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Christopher Wright has established himself among evangelical readers as a leading OT scholar with books like 'The Mission of God' and 'OT Ethics for the People of God'. Now, this is a lighter reading than the other two even as he attempts to struggle with some of the hardest questions Christians (and yes, Atheists too) have asked concerning the God of the bible - the problem of evil, divinely sanctioned violence, the mystery of the cross and the end times. Having dispelled the dead-end solutions people have come up with, he carefully suggests some way forward by putting these 'problems' in the proper biblical framework. Framework is very important because it sets the proper context within which the questions are understood. The literary conventions, the historical contexts and the overarching story of God's progressive revelation are important considerations for our study. Yet, at the end, having given us very helpful perspectives and background insights to chew on, Wright stops at where the bible provides no further clues. He invites us to wonder what it will be like for eyes that are only capable of perceiving black and white to imagine a world of colors. And what will it be like for three dimensional creatures like us to imagine a world with 4-5 or 500 dimensions?

That is what the bible does, revealing to us what we can at best approximate with our finite minds and pointing to a deeper mystery that no man has yet seen, touched or imagined. Wright achieves a delicate balance between solid biblical understanding and epistemic humility. Definitely a good, edifying and informative read! Comment | Permalink


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Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision
by N. T. Wright
Edition: Hardcover
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
a little wordy but rewards patient reading, October 16, 2009


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This is a good book to read if one is interested in the current debate between John Piper and Tom Wright on the biblical concept of justification. Wright has in recent years marshalled in a whole new paradigm in the reading of Paul (as well as Jesus) and for those brought up in the Reformed school, it is not easy to make that radical shift in thinking, understanding of terms and perspective. As with most 'new' concepts, it cannnot help but knock off some sparks and meet with some stiff resistance and non-comprehension.

Here, Wright brings the dialogue forward by going out of his way with his extensive clearing of ground, belabored explanations and novel phrases and analogies to invite befuddled readers to look at the whole Pauline landscape from a diffferent vantage point - which, he contends, is more rooted in the biblical metanarrative ('God's single-plan-through-Israel-for-the-world' story) and the first century context. Wright characterises his approach as an out-flanking move rather than a point by point engagement with Piper as he hopes to move beyond the OPP/NPP (old/ new perspectives on Paul) impasse to give us a fresh take on the concept of justification that remains consonant with the classic Reformed view at its heart ie. 'everything Luther and Calvin wanted to achieve is within this glorious Pauline framework of thought'.

For a start, I wish to point out that non-Greek/little-Greek readers like me may need a different translation than the NIV to follow Wright's reading of Paul, esp. Romans and Galatians. Many words and sentence constructions will lead you straight into the OPP framework than where Wright wants to take us in the rethinking of Paul. NRSV might do better and better still, Wright's own translation in the 'Paul For Everyone' commentaries.

Wright can be compared to Luther who revolutionised Western understanding of the gospel with his translation of the word 'metanoite' from 'do penance' to 'repent', as Wright drags out a whole list of 'familiar' biblical terms such as 'God's righteousness', 'faith in Christ/faithfulness of Christ', 'works of the law', 'Christ/Messiah', 'gospel' and of course 'justification' and gives these a whole new shade of meanings in light of Paul's Jewish worldview.

Many of these terms are of course basic to our understanding of the gospel message and the Christian life, so it is easy to get nervous about having our cherished notions overturned. But Wright is no Pied Piper but a deeply biblical and pastoral writer who cares about where we are going with our reading. Though I confess to feeling impatient with his verbosity at times, I do empathize with his need to do that to clear up the fog that often clouds up his dissenters. This book certainly rewards patient and repeated readings. Comment | Permalink


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Paul, Women, and Wives: Marriage and Women's Ministry in the Letters of Paul
by Craig S. Keener
Edition: Paperback
Price: $13.57

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a clear egalitarian reading of the 'problem texts' in Paul, October 14, 2009


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Craig Keener has given us a clear, even-handed and updated exegetical work on the well-known 'problem texts' that hierarchichalists appeal to as advocating a subordinate role for women in the church and at home - namely 1 Cor 11:2-16, 14:34-35, 1 Tim 2:12-15 and Eph 5:21-33.

Keener argues persuasively that a straightforward reading of these texts does not necessarily do justice to their proper interpretation as these are part of Paul's epistolary address to specific churches who were struggling with certain contextual issues. Reading up the cultural and historical background of the first century setting is essential to the task of biblical interpretation.

In 1 Cor 11, he argues that 'kephale' is best interpreted as 'source' rather than 'authority over' in light of the context where Paul draws the parallel between 'woman came from man' and 'man being born of woman'. Yet, even if for the sake of argument, one should grant that kephale should mean 'head' in the authoritative sense, Paul is simply speaking to a patriarchal culture in which man is assumed to be the head of the woman and he is contextualizing his message to that culture (without necessarily sanctioning or universalizing it) that women should exercise their God-given gifts to pray and prophesy in the assembly without undermining gender distinctions. IOW, the point is to preserve gender mutuality and not gender hierarchy.

