The final change in vocabulary, that of exchanging inerrancy for infallibility is the most controversial in McGowan’s book, not least because McGowan wants to do away with the concept of inerrancy altogether. However, before we examine this last point – which is the central premise of the book – it would be unwise for us not to mention something about how the author gets us there. For this we will need to survey chapter 4, “Fundamentalism and Inerrancy.” One will …
Category: Book Reviews
A Review of A. T. B. McGowan, The Divine Authenticity of Scripture, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2007, 229 pages. There are precious few good books on the doctrine of Scripture or on theological method. This book by the Principal of Highland Theological Seminary in Scotland, and a Visiting Professor at both Westminster and Reformed Seminaries, which speaks to both of these areas, is naturally of interest to evangelicals. The book has already caused ripples in certain circles since its release, …
I have just finished reading an interesting autobiography by a major Bible teacher of the first part of the 20th Century named Arno C. Gaebelein. The book is titled A Half Century: The Autobiography of a Servant. The book is beautifully bound and signed by the author, August 10th 1944. Gaebelein died a year later. I found several items of interest in the book that I thought I would like to share. I should first say something about the subject. …
The Letters of Geerhardus Vos, edited with an Introduction by James T. Dennison, Jr., Phillipsburg, NJ, P&R, 2005, 274 pages. Geerhardus Vos, first Professor of Biblical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary (1892-1932), was one of the most important Reformed scholars of the Twentieth Century. His works, including, Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments and The Self-Disclosure of Jesus are classics on their respective subjects. Indeed, Vos has been rightly dubbed “the Father of Reformed Biblical Theology.” He was …
Wonderful Counselor: A Return to Truth, by Ab Abercrombie and Kerry L. Skinner I think this is one of the very best introductions to Biblical Counseling one can buy. This book by two experienced biblical counselors seeks to provide believers with a reliable guide dealing with life’s problems. In ten chapters the authors skillfully explain the rudiments of a Christ-centered approach to counseling. The first chapter, “Foundations for Biblical Counseling” lays down a solid theological underpinning for the method which …
Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman, by John R. Muether, Phillipsburg, PA: P&R, 2008. Any biographer of a man like Cornelius Van Til needs to assume certain things. First, Van Til’s thought, though brilliant, is not always easy to divine. Second, that this is made more problematical by the coming together of at least two different obstacles: a. Van Til’s sometimes awkward way of putting things, and, b. the difficulty many of us have with obeying the injunction to …
This is an enlarged version of a review I wrote on this important volume. Review of New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics, edited by W. C. Campbell-Jack & Gavin McGrath, consulting editor, C. Stephen Evans, Downers Grove, Ill: IVP, 2006, 779 pp., cloth, $45.00. When Norman Geisler published his Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics in 1999 he provided the Christian community with a helpful, if slanted reference book on the defense of the Faith. Like the Catholic Handbook by Kreeft and Tacelli, …
John Owen, Communion with the Triune God, edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2007. The great English Puritan author John Owen would not make it onto many people’s lists of devotional writers. Alongside the common fare today Owen stands like an imposing yet stately variegated oak rudely protruding a functional white plastic fence. He is not easy reading. He is not easy reading even in his most readable moments, as in his books on …
The Apologetics Study Bible, Ted Cabal, General Editor, Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishing, Hbk, 2007. At the risk of showing my age, I can remember a time when considering which Study Bible to purchase was an easy affair. One had only a few to choose from: Scofield, Thompson, Nave, and a few more. Well, those days are well and truly gone.What is one to make of the current situation?Options fill out the pages of Bible catalogs.Within the long lists of …
As many of you are well aware, the past year or so has been a period of rejuvenation for atheism. Four big selling books, by Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett and Harris have made a splash, and, I think, caught some evangelicals napping. Not so Douglas Wilson, who among other things is Head of a Christian college that focuses on “the lost tools of learning,” and the editor of the respected Credenda/Agenda magazine. His new book, Letter from a Christian Citizen responds …
