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God's power to save

Good news for everyone?

GOD’S POWER TO SAVE
Ed. Chris Green
IVP. 204 pages. £12.99
ISBN 1 84474 134 2

Can we say there is one gospel, which is true for all people, everywhere? That is the question behind God’s Power to Save.

The book is the latest series of essays to come from Oak Hill College’s Annual School of Theology day, and attempts to address the issue of proclaiming the gospel in our modern, pluralistic society.

Six essays make up the main part of the book. In the first, Mike Ovey addresses our modern world and, in particular, the notion that people can hold to value or moral systems which are not only different — but which are incapable of being compared. He traces this concept through the writings of Oxford historian Isaiah Berlin. He succeeds in making a difficult subject very readable.

This is followed by two chapters on John’s Gospel by Paul Woodbridge. The first (John’s tendency to refer to ‘eternal life’, rather than the ‘Kingdom of God’) really paves the way for the second. Chris Green contributes a chapter on the Synoptics and Acts, looking at whether the ‘kingdom’ is inaugurated any way other than by the cross. Visiting lecturer Simon Gathercole looks at Paul’s gospel message, while David Peterson’s chapter acts as something of a summary of the overall issue. A sermon on Deuteronomy 6.4,5 (not part of the original School of Theology day) has been added at the end.

As a reviewer one has to ask who would read this book and to what benefit. It is really aimed at pastors/leaders or, at least, those with some experience of ‘doing theology’ at an ‘academic’ level. More importantly, I suspect most of those who read it will already be convinced that there is one gospel, which is true for all people, everywhere. The final chapter raises a number of practical questions (e.g, ‘in what contexts is it more appropriate to preach the gospel in terms of eternal life rather than in terms of the kingdom of God?’), which, rightly or wrongly, the reader is left on his own to consider.

Andrew Wilson,
Christ Church, Sidcup