In 1 Cor 14, the injunction for 'women to keep silent in the churches' has specific reference to women asking (silly) questions and disrupting the assembly. This is a temporal and local pastoral measure aimed at the lack of education of the women at that time. The counsel for them to learn from their husbands at home was with a view that they could get up to speed in their learning of the scripture. This was a far cry from the then prevailing cultural bias against women studying the sacred texts at all since they were considered spiritually inferior.

In 1 Tim 2, Paul's prohibition for women to teach man should be understood against the background of false teachers in the Ephesian church who were worming around and preying on the women folks who were less educated and hence more vulnerable to being deceived. Unless Paul shares the cultural degrading of the woman's moral and intellectual abilities of his day, the text is not appealing to a universal order of creation that subordinates women permanently, as some hierarchichalists claim. Rather, Paul is drawing an *analogy* between the situation in Ephesus and the fall of Adam and Eve. Part of the parallels is that Eve was not there when the command was given - which was the implication of the statement 'Adam was formed first, then Eve'. In other words, Adam was given the headstart in receiving religious instructions compared to Eve. Paul's counsel therefore was for the women to learn in quiet submission because they were lagging behind in religious instruction due to the social conditions in which they lived and not because women were inherently more gullible.

Lastly, in Eph 5 Paul's speaking to the man as 'head of the wife' is another exercise in contextualization. He assumes the familial structure of the typical Greco-Roman household, that is largely patriarchal, as a given context of his pastoral work. What is revolutionary is that he juxtaposes that structure with the model of Christ's headship over the church and calls the man to lay down his life for his wife as Christ did for the church. There is nothing more submissive than that! It is this sort of sensitive and contextual approach that Paul uses to turn the oppressive structure of the old social order on its head.

Keener goes on to use the hermeneutical history of the issue of slavery as a test case, arguing that Gal 3:28 underscores the trajectory from the NT text that is to be realized as the church comes to grasp more fully the implications of our oneness in Christ. This is admittedly a good point, often made by egalitarians to further strengthen their case. To be complete though, perhaps, I wonder if Keener could devote another chapter addressing the common fear, however misplaced, among some conservative evangelicals that the same trajectory could on the other hand be a short route from 'ordaining gay ministers'.

Much else can be said and harvested from this book, but I thought I would stop at summarizing the salient points of Keener's egalitarian reading, as I understand it, of these pertinent Pauline texts concerning women's ministry and raising a concern of where the egalitarian reading could potentially lead, or so it is argued by the other side. Comment | Permalink


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Athanasius (HarperCollins Spiritual Classics)
by Saint Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria
Edition: Paperback
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an inspiring model of radical asceticism in the best sense of the word, August 27, 2009


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Someone once said that saints are people who exaggerate to a fault what the world neglects. St Antony of the desert is the model par excellence of one who renounces the world in order that the world might be saved. This may be superficially similar to some forms of world-denying monasticism, it in fact is anything but that. He does not escape into the desert in order to be alone with God in the manner of the pseudo-Dionysius' 'flight of the alone to the Alone', nor does he dismiss the human society as simply a web of illusions from which to be freed, here is instead a saint who has at the centre of his ascetical quest the pursuit and practice of love - love for God and fellow men. It is by fleeing the world of the jostling crowds, seductive voices and distorted desires, that he learns to listen clearly to the divine voice and when one has been thoroughly formed by that love that he is able to extend his best self to others in hospitality. This admittedly is not a path for everyone. Antony hears the call when he listens to the sacred text addressed specifically once to another individual (the rich young ruler) and his life has been a beacon to all who find themselves suck into the world and losing their true selves. Not everyone can and should attempt to replicate Antony's life of solitariness and desert asceticism but we can all learn from his life of strict spiritual training which exemplifies the value of silence, solitude, prayer, spiritual resilience, humility, love for God and hospitality towards our fellow men. Comment | Permalink


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How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
by Gordon D. Fee
Edition: Paperback
Price: $11.55

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An excellent guide to reading the bible, August 27, 2009


I had wanted to write a longer review but was pleasantly surprised at the number of detailed and accurate reviews already contributed here. So, in short I would say this is a great book that exactly befits the title. It rescues one from the endemic of biblical illiteracy due not so much to not reading the bible per se as reading it poorly. There is a widespread habit of flattening out the rich diversity of the biblical materials, due in part to a dubious 'fortune cookies' approach that seeks to hear a verse from God for the day. While not denying that God can write straight even with a crooked stick, this 'devotional' practice tends to militate against a proper reading of the ancient text. Fee and Stuart introduce readers to the all-important term called 'genre', showing that the bible is not a flat book of propositional statements lined up side by side each other to be read in a uniform manner but a richly textured literature made up of poetry, narrative, laws, letters, apocalypse, ancient biographies, prophetic oracles, proverbs, parables and so on and each genre demands a different set of interpretative considerations/rules.

