Theology

Theology

Probably the most erudite work by an evangelical to appear last year in the area of theology (which I understand to mean the more or less systematic reflection upon divine revelation and its relation to human intellectual activity) was Carl F. H. Henry’s God, Revelation, and Authority (Word), two volumes of the projected four. This and many of the other important works that will be included in this survey either have been or will be reviewed at some time in the pages of this magazine; here I will only mention them as significant for teachers and students of theology.

A far smaller work, but one that also will serve as a prolegomenon for theologizing, is Calvin College philosophy professor Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Reason Within the Bounds of Religion (Eerdmans).

A prominent German academic theologian with whom evangelicals find many things in common is Wolfhart Pannenberg. In a major tome, misleadingly entitled Theology and the Philosophy of Science (Westminster), he argues that theological discourse and truth are in the same universe with other forms of knowledge; many friends (as well as many foes) of “religion” have claimed for it special privileges, but the price has often been seeming irrelevance.

SYSTEMATICS Probably the most talked about book is Hans Küng’s large, sprightly volume entitled On Being a Christian (Doubleday). Time’s reviewer labeled it a summa of liberal Catholicism, while the New York Times called it “the best defense of traditional Catholic Christianity … in this century.” Time was closer to the truth. The Times reviewer was the liberal Catholic Andrew Greeley, who must be setting a modern record for books per year. One of his recent titles, The Great Mysteries (Seabury), gives his reflections on doctrine. Much more traditionally Catholic is The Teaching of Christ (Our Sunday Visitor) edited by Ronald Lawler, Donald Wuerl, and Thomas Lawler.

The most notable evangelical work in this area is What the Bible Says (Abingdon) edited by Lewis Drummond, a Britisher who now holds the Billy Graham chair at Southern Baptist Seminary. It is a very good systematic compendium of references, in paragraph form, to Bible verses. It ably summarizes the evangelical doctrinal consensus. The verses themselves, without comment, are presented topically in The Holy Scriptures Speak (Presbyterian and Reformed) by R. E. and E. M. Lauxstermann. Also largely a compendium, like Drummond, but with a dispensational flavor is the second revision of a long-time Bible-college standard, Christian Theology (Zondervan) by Emery Bancroft.

A major revision of a major non-evangelical Protestant systematic theology is Principles of Christian Theology: Second Edition (Scribners) by John Macquarrie. A similar approach but on the ordinary reader’s level is Randolph Crump Miller’s This We Can Believe (Hawthorn).

The theological spectrum is commendably represented in Christian Theology: A Case Study Approach (Harper & Row) edited by Robert A. Evans and Thomas D. Parker. Varying contemporary understandings of key affirmations of the Apostles’ Creed are presented.

Notable reprints of differing nineteenth-century evangelical systems are Studies in Theology (Baker) by James Denney, Finney’s Systematic Theology (Bethany Fellowship) by Charles Finney, and Evangelical Theology (Banner of Truth) by A. A. Hodge. Going further back, Edward Hindson has collected writings from a dozen Puritans, each handling a division of systematic theology, in Introduction to Puritan Theology (Baker).

Not systematic but ranging over several areas of doctrine are three noteworthy collections of essays; Creation and Redemption (Nordland) by Georges Florovsky, the third volume of the noted Eastern Orthodox thinker’s collected works; Creation, Christ, and Culture (T. & T. Clark) edited by Richard McKinney, which includes twenty essays in honor of T. F. Torrance together with a bibliography of his works; and Freedom and Grace (Eerdmans) by J. R. Lucas.

SCRIPTURE Harold Lindsell offers staunch defenses of biblical inerrancy together with warnings against retrenchments in The Battle For the Bible (Zondervan). A splendid doctrinal presentation by the well-known evangelical scholar Leon Morris is entitled I Believe in Revelation (Eerdmans). An Adventist perspective on these matters is offered by Gordon Hyde in God Has Spoken (Southern Publishing Association [Box 59, Nashville, Tenn. 37202]). A Baptist journalism professor gives a popular apologetic for biblical authority in No Room For Doubt (Broadman), by Herbert Lee Williams.

The relation of tradition to the Bible is explored in Perspectives on Scripture and Tradition (Fides) by Robert Grant, Robert McNally, and George Tavard.

