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 PrintableVersion Always reformingExploration in Systematic TheologyYet more light?ALWAYS REFORMING ‘The Reformed Church is always reforming’ (ecclesia reformata est semper reformanda). This saying has been found easier to repeat than to carry into practice. The idea is that due to our finitude and sin, and to the authoritative richness of the sufficient word of God, the Lord has (in another phrase) ‘yet more light and truth to break forth from his holy word’. Both sayings can be used as a pretext for indulging in the latest fad, underestimating the difficulty of the problem of relating the changing word of God to our changing circumstances. (With some understatement, Charles Hodge once said that systematic theology is ‘not an easy task’.) This difficulty of engaging seriously in the task of semper reformanda is made even more difficult for those of us with conservative convictions. For some it is not easy to release their tight grip on the apron strings of those confessional formulations which have their authority largely by an accident of history. (Why did theological development largely ‘freeze’ in 1647, or 1689?) Though even firm adherence to these confessions can become a ritualistic thing. (When were the Reformed Confessions last given thorough attention, and their biblical basis appreciated and evaluated? When did congregations last study them? Did they ever?) All worth readingSo it is a fresh, bold thing for Andy McGowan to have orchestrated a new set of theological appraisals by generally conservative Reformed theologians, and to have done it with such success. He invited his team to probe the theological basis of the faith, revisiting old questions, sketching new ones, setting a new agenda. Besides the Editor (on the atonement), the other equally substantial contributions are from Gerald Bray (the Trinity), Stephen Wiliams (systematic theology), Robert Reymond (Christology), Kevin Vanhoozer (Scripture, church and world), Richard Gamble (biblical and systematic theology), Henri Blocher (the old and new covenants), Richard Gaffin (union with Christ), Cornelia Venema (justification), and Derek Thomas (the church). There are some notable omissions. Nothing on theological ethics, or on apologetics, on the Holy Spirit, or on Scripture itself. All these essays are worth reading by any reader of EN with an interest in serious theology. (Which should mean, many readers.) However, there is considerable unevenness among the contributions. Or perhaps it is fairer to say that the writers have understood the task Professor McGowan set them in different ways. To my mind, the efforts that come closest to engaging both the spirit and the letter of semper reformanda are those by Henri Blocher and Richard Gaffin. Each is modest, learned and insightful, relating doctrine to Scripture, and Scripture to doctrine, and edging forward. Gaffin’s piece is a model of what is involved in reflecting on a confessional tradition in new ways which yet are in harmony with it. Blocher (one of the few, if not the only Baptist among the authors) in particular is noteworthy for the fresh manner in which he revisits the basic source of the differences between baptist and paedobaptist views of the church and the ordinance of baptism, the relation between the testaments. The other contributions vary in tone and mood from the wary (Stephen Williams), to the magisterial (Gerald Bray), to the confident (Robert Reymond), to the complicated (Kevin Vanhoozer). Some have impossibly difficult subjects, like Derek Thomas on the church. What a complex mess the church is! How can we sensibly speak of its reform by the word of God? Nevertheless, Professor Thomas offers some probing analysis, and some safe guidelines. In their different ways, all these papers are interesting and worthwhile. Thanks Andy! Paul Helm,
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