis in various ways, e.g. the Gnostic theologian Elaine Pagels, Robert Funk, founder of The Jesus Seminar, feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Reuther, to name a few, and since the Enlightenment scholars have often depicted a Jesus who differs from the orthodox presentation of him. But Ehrman has managed to capture the public eye, calling Bauer's thesis ‘the most important book on the history of early Christianity to appear in the twentieth century'.
Bauer, and now Ehrman, propose that what we view as Christianity today is not the Christianity of the apostles and certainly not what Jesus taught. Rather there were diverse opinions about Jesus, his teaching and that of the apostles, and no one view was any more right than any other. The ‘traditional' view on the Virgin Birth, for instance, came about because the Roman Church finally won enough theological and political power to squash any opposition to their position. What we know as orthodox Christianity represents the view of the winning side rather than the truth of the gospel.
This reconstruction has recently surfaced among certain media darlings (in the USA) who rush to confidently tell people in TV documentaries and through the print media ‘that earliest Christianity knew nothing of the "narrowness" of orthodox belief '. This suits ‘a culture which wants to recreate early Christianity after its own stultifying image'. (Nicholas Perrin).
Now a comprehensive critique of the Bauer-Ehrman thesis has arrived on the scene from Andreas Kostenberger and Michael Kruger in their volume The Heresy of Orthodoxy: How contemporary culture's fascination with diversity has reshaped our understanding of early Christianity. This book is no stroll in the park for it deals with many-layered issues. But in very readable language it is an intriguing introduction to the Bauer thesis and its contemporary resurgence, while layer by layer it demonstrates the failure of Bauer to account reliably for the history of communities, texts and ideas that flourished in the era of early Christianity. The authors, in looking at the early origins of Gnosticism, the process that led to the canon, what our manuscript evidence is, how texts were copied and circulated in the ancient world, and whether the New Testament text was tampered with on the way, demonstrate with clarity and compelling force that Bauer's thesis, though long embraced, is full of problems that need to be faced. They show there is a unified doctrinal core in the New Testament, as well as a degree of legitimate diversity, and that the sense of orthodoxy among the New Testament writers is widespread and pervasive.
However the main purpose of this book is not to debunk Bauer. Others have provided compelling refutations and these are carefully foot-noted. For example, David Liefeld's paper: ‘God's Word or Male Words? Postmodern Conspiracy Culture and feminist Myths of Christian Origins'* (Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, No. 48 2006), which should be read along with this book. The intriguing question for the authors is why the Bauer-Ehrman thesis commands paradigmatic stature when it has been soundly discredited in the past. The reason is not that its handling of data is so superior or its reasoning so compelling. Rather, Bauer's thesis, as popularized by Ehrman, Pagels and the fellows of the Jesus Seminar, has obtained compelling influence over people who are largely unacquainted with the specific issues it addresses because it resonates profoundly with the intellectual and cultural climate in the West at the beginning of the twenty first century. Kostenberger and Kruger unmask the way contemporary culture has been fascinated with and mesmerized by diversity and the impact this has had on some readers of the New Testament.
What can be done about this? That question is addressed all too briefly in the book's last three pages: we should continue to preach the gospel in season and out, we should continue to confront false gospels including the gospel of diversity, and we should proceed prayerfully recognizing the spiritual dimension of the issue. Indeed the question demands another volume. I was puzzled by the lack of any attribution to Michael Kruger in the footnotes or Index although his name appears as co-author.
The authors have provided a valuable service to the contemporary church and a valuable resource for ministers, leaders and teachers, and any concerned about what is being done to the Christian faith by those we expected to know better.
(Clive Skewes)
THE HERESY OF ORTHODOXY by ANDREAS J. KOSTENBERGER, and MICHAEL J. KRUGER. Publisher Crossway. Available at WORD ($20.95) and KOORONG bookshops.
*Liefeld's paper is important in accounting for the growing fascination with diversity. His paper points out that the impact of events such as the assassination of President Kennedy, Vietnam and Watergate (and I would add increasing public scandals) has created a situation whereby ‘how the world really is', a major theme of popular fiction - particularly the espionage thriller - has become a problem for American (and eventually our own) culture, leading to a growth of conspiracy theories through the modern media explosion which makes the proliferation of conspiracy theories possible and at the same time validates them. Thus conspiracy theories inhabit a post-modern plausibility structure in which they are not only intelligible but credible. This provides people with compelling reasons for falling back on their own insights, which feeds into the cult of the self. In such a situation diversity trumps orthodoxy.
Clive Skewes: August 2010
The Theology of John Wesley, Holy Love and the Shape of Grace
Paul Langkamp reviews Kenneth Collins new book The Theology of John Wesley, Holy Love and the Shape of Grace. Collins is a long-time professor of Wesley’s theology at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, USA. Paul says “It’s wonderful title proclaims what it is: a scholarly work about John Wesley’s sermons and commentaries and other material that lays out the two great Christian themes weaving their way through all Christian thought.”