The Story of Scripture - A Review

Hershel Hobbs was a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, a faithful pastor, and a theologian for the church. He helped guide the SBC through the doctrinal struggle that is commonly referred to as the Conservative Resurgence, where the theologically orthodox majority of the denomination reclaimed the SBC from the revisionist minority that had gained control of her seminaries, mission boards, and other structures. He was faithful through that work, but importantly, he was deeply concerned about the long-term health and viability of the local church. For Hobbs, the vitality of local churches was dependent upon a reliance and intimacy of the Word of God, which is why many of his 100+ published books are popular-level, verse by verse commentaries on books of the Bible.

With that background, it is a fitting tribute that the first volume in the Hobbs College Library series from Oklahoma Baptist University is an overview of the narrative of Scripture. It is a book designed to introduce the reader to what academics call biblical theology, but which is really just the process of looking at the big picture of Scripture and reading the Bible in light of the common, interwoven, recurring themes.

Matthew Emerson, associate professor of religion at OBU, was commissioned to write the inaugural volume, The Story of Scripture: An Introduction to Biblical Theology. This little book is targeted at the average Christian who is interested in understanding the Bible better, though it is written by someone who has studied Scripture academically and continues to engage in deep, rigorous scholarship about the Bible. The book is divided into six chapters, including the introduction.

Summary

In Chapter One, Emerson lays the groundwork for the volume. He begins by arguing that Scripture is united in its theme and thrust. Though it was authored by more than forty authors over a period of 1000+ years and consolidated into one volume with 66 books, Scripture has a single main story to tell. In this chapter, Emerson outlines the meaning of and history of the study of Biblical theology, which is essential for those who will do further reading on the topic.

Chapter Two lays out the first three major themes in the story of Scripture: creation, fall, and redemption. As we piece together the overriding message of Scripture, the storyline is clear: God created the earth good, but Adam sinned leading to the curse. This is the story of Genesis 1-3. God didn’t leave it there, though, he began to enact a pattern of redemption that is evident throughout the rest of Scripture and whose seeds were planted along with the curse. Chapter Two takes the reader through the book of Genesis.

In Chapter Three, Emerson continues to trace the theme of redemption through the rest of the Old Testament, as God’s plan and providence are made evident through the Law, Prophets, and Writings. Chapter Four continues to outline redemption as it is accomplished and applied through the life of Christ, and finally described as consummated in the book of Revelation.

Chapter Five explores some of the major topics or keys that are commonly used to frame biblical theology. These include covenant, kingdom, creation, wisdom, God’s servant, mission and other. Emerson does not provide a comprehensive list (if there is such a thing), but does explain some of the most frequent approaches. Finally, in Chapter Six, Emerson succinctly outlines methods for applying biblical theology, including development of doctrine, ethics, counseling, and other suggestions.

Analysis and Conclusion

This book does not add depth or detail to the literature on biblical theology. However, The Story of Scripture does provide a helpful entry point for the study and application of a critical method of handling Scripture. Emerson does well in providing an entry point for students, pastors, or the average layperson who wants to know how to study the Bible better and piece together a big picture understanding of God’s work in redemptive history.

The Story of Scripture would be a useful volume to give to a new believer who is trying to figure out what is going on in the Bible. It would make a helpful text in an introductory course on the Christian faith or an overview of Scripture. This volume would also be useful in a home school setting, as the concise volume could be easily digested and discussed by the average high schooler.

Emerson has kicked off the multi-volume series from the Hobbs College Library well with this volume that should serve as a tool for churches and individual Christians for years to come.

The Story of Scripture: An Introduction to Biblical Theology (Hobbs College Library)

By Matthew Y. Emerson

Buy on Amazon

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

Knowing and Doing the Will of God - A Review

One of the most common questions that I’ve had to answer as a Sunday School teacher has been, “How can I know God’s will?” This is, after all, one of the central questions of ethics. Christian ethics especially is centered around the idea that some actions glorify God and others dishonor him; some are sinful and others are sanctifying. This includes actions that Scripture clearly authorizes or prohibits (i.e., generosity and worship), but it also includes subjective situations that involve unique and personalized circumstances (i.e., should Sally marry Johnny or should I take this job).

I’m pleased to say that a new, concise resource to help Christians answer this question has recently been published by David Jones, an ethicist at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. This volume is the product of a course he has taught multiple times to a variety of audiences, so it represents thinking that has been stretched, tested, and refined.

His book, Knowing and Doing the Will of God, is a concise, practical introduction to this vital activity by Christians of every age. Though this has come from a seminary course, Jones has written a book that is accessible to the average person in the pew. He manages to provide both a theoretical foundation and practical framework in under 100 pages.