MAN AND SIN Seventeen selections from classic writings over the centuries on man and sin are collected in Man’s Need and God’s Gift (Baker) edited by Millard Erickson. Christian Anthropology (Paulist) by John O’Grady is a useful overview from a Catholic perspective. Sin and Madness: Studies in Narcissism (Westminster) by Shirley Sugarman is a thought-provoking work by a student of psychology and world religions.

CHRIST AND SALVATION The Erickson compilation mentioned in the preceding section also has eighteen selections, mostly from twentieth-century writers, on the person and work of Christ. Inter Varsity Press offers two brief, value-packed studies: The Origins of New Testament Christology by I. Howard Marshall and Go Free! The Meaning of Justification by Robert Horn. Nine essays, mostly relating to Christ (e.g., “The Trinity in the Old Testament” and “How Did Jesus Die?”), are in The Virgin Birth and The Incarnation (Zondervan) by Arthur Custance.

A layman’s introduction to the Eastern Orthodox understanding of salvation is presented in Partakers of Divine Nature (Light and Life [Box 26421, Minneapolis, Minn. 55426]).

Four volumes with which theologians should be acquainted are: Jesus the Christ (Paulist) by Walter Kasper, More Than Man: A Study in Christology (Eerdmans) by Russell Aldwinckle, The Identity of Jesus Christ (Fortress) by Hans Frei, and Look For the Living: The Corporate Nature of Resurrection Faith (Fortress) by Peter Selby. The first two are fairly comprehensive approaches to Christology by German Catholic (Kasper) and Canadian Baptist (Aldwinkle) seminary professors.

ISRAEL Traditionally, Israel has not been a division of systematics; the Church was assumed to have encompassed and superseded it. But the continued vitality of Judaism, the Holocaust, and the emergence of an embattled Israeli state have led to departures in various directions from traditional Christian theology. Biblical Backgrounds of the Middle East Conflict (Abingdon) by Georgia Harkness and Charles Kraft shows that strife in that region is not new. William LaSor of Fuller Seminary gives a brief, cautious, documented view in Israel (Eerdmans). Two books by a Hebrew Christian, Arthur Kac, are available in revised editions: The Rebirth of the State of Israel: Is It of God or of Men? and The Death and Resurrection of Israel (both Baker).

Two quite different kinds of theological reflection on the relationships among the Uhited States, Israel, Christianity, and Judaism are represented in America in History and Bible Prophecy (Moody) edited by Thomas McCall and The Burden of Freedom: Americans and the God of Israel (Seabury) by Paul van Buren, who was once identified (by others, not himself) with the “death-of-God” theology.

THE HOLY SPIRIT As usual, there were numerous works in this area. Among the more notable were three that focused on the biblical data. In The Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition (Paulist), George Montague, a Catholic, offers valuable comments on all the important texts, though he makes too many concessions to prevailing critical theories. Pentecostal scholar Stanley Horton covers the same ground in What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit (Gospel Publishing House). Leon Wood confines himself to The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (Zondervan), rejecting certain common dispensational distinctions but also rejecting the common equation of Israelite prophesying with “ecstaticism.”

A leading Catholic charismatic, Donald Gelpi, offers a major theological reflection in Charism and Sacrament: A Theology of Christian Conversion (Paulist), while a Calvinist charismatic, Thomas Smail, dissents from some prevailing views in Reflected Glory: The Spirit in Christ and Christians (Eerdmans).

Three brief but noteworthy non-charismatic, evangelical works are Baptism and Fullness: The Work of the Holy Spirit Today (InterVarsity) by John Stott (enlarging an earlier work), The Spirit of Christ (Baker) by Mariano Di Gangi, and The Dynamics of Spiritual Gifts (Zondervan) by William McRae.

Thirteen scholarly essays, all but one by Catholics, mostly non-charismatic, are collected in Experience of the Spirit (Seabury) edited by William Bassett et al.

THE CHURCH Reformed theologian G. C. Berkouwer has added The Church (Eerdmans) as the fourteenth volume to appear in English in his distinguished Studies in Dogmatics series. Coincidentally, the fourteenth volume of Catholic thinker Karl Rahner’s collected writings known as Theological Investigations is on Ecclesiology, Questions in the Church, the Church in the World (Seabury). (The same author and publisher also offer short books on The Religious Life Today, aimed at members of religious orders, and Christian at the Crossroads, which focuses on some of the religious activities of all believers.)

A clearly evangelical statement of the doctrine of the Church for the nonspecialist is God’s Forgetful Pilgrims: Recalling the Church to Its Reason For Being (Eerdmans) by Michael Griffiths.

