Carl Trueman is one of my favorite authors and his most recent book, The Creedal Imperative, looks like it might be his best piece of work yet. WTS is running a sale right now for $10 each or $8 when you buy 5 or more. So, get one for yourself and every pastor you know!
Here is the publishers description:
Recent years have seen a number of high profile scholars converting to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy while a trend in the laity expresses an eclectic hunger for tradition. The status and role of confessions stands at the center of the debate within evangelicalism today as many resonate with the call to return to Christianity’s ancient roots. Carl Trueman offers an analysis of why creeds and confessions are necessary, how they have developed over time, and how they can function in the church of today and tomorrow. He writes primarily for evangelicals who are not particularly confessional in their thinking yet who belong to confessional churches – Baptists, independents, etc. – so that they will see more clearly the usefulness of the church’s tradition.
For decades researchers, statisticians and pollsters have been charting the decline of men within the church and Christianity. Many suggest that Christianity is not drawing in men or keeping the ones who grow up in it. For others, there is the charge that Christianity is too masculine. Just read books like Wild At Heart by John Eldredge and The Masculine Mandate by Richard Phillips and you will get quite a different take on what masculinity looks like from a Christian perspective.
Recent on the scene of books helping men see themselves as God desires them to be is The Hard Corps: Combat Training for the Man of God by Dai Hankey. Dai is a man who was saved from a life of sin and is now a church planter and a married man with four kids. Dai has a desire to reach the men of this generation with the love of Christ and show them that God has a plan for their lives. The Hard Corps came out of a sermon series he preached through 2 Samuel 23 on the mighty men of David with the desire to show men what Christian masculinity looks like.
This book has some great things going for it. The graphics are eye catching with various military paraphernalia like knives, can-tines and gross looking military food splattered throughout the chapters. Dai has a way with words which probably comes from his rapping abilities and he sprinkles a bit of guy-only talk in there making the book a guy only read for sure. He does a good job trying to tie the various warriors mention in 2 Samuel 23 with Jesus. from this he also ties in the various OT characters and the lessons learned into the NT as well. The discussion questions at the end of each chapter are solid and thought provoking and make the book useful for a small group to use (GUYS ONLY!). You can tell Dai has a heart for men and making Scripture real to them.
As much as there are some great qualities about the book there is one aspect I found to be unconvincing. In Dai’s effort to bring the text to bear on men he seems to make some exegetical and hermeneutical jumps to do so. In several places I felt great liberties were taken to draw out meaning and application from the little detail that was given in the text. I realize some of these OT passages are hard to get practical meaning from but sometimes there just isn’t any – and that’s ok. Some passages are just there to record certain things whose meaning fits into the broader narrative of redemptive history. It’s not that the application was unbiblical but I just didn’t see some of it having a basis in the passage discussed.
All in all, The Hard Corps is a fine book to be used with a biblical message. God wants and needs men to advance His kingdom and Jesus is the supreme example to follow. Dai has a gift that he is using to reach men for Christ and that is to be commended. Check out this book trailer:
NOTE: I received this book for free from The Good Book Company through Cross Focused Reviews in return for an honest review. I was under no obligation to provide a favorable review and the views expressed are my own.
If there is one thing that could be said to be true across many divides is a timeless desire for renewal to something foundational within a people, group or ideology. Renewal to basic foundations and principles often times creates revival among the participants and results in the spread of the message. This is true for Christianity. Often times the thread of renewal that runs throughout Christian revival (not just evangelistic revival) is a return to sacred Scripture.
This renewed focus on Scripture is the subject of Timothy George’s new book Reading Scripture with the Reformers. In conjunction with IVP Timothy George has edited the Reformation Commentary on Scripture series which seeks provide the reader with a vast wealth of rich commentary on Scripture from the Reformation era. Reading Scripture with the Reformers provides the historical context in which these commentary selections are taken from as the Reformers exposited Scripture anew for their time and the future life of the church.
Spurring of Renewal
Like with any revival, there are always ingredients to a renewed focus on Scripture of which the Reformation is no exception. While the invention of the printing press and the return to the original languages of Scripture and the classics provided a fertile ground for Scriptural renewal, George highlights three areas of recurring tension that, in coming to head, became the tipping point for the Reformation. First, there was the relationship between Scripture and tradition. This is one of the most well know issues when discussing the Reformers contentions with the ruling Catholic Church of the time. Second, there was the desire on the part of many reformation church leaders to make the Scriptures available in the language of the common person. It was the desire of these men that even the most unlearned of people could read the Bible on their own. Finally, there was the issue of how the Bible was used in the life and worship of the church. “For the Bible was meant to be not only read, studied, translated, memorized, and meditated on. It was also to be embodied in preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, singing, praying, and service in the world.” (p. 14)
Foundations of Renewal
If there is ever a discipline Evangelicals needs to be renewed in is the intentional habit of reading the works of those who have gone before us. We need to, as George strongly suggests, reject the idea of “the imperialism of the present.” (p. 23) The notion that what we learn and know in the present is superior to what was learned and known in the past. That we have nothing to learn from the past and that historical and theological ignorance is bliss. This mindset stems from a narrow view of sola scriptura. For it is one thing to say Scripture is our only final authority but it is another thing to say it is the only authority the church has in regards to Scripture.
