God's People in the Western World - A Review

One of my regular critiques of many contemporary books is they are about 100 pages too long. Authors have often sufficiently explained their point, but because of contract stipulations or a lack of discipline, they continue writing after the book is done. This can be true of shorter books, but it is often true of longer books. Sometimes, however, long books have good cause to be long.

Richard Gamble’s book, The Whole Counsel of God: God’s People in the Western World, is a mammoth book that comes in at just under 1,100 pages. Despite its length, this volume is packed with valuable content from start to finish.

This latest book completes an impressive trilogy of theological writing. The first two volumes, God’s Mighty Acts in the Old Testament and The Full Revelation of God wrestle with the relationship between systematic and biblical theology, with a sound understanding of historical readings of the whole Bible. Volume three, God’s People in the Western World, is part historical theology and part church history. Gamble concludes the set by shifting from his more direct discussions of the text itself by setting the debates and efforts of Christian theologians in their cultural context for the whole of church history. This is an impressive feat.

Though there are certainly signs for concern within the church, there are also signs of hope. Among those signs is a growing interest in biblical theology that is often constructed along the framework of the Creation, Fall, Redemption narrative arc that provides shape to so much of Scripture. There are also pockets of increased engagement in systematic theology. However, historical theology tends to remain the neglected theological sister.

God’s People in the Western World provides a comprehensive overview of historical theology, tracing out the intellectual development of Christianity. He begins with a survey of the Greek philosophy that influenced the cultural context of the early church. These were the conversation partners early exegetes encountered and whose ideas had to be accounted for. The volume moves all the way through postmodernity, broader 20th century debates, and even into ongoing debates within Reformed circles.

Large volumes like this are often imposing and serve more as ballast for the bookshelf or, in the era of zoom calls, as trophies on the shelf to demonstrate one’s theological prowess. This is, however, a book that deserves to be read. It is not a fast read (what 1,100 page book is?) but it is a very readable volume. God’s People in the Western World moves through a vast sweep of history deliberately, but it does not drag. Neither does the volume depend on a strong background in theology. This may not be first place that an interested student should go to get an overview of church history and historical theology––a more concise overview might be a better place to begin that quest––but this a book that a student of theology can come back to time and again as a helpful reference.

Given that the book is published by P&R, it is not surprising there is a greater emphasis on the Reformation and Post-Reformation eras than on earlier thought. It is also not unexpected that there are discussions of theologians in the Reformed tradition that will be less familiar to those who haven’t attended one of the Reformed seminaries. This is a volume rooted in a particular tradition. That being said, the selection of these figures to discuss helps illuminate the debates that were ongoing during the time under discussion. All authors make choices of what to include and elide. Gamble’s choices make perfect sense within his tradition and context.

I found reading this volume slowly in the evenings an enjoyable exercise. This is the sort of book that is best consumed in chunks if one is to read it from cover to cover. Even having studied historical theology and the trajectory of Western thought in multiple formats previously, I found new insights in Gamble’s analysis from time to time. Often I was reminded of ideas I had previously encountered.

The most helpful use of this book will be as a reference volume. It has been meticulously researched and points to a great deal of primary literature. At the same time, it is a synthesis of those primary sources that can provide an entry point for readers trying to understand the thought of a particular era. Gamble provides a toe hold for understanding the intellectual context and situation within the broad sweep of Christian history.

God’s People in the Western World will be a solid resource for decades to come. The analysis is fair, the prose is readable, the scope is comprehensive. This is a real accomplishment and well worth the investment for pastors, homeschoolers, Christian schools, and lay people simply trying to figure out the trajectory of Christian thought throughout generations.

The Whole Counsel of God, Volume 3: God’s People in the Western World

By Richard C. Gamble

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NOTE: I was given a gratis copy of this volume with no expectation of a positive review.

Ethics as Worship - A Review

The very first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?”

The simple, but profound answer is, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

In other words, the chief end of humankind is to worship God and delight in his goodness. But “to glorify God” or to worship means more than singing songs at the appointed time each week or having a daily quiet time. Rather, as Scripture makes clear, “Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col 3:17)

The sum of the life of the Christian should be to give God glory by living rightly unto him. This brings us to the place of ethics in the Christian life. Ethics is about worship—it’s about living rightly on earth according to God’s design and pointing others to his truth in righteousness.

Mark Liederbach and Evan Lenow bring the concept of worship through moral living to the forefront in their recent book, Ethics as Worship: The Pursuit of Moral Discipleship. The volume, which is a hefty tome of about 750 pages, presents the authors’ particular focus on the nature of ethics as well as providing much of the standard fare for an introductory ethics text.

This volume has some similarities to other ethics texts in that is explores particular ethical questions (especially those that are cultural pinch points) after surveying alternative approaches to ethics. This is a book that reflects significant research, taking into account the major voices in ethics in the past few decades, along with relevant technical data on questions like reproductive ethics. The arguments within the book are well-thought out, as they have been honed over combined decades of teaching by both authors.

The premise of ethics as worship is so basic that it seems obvious when it is introduced. As the authors explain, “Ethics is about God. It is about maximally adoring him and rendering to him all that he is due from all that he has made. And it is about our doing so both individually and corporately.” (xxi)

While this approach to ethics seems like it would go without saying, it is less often said in ethics texts (even those by orthodox, Christian authors) than is warranted. And, even among those purporting to do Christian ethics, there is often a failure to make God’s character and value the summum bonum.

Ethics as worship means that the Christian worldview is the beginning of the moral quest. The foundation of the Christian worldview is properly Scripture, which anchors the method and content in the reveal Word of God. But a purely “scriptural” ethic can lead to casuistry. After all, Scripture does not say that we cannot use cocaine or tell us precisely what to do about global warming. An alternative, which includes various forms of philosophical ethics attempts to get at truth apart from Scripture and then looks for passages that can illustrate. Still other forms of so-called Christian ethics are more like weather gauges that check the cultural climate and decide write and wrong to try to maintain respectability. Viewing ethics as worship puts God at the center, with Scripture as the foundation, and delight in God and holiness as primary signs of success.

Ethics as Worship is a thoroughly theological volume with a reformed outlook. Liederbach and Lenow see the call to worship beginning in the garden of Eden. Building on the somewhat esoteric work of John Sailhamer, they call for a retranslation of Genesis 2:15 as a call for humanity to “worship God and obey his commands” in paradise before the fall. This is a debatable claim, which has little support in common translations, but whether or not their translation option is correct, there is no question that obedience and worship were central to human purpose before sin came into the world. One need not to agree with this emphasis to see the value in the approach Lenow and Liederbach follow. After the fall, the priority of worship and obedience remained, but it was frustrated by the effects of sin. The authors continue to explore how worship is essential through the remaining phases of the universe: fall, redemption, and restoration.

This is a volume that adds to the field of ethics, especially among evangelicals, by effectively summarizing much of the literature of the field and offering a new emphasis for the moral task. It is not wholly foreign, but the emphasis being on worship rather than righteousness—the process of decision rather than the personal outcome—is refreshing and helpful in many ways.

Ethics as Worship could be used at the college or seminary level. It would be a useful pastoral reference, with up-to-date data on very important cultural debates. Thankfully, the authors tend to focus less on edge cases and so-called dilemmas than providing sound principles that can guide faithful moral decisions. There are several good ethics texts on the market, but this is another worthy one that deserves attention, adoption, and utilization.

Ethics as Worship: The Pursuit of Moral Discipleship

By Mark Daniel Liederbach, Evan Lenow

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NOTE: I was provided a gratis copy of this volume from the publisher with no expectation of a positive review.