Book Review: The Strangeness of God

The Strangeness of God: Essays in Contemporary Theology

Elizabeth Templeton

Arthur James Limited, London, 1993; 173pp., £7.99; ISBN 0 85305 296 4

Templeton describes this book as 'fragments of thinking done over some fifteen years ... mostly since I stopped being "an academic"'. This latter phrase, perhaps, explains her description of this material as 'unacademic theology'. Certainly, these articles are likely to prove very difficult reading for those who are not academics! The Bishop of Durham, who would presumably classify himself as an academic, appears to have  found this book heavy going. His Foreword urges perseverance in reading

this book, especially where the reader does not 'at first, make much sense of it'. In the Foreword, we read that  this book 'lies very much  within Christian Faith, taken for granted and pursued'. Some readers may wonder whether this begs the question: Can we take it for granted that this book gives us an authentic account of the Christian faith? Later, the Foreword describes God as 'far too great a Mystery and a Glory for dogmatisms, moralisms and sectarian certainties'. This statement highlights the difficulty of speaking about God in a way that does not reduce him to human size. Templeton's book is a protest against this type of thinking. Perhaps, in her theology, there is a strong element of reaction against 'two years of fervent evangelical acceleration in my early teens'. Throughout this book, there is one conspicuous absence: the voice of Scripture, speaking authoritatively as the Word of God. At the risk of being accused of 'claustrophobic anti-world sectarianism', this reviewer must ask the author for more exposition of Scripture. Templeton's articles raise the question: What is to set the agenda for our theology - the world or the Word? She  insists that we must not say 'more than can be said in view of the facts' and that we must not dodge 'the actualities of existence'. The evangelical theologian must also say that Scripture is one of the facts, Scripture as a Word, spoken to our existence by God himself. Where the Word is removed from theology's centre-stage, the world will not be slow to fill the gap. Theology will, then, be too much our speaking and not enough God speaking to us, too much listening to the world and not enough listening to the Word. There needs to be balance here: listening to the world and listening to the Word. I suspect that many readers will question whether Templeton has come close to achieving such a balance. In her opening chapter, she depicts God as saying, 'I will go to them incognito ... I must be careful not to dazzle them. I will be mistakable for anybody, or nobody.' While affirming that, in Christ, we have God 'veiled in flesh', this reviewer must ask: Is the glory of God so hidden as to merit this kind of talk- 'mistakable for anybody, or nobody'? or Is there some other reason why Templeton is drawn to this way of thinking? On the next page, she tells us that 'a strange thing happened. In the community of those who had learned to love this man ... the presence of the man who was dead and gone became more alive and potent and  convincing than it had been even in his lifetime'. Here, we must ask whether this is how Scripture describes, for us, the 'strange thing' that we call  the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Again, we must ask why Templeton speaks as she does. She speaks of God in  terms of  'love and freedom which is uncoercive'. Do we have, here, an explanation why she shies away from a clearer statement concerning the glory of our Lord Jesus  Christ (2 Peter 1:16-18)? Is this the reason why she draws back from giving an account of Christ's resurrection, which refuses to reduce the fact of his resurrection to our faith in him (1 Corinthians 15:17,20)? It seems, to this reviewer, that she draws back from any account of Jesus Christ, which is, in her view, too coercive. Here, we have the problem of reading Scripture according to our own preconceived notions. We only allow Scripture to say what we want to hear. It seems, to this reviewer, that readers, who look for a greater willingness to let Scripture speak more freely, will feel that there is an element of strangeness in this book. Whether this is 'the strangeness of God' is another question. Perhaps, it is the strangeness of reading theology, which seems so uncommitted to a careful and attentive listening to the voice of Scripture, speaking as the Word of God.

Charles M. Cameron

Book Reviews

I wrote this review article for the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology
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Holy Scripture: Revelation, Inspiration and Interpretation Donald G. Bloesch Paternoster Press, Carlisle, 1994; 384pp., £19.99; ISBN 0 85364 589 2 

