Briefs with too many holes

THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY
Edited by Gerald R. McDermott
Oxford University Press. 524 pages. £95.00
ISBN 978 0 195 369 441

This volume provides an overview of Evangelical Theology for graduate students and scholars. The contributors are drawn from across the spectrum of evangelicalism; they survey questions of theological method and key issues in theology and ethics.

The first challenge is to define evangelicalism. Mark Noll broadly follows Bebbington’s distinctives of conversion, the authority of the Bible, activism in evangelism and social action, and the Cross (substitutionary atonement). He points with approval to the Evangelical Alliance. The editor, on the other hand, prefers the six-point definition of Alister McGrath and labours to distinguish evangelicalism from fundamentalism. The doctrine of the church is identified as a notable weakness, with a tendency to individualism and fragmentation. In looking to the future, the growing influence of churches in the ‘Global South’ is noted.