After a brief introduction, this volume contains an additional five chapters. Chapter Two provides examples from God’s word of people discerning God’s will. He also shows how some of the examples in Scripture are not positive and offers background information about pagan practices for knowing the will of the gods, many of which are still with us today.

Chapter Three critiques some of the most prevalent means of attempting to know God’s will that are often advocated among Christians today. Jones writes, “Advocates of the contemporary view teach that since an individual will of God for Christians is presently hidden and unknown, it must be discovered over time by every believer in order to progress in spiritual maturity and to flourish in the Christian life.” (34) In other words, God has a special plan for your life and your task is to decode the secret plan that he’s got in mind for you. Jones debunks this approach, which is liberating as he puts the reader on to the main purpose of the Christian life: to pursue holiness and thereby glorify God.

Chapter Four outlines what Jones calls the Traditional View, which is evidenced throughout most of Christian history, especially in the Protestant tradition: namely, reading Scripture and applying that to life. Recognizing common objections to that view, Chapter Five deals with questions relating to prayer, the Holy Spirit, and Christian liberty in relation to knowing and doing the will of God. The volume concludes in Chapter Six, with encouragement to pursue basic Christian disciplines that will aid believers in knowing God’s will and acting upon it.

David Jones is an exceptionally clear and careful writer. He has published a number of books over the past two decades that are all thoughtful, well-researched, and accessible to modern readers. This volume is no exception. Knowing and Doing the Will of God is a useful volume that will benefit the church.

This is the sort of volume that belongs on a pastor’s shelf for loan to his congregants and on church resource shelves for sale to people who honestly long to serve God faithfully, but aren’t sure how to get from that desire to practical action. Knowing and Doing the Will of God would also make a helpful resource for a small group or Sunday School study. I was pleased to be asked by Jones to endorse this book, and I’m pleased to commend it to you as a resource for your personal or congregational benefit.

Knowing and Doing the Will of God

By David W. Jones

Buy on Amazon

NOTE: I received a pre-publication copy of this volume with a request to endorse. I did so because I believe the contents are helpful and sound, not on the basis of the gratis book.

Theology in Three Dimensions - A Review

The chaotic pace of our neurotic age extends well beyond the 24-hour news cycle, social media, and constant travel. It has crept its way into theological debate, such that volleys of blog posts written hastily with keyboards rattling like machine guns often pass by one another across the mutually desired no-man’s land of truth. There is little time taken for digestion of responses, rumination on intending meaning, and shaping responses that do more than restate earlier arguments to fill the computer screens of supporters and antagonists. When theological discourse takes place online, it is often hurried, truncated, and ill-considered.

We cannot return to earlier days, when messages could take weeks to travel between disputants. However, we can reshape our method of theological discourse by introducing techniques that require us to consider and reconsider a topic before producing a final thought.

Triperspectivalism, a system championed by Vern Poythress and John Frame, requires a measured approach to theologizing, which, though certainly not infallible, can help keep those who use it from engaging in rapid fire debates simply because it requires extended time to measuredly consider an issue from each of the three perspectives. The line on my shelf of thick volumes, which Frame has authored, tends to indicate the sometimes ponderousness of the triperspectival approach.

Though Frame has published prolifically, there has been no concise, single volume introduction to triperspectivalism. That has changed recently with the release of Theology in Three Dimensions: A Guide to Triperspectivalism and Its Significance. This brief book will serve as the entry point for future readers to begin their journey through John Frame’s works.

Nature of Triperspectivalism

The categories within triperspectival theology sound philosophical, bearing the titles “normative,” “situational,” and “existential,” but the content of those categories is filled with biblical data. As Frame argues in his preface, “Triperspectivalism is, in the main, a pedagogical approach, a way of teaching the Bible, i.e., doing what theology is supposed to do.”

While many theological texts are heavily, often excessively, footnoted, Frame’s books use footnotes primarily for sidebar comments and cross-referencing within his published works. Frame cites appropriately when he directly references the works of others, but the majority of his effort is spent grinding the grist of Scripture to formulate his thoughts beginning with the presupposition that the Bible is a unique form of revelation given by God to his people.

Scriptural data are common within all three perspectives, but those data are the main focus on the normative perspective. Here the study is of God as lawgiver, with supreme authority over creation. The normative perspective encounters the positive and negative commands of Scripture to how God designed this world to be ordered.

The situational perspective recognizes God’s control over the world, with the understanding there are new facts that must be encountered, such that we cannot simply make ethical choices based on one thing appearing to be like another. The situational perspective takes into account the reality of the world as it is when interpreting Scripture into theology. In Framer’s theological method, this is the process of gathering data about this world, which God created, as we seek to understand him better.

Frame’s third perspective is the existential perspective. The existential perspective concerns what a person knows and feels about an object or idea. Although this somewhat emotive or intuitive perspective will be less pleasing to some strict rationalists, identifying the existential perspective is essential to recognize the subjectivity of our theological processes. That is, that our thinking is always shaped and should be to some degree shaped by who we are.

The caution for applying triperspectivalism, which Frame returns to frequently, is that all three perspectives exist inside of one another. That is, you cannot consider the situational perspective apart from the normative; Scripture is part of the situation. You also cannot consider only the facts of the matter through the situational perspective without asking how you in particular should respond to those facts under the norms of Scripture.

Frame concludes the book, having outlined his three perspectives in brief, with a short chapter on the application of the triperspectival method. As anyone who knows about Frame is aware, he sees triangles everywhere. In other words, as the fourth chapter argues as well, triperspectivalism has applications in all disciplines that are founded on Scripture. As a theological method, triperspectivalism is really a means of understanding an applying Scripture. It necessarily takes time, as the thinker must grind through consideration from multiple vantage points, but that is the beauty of the method.

Analysis and Conclusion

Theology in Three Dimensions is a helpful companion to Frame’s ongoing work. He has been delightful consistent in applying triperspectivalism throughout his career, so that it permeates nearly all of his books. This brief volume, then, is a great starting point to figure out what Frame has done for decades now. It is also a helpful touchpoint to see why Frame has been so consistent in promoting triperspectivalism.

The soundness of theological method is determined over centuries, not decades. I have hope that the careful consideration and rumination on issues from multiple perspectives will grow in popularity. As the pace of our lives shifts from frenetic to ludicrous speed, there is room for theology that makes us slow down and ask better questions more carefully.

Theology in Three Dimensions: A Guide to Triperspectivalism and Its Significance

$12.97

By John M. Frame

Buy on Amazon

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

Counting the Cost - A Review

Capitalism is often used as a curse word in contemporary political discourse. For others, it is used as a description of ultimate, unadulterated good. The term, coined by opponents of a free market, has so many definitions that it’s sometimes hard to figure out exactly what those that use the term mean by it. For some that dislike free market economics, capitalism is responsible for everything that is wrong with the world. For some that prefer a free market, capitalism is the sum of all the world’s goodness.

In reality, of course, the answer is somewhere in the middle. However, it is often hard to get people on either side to listen to legitimate critiques of capitalism and responses to those critiques. A recent volume published by The Institute for Faith, Work and Economics provides a reasoned and reasonable critique of capitalism, that in the end commends continued support for free market economics. This is an important book precisely because it takes the critiques of opponents to free market economics seriously and addresses them from a distinctly Christian perspective.

Summary and Analysis

Counting the Cost: Christian Perspectives on Capitalism consists of twelve chapter-length essays that rebut common objections to capitalism. The book opens with one of the final essays penned by Michael Novak, which considers the impact and validity of his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism in the three decades after it was published. Novak’s epilogue from perhaps his most significant work calls for a continual reforming and humanization of our economic system, with a significant emphasis on pursuing the common good in a free society in the economic, political, and social orders. He notes that the apparent moral slide (especially in a lack of compassion for one another) must be corrected or our free system will not survive.

In Chapter Two, Jonathan Pennington outlines a vision for human flourishing built on Scripture. This is a necessary beginning point for Christians, since such a vision should shape the goals and means of any ethical economic systems. Critically, Pennington highlights the reality that flourishing is distinct from being wealthy. The goal of Christians as they engage in capitalist society is not merely to build wealth, but to encourage holistic well-being.

Chapter Three takes on the fairly common argument that capitalism, ipso facto, is contrary to Christianity. Here Art Lindsley explains why Scripture does not, as some claim, actually extol the necessity or benefits of socialism. However, the reader will aptly note, capitalism has enabled some significant abuses, which some argue makes the system itself immoral. The fourth chapter, therefore, takes up the question of whether capitalism is antithetical to Christian morality because it is based on greed. New Testament scholar David Kotter argues that greed is a real danger in capitalistic systems, but that the system is not dependent upon greed, as some critics argue. While there is a need for moral reform by market actors, the system should not be discarded simply because it has been misrepresented or, as every system is due to human sin, abused.

Chapter Five asks whether capitalism as a system is fundamentally exploitative. This is based on the sometimes states assumption by some critics of free markets that profit is inherently sinful and that anything less than ideal conditions is unquestionably abusive. Joseph Connors argues that while exploitation is certainly possible and does occur, that such abuses are not a function of the system itself. Building on that theme, Anne Bradley asks whether income inequality is evidence of exploitation in her essay in Chapter Six. Bradley argues, in short, that income inequality is not necessarily a result of abuse, though it can be and often is when the concentrated power of capital is used to game the political system. She is critical of legitimate abuses due to misuses of power, but carefully explains why absolute income and wealth equality is neither a viable nor desirable goal as some claim.

Joy Buchanan and Vernon Smith take up the question of who benefits in capitalist systems in Chapter Seven. Critics of free market economics argue that the rich are the ones who benefit from capitalism, since economics is a zero-sum game. The authors carefully show, however, that free trade is not a zero-sum encounter and that both trade partners actually benefit. Their central argument on this point is good, though there are points within the chapter they deviate from their point and offer insufficiently supported arguments that will tend to raise questions for critics that read this volume. Chapter Eight addresses the same question from another angle. Doug Bandow provides evidence that the poor are actually the greatest benefits of free markets. At the same time, he notes that free markets are not sufficient for human flourishing and honestly contends with some of the abuses that have arisen within modern, Western versions of capitalism.

In Chapter Nine, Edd Noell considers the common criticism that capitalism relies upon and inevitably fosters consumerism. This chapter concludes that consumerism is bad and that it is prevalent in society, but though its public display is a result of economic prosperity due to capitalism, it has its roots in human sin that precedes the invention of modern capitalism. Consumerism is a problem to be addressed, but not one that is truly the fault of a free market. The tenth chapter, by Wayne Grudem and Barry Asmus, considers whether global corporations export poor countries. Their answer is that they certainly do at times, but these are cases where unjust negotiations and unfair trade barriers hamper legitimate free trade. The conclusion again is that there are abuses within capitalism, which are the result of human sin, but they are not caused by the fact of free trade itself.

The eleventh chapter evaluates whether capitalism and environmental stewardship are incompatible. Cal Beisner begins by explaining that socialism has an even more devastating record on environmental stewardship than capitalism. This runs the risk of committing a tu quoque, but that is not Beisner’s intention. However, Beisner’s point is simply to note that, once again, the problem is not the economic system, but the actions of the sinful humans within it. Helpfully, Beisner recognizes the need to internalize externalities—that is, to hold companies accountable for pollution and other general costs. The core defense in this essay is helpful—human sin will lead to abuse of creation in any system. In his argument for dealing with externalities, however, Beisner offers a replacement of the regulatory role of the state with a mainly judicial one; that is, that offended parties would be able to sue as a result of environmental damages. This part of his argument is less convincing than others, as it does not seem to take into account the significant power disparity between many corporations and the people who are most effected by pollution. That is to say, his idea may be good in theory, but the practice at this time might not be possible. The overall thrust of the essay, however, is well argued and on point.

The final chapter of the volume serves as a defense against claims that capitalism has created a cultural wasteland. In this essay, Jonathan Witt acknowledges some of the social problems that have arisen along side capitalism. As with other cases, Witt concludes that they are not rooted in capitalism, but are sometimes exacerbated or made more visible because of the wealth that comes from the general prosperity of capitalist societies. This essay is a strong one, though it covers a great deal of ground. Witt helpfully wrestles with the question of distributism and so-called crunchy conservativism. He does this with integrity that illuminates the alternatives honestly.

Conclusion

None of these essays entirely refute arguments against free market economics, but they do point the way toward reasonable defenses of capitalism that are grounded in Christian thinking. Determined opponents to economic freedom will continue to raise objections and demand additional proofs beyond what these authors provide. However, the essays in Counting the Cost do provide a realistic, critical defense of capitalism as it should be, recognizing that the system is in need of reform and work to ensure that some of the egregious abuses of power (such as those stemming from cronyism) are corrected. This set of essays is an excellent place to direct people that have concerns about capitalism, but also recognize the looming problems with competing economic visions.

This volume helps fill a hole in discussions of theological economics by actually addressing criticisms rather than ignoring them or ridiculing those that raise them. This is the sort of volume that would be helpful for many proponents of free markets to better consider honest objections. It would also be useful in the classroom to introduce college students to a balanced representation of a theologically informed discussion of capitalism.

Counting the Cost: Christian Perspectives on Capitalism

$26.31

By Art Lindsley PhD, Anne R. Bradley PhD

Buy on Amazon

Note: I received a gratis copy of this volume from IFWE as a conference participant. I am also a Senior Research Fellow for IFWE, but I am posting what I believe to be an honest and fair review of the volume. I have only passing acquaintance with any of the authors.