Favourite Books of 2025

Theology

Finding the Right Hills to Die on: The Case for Theological Triage, by Gavin Ortlund 

When theological argument is conducted in a good spirit, then it should be helpful. After all, none of us has a monopoly on the truth; we all have blindspots, though many do not acknowledge that. Ortland provides a framework by which to judge the level at which doctrine should be a cause for separation:

• First rank doctrines are those that are essential to the gospel;

• Second rank doctrines are "urgent for the health and practice of the church";

• Third rank doctrines are important but not so important that they should lead to separation between brothers and sisters;

• Fourth-rank doctrines are really not important at all - we should be able to agree to disagree on these matters without that affecting gospel fellowship.

But what should we make a big issue about, and what should we learn to live with? That question, in a nutshell, is what Ortlund seeks to address. This matters because the witness of the church is negatively affected both by minimising and maximising distinctions.

He develops a hierarchy of doctrinal importance:

I think this is an excellent book. Even if you don't land exactly in the same place on each of the examples he gives - e.g., the virgin birth, justification by faith alone, baptism, spiritual gifts, women in ministry, the millennium, the days of creation - the exercise is well worth it. Evangelicals desperately need this sort of thinking as we seek to hold forth the gospel together to a dying world.

Biography

God's Fool, by George Patterson

I picked this up some years ago but never read it. When I was a teen, I read Tibetan Tales by Patterson's ministry partner, Geoffrey Bull. It had a profound effect on me and helped to propel me into cross-cultural ministry in the same neighbourhood.

Patterson's story is a rollicking read. He and Bull had arrived in China in the late 1940s to witness for Christ among the peoples of the greater Tibetan plateau and had made friendship with the leaders of the Khambas just as they were trying to throw off the threat from the Communist Peoples' Army to annex Tibet. Patterson volunteers to escape to India to alert the West to what is happening and what follows is a fascinating tale of extreme horse riding through the most rugged terrain possible.

As a travelogue the account is gripping, but I was struck by the hyper-subjective nature of his approach to discerning the will of God and disappointed by the arrogant and judgmental attitude Patterson had towards other Christians. 

In later life, Patterson and his wife, Meg, a medical doctor, courted controversy by advocating for what seems to be quack medicine in the treatment of drug addiction. I can't help but think that a more humble attitude to other Christians (and other people in general actually) would have made this energetic and visionary man more fruitful in the kingdom.

Schaeffer on the Christian Life: Countercultural Spirituality, by William Edgar

Francis Schaeffer is one of my heroes (see another blog post here). 

This book, in the 'Theologians on the Christian Life' series, is an examination of the life and ministry of this American pastor and missionary, who died when I was still at university, at a time when his influence on me had already been profound. 

Bill Edgar came to Christ through Schaeffer's careful personal witness. Edgar's recounting of that episode is very moving. Edgar was then involved in L'Abri on an off for a while, which no doubt prepared him well to teach on apologetics at Westminster Seminary.

The book is divided into three parts: The Man and His Times, True Spirituality, and Trusting God for All of Life.

I found it a super-encouraging read.

Missiology

You Will Be My Witnesses: Theology for God’s Church Serving in God’s Mission, by Brian A. DeVries

The theology of mission has been hotly debated for many decades. DeVries has read deeply in the literature and seeks here to resolve the key points of that debate. 

The book is divided into three parts: The Biblical Story of God's Mission, Concise History of Christin Witness, and Our Witness in an Un-Christian World.

There is much to commend in this work. I think the author's approach is helpful: having constructed a biblical theology of God's mission, he lands on the terminology and theology of witness as the key to understanding the role of the church in pursuing her calling in the world. Though this is a good insight, I am not sure that this adequately covers the biblical material, so I am left dissatisfied.

The second section suffers from too little critical engagement with some of the weaknesses of the Christian movement historically, and the last section, too, leaves me with too many unanswered questions. So I am in two minds whether to recommend it really, but will try to write a longer review article for publication sometime in 2026.

Fiction

Orbital, by Samantha Harvey

My wife, Becky, got me onto this one - a Booker Prize winner. The idea is deceptively simple: we follow the lives of the astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station as it orbits the Earth sixteen times over 24 hours. Challenges your perception of time and reminds us of how vulnerable we all are as we spin through space.

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

My first Jane Austen novel. I was surprised at how modern the style was - very accessible. I was also surprised at how witty Austen was. There are so many good lines - many of which I recognised from the TV series, e.g. when Mrs Bennet complains that her husband gives no consideration for her nerves: 

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.”

