Evangelical Review of Theology 44, 4 (October 2020)

The latest Evangelical Review of Theology, published by The World Evangelical Alliance, is now online and available in its entirety as a pdf here.

Editor’s Introduction:

Is Our Quality Higher Than That of the US Presidential Campaign?

Efraim Tendero

Evangelicals and Elections

Thomas K. Johnson

The Protester, the Dissident and the Christian

When and why should Christians protest? How can we turn the hearts of other protesters towards the hope offered by the Christian gospel? This article, revised from a sermon originally preached during the Arab Spring uprisings, answers those timely questions as we experience another year of widespread protests.

Ebenezer Yaw Blasu

The Invisible Global War: An African ‘Theocological’ Assessment of Responses to COVID-19

How should the experience of COVID-19 shape future human behaviour? This article examines responses by both Christians and practitioners of primal (traditional) African religions, from a perspective that combines theology and ecology. Drawing on scientific and spiritual principles, it argues that COVID-19 may be calling us to avoid forms of resource exploitation that disturb the sensitive balance between human activity and nature.

Andrea L. Robinson

Reflecting the Image of God through Speech: Genesis 1–3 in James 3:1–12

This article shows how James 3:1–12 echoes the creation account, using imagery from Genesis 1–3 to correlate purity of speech with bearing the image of God. Accordingly, the untamed tongue is regarded as a central characteristic of fallenness and a distortion of God’s image – emphasizing that our failure to tame the tongue separates individuals from God, creates division in the community of faith, and has a severely destructive impact on the world. Applications and a sample sermon outline are provided.

C. Ryan Fields

Evangelical Engagement with Barth: A Modest Proposal

Karl Barth, one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century, is too important for evangelicals to ignore but not easy to evaluate. Barth reacted against liberalizing tendencies with a strong emphasis on the centrality of Christ and the power of Scripture, but his theology also contained some innovations that deviate from evangelical tradition. This article surveys evaluations of Barth by English-speaking evangelicals and offers well-informed suggestions on how to appropriate Barth’s work.

Jana Holiday and Linda Cannell with James D. McLennan

The Puzzle of Institutional Inertia in Theological Education

Theological institutions must sustain their core values while not resisting necessary change. The authors draw on their extensive experience in theological education and board governance to address how four groups of stakeholders– administrators, faculty, students and boards – can resist institutional inertia.

Chris Gousmett

What Are the ‘Gates of Hades’ in Matthew 16:18?

Matthew 16:18 contains one of Jesus’ most obscure remarks, as he assures Peter (and us) that the ‘gates of Hades’ will not overcome the church. But gates are stationary objects that don’t normally overcome anything. What was Jesus promising? This article shows the weakness of prevailing interpretations and argues for an expansive metaphorical alternative.

Thomas Schirrmacher

Observations on Apologetics and Its Relation to Contemporary Christian Mission

Christians often think of apologetics as something that only academics do, but actually it has been an essential part of Christian mission ever since the book of Acts. This article offers penetrating reflections on the meaning of apologetics today and how all Christians should equip themselves to do it.

Elmer Thiessen

The Reconstruction of Evangelism by Liberal Protestants: An Evangelical Response

Many voices – both secular and religious – argue that it is inappropriate in a religiously pluralistic world for evangelicals to call all people to repentance and faith in Christ. This article, by a leading evangelical expert on the ethics of evangelism, uses a recently published book critical of traditional evangelism as a starting point to explore how evangelicals should respond to such objections.

Book Reviews

Vern S. Poythress on Reading and Understanding Genesis 1-3

Vern S. Poythress, Interpreting Eden: A Guide to Faithfully Reading and Understanding Genesis 1–3 (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019).

No doubt due to someone’s generosity, a newish book by Vern Poythress on handling Genesis 1-3 has been made freely available in its entirety. Here’s the blurb:

‘Christians have long discussed and debated the first three chapters of the Bible. How we interpret this crucial section of Scripture has massive implications for how we understand the rest of God’s Word and even history itself. In this important volume, biblical scholar Vern Poythress combines careful exegesis with theological acumen to illuminate the significance of Genesis 1–3. In doing so, he demonstrates the sound interpretive principles that lead to true understanding of the biblical text, while also exploring complex topics such as the nature of time, the proper role of science, interpretive literalism, and more.’

The book is available here as a pdf.