It may be helpful to point out that the authors' recommendation of certain methods (mainly critical historical approach) and translations (eg TNIV whereas one can reasonably argue for others such as the NRSV for greater accuracy) is not without its flaws or limitations especially for advanced students, but one should note that it is always a risk an author has to take when making specific recommendations of currently available and accessible tools . On balance, as a book that has as its aims to educate the general reader to start *reading* (as different from doing an indepth study of) the bible in a manner proper to its nature and that honors the intents and context of the inspired writers, it has achieved its goals beyond the mark of excellence. Comment | Permalink


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The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation, A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics
by Richard B. Hays
Edition: Paperback
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A refreshing paradigm of reading NT ethics, August 16, 2009


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I am halfway through the book and deeply appreciate the fresh approach Hays proposes in reading NT ethics. Basically, it is a narratival one akin to N.T. Wright's 5-act play as a way of understanding NT authority. The 3 focal images of community, cross and new creation are critical milestones for telling the story of how God was forming a covenant people through which the redemptive accomplishments of Christ on the cross would be fully worked out or implemented in the world, culminating in its final renewal. The ethical question to ask within this narrative framework will be: how can the church best live out her vocation as a cross-shaped people and a redemptive witness to God's eschatological work in renewing the world?

I thoroughly enjoyed the exegesis of the Pauline corpus, the four gospels and Revelation as it takes seriously their distinctive voices and historical contexts before going on to do the work of synthesis and contemporary application. He admits that his interpretation of the text is conditioned by reasons, tradition and (communal)experience which are indispensable to the task of biblical interpetation. This is going to make the task and process of ethical discernment a more demanding but also far more biblical, communal, nuanced and pastorally sensitive one. But, Hays does not see his paradigm as a definitive grid but an *illuminating* lens. It is certainly open to being revised and complemented with other approaches, ways of reading the biblical narrative (such as a less linear one than the one proposed herein) and other scripture texts not discussed here(such as the OT, general epistles, etc as others have pointed out).

Overall, Hays succeeds remarkably in offering us a balanced, honest and faithful way of reading and applying NT ethics. He has put in our hands a very useful hermeneutic tool that will shed much light on the NT ethical writings and significantly influence the way we think about moral issues in light of the over-arching narrative of Scripture. Comment | Permalink


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Arminian Theology: Myths And Realities
by Roger E. Olson
Edition: Hardcover
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A succinct presentation of Arminianism, August 15, 2009


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Where I live, the predestination-free will debate does not quite draw as much interest as in the West for 2 oft-cited reasons: the debate is quite frankly unsolvable by human minds this side of eternity, secondly, one needs to question in what way does it affect our Christian conduct whichever position one comes down to in the end. But notwithstanding these important considerations, I for one have always felt the need for a rationally coherent way of making sense of this aspect of reality and when one works through these issues, one actually begins to see how this seemingly abstract idea does essentially affect how one prays, reads the scriptures, preaches the gospel and relates to God and others, even if one does not consciously think about it. At the same time, the complexity of the case should always keep us within the reasonable bounds of epistemic humility.

Roger Olson has articulated a succint and attractive view of Arminian Theology visa-vis the popular myths and caricatures surrounding it. Besides clearing the fog, I think he does subtly and winsomely manage to commend to 'those with ears to hear' the strength of the Arminian position. There is no doubt that those who already have very firm convictions of their own will remain unpersuaded. I personally think that Roger is spot on that the key to Arminian Theology is not libertarian free will per se, though that is certainly an indispensable part of its position but the very character of God as love as well as the very nature of personal relationships. This contra an earlier reviewer is hardly an 'emotional' argument but a biblical and theological one, in the same way that the Calvinist would root his view on the sovereignty of God, that cannot in any conceivable way be reduced.

