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Solid for Truth: 25 years of evangelical theology25 years onSolid for Truth: 25 years of evangelical theology This book is a collection of articles from the magazine Themelios (the UCCF magazine for students in religious and theological studies) to mark the first 25 years of its publication. There is an introduction by Tony Gray, the RTSF staff worker, and closing chapters on the current state of evangelical theology in the UK and the US respectively, by Carl Trueman (the editor) and Craig Blomberg. I imagine three groups of readers: those who have kept cuttings from Themelios |for years (or wished they had) and are now glad to get them in permanent book form; those who want to see what evangelical scholarship has been up to; and those who are looking for a bit of help in solving problems and had not realised |Themelios was there to help them. It must have been difficult to decide which articles to include. The criteria of choice seems to have been articles which addressed various key problems of the times in which they were written, e.g Packer on hermeneutics (in the very first issue), Bray on Chalcedon at the time of the Myth of God incarnate debate, Paul Helm dealing with the underlying philosophical assumptions of Don Cupitt, and much else. The problem is: who should review this book and who is Themelios really for? This reviewer has hesitated long before deciding he might do it. My qualifications are that I have been a reader ever since it first came out, even if I sometimes forget to renew my subscription. The blurb on the back cover states that the articles are for non-experts and this is surely why I, as a layman involved with UCCF, subscribed, and, on the whole profited and enjoyed it. But is the magazine really meant for the interested layman? I think the aim is sometimes ambivalent. On the one hand, Ephesians 2.20 is no longer printed in the original Greek. Was this symptomatic of anti-elitism? On the other hand, in the current issue (Volume 25, No.3, page 120), the editor, in a book review, writes of 'those few who have not bowed the knee to the dumbed-down Baals of modern education and still subscribe to Themelios'. Its main aim must be to support theological students who hold an evangelical position in a hostile world. This book has chosen the articles of lasting value which a student will find helpful to have on his shelves. But I think the ordinary readers should be encouraged to remember that the magazine itself often has articles helpful to the church member wrestling with today's problems - for example, the issue on feminist theology. Though the book reviews are often of technical volumes, there is valuable advice hidden away there. This book is finally recommended not only for itself, but as an introduction to Themelios and the invaluable work it does supporting students in an evangelical minority in theological departments. John Marsh© Evangelicals Now - February 2001 |