There is much wisdom here. Marrying well - the main preoccupation of the story - is so important. And it is a good reminder of how our own besetting sins are often so difficult for us to see.

The Count of Monte Christo, by Alexandre Dumas

Edmond Dantes is a young sailor in Marseilles at the end of the Napoleonic era. Through the selfishness and betrayal of his associates he is unjustly imprisoned on a rocky island as he was about to wed his beloved Mercedes. 

The rest of the novel is how he deals with the injustice. It isn't pleasant but offers so many insights into the human heart, the effects of sin, the sovereignty of God, and how human stories are often messy because we live in a world that is marred by evil.

There is symbolism here in the name of the island on which Dantes recovers and after which he takes his title, in the priest who enables his escape, and in the way Dantes pursues his antagonists. And probably a lot more, which I would need to re-read to discover. But at 1400 pages, that is not going to happen soon!

Lila, by Marilynne Robinson

This is the third in Robinson's Gilead series but the fourth that I read, as I read Jack out of order. No matter, they stand alone, or virtually alone. Robinson's writing is slow, meditative, and humane. You feel you know the protagonist even though she is from such a different background to yourself. There is sadness and longing as well as redemption and hope. I have read all of Robinson's novels now and cannot recommend them too highly. If all you want from a novel is a ripping, action-packed thrill, you will hate Lila. But you should read it anyway; it will do your soul good.

Favourite Books of 2024

Theology and Culture

The Holy Spirit, by John Owen

I took this Puritan Paperback with me on my Asia trip in the Autumn. Owen's famously heavy style has been made readable here by the editor, R. J. K. Law. Even so, it still demands a careful read. Owen is both biblical and devotional. If someone dismisses his work because he doesn't tick all their 21st Century boxes, it is more to their detriment. I found it both challenging and encouraging spiritually.

I was struck by how much of the work of God can be examined as the work of the Spirit. Such a neglected theological topic.

Freedom, Authority and Scripture, by J. I. Packer

This book came out over 40 years ago but is still hugely relevant. It is a slim volume but if you are familiar with Packer you will know what to expect. His prose is tightly woven, without the slightest careless phrase. So it needs to be read slowly, like Owen, one of his heroes.

If I ever have to give a seminar on these themes, this will be the book I go to first.

In Search of the Common Good, by Jake Meador

Jake Meador is one of my favourite writers. He edits the Mere Orthodoxy web site, and has written a bunch of very good articles. So I picked up this book from a few years ago. Meador is heavily influenced by Schaeffer, as well as other Reformed writers and preachers. Keller writes the forward.

Meador seeks to diagnose the decline of Western civilisation. His focus is his own, United States, but much of what he addresses is shared with the UK and other Western societies.

He argues that modern liberalism is a story that we have told ourselves and that that has led to our decline, seen in the loss of meaning, wonder, and good work. He then seeks to tell a different story - the Christian tradition, heavily informed by the Bible - and show how this gives a better grounding for our common good.

Devotional

Truth for Life, Volume 1, by Alistair Begg

My wife and I really enjoyed starting the day together with Alistair Begg's devotional in 2024. He gives a connected Bible reading at the end of the day's page; we found it helpful to read the Bible passage first, before reading the verse or verses that he bases his meditation on.

Our plan is to go back to an old Packer daily devotional that we read 30 years ago (Your Father Loves You) for 2025 and then probably pick up Begg's second volume for 2026.

Missiology

The Church between Temple and Mosque, by J. H. Bavinck

Dan Strange was the power behind getting this book reprinted, and he writes a helpful introduction (slightly spoiled by too many typos). J. Herman, if you don't know, was the nephew of Herman Bavinck, who, with Abraham Kuyper, was a founder of the neo-Calvinist movement, that continues to gather steam, especially with the translation work of James Eglinton and his gang. J. H. was a missionary to Indonesia in the mid-twentieth century, and worked in Bandung and Yogyakarta, both cities of Java with which I have become familiar after three visits in recent years.

J. H. Bavinck spent a lot of time in dialogue with Indonesian religious leaders, and by carefully studying their texts, he was a very knowledgeable evangelist and church worker. This comes out in much that he writes in this book, that forms a good companion with his more well known, Science of Mission.

There is much to learn. But I think J.H.B. was hampered by two weaknesses: 1) he was a man of his time, and that time was Dutch colonial time, with all the obstacles that created for the intercultural minister; 2) he does not seem to have understood how much Asian religious life is shaped by the social order in which it is lived. That latter weakness makes him too cognitive and too individualistic, in my opinion.