The most massive study in this area is Ministry to Word and Sacraments: History and Theology (Fortress) by Bernard Cooke. It thoroughly documents the various understandings and practices of Christian ministry in each of the major periods of church history while offering theological reflections on these roles, such as service, judgment, and sacramentality.

Also reflecting on the ministry, and advocating a broadened understanding of the functions of congregations and ministers, is Ministry and Imagination (Seabury) by Urban Holmes III, an Episcopal seminary dean.

Primarily treating ecumenical relationships is Theology in Reconciliation (Eerdmans), six essays or lectures by Scottish theologian T. F. Torrance that exhibit a concern for a unity that is truly evangelical and catholic. The Nature of the Church and the Role of Theology (World Council of Churches or Reformed Ecumenical Synod) contains papers from a consultation between representatives of the two organizations that serve as co-publishers.

LAST THINGS Two recommended books for the ordinary reader on the return of Christ and related events (among countless offerings on the subject) are The Jesus Hope (InterVarsity) by Stephen Travis and Interpreting Prophecy (Eerdmans) by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes. The more advanced student of prophecy who wishes to consult a thorough pretribulational refutation of post-tribulational views should see The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation (Zondervan) by John F. Walvoord.

In the wake of Raymond Moody, Jr.’s best-selling Life After Life (launched by Mockingbird but now more readily available from Bantam), there is bound to be even more discussion about extra-biblical testimonies pointing to personal survival beyond “death.” Death and Eternal Life (Harper & Row) by John Hick and Life After Death (McGraw-Hill) by Arnold Toynbee et al. survey the question from the perspectives of numerous religions as well as secular disciplines. The latter book contains fourteen essays by specialists. A related volume that belongs in all academic libraries is Christian Beliefs About Life After Death (Barnes & Noble) by Paul Badham.

For a simpler, biblical presentation of what happens to the Christian, see After Death, What? (Herald Press) by Gerald Studer, a Mennonite pastor.

EVANGELISM Many books are primarily intended to suggest techniques for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ near and far. However, last year a number of works focused on the theological questions raised in the course of evangelism and missions. Chief among them is The New Face of Evangelicalism (InterVarsity) edited by C. René Padilla. It contains fifteen essays; each is by a different author, and all continents are represented. Each essay is on a section of the covenant drafted at the International Congress on World Evangelization, held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974. Christian Missions in Biblical Perspective (Baker) by J. Herbert Kane is a comprehensive overview intended as a college or seminary text. Other significant works include Christian Mission in the Modern World (InterVarsity) by John Stott; I Believe in the Great Commission (Eerdmans) by Max Warren; Mission Trends No. 2: Evangelization (Eerdmans or Paulist) edited by Gerald Anderson and Thomas Stansky, a collection of twenty-two essays and seven conference statements representing differing viewpoints; and Salvation Tomorrow (Abingdon) by Stephen Neill, who is one of the best-known missionaries and writers on missions (among other topics) of our time.

More specific is A Christian’s Responseto Islam (Presbyterian and Reformed) by William H. Miller, who served in Iran from 1919 to 1962.

EVANGELICAL APOLOGETICS The defense or advocacy of the Gospel, especially with reference to challenges from alternative religious and secular world views, called forth several valuable works by evangelicals. The most discussed is How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (Revell) by Francis Schaeffer, whose reputation is well established. One of his disciples, Os Guinness, who earlier wrote The Dust of Death, now offers In Two Minds: The Dilemma of Doubt and How to Resolve It (InterVarsity). And Guinness justly commends The Universe Next Door: A Basic World View Catalog (InterVarsity) by James Sire.

Christian Apologetics (Baker) is a comprehensive college or seminary text by Trinity seminary professor Norman Geisler, which teachers may wish to evaluate for possible classroom use. A less comprehensive overview is offered by Arlie Hoover in Dear Agnos: A Defense of Christianity (Baker).

A different kind of text is Testing Christianity’s Truth Claims (Moody) by Gordon Lewis, in which the approaches of sixteen contemporary evangelical apologists are presented and evaluated, but with strangely varying space allotments (e.g., 4 pages to Schaeffer, 25 to Earl Barrett, 108 to Edward John Carnell).