What we see on different sides of the debate is a different theological motif being adopted as the controlling key that determines how one reads the biblical evidence - in the one, it's the love of God and in the other the sovereignty of God. (This does not mean that Arminians deny God is sovereign - myth 5 in the book - or that Calvinists reject God is love; just that their emphases differ and hence these attributes are conceptualized differently) The motif once chosen, often implicitly, will bring out a different pattern, and hence a different way of explaining the human-divine interaction. Great minds have wrestled with this philosophical conundrum and it is fascinating just to read how they each try to construct their case. What I appreciate most about Olson's book is his gentle and respectful tone, combined with the clarity and force with which he lays out the classical Arminian position. Once the terms are defined and the misconceptions cleared away, the real debate can then properly ensue. This is what the book seeks to do, which he succeeds admirably and on this count alone, it is certainly a helpful contribution to the intra-ecclesial disputation of this difficult but important subject. Comment | Permalink


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Pentecostal Theology and the Christian Spiritual Tradition (JPT Supplement)
by Simon Chan
Edition: Paperback
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A breakthrough in Pentecostal theology!, August 9, 2009


Here's a ground-breaking book on Pentecostal Theology in the context of the 20th Century's Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. Pentecostalism was and still is without doubt one of the most powerful Christian movements that has impacted the church worldwide, bringing fresh vigor and awakening to many traditional churches and Jesus to many parts of the world that have not previously heard the gospel. Like all bona fide works of the Spirit, together with the spiritual advancement comes a fair share of controversies, sidetracks and criticisms as well.

One of the weak points of Pentecostalism as a movement has been the lack of a thoroughgoing theological reflection of its practices. This has led to not only some theological confusions and a poor understanding of the Pentecostal distinctives in relation to scripture as well as the larger tradition of the Church of Jesus Christ, it has also weakened its ability to pass on its tradition to the next generation in a coherent way - what Simon Chan calls 'the process of traditioning'. Taking a leaf from K Barth, he suggests that it is not a matter of getting the new generation to slavishly reproduce the same formula pure and simple but to pass on a living tradition, one that is open to thinking fresh thoughts and allowing the Spirit to take us to a deeper grasp of the truth and remains at the same time rooted within the larger Christian tradition.

The much debated conception of the 'baptism with the Spirit' and 'tongue speaking as an initial evidence of the second work of grace' is discussed and clarified in the light of the biblical narrative and earlier streams of Christian spirituality. He sees a parallel between this experience and the contemplative one that speaks of passing from the phase of acquired contemplation to that of infused contemplation, where there is sense in which one simply lets go and lets God. There is a sense of falling into God's arms and being held by him in a loving embrace. It is a kind of carthartic moment that is often accompanied by involuntary phenomena such as 'ecstasies and visions' which contemplatives speak of or the' ecstastic utterances or glossolalia' described by Pentecostals. This helps one see the kinship between the Pentecostal experience and the larger contemplative tradition. It is in the light of such a relationship, that one can make sense of its own distinctive practices and mature to a deeper appreciation of its place within our life in the body of Christ.

So, rather than speaking of glossolalia as an initial evidence, he helpfully suggests the word 'concomitant' as a descriptor of what is going on. It is not so much a 'proof' of whether one has received the Spirit or not than the sort of thing that often accompanies a genuine experience of being held by God's Spirit. It is like shedding tears when one's sad, but a sad person does not always shed tears! Also, as the contemplative masters have always warned against being too caught up with 'visions and ecstasies' as a sign of great faith, he cautions us against being fixated by these extraordinary experiences, be it 'tongue speaking', 'holy laughter', or being 'slain by the Spirit'. Such a fixation would only hamper the genuine growth of the Christian towards spiritual maturity in faith, hope and love even if these experiences are helpful at certain points or phases of the Christian's encounter with God.

He quotes the Cyprian's adage 'extra ecclesiam nulla salus' favorably in the sense that salvation when understood aright cannot be separated from one's life within the body of Christ. This is in light of Chan's high ecclesiology which is rooted in the logical priority of the church before creation. This is different from the popular view of the church as a sociological entity that results primarily from human actions and aims largely at human ends. It is the Father who elects, the Son who institutes and the Spirit who constitutes the church, to the praise of God's glory. With this human-divine conception of the church, Chan sees the Eucharist as the basic locus for the exercise of the Spirit's charisms such as reconciliation and healing. The gifts of the Spirit should not be abstract from the context of the the body of Christ, which is the firstfruits of the new creation but should rather be seen as part of God's eschatological project in calling forth a people holy and blameless, to the praise of his glory. This is the high point of Chan's ecclesio-pneumatological reflection which is a necessary remedy to today's penchant for private Pentecostal experiences as well as the human pragmatism that often plaques the church's worship and mission.

This is the kind of book that I've been longing for to come out from within the Pentecostal movement. It helps put the Spirit-inspired movement in the broad stream of the Christian tradition and helps Christians nourished by the Pentecostal stream to understand their distinctive practices and to grow towards maturity in Christ as they draw from the larger heritage of Christian spirituality, instead of being tossed to and fro by every new theological fads and novelties that come along.. that are usually touted by teachers who have little acquaintance with historical theology.

I am however unaware of how this unique contribution has been received by Pentecostal teachers and theologians since its publication. If the price of this slim volume can be lowered or perhaps a more popular version can be written to reach a wider audience, the church at large will stand to benefit from Simon Chan's fresh and insightful take on the subject. May the Spirit continue to guide us into all truth! Comment | Permalink