Dan B. Allender, Sabbath: The Ancient Practices (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 2009), 208 pages, ISBN 9780849901072.

Dan Allender, one of the founders and former president of the Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, Washington, is a prolific writer and speaker. Currently, he serves as professor of counseling along with his private practice. His recent monograph, Sabbath is a challenge to our postmodern culture to rediscover the master’s intent of the Sabbath rest.

The Sabbath has been interpreted in various ways by the three monotheistic faith traditions. Allender’s thesis confronts western societies’ ideology regarding what it means to celebrate the Sabbath. He encourages the reader with the essence of delight as a premise for framing the idea and experience of the Sabbath. His theological assumptions include this holy day as a commandment which celebrates creation and remembers Eden with anticipation towards the new heavens (5). Whether or not one ascribes to the Sabbath as an observance on a particular day or a frame of mind, readers are encouraged to see it as a time to celebrate the beauty of God through many inspired ways. It is evident through Allender’s’ understanding of time, that he has been influenced by Abraham Heschel’s idea of the meaning of eternity within time (49─53).

The author writes in poetic style which enhances the reader’s imagination and the ideas which are illuminated.  Interwoven in this text is a collection of proverbial wisdom articulated in such ways which stimulate the creative mind to explore beyond the mundane and enter into the realm of possibilities of expecting the divine to show up in awe and splendor. If only the reader can glimpse into the imaginative mind of this writer long enough to experience the richness of his intent. He provides due discourse to the historical and biblical traditions of the Sabbath. He points out the Sabbath is one of several religious rituals that is a commandment within the Torah. It is apparent that Allender is not only invested in the idea of the Sabbath rest, but he has been transformed through the experience of celebrating God in the Sabbath.

Keith Ward’s God and the Philosophers offers a close look at a handful of philosophers whose work impacted theological matters in one way or another. Ward takes on certain aspects of the thought of Plato, Aquinas, Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and the modern (anthropological) materialists. Some of the essays are intended to correct mistaken views about a particular thinker, while others are intended to refute something they said. The book is easy to read. One particular bonus is that it frequently engages the “new atheists” in dialogue.

One need not be a student of philosophy to appreciate what Ward does in this book, as it frequently addresses those aspects of theology in which we all are indebted to philosophy. In this regard, his chapter entitled “Why Does Everybody Hate Cartesian Dualism?” is itself worth the price of the book. (There has been no figure more maligned–yet misrepresented–by modern theology than Rene Descartes.) In fact, the book functions marvelously for the study of philosophy itself, making a case (whether it means to or not) that the church needs more philosophers.

Ward is eminently qualified to write this book. I am much less qualified to review it, but I did wonder at a couple of places about Ward’s particular “take” on a subject. I was confused, for example, when Ward portrayed his teacher Gilbert Ryle as an opponent of anthropological materialism. My own reading of Ryle’s The Concept of Mind had convinced me (a few years ago) that Ryle was all about materialism. It is, of course, much more likely that I misunderstand Ryle than that Ward misunderstands him, but I would have appreciated a brief explanation of how this figure who looks so much like a materialist should be construed as its enemy. I would note, however, that such an explanation perhaps lies beyond the level at which Ward intended to write.

Ward wrote this book, it appears, for those with only a marginal understanding of the major figures, although I suspect that the more-than-armchair philosophers will also find it worth reading. It is not a history of philosophy, but it does help fill in some blanks for those who have not studied philosophy at all. Its terminology is non-technical, and its language nears a magazine-level at many points. I encourage anyone with an inkling toward the more intellectual side of the faith to read this book.

Reviewed by John C. Poirier

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Timothy Ward, Words of Life: Scripture As the Living and Active Word of God (IVP Academic, Downers Grove, 2009), 184 pages, ISBN 9781433501302.

