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Showing posts from August, 2019

Review: Trinity Without Hierarchy

Some recent evangelical trends have insisted that the Son is subordinate to the Father. It is in response to such complementarian theologians that the contributors to Trinity Without Hierarchy: Reclaiming Nicene Orthodoxy in Evangelical Theology  (Kregel Academic, 2019) write. Edited by Mike Bird and Scott Harrower, sixteen respected theologians from around the world have come together to rescue the doctrine of the Trinity and reclaim the Nicene position, that all persons of the Trinity are co-eternal and co-equal. The first essays introduce the doctrine of the Trinity from a New Testament standpoint, followed by a set of essays that trace Nicene Trinitarianism through church history, from Athanasius to the Reformers to Pannenberg. Although written with varying levels of difficulty—from introductory surveys to advanced theological treatments—each essay is short and digestible. The implications of the doctrine of the Trinity meet the challenges of modern evangelicalism, particul...

Review: Singing the Congregation

Regrettably, as a result of the so-called "worship wars," music and worship have become conflated within evangelical circles. A performance mentality has led to participation in worship as a distinct social activity. In Singing the Congregation  (Oxford, 2018), ethnomusicologist Monique Ingalls explores how singing contemporary worship music forms evangelical worshiping communities. Ingalls targets five distinct ways in which evangelical worshipers conceive themselves: concert, conference, church, public, and networked congregations. Each chapter is devoted to a different model; Ingalls probes how concert congregations seek to lift Jesus' name, how conference congregations seek to form an eschatological community, how church congregations seek to create a distinct worship voice, how public congregations seek to take religion outside of the church, and how networked congregations seek to build community outside of the church walls. Her research is certainly thorough, b...

Review: Introducing Evangelical Theology

Respected evangelical scholar Daniel J. Treier has distilled his celebrated Evangelical Dictionary of Theology  into a systematic theology textbook: Introducing Evangelical Theology  (Baker Academic, 2019). Designed for intermediate to advanced theology students, Treier systematically treats evangelical approaches to Christian doctrine through a trinitarian framework. In Part 1, "Knowing the Triune God," Treier discusses the ways in which we know God through creeds, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. Part 2 examines the role of the Father in providence, creation, and theological anthropology. Part 3 moves to the person and work of the Son in reconciliation and salvation. Finally, Part 4 discusses how the Holy Spirit breathes life into the Christian life, Scripture, the church, and the new creation. This book is specially geared toward evangelical thinkers; Treier, following Bebbington's famous quadrilateral, sees evangelicals as a particular Christian mo...