Most of Jack Deere’s books have dealt with the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, this present volume is no exception. Some of the material in this book was published in his earlier work Surprised by the Power of the Spirit (1993). Those who have read the earlier volume will see that there are significant differences between the two books. I think Why I Am Still Surprised By the Power of the Spirit is important for at least three reasons. First, Deere is an academic, he has taught at a seminary, specifically, Dallas Theological Seminary. Second, he used to be a cessationist. That is, at one time he believed that certain spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament are no longer active in the church today. However, he did a complete turnaround, he now embraces the opposite view; he is a continuationist. He now believes that all of the gifts of the Spirit are for today. Third, Deere has ministered in the gifts of the Spirit. So for him it was not just a matter of changing his theology, he acted on his new beliefs and began to minister in the gifts of the Spirit.

The book is made up of 26 chapters and 5 appendixes. In the course of its pages the author covers a variety of subjects; as he does so he draws from Scripture, history, and his own experience. Two people who played significant roles in his journey from cessationist to continuationist were John Wimber and Dr. John White. Some of the subjects that Deere addresses include: cessationism, hearing God, healing, deliverance, and how to cultivate spiritual gifts. He also discusses the subject of physical manifestations that can be seen in some Pentecostal/Charismatic meetings.

There are some real benefits to be gained from reading this book. One of these benefits is Deere’s history and perspective, he was at one time a cessationist. Because of this he understands their theology and why they think the way they do. He traces the development of cessationist teaching from John Calvin, to Conyers Middleton, to B.B. Warfield. In addition to setting forth the history of cessationism he refutes it, he shows where its teachings depart from Scripture. He devotes multiple chapters to cessationism. One chapter that has some relevance to cessationism and that may be of particular interest is the chapter called, “The Real Reason Christians Do Not Believe in Miracles.” Deere maintains that the real reason some Christians do not believe in the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit is actually the argument from experience, not Scripture (page 50). These believers have not seen the miraculous, because it has not been part of their experience they do not believe (pages 47-48). Their “lack of experience” (page 50) causes them to doubt.

McGrath’s Surprised by Meaning is a fairly accessible and slender volume that quickly immerses the reader into the ongoing conversation between radical atheism, science, and Christianity, centering on the latter’s ability to provide meaning to experience. As the title, an allusion to C.S. Lewis’ work, suggests, Surprised by Meaning falls into the tradition of intellectually robust and academically informed yet pietistic apologetics. It seeks to navigate and renegotiate this tradition through modern scientism and militant atheism. In the process, McGrath builds an irenic yet polemical argument that comes to crescendo in a more deeply appreciable presentation of the Gospel.

Alister McGrath, a North Irish theologian, is currently a faculty member of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. He is also an ordained Anglican priest. Prior to his work as a theologian and priest, McGrath pursued studies in biochemistry and molecular biology, earning a D. Phil in the latter. He has written a number of other books on the relationship between science and faith, the New Atheism, and historical theology. He has recently written a biography on C.S. Lewis (2013) and a book on Swiss theologian Emil Brunner. As a conservative and intellectually engaged Christian, McGrath’s work represents some of the best thought engaging influential currents in contemporary, Western society. However, for some American Evangelicals, McGrath would be considered somewhat liberal, as he endorses a type of theistic evolution and appropriates truth from literature and philosophy as well as the Scriptures.

Alister McGrath

Surprised moves slowly, especially through the first seven chapters. McGrath, accustomed to writing tomes, tends towards the same pace with this text. It is almost a quarter of the way through the book before he describes the thesis of the book by quoting Bernard Lonergan, “‘God is the unrestricted act of understanding, the eternal rapture glimpsed in every Archimedean cry of Eureka’” (29).

Several more pages later, the thesis is clearer:

The argument of this book is that Christianity offers an intellectual sun that illuminates an otherwise dark and enigmatic world: it gives a deeply satisfying “empirical fit” between theory and observation, which suggests that the map of reality that it offers is reliable and may be trusted (57).

Prior to this, McGrath traces his own turn from atheism to faith, the contours of the New Atheism and some of its fallacies, and the proper role, use, and definition of science. He writes: “[T]hings that are really worth believing in lie beyond proof. Our most important beliefs are the ones that simply cannot be proved” (19) and “Science is about warranted belief, not about rational belief. The history of science is about the recalibration of notions of ‘rationality’ in the light of what was actually discovered about the deeper structure of nature” (27). In more philosophical argot, McGrath seeks to provide the beginnings of a Christian epistemology. In another sense, the first half of the book feels more like a prolegomenon than the building of a sustained thesis. Nonetheless, many of the threads pulled out in the first seven chapters are interwoven in the final six.

The other half of Surprised seeks to display how the intellectual sun of Christianity illuminates the world. McGrath begins this endeavor by looking at cosmology. Although at times too dense for the non-specialist, his main point in this section unpacks the anthropic principle at a universal and biological level. In short, the universe is “fine tuned” for life (61, 66, 68). He then discusses the latest developments in regards to teleology and evolutionary theory. Here he argues that there seems to be purpose in the evolutionary process and this suggestively coheres with what could be called Providence.

Moving from developments in science and their illumination by the Christian sun, McGrath explores the meaning of history, culture and faith vis-à-vis an atheistic account. He charts his course by centering on the concepts of the image of God and the sinfulness of humanity (86). Keeping interpretations of history and humanity oscillating between these two poles provides a necessary realism, neither angel nor devil.