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Slandering The Angels - The Message of Jude (Welwyn Commentary Series)SLANDERING THE ANGELS: the message of Jude Jude is quite a difficult little letter, and so is rarely read, and even more rarely preached through. It is a pleasure to welcome a non-technical exposition which should help to put Jude back in the pulpits and Bible studies of our churches, and also help towards encouraging that his unique message is acted upon. Benton guides his readers through Jude's exegetical difficulties with a sure touch, and with an evident awareness of the secondary literature. Given the complexity and sensitivity of the issues surrounding Jude's allusions to apocryphal material, some background work is essential, and Benton handles it up-front and well. It is no doubt for these reasons that his book is surprisingly long for such a short letter, but the individual chapters are quite punchy and laid out for group study. Overall, he manages to cut a commendably uncluttered path through some rather dense woods. Every reader will niggle occasionally, and Jude contains notorious places for friends to disagree on finely-balanced issues; but Benton is always clear in his own mind, even if the constraints of the series occasionally prevent him outlining some of the justifiable alternatives. Leaving aside smaller points of difference, I would want to argue that Jude's doublet structure is more thoroughgoing than Benton makes it, and readers might wish to consult Bauckham on that issue. A good structural grasp is essential for clear understanding. My caveat concerns the application, in which the author describes contemporary culture and Christian subculture in quite broad terms. References to post-modernity and the New Age, or extreme charismatics and liberals, may flatter some readers that they are engaging in a cultural/theological critique, but unless such terms are defined at least in some way, they remain, frankly, caricatures, and so meaningless that they function only as reassuring slogans for what we are not. Perhaps I am sensitive to this as an Anglican because of the nature of our debates, but it is not enough to allege moral decline or to list a series of areas where one perceives theological drift. Such allegations need to be sourced using UK examples, not American, the time needs to be taken to understand the issues as their proponents understand them, and then to answer them, proving (not merely alleging) theological cause and degenerative effect. Benton needs to argue his case for intellectual and spiritual declension, not merely state it and expect us to harrumph agreement like so many retired colonels. Benton's approach has the unfortunate effect of making his descriptions of today look formulaic and hectoring. Even more damagingly, it makes his description of the churches that fall for the false teaching utterly unlike any that the readers of this paper may attend. But what is the point of Jude if it fails to explode right in the heart of the evangelical camp? Are our churches utterly isolated from cultural contagion? It is dangerously easy to convince ourselves that evangelical churches are teaching and applying the Bible when, in fact, we are reinforcing the prejudices that 'we' have it right and Jude's terrible warnings only apply to 'them'. Are non-charismatic, conservative evangelicals, alone immune? That caveat aside, this is an excellent and thought-provoking introduction to a powerful but strange little letter. It should prove particularly provocative among people who tend to prefer books from 'safe' publishers - this exposition will stretch and challenge. Chris Green© Evangelicals Now - November 1999 |