Five brief popular-level books to note: So You Don’t Believe in God? (Beacon Hill) by Russell DeLong, Know Your Self (Craig) by David Hugh Freeman, The Defense Rests Its Case (Broadman) by Don Gutteridge, Jr., Dialogue With a Skeptic (Holman) by Thomas Howard (formerly entitled Once Upon a Time, God …), and Madness Is in Their Heart (Masters Press) by Paul Wright.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE NATURAL SCIENCES Scholars interested in this area should be sure to check the following titles, written from a variety of stances: The Relevance of Natural Science to Theology (Barnes & Noble) by William Austin, The Worlds of Science and Religion (Hawthorn) by Don Cupitt, The Biology of God (Taplinger) by Alister Hardy, Logos: Mathematics and Christian Theology (Bucknell University [Box 421, Cranbury, N.J. 08512]) by Granville Henry, Jr., Metaphor and Myth in Science and Religion (Duke University) by Earl MacCormac, Meaning (University of Chicago) by Michael Polanyi and Harry Prosch, and Philosophy, Science and the Sovereignty of God (Presbyterian and Reformed) by Vern Poythress. The last-named author is a mathematician-turned-theological student, and the work could easily have been categorized elsewhere. Poythress himself says the book is “roughly speaking, Refined Boundary Evangelical Study.”

A burgeoning field—in law courts, hospitals, and laboratories as well as in scholars’ studies—is the ethical issues raised by modern biology and its application by medicine. Bioethics (Paulist) edited by Thomas Shannon collects basic writings in seven main areas, such as abortion, genetic engineering, and behavior modification.

Ethics of Manipulation: Issues in Medicine, Behavior Control, and Genetics (Seabury) by Bernard Häring is one of many monographs to appear in this field. High-caliber evangelical work in this area is lamentably rare.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES A major classified and partially annotated bibliography of books and articles on Psychology of Religion (Gale Research) was compiled by Donald Capps, Paul Ransohoff, and Lewis Rambo (a frequent reviewer for this magazine).

Two evangelical approaches for the non-specialist are Psychology and Christianity: The View Both Ways (InterVarsity) by Malcolm Jeeves and When God Says You’re OK: A Christian Approach to Transactional Analysis (InterVarsity) by Jon Tal Murphree.

For more advanced students there appeared Psychology of Religion (Westminster) by Heije Faber, Religion and the Unconscious (Westminster) by Ann and Barry Ulanov, and Psychoanalysis and Catholicism (Halsted) edited by Benjamin Wolman.

A brief but noteworthy addition to a field where there is a dearth of evangelical writing is Christians and Sociology (InterVarsity) by David Lyon. Two sociological approaches to religion are Contemporary Transformations of Religion (Oxford) by Bryan Wilson and Religion and Alienation: A Theological Reading of Sociology (Paulist) by Gregory Baum.

The Science of Historical Theology: Volume One: Elements of a Definition (Propaganda Mariana [Via Acciaioli 10,00186 Rome, Italy]) by John McCarthy is an innovative study by a traditional Catholic of historical methodology, with reference to the views of many others, especially Bultmann.

CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE In the Bicentennial and presidential-election year of 1976, at least ten fine books appeared reflecting on the political-economic order (especially in America) from differing but clearly evangelical perspectives: Kingdom, Cross, and Community: Essays on Mennonite Themes in Honor of Guy F. Hershberger (Herald Press) edited by John Richard Burkholder and Calvin Redekop, Politics, Americanism, and Christianity (Baker) by Perry Cotham, Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Word) by Mark Hatfield (a briefer, quite different approach by another U.S. senator appears in When Free Men Shall Stand [Zondervan] by Jesse Helms), Between the Eagle and the Dove: The Christian and American Foreign Policy (InterVarsity) by Ronald Kirkemo, The Shaping of America (Bethany Fellowship) by John Warwick Montgomery, Politics and the Biblical Drama (Eerdmans) by Richard Mouw, Karl Marx: The Roots of His Thought (Wedge [229 College St., Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R4]) by Johan van der Hoeven, The Anatomy of a Hybrid: A Study in Church-State Relationships (Eerdmans) by Leonard Verduin, Agenda For Biblical People (Harper & Row) by Jim Wallis, and Politics and Protestant Theology: An Interpretation of Tillich, Barth, Bonhoeffer, and Brunner (Louisiana State University) by René de Visme Williamson. After years of neglect of political writing, there has been such a flurry of books by evangelicals in the area that it is time to pause to digest what has been done.