Biography

Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation, by Collin Hanson

I don't read enough biography. I love Tim Keller and have read quite a few of his books. But I still learned a lot from this account of his life. The way Hansen arranges his material is really helpful: at each distinct stage of Keller's life, the key influences on his life and ministry are described. It is easy to see how these influences - writers, lecturers, preachers, friends - shaped Keller's thinking and ministry.

It is lovely to see the providence of God in the way these people came into Keller's life, and how each added a building block that was later to bear such astonishing fruit (if I may mix metaphors) in his ministry in New York City and then in his wider ministry in later life.

Makes me thankful to the Lord for all the godly and wise influences that he has brought into my life over the years, and cry out to him for grace to steward those influences for his glory in the years I have left.

Fiction

The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton

This could be the biggest book I have ever read - over 800 pages. The setting is that of the gold fields of New Zealand in the nineteenth century, which Catton describes so evocatively.

The author arranges the novel in a number of acts, that get shorter and shorter as the story goes on - the first is 400 pages and the last is 1 - guided by a fascinating  astrological framework.  I frequently referred back to a helpful page of dramatis personae at the front.

Jack, Marilyn Robinson

It has been a few years since I read the first two novels in this series - Gilead and  Home, so I re-read those stories before reading Jack. I won't spoil it for you, but Marilyn Robinson doesn't let you down. A love story; very sad and very lovely.

Favourite Books of 2023

Theology and Culture

Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, by Christopher Watkin.

Watkin is a Yorkshireman who teaches French Literature in Australia. In this chunky book Watkin uses Augustine's City of God as a model of how to use the Bible in cultural engagement. I have found it bristling with insights and hope to go over it again to try to retain some of the stuff I have learned from it.

Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds, by Chris Brauns. 

This is the one book (apart from the Bible) that I took into hospital with me in November. Chris is an American Presbyterian pastor with a lot of experience of helping people work through the pastoral issues related to forgiveness. He lands squarely on the need for repentance to precede forgiveness. Some people are horrified by such a stance, and many would be puzzled, but Brauns makes a solid case that, to me at least, is convincing. I am still working through issues in this area myself and this book has been a helpful guide.

Into His Presence: Praying with the Puritans, by Tim Chester.

Tim is an old friend of mine, and I have benefitted from so many of his books - he is a prolific writer. I am not normal big on written prayers, but having enjoyed The Valley of Vision a couple of years ago, thought I would give this a try. I was not disappointed. Gave copies to the family for Christmas.

What Makes Us Humans? And Other Questions about God, Jesus and Human Identity, by Mark Meynell.

Mark calls this a "short book about a big subject". There can be few subjects that are so important in our cultural moment. It is so vital we get a proper view of what it means to be human when all around us people are questioning reality and coming to grief. If you haven't read anything on this, please give this one a read. It is one of a series on hot topics by The Good Book Company called 'Questions Christians Ask'. They are bite size, biblical, and brilliant.

Reality and Other Stories: Exploring the Life We Long for through the Tales We Tell, by Matt Lillicrap and Peter Dray.

Stories are fundamental to what it means to be human (see above). Matt and Peter reflect on seven kinds of stories that we tell each other. This book started as a series of talks by Peter at Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union and then reworked with Matt, using the framework provided by Christopher Booker in his The Seven Basic Plots. It's brilliant.

Missiology

Motus Dei: The Movement of God to Disciple the Nations, edited by Warrick Farrah.

News from far-flung places suggests that great numbers of people around the world are turning to Christ. And we are told that a leading factor in this movement is a relatively new method of church planting or disciple making. Motus Dei (Latin for the 'Movement of God') is a multi-author work that reflects on this phenomenon in a number of contexts around the world. It's a mixed bag. I offered to review this book for the International Journal of Frontier Mission but the project snowballed and now a whole issue is to be given over to it with my review article being followed by responses by other writers. Spoiler alert: I am sympathetic but have serious misgivings.

Biography

A Camaraderie of Confidence: The Fruit of Unfailing Faith in the lives of Charles Spurgeon, George Müller and Hudson Taylor, by John Piper.

This is the fourth book that I have read in this series of potted biographies by Piper. They spring from papers that he has given at his annual pastors' conference at Bethlehem Baptist Church. They are always super-encouraging and challenging. Piper doesn't focus on critique or analysis, though he could, but he does think freshly on his subject. His concern is to bring the faith of these three great men into focus so that we would emulate that faith in our day. I gave copies to a bunch of pastors in my area, with whom I hope we too form a camaraderie of confidence in the