Murray Rae, Stephen Holmes and Lindsey Hall, Christian Doctrine: SCM Reader (SCM, 2010)
Back in 2001 Murray Rae and Steve Holmes, alongwith Colin Gunton published The Practice of Theology, which articulated the then King's College London approach to doing theology. With the unexpected death of Colin Gunton, Lindsey Hall has joined Rae and Holmes in producing this sequel which is a reader in Christian Doctrine. Finally, something to compete with McGrath who dominates the theology reader market. Nine chapters cover the major topics of Christian doctrine - the doctrine of God (divided into patristic and reformation to modern day), creation and providence, person of Christ, work of Christ, the Holy Spirit, doctrine of humanity, the church and eschatology. Other topics not covered here, like a doctrine of revelation, can be founded in The Practice of Theology. The strength of a reader is it gives the student an overview and a taster of how doctrine develops and the names of those who have historically made major contributions.
If compared to McGrath, the SCM reader has chapters on creation and the Holy Spirit, but ulike McGrath does not have chapters on the sacraments (although the chapter on church includes extracts on the sacraments) and theology's relationship to world religions. The SCM reader includes the Baptists Charles H. Spurgeon, H. Wheeler Robinson and Paul Fiddes, McGrath includes no Baptists (this may reflect the input of Holmes who is a Baptist).
No reader can be complete, but this SCM reader has much to commend it. I found many names I have not come across before and so it fulfils its brief, as much as it is able, in providing a wide range of voices to widen the student's horizons. For those interested in what Christian theologians have said about its beliefs over its 2,000 year history, this is a fantastic place to start.
Gregory MacDonald (eds.), All Will Be Well: Explorations in Universalism and Christian Theology from Origen to Moltmann (Cascade, 2010)
There is been something of a revival of interest in universalism in recent years. This is in part down to Robin Parry, who has written one monograph - The Evangelical Universalist (SPCK, 2008) under the pseudonym Gregory Macdonald and edited two collections, of which this is one and the other is the earlier Universal Salvation? The Current Debate edited with Christopher Partridge (Paternoster, 2003). Alongside this have been a number of monographs on universalism from the likes of Steven Harmon on Gregory of Nyssa, Origen and Clement of Alexandria; Morwenna Ludlow on Gregory of Nyssa and Karl Rahner; and Tom Greggs on Origen and Karl Barth.
This is a fantastic collection of essays each looking at different theologians/pastors who have argued for Christian universalism or in a few cases like Forsyth and Barth come close to universalism. Some names are well known like Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Schleiermacher, Balthasar and Moltmann. While others, especially in the section on seventeeth to nineteenth centuries are less well known - for example, James Relly, Elhanan Winchester and Thomas Erskine - but demonstrate that universalism in different forms has been present throughout the history of the church.
The whole book is ably introduced by Macdonald (aka Parry), where he situates universalism in the theological space between dogma and heresy. He argues that it is neither a doctrine that must 'required or forbidden', which allows it a new space than it has previously had, where it had (and for some still does) verged on heresy. Oliver Crisp's chapter on Barth (his third study on Barth and the charge of universalism) is a good and convincing read claiming Barth's theology is ultimately universalist, although Barth (and others have) claimed otherwise.
I hope this book will aid a positive discussion of universalism and see more theologians happy to either become convinced universalists like Parry or at least see it as an acceptable doctrinal position for Christians.
Both these books will also be reviewed in the next edition of Regent's Reviews due in April.
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