Excerpting largely from Lutheran documents, Karl Hertz has compiled Two Kingdoms and One World: A Sourcebook in Christian Social Ethics (Augsburg). Official Roman Catholic documents since 1960 on the social order have been compiled by Joseph Gremillion as The Gospel of Peace and Justice (Orbis). The same publisher has issued numerous monographs in the area, such as Christians, Politics, and Violent Revolution by J. G. Davies; the authors generally take a leftist stance.

ETHICS Many of the books mentioned in the three preceding sections are just as much discussions of ethical behavior as they are attempts to relate Christian and secular thought. Six volumes that are more clearly within the discipline of ethics as a whole are The Ethics of Freedom (Eerdmans) by Jacques Ellul, which is part of a projected multi-volume work and is clearly the most significant offering in the area; Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life (Augsburg) by Bruce Birch and Larry Rasmussen, which treats the all important question for evangelicals of the relation of biblical teaching and example to our views and behavior; Ongoing Revision (Fides) by Charles Curran and On Being Human Religiously (Beacon) by James Luther Adams, collections of previously published essays by leading Catholic (Curran) and Unitarian (Adams) ethicists; Who Shall Live? The Dilemma of Severely Handicapped Children and Its Meaning For Other Moral Questions (Paulist) by Leonard Weber; and Killing in Defense of Private Property: The Development of a Roman Catholic Moral Teaching (Scholars) by Shaun Sullivan.

PARTICULAR THEOLOGIES Carl Henry reflects briefly but provocatively on his own movement in Evangelicals in Search of Identity (Word). In On Common Ground (Word), Paul Witte, a Catholic, writes briefly on evangelicals in his tradition and what unites them to and separates them from the more common Protestant variety. The Hermeneutic of Dogma (Scholars) by Thomas Ommen is a study of Catholic theologizing, as is God Present as Mystery (St. Mary’s College Press) by James Ebner, who originally wrote it as a series in the National Catholic Reporter.A History of Orthodox Theology Since 1453 (Nordland) by George Maloney introduces Westerners to a little-known world.

Several brands of modern theology (e.g., theology of hope, process theology) are evaluated by evangelical scholars in a major volume, Tensions in Contemporary Theology (Moody), edited by Stanley Gundry and Alan Johnson. Also criticizing much of modern theology but generally from a “moderate” rather than “conservative” stance are the essayists in Against the World For the World (Seabury) edited by Peter Berger and Richard John Neuhaus.

Hope Against Hope (Fortress) by Walter Holden Capps surveys developments in the “theology of hope” over the past decade. Examples of “liberation theologies” are presented in Mission Trends No. 3: Third World Theologies (Eerdmans or Paulist) edited by Gerald Anderson and Thomas Stransky; Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans are the contributors. Latin American theologians are joined by some North American proponents of feminist theology, black theology, and the like in a lengthy collection of papers relating to a conference in Detroit in 1975; the volume, edited by Sergio Torres and John Eagleson, is entitled Theology in the Americas (Orbis). The perspectives of process theology are brought to bear on a number of topics in Religious Experience and Process Theology (Paulist) edited by Harry James Cargas and Bernard Lee.

PARTICULAR THEOLOGIANS Miscellaneous writings of three European religious leaders have been conveniently collected in single volumes: Selected Writings (Fortress) by N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872), a prominent Danish pastor and writer; A Bulgakov Anthology (Westminster) by Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944), a Russian Orthodox theologian who had to leave his country after the Marxist takeover; and Convictions (Eerdmans) by Donald Coggan, the present archbishop of Canterbury.

Books about particular thinkers include these, in alphabetical order by subject: Karl Barth: His Life From Letters and Autobiographical Texts (Fortress) by Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth and Radical Politics (Westminster) edited by George Hunsinger, Jesus Is Victor! Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Salvation (Abingdon) by Donald Bloesch, Emil Brunner (Word) by J. Edward Humphrey, Martin Buber (Word) by Stephen Panko, Rudolf Bultmann’s Theology (Eerdmans) by Robert C. Roberts, C. S. Lewis: The Shape of His Faith and Thought (Harper & Row) by Paul Holmer, Jacques Maritain: Antimodern or Ultramodern? (Elsevier) by Brooke Smith, Love Them In: The Proclamation Theology of D. L. Moody (Moody) by Stanley Gundry, John Courtney Murray: Theologian in Conflict (Paulist) by Donald Pelotte, Francis Schaeffer’s Apologetics: A Critique (Moody) by Thomas Morris, Paul Tillich—His Life and Thought, Volume I: Life (Harper & Row) by Wilhelm and Marion Pauck, Paul Tillich and Bonaventure (E. J. Brill) by John Dourley, Paul Tillich’s Theology of the Church (Wayne State University) by Ronald Modras, and Ernest Troeltsch and the Future of Theology (Cambridge) edited by John Powell Clayton. Especially interesting are essays by ten Catholic thinkers (e.g., Charles Curran, Andrew Greeley, Rosemary Ruether) on how their experiences have influenced their thought in Journeys (Paulist) edited by Gregory Baum.

PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY Although little information is conveyed in a mere listing of titles, the following are selected from a larger number, and professors in this area should be familiar with them: Historical Transcendence and the Reality of God (Eerdmans) by Ray Anderson, The Humanity of God (Orbis) by Edmond Barbotin, Transcendence and Mystery (IDOC) edited by Earl Brewer, Religion and Doubt (Prentice-Hall) by Richard Creel, The Leap of Reason (Westminster) by Don Cupitt, Body as Spirit: The Nature of Religious Feeling (Seabury) by Charles David, Religious Language (Hawthorn) by Peter Donovan, The Possibility of God (Littlefield, Adams) by James Drane, Transcendent Selfhood (Seabury) by Louis Dupré, Shaping the Future (Harper & Row) by Frederick Ferré, Lighten Our Darkness: Toward an Indigenous Theology of the Cross (Westminster) by Douglas John Hall, Religion and Self-Acceptance (Paulist) by John Haught, Faith Enacted as History (Westminster) by Will Herberg, New Birth of Freedom: A Theology of Bondage and Liberation (Fortress) by Peter Hodgson, Introduction to Theology (Fortress) by Theodore Jennings, Jr., An Essay on Theological Method (Scholars) by Gordon Kaufman, Religion Without God (Prometheus) by Konstantin Kolenda, He Who Lets Us Be: A Theology of Love (Seabury) by Geddes MacGregor, The Nature of Belief (Hawthorn) by Elizabeth Maclaren, The Dove in Harness (Harper & Row) by Philip Mason, God Being History (Elsevier) by E. P. Meijering, Fallible Forms and Symbols: Discourses of Method in a Theology of Culture (Fortress) by Bernard Meland, God and the Self: Three Types of Philosophy of Religion (Bucknell University) by Wayne Proudfoot, Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition (Harper & Row) by Huston Smith, Religious Diversity (Harper & Row) by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, The Religion Game American Style (Paulist) by Edward Stevens, Faith in a Secularized World: An Investigation Into the Survival of Transcendence (Paulist) by Philip Verhalen, and Creator, Creation, and Faith (Westminster) by Norman Young.

Three short books treat the perennial problem of evil from Christian perspectives: God and Evil (Paulist) by Michael Galligan, Evil, Suffering, and Religion (Hawthorn) by Brian Hebblethwaite, and How God Deals With Evil (Westminster) by W. Sibley Towner.

Finally, to end on a negative note: Prometheus has issued an anthology of classic Critiques of God—that is, essays against believing in him—edited by Peter Angeles.

Our Latest

Public Theology Project

Russell Moore’s Favorite Books of 2024

The top 10 picks of CT’s editor in chief range from dystopian fiction to philosophy, with a dose of Sabbath poems, Inklings, and country music.

My Book Sales Stink. But I’m Glad I Took the Publishing Plunge.

Even though the experience bruised my ego, God redeemed it in surprising ways.

Latino Christians Deserve a Straight Answer on Immigration

The Russell Moore Show

A Conversation with Peggy Noonan

The Pulitzer Prize winner ponders who we are and what we may become.

A Better Trans Conversation

As the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on youth gender medicine, Christians must prepare to speak with love while holding fast to biblical truth.

Ethics Aren’t Graded on a Curve

President Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden was wrong, and no amount of bad behavior from Donald Trump changes that fact.

News

UK Christians Lament Landmark Vote to Legalize Assisted Dying 

Pro-life faith leaders say Parliament’s proposed bill fails to protect the vulnerable and fear it will “create more suffering and chaos.”

Strike Up the Band: Sixpence None the Richer Goes Back on Tour

With its perennial hit “Kiss Me” still in our ears and on our playlists, the Christian band reunites with nothing to prove.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube