In the recent work, From Nothing: A Theology of Creation, Ian McFarland aims to defend and develop the classic doctrine of creation ex nihilo by arguing that the doctrine of creation from nothing is best understood in a Trinitarian framework. The author asserts that God alone is uncreated and that all creatures outside of Him find their existence in Him. Further, through Jesus, the incarnate Logos, all of creation has been drawn into the life and love of the Trinity.

This work is primarily ordered around two main parts, “Exitus” (chapters 2-4) and “Reditus” (chapters 5-7), but also includes a considerable introductory chapter (chapter 1) and a brief conclusion (chapter 8). The argument he asserts in support of his position begins in his first chapter through surveying exegetical, historical, and contemporary issues relevant to the Christian doctrine of creation. McFarland explains that the doctrine of creation from nothing is essential to agree with Scripture’s assertion that there is one God who is the lone source of all things. Further, the author concludes that examining what God does is inseparable from knowing who God, which has implications for the doctrine of creation. For this reason, Christians cannot talk about creation apart from Christology. Thus, for McFarland, Christology is central for a doctrine of creation as it guarantees that God’s power is not understand as totalitarianism or whim (p. 23).

McFarland then turns to the first part of the book, focusing on the claim that the world is embedded in the life of God. Taking from the statement, “God creates from nothing”, in part 1 McFarland constructs his first three chapters exploring “God”, “Creates”, and “Nothing”. In chapter 2, God is characterized as transcendent, living, productive, and present. These attributes all function within the understanding that God is ultimately defined by the love shared relationally between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore, this framework makes it fitting that God should create, “since creation is simply the act by which God, who is already intrinsically living, productive, and present, determines also to be living, productive, and present to that which is not divine” (p. 57). This leads to the third chapter where the author affirms on the one hand that creatures reflect the Logos, but are on the other hand entirely distinct from it. McFarland argues for the seemingly incongruous notion that finite creatures are utterly dependent on and yet not less thoroughly discontinuous with God by stating that the unity of creation can only be established in the Logos, thus God not only created the world, but created it from nothing. Chapter 4 then builds on this idea by way of the doctrine of the incarnation. For McFarland, the incarnation is the “definitive exemplification” (107) of the principle that nothing limits God, and is the key to a Christian understanding of creation from nothing. Through the incarnation, God has chosen to include creation within God’s own life and through extension, the works of redemption and glorification.

Ian W. Scott, Paul’s Way of Knowing: Story, Experience, and the Spirit (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009), 368 pages, ISBN 9780801036095.

There have been a number of studies published recently on Paul’s epistemology – several of them trying to show that Paul’s epistemology was somehow “narratival”. The notion of a narrative epistemology is not that easy to grasp and is often confusing, especially since different people mean different things by it.

Ian Scott’s Paul’s Way of Knowing belongs squarely within this turn toward a narrative epistemology. Although there are problems with this position, it must be said that Scott avoids the gravest pitfalls. This is especially because he generally avoids confusing the issue of knowing with the issue of truth (a pitfall that mars a recent book by Andre Munzinger). Once in a while, however, a tendency toward the wilder side of the turn to narrative shows through, as in Scott’s confusion about where “meaning” lies (pp. 116-17), and it certainly doesn’t help Scott’s case that he uses Hans Frei as a support.

I should point out, however, that this book is less about narrative than the title implies. In fact, it was originally published by Mohr Siebeck under the title Implicit Epistemology in the Letters of Paul, which is a better title, as it more accurately relates the contents of the book. I say that because the current subtitle “Story, Experience, and the Spirit” does not describe much of the contents of the book, including, perhaps, its main points. One wonders whether the folks at Baker were just trying to capitalize on the current narrative craze.

A lot of what this book deals with are issues of central importance for the study of Paul, and readers can learn a lot about the present state of Pauline studies from this book. Scott’s judgments are refreshingly level-headed, and at times he makes welcome departure from problematic trends. For example, on pp. 183-85, he bucks the trend by rejecting the reading of pistis Iesous Christou as a subjective genitive.

This is a book for serious students of Paul. Its language is accessible to a wide range of readers, and I certainly recommend it for seminary students, but I fear the importance of its subject matter might escape most lay readers.

Reviewed by John C. Poirier

Preview Paul’s Way of Knowing: books.google.com/books?id=m96VFOxBKlkC

Ian Stackhouse, The Gospel-Driven Church: Retrieving Classical Ministry for Contemporary Revivalism (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster Press, 2004), 291 pages.

This, in the words of the Foreword, “is the first in a series of books that reflect the work of an ecumenical conversation,” where Stackhouse reflects from his own, earlier Restorationist roots, on his own experience of the synthesis of evangelical, charismatic and classical spiritual traditions within the English context. What results is a brilliantly provocative work, with an honest and sympathetic yet penetrating critical analysis.

Stackhouse is not acerbic or destructive. He just asks hard questions, which often illumine the failure to weave together a Biblical foundation and coherent theological system with the pragmatism that characterizes much contemporary churchmanship in the British context. He begins with what he calls “the pathology of revivalism.” Stackhouse challenges the axiom that numerical increase has, of itself, spiritual significance, arguing that discipleship has been lost sight of and that the quest for relevance to contemporary social modes has led to a “dumbing down” of the Gospel.

In this work, we are faced with a call to have fresh confidence in the old basics of church. In preaching. In the Lord’s Supper and baptism. And, interestingly, in the Pentecostal emphasis on a definitive baptism in the Holy Spirit. Stackhouse argues for less stress on the “imperatives” of evangelistic method and pleads for more reliance of the “indicatives” of the Gospel: fresh confidence in the sheer grace and love of God and the power of Jesus, present in our midst, to effect the advance of the Kingdom of God.

Arguing for a fresh confidence in church as the vehicle of the presence of the God who saves within His creation, this work invites us to examine so much that is taken as normative churchmanship today and ask the question, “so why isn’t the Emperor wearing any clothes?” This work is guaranteed to disturb and challenge the reader into thinking afresh about what really does stand at the center of truly Christian churchmanship. And it is written by a churchman who, in terms of what he questions and challenges, would be considered a “success.”

For pastors and leaders who have been part of the Renewal scene for a long time, this book is a must. It engages in the questions that we all ponder over and challenges us to go forward in a Gospel centered way.

Reviewed by James Purves