Reading this book caused me to look back over my own theological journey. In this extended review, I share some of its key elements. They may help others to think about the issues involved in our approach to Scripture as well as stimulating interest in the writings of Donald G. Bloesch. I first became aware of his name when, as a divinity student in the mid-1970s, I read his book The Evangelical Renaissance. Bloesch's approach to Scripture differed from the view I had become acquainted with through reading E.J. Young's Thy Word is Truth: Some Thoughts on the Biblical Doctrine of Inspiration. Bloesch presented a perspective which aimed at being evangelical without being fundamentalist. This is the approach he now argues in much greater detail in this latest book. He distinguishes from both liberalism and fundamentalism. In The Evangelical Renaissance, Bloesch listed a number of theologians who could be associated with this position, among them, G.C. Berkouwer. My reading of Berkouwer's Holy Scripture led me into a thorough-going study of Berkouwer's writings, later published under the title, The Problem of Polarization: An Approach Based on the Writings of G. C. Berkouwer ( 1992). This concern with the problem of polarization lies at the heart of Bloesch's Holy Scripture: 'This book is designed to build bridges between various parties in the church but also to show where bridge building would be a venture to futility'. I was naturally inclined to make connections between Berkouwer's work and Bloesch's 1994 volume of the same title. Noting Bloesch's helpful combination of optimism and realism, I was reminded of Bloesch's statement in an earlier work, The Ground of Certainty: Toward an Evangelical Theology of Revelation (1971): 'The great theologians from Paul and Augustine to G.C. Berkouwer and Karl Barth ... have been able to explain what the faith does not mean as well as what it means.' This commendation can also be applied to Bloesch himself. He is a theologian who will help the reader to discover fruitful pathways while avoiding spiritual cul-de-sacs. In The Crisis of Piety (1968), Bloesch expressed his concern that there should be a healthy balance between devotion and doctrine, which is echoed in Holy Scripture, where he warns against 'reducing revelation to rational information' and 'misunderstanding revelation as an ecstatic experience devoid of cognitive content'. Seeking to maintain the proper balance between faith's rational and experiential elements, he points out that while he does 'not wish to downplay or deny the propositional element in revelation', he seeks to emphasize that 'this element is in the service of the personal'. While I was in the U.S.A. in 1978-9, we heard much about 'the battle for the Bible', revolving especially around Harold Lindsell's The Battle for the Bible (1976), and Biblical Authority (1977) edited by Jack Rogers. This debate lies in the background of Bloesch's Holy Scripture. He has listened to what various people have been saying over the course of the years. Now he makes his own significant and substantial contribution. Following my year in the U.S.A., I had an article published in Reformed Review (1980), 'The Reformation Continues: A Study in Twentieth Century Reformed Theology' (comparing Berkouwer and Louis Berkhof), alongside one by Bloesch, 'The Sword of the Spirit: The Meaning of Inspiration'. The two impressively complemented each other. Bloesch's theme emerges on the first page of his 'preface' to Holy Scripture: '[the Bible's] worthiness as a theological guide and norm does not become clear until it is acclaimed as the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6: 17), the divinely chosen instrument by which the powers of sin and death are overthrown in the lives of those who believe'. A few years later, in 1987, following some heated debate in Life and Work, my small booklet entitled The Bible laid particular emphasis on the vital connection between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures, echoing Bloesch. In discussing the difficult and controversial subject of biblical inerrancy, both of us have referred to Berkouwer. Here, under 'The Question of Inerrancy', Bloesch cites Berkouwer: 'G.C. Berkouwer rightly asks "whether the reliability of Scripture is simply identical to that reliability of which we frequently speak concerning the record of various historical events. Frequently, terms such as 'exact', 'precise', and 'accurate' are used for it.. .. Such a modern concept of reliability clearly should not be used as a yardstick for Scripture"'. Seeking to interpret the concepts of infallibility and inerrancy creatively, my booklet also quoted Berkouwer: 'The Holy Spirit in His witness to truth does not lead us into error but into pathways of truth (11 Jn.4). The Spirit, with this special concern, has not failed and will not fail in the mystery of God-breathed Scripture.' Like Berkouwer, Bloesch highlights the profound truth contained in the concepts of infallibility and in errancy. Uncomfortable with the term 'inerrancy' because of its association with 'a rationalistic, empiricistic mentality that reduces truth to facticity', Bloesch insists that he 'wish[es] to retain what is intended by this word - the abiding truthfulness and normativeness of the biblical witness', a truthfulness which is grounded in 'the Spirit who speaks in and through this witness'. In Holy Scripture, Bloesch discusses a wide range of important issues, e.g. 'Scripture and the Church', 'The Hermeneutical Problem', 'Rudolf Bultrnann: An Enduring Presence', 'The Bible and Myth'. I have highlighted his discussion of the  inerrancy debate, whose importance is emphasized by the fact that Bloesch returns to this issue in the concluding section of the book - 'The Current Controversy'. Donald Bloesch is not well known in the U.K. He is the author of over twenty other titles and this volume is the second in his comprehensive seven-volume systematic theology. The first is A Theology of Word and Spirit: Authority and Method in Theology. Holy Scripture (published in the U.S.A. by InterVarsity Press) has Name, Subject and Scripture Indexes. What does this important voice from the U.S.A. have to say to us in our situation? He is concerned about the growing polarization between liberals and Evangelicals - a matter which must surely concern us also. He seeks to be both conservative and progressive: 'I believe in forging a new statement of orthodoxy that stands in continuity with the past but addresses issues and problems in the present'. Bloesch identifies the pitfalls we must take care to avoid: 'We must be wary of a sectarianism that elevates peripherals into essentials, but we must also beware of falling into an eclecticism that draws on too many disparate sources of truth and does not adequately discriminate between truth and error'. I hope that the voice of Bloesch will be a significant one among our students and teachers of theology.
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"Reviews," Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 18.2

This link will take you to a number of book reviews.
To find my review of Christopher Wright's Commentary on Deuteronomy, scroll down to near the end of the reviews.
To find my review of Frank Hasel's book, "Scripture in the Theologies of W. Pannenberg and D. G. Bloesch", keep on scrolling down past the review of Wright's book.
To find my review of Hermann Bavinck's book, "The Last Things: Hope for this World and the Next", keep on scrolling down past Hasel's book.
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Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 16.2 (Autumn 1998): 178 ...

This link will take you to a number of book reviews. To find my review of  the "New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology", scroll down to the second review.
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Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 6.2 (Autumn 1988): 123-131.

This link will take you to a number of book reviews. To find my review of Basil Meeking and John Stott (eds.), "The Evangelical-Roman Catholic Dialogue on Mission", scroll down to the fourth review.
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"Reviews," Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 6.1 (Spring 1988)

This link will take you to a number of reviews. To find my review of George Carey, "The Meeting of the Waters", scroll down to the third review.
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REVIEWS

This link will take you to a number of book reviews which were published in the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology. To find my review of Elizabeth Templeton, "The Strangeness of God", scroll down to the second review.