With this in mind, George lays out five principles that guide our reading and understanding of Scripture which were also guides for the Reformers: (1) the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God, (2) the Bible is rightly read in light of the rule of faith, (3) faithful interpretation of Scripture requires a trinitarian hermeneutic, (4) the Bible is front and center in the worship of the church and (5) the study of the Bible is a means of grace (p. 31-36). What the reader will see throughout the book is how these five guidelines for reading and interpreting Scripture worked themselves throughout the Reformation understanding of Scripture. And further, that when we step back and observe the big picture of the church and biblical interpretation we will see that
The reformers read, translated and interpreted the Bible as part of an extended centuries-old conversation between the holy pages of God’s Word and the company of God’s people. While in many cases they broke with the received interpretations of the fathers and the scholastics who came before them, theirs was nonetheless a churchly hermeneutic. (p. 40)
A History of Renewal
What follows throughout the book is an in-depth tour of the movers and movements that shaped the Reformation as the reformers sought to bring Scripture once again to the center of the churches attention amidst all other voices that became a clanging symbol of distraction and distortion to its truth.
Amidst all of the names and dates mentioned in the book (and there are a lot) one sees that there was a true spiritual renewal of the primacy of the voice of Scripture in the life, worship and interpretation of the church.
Though each chapter is dedicated to seeing the development of scriptural renewal in the Reformation, there are several common threads that emerge. First, there is the two-sided coin analogy when it comes to the people of the reformation. One the one hand there were many laypeople (some who were largely uneducated) who had a notable impact on the reformation. Many laypeople realized the need to educate Christians on Scripture and sought to help get the Bible and various support material in their language. Also, men were not the only ones behind this lay-led arm of the reformation. Women like Argula von Grumbach were vocal supporters of Luther and others (p. 48-49).
Second, on the other hand, the reformation might not have happened if it were not for the highly trained and educated men of the time. Theological education was needed to challenge the tangled Catholic theology the reformation sought to refute. Linguistic education was needed to exegete the Scriptures in the original languages and to translate them into the vernacular languages of the various uneducated Christians.
Third, there was the always present struggle between the role of Scripture and tradition. This was one of the defining features that birthed the reformation. The reformers were not looking to toss tradition but rather give Scripture its proper voice over tradition. In chapter four, Whose Bible? Which Tradition?, George provides a helpful summary of the reformation understanding the two as expressed at the Diet of Speyer in 1529 (p. 118-24)
Fourth, perhaps the most fascinating chapter of the whole book is seven, Along the Rhine, which locates the people, places and events of the reformation along the Rhine River. It was amazing to see how geographical location played a role in certain events and how a river can be used to tell the history of one of the greatest movements in Christianity.
Finally, any discussion of the reformation would not be complete without mentioning Martin Luther. Though there are two chapters dedicated to Luther, he his influence is mentioned and felt throughout the entire book. It might not be a stretch to say that a history of the reformation and Luther are one in the same in many respects. Luther’s reformation influence is so deep that George begins chapter six, Lutheran Ways, by asking the question, “Would the reformation have happened without Luther?” (p. 171) While George does not come out and say no, I feel that is the tacit answer – and probably rightly so.
Conclusion
Reading Scripture with the Reformers is a tour de force through the reformations renewal of scriptural primacy within the church. The reader is brought to the two-sided reality that the church owes much to the reformers for we stand on their shoulders. And, that we need to continue to listen to the voice of the reformation as it echoes down the halls of church history. The dangers within the church that it sought to correct are always lurking at her doors today. It is the sinfulness of man that will always desire the tradition of man over the faith once delivered to the saints as revealed in Scripture. This return to Scripture was not an end in itself as if to create a church characterized by bibliolatry. Rather, as George concludes, the desired result of the reformation and the church today, is “to point men and women both to the written Word in Scripture and to the living Word Jesus Christ.” (p. 258)
NOTE: I received this book for free from IVP and was under no obligation to provide a favorable review. The words and ideas expressed in this review are my own. This was originally posted at SI.org and has been re-posted with permission.
Carl Trueman is one of my favorite authors and his most recent book, The Creedal Imperative, looks like it might be his best piece of work yet. WTS is running a sale right now for $10 each or $8 when you buy 5 or more. So, get one for yourself and every pastor you know!
Craig's Book Reviews 