Bulletin of Ecclesial Theology 5, 2 (2018)

The latest issue of the Bulletin of Ecclesial Theology is now available, the second of two fascicles on the historical Adam. This one carrying the below essays (alas, the summaries in Gerald Hiestand’s editorial relate to the previous issue rather than this one), and several book reviews which ‘likewise focus both on both contemporary and classic works relating to the Historical Adam, original sin, and theological anthropology’.

The issue is available from here via a painless sign-up link.

J. Ryan Davidson

All the Generations from Adam to this Day: The Place of Adam in the Apostolic Fathers

Jonathan Huggins

N.T. Wright on the Historical Adam

Michael LeFebvre

Adam Reigns in Eden: Genesis and the Origin of Kingship

Benjamin Petroelje

The Plight and Solution of the Primitive Person

Joshua Philpot

See the True and Better Adam: Typology and Human Origins

Book Reviews

Bulletin of Ecclesial Theology 5, 1 (2018)

The latest issue of the Bulletin of Ecclesial Theology is now available, carrying the below essays on the historical Adam, and several book reviews which ‘likewise focus both on both contemporary and classic works relating ‎to the Historical Adam, original sin, and theological anthropology’.

The issue is available from here via a painless sign-up link.

Joel Willitts

Adam and Eve ‘Above and Beyond’ Darwin: Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a Model for a Faithful Theological Interpretation of the ‘First Human Beings’

Edward W. Klink III

Genesis Revealed: Second Adam Christology in the Fourth Gospel

John W. Yates III

The Image of Adam: Death in Paul and Genesis 1–5

Gerald Hiestand

A More Modest Adam: An Exploration of Irenaeus’ Anthropology in Light of the Darwinian Account of Pre-Fall Death

Matt Ward

Liturgical Adam: What Every Pastor Needs to Know

Book Reviews

Michael Goheen on Genesis 1-3 in Context

Morling College, Australia, posts the slides from a recent lecture by Michael Goheen on ‘Genesis 1-3 in Context: Historical, Literary, Cultural, and Contemporary Perspectives’. The slides are full and probably provide a good indication of the content of the content of the talk.

Various on the Historicity of Adam and Eve

There seems to be a fair bit of stuff floating around at the moment on the historicity, or otherwise, of Adam and Eve.

1. A new book by C. John Collins – Did Adam and Eve Really Exist? – published by Crossway in the United States (with an excerpt here) and by IVP in the UK. Collins writes:

‘My goal in this study is to show why I believe we should retain a version of the traditional view, in spite of any pressures to abandon it. I intend to argue that the traditional position on Adam and Eve, or some variation of it, does the best job of accounting not only for the Biblical materials but also for our everyday experience as human beings – an experience that includes sin as something that must be forgiven (by God and our fellow human beings) and that must be struggled against as defiling and disrupting a good human life’ (13).

2. An article by Tim Keller on the Gospel Coalition website – ‘Sinned in a Literal Adam, Raised in a Literal Christ’:

‘When Paul speaks of being “in” someone he means to be covenantally linked to them so their historical actions are credited to you. It is impossible to be “in” someone who doesn’t historically exist. If Adam doesn’t exist, Paul’s whole argument – that both sin and grace work “covenantally” – falls apart. You can’t say that Paul was a man of his time but accept his basic teaching about Adam. If you don’t believe what he believes about Adam, you are denying the core of Paul’s teaching.

3. In part picking up on the Collins book and the Keller article, Christianity Today has carried a few pieces on the topic, notably ‘The Search for the Historical Adam’ by Richard N. Ostling.

4. The latest issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology – 15, 1 (Spring 2011) – is devoted to the topic. In the editorial, Stephen J. Wellum writes:

‘We are seeking to stake a claim that to deny an historic Adam and fall and go the way of recent evangelicals is not only unnecessary, it is unbiblical in the strongest of terms. In the end, it will lead to a denial of other parts of Scripture, and ultimately it will undercut the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why our wide-ranging essays and forum pieces are seeking, in some small way, to demonstrate that from Scripture, theology, science, and more, debating an historic Adam matters’ (3).

Ecclesia Reformanda 3, 1 (April 2011)

The latest Ecclesia Reformanda arrived this morning, this issue containing the following articles:

Steffen Jenkins

Served to Serve: Why Food is Central to the Anthropology of Creation in Genesis 1-3 and to the Plot of Genesis

The book of Genesis is laden with references to food. Recent scholarship has begun to pay attention to food in the Bible and especially found that it functions as a Leitmotif in the Joseph narrative which concludes Genesis. This article will demonstrate that food is central to the opening three chapters of the book. Creation and the place of people within it cannot be understood without close attention to food, which explains its prominent place and function in the rest of Genesis. We conclude with some reflections on the food imagery of redemption on the lips of Jesus, and by noting the inescapably earthy and physical contribution of food to the future hope held out in the gospel.

Neil G.T. Jeffers

Reformed Defences of God’s Righteousness in Ordaining the Fall. Part Two

This concludes the treatment of Reformed defences of God’s righteousness in ordaining the Fall begun in Ecclesia Reformanda 2.2 (2010): 154-185. The conclusion focuses particularly on the evaluation of divine permission as a defence.

Alastair Roberts

Just Cause Against Same-Sex Marriage: Why We Cannot Hold Our Peace

As the questions raised by same-sex marriage are frequently foreclosed for participants from the various sides of the debate, the particular issues that they highlight are seldom given the sustained and close attention that they merit. Placing the argument against same-sex marriage on a broad foundation, these articles explore the ways in which its legalization would transform the institution, in its relationship to individuals, the genders, marriage partners, children, society, and past and future generations. By emphasizing these distinct matters, Christians will be better equipped to establish points of contact around which meaningful dialogue can be forged.

Book Reviews

Richard M. Davidson on the Song of Songs

Richard M. Davidson, ‘Theology of Sexuality in the Song of Songs: Return to Eden’, Andrews University Seminary Studies 27, 1 (1989), 1-19.

After looking at ‘allegorical’ and ‘literal’ approaches to interpreting the Song of Songs, Richard Davidson notes studies that have analysed the relationship between the early chapters of Genesis and the Song of Songs (5). On this basis, he makes the following points:

Sexuality is Good

‘First, underlying the entire Song is the same high doctrine of creation that forms the backdrop for biblical wisdom literature in general’ (6).

Sexuality is for Couples

‘Secondly, the man and woman are a duality, as in the beginning – a lover and his beloved’ (7).

Sexuality is Egalitarian

‘Third, the lovers in the Song are presented as equals in every way’ (8).

Sexuality is Related to Wholeness

‘Closely related to the motifs of equality/mutuality, we note, fourthly, the concept of wholeness in sexuality’ (10).

Sexuality is a Multidimensional Relationship

‘From the aspect of wholeness and solidarity we are led to a fifth insight into the nature of sexuality: Paradisiacal sexual love means a multidimensional relationship’ (11).

Sexuality is Pleasurable

‘As a sixth insight into the nature of sexuality from the Song of Songs, we note one aspect that is not mentioned. The Song contains no reference to the procreative function of sexuality’ (15-16).

Sexuality is Beautiful

‘This leads us to the final insight and the major statement of the Song of Songs regarding the nature of sexuality. In living pictures sexuality is presented as wholesome, beautiful, and good; something to be celebrated and enjoyed without fear or embarrassment’ (16).

He also notes, in conclusion, that the Song may contain an explicit indication of the divine source of human love – in 8:6-7, translated as:

‘For love is as strong as death,

ardent love as relentless as Sheol;

the flash of it is a flash of fire,

a flame of Yah(weh) himself.

If this is the case, he holds, ‘then true human love is explicitly described as originating in God as “a spark off the original flame” [and] points beyond itself to the Lord of love’ (18).

Davidson thus advocates a typological – as opposed to allegorical – approach to the Song of Songs. While the relationship between husband and wife as described in the Song ‘has independent meaning and value of its own that is affirmed and extolled’, yet ‘at the same time this human love is given even greater significance as it typologically points beyond itself to the divine Lover’ (18).

Davidson returns to Song of Songs in the final two chapters of his 844-page treatment of sexuality in the Old Testament – Flame of Yahweh: Sexuality in the Old Testament (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007), dealing with similar themes though under a slightly different set of headings.

The final chapter seems to expand the ‘sexuality is beautiful’ dimension under the following points:

• Paradisal love is stunningly beautiful

• Paradisal love is wonderfully sensuous

• Paradisal love is an exuberant celebration

• Paradisal love is a thrilling adventure

• Paradisal love is an exquisite delight

• Paradisal love is highly erotic

• Paradisal love is unashamed and uninhibited

• Paradisal love is restrained and in good taste

• Paradisal love is light-hearted play

• Paradisal love is a romantic love affair

• Paradisal love is powerfully passionate

• Paradisal love is an awe-inspiring mystery