This book is full of contemporary appreciation of the dynamic power of Scripture and invites a reappraisal by the reader of what we really think about the Bible. There are sections that will evoke a loud ‘amen’ from among Pentecostals and Charismatics, as when Ward insists that God always does what God’s Word says (p 26ff.). There are also warnings, though, as when Ward identifies a tendency among some Charismatics to place the Scriptures in an apparently less valued place than ecstatic and spontaneous eruptions of revelation, such as in worship services. He also bewails the reduction of well researched and applied expository preaching and the increase of anecdotal surmise and impressions. He insists that we need to avoid the ‘refusal by some to link God’s ongoing dynamic action through the Spirit directly with the speech acts communicated by the words of Scripture’ (p 158).

Timothy Ward, a Church of England vicar and an unashamed Calvinist, has produced this book on the back of his earlier thesis publication, where he examined an understanding God’s Word as His ‘speech act’. He successfully unwraps the implications of a properly Reformed doctrine of Scripture in the contemporary church. The result is excellent and most helpful to all who instinctively hold the Scripture in the highest regard yet sense, albeit unwittingly, the contemporary pull away from a high doctrine of Scripture in differing parts of the church today.

Ward’s dealing with how the doctrine of sola Scriptura should be applied in the church in a manner faithful to the Magisterial Reformers is especially helpful and illumining. Ward emphasises that the Bible is not a talisman, and needs to be read in order to hear the Word of God released towards us today. We need to have a higher appreciation of it as the very words of God released to us. He points out that a doctrine of sola Scriptura properly roots the understanding of the Bible and the exercise of its authority within the Christian community, and contrasts this with a more individualistic use of the Scriptures, without reference to the Christian community’s authority, as ‘solo’ Scriptura (p 154).

This is a serious and well researched piece of writing, written at the pastoral and applied level. Any preacher, who has been disturbed by the challenges of ‘post-modernity’ and ‘post-foundationalism’ and wonders what they are really meant to be doing with the Bible, would benefit from reading it.

Reviewed by Jim Purves

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Ben Quash and Michael Ward, eds., Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why it matters what Christians believe (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2007), 148 pages, ISBN 9781598560138.

Heresy and heresy hunting are the two issues addressed in Heresies and How to Avoid Them by Ben Quash and Michael Ward. With the contributions of several authors, they show the church how to handle truth, and how not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Quash and Ward provide an examination of false teachings throughout the history of the church. They focus on such important issues as the person of Christ and Christian living. Although clear in pointing out the dangers of unorthodox teachings, Quash and Ward urge caution in defending the truth. They warn that orthodoxy can suffer corruption, and even be used as a weapon and become “an excuse for any and every kind of outrage” (P. 136).

Michael Ward

Both men have extensive backgrounds in ministry and theology. Quash is an Anglican priest who serves as Dean and Fellow of Peterhouse in the University of Cambridge. He holds a doctorate in Theology from the University of Cambridge. His co-editor, Ward, is also an Anglican priest. He is Chaplain of Peterhouse in the University of Cambridge. He holds a doctorate in theology from the University of St. Andrews.

Heresies and How to Avoid Them is a collection of writings that were first delivered as sermons. Like Quash and Ward, most of the contributors are Anglican. However, some of the chapters are written by Roman Catholics, a Quaker, and a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One deals with the person of Christ and covers the heretical doctrines of Arianism, Docetism, Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Adoptionism, and Theopaschitism. Part Two focuses on Christian living and covers Marcionism, Donatism, Pelagianism, Gnosticism, Free Spirit, and Biblical Trinitarianism.

In producing this book, Quash writes that his aim is not only to help people avoid heresy and appreciate orthodoxy, but to also take a closer look at heresy and the “what-ifs” of orthodoxy, “so that the pitfalls and limitations of heresies can be better appreciated, and orthodoxy more wholeheartedly celebrated” (p. 9).

The tone of the book can be seen in the foreword that is written by Stanley Hauerwas, a professor. He writes that orthodoxy must not be “used as a hammer to beat into submission those we think heterodox” (not conforming to orthodox belief) (p. x). He argues that it is important that the book does “not demonize the heretics of the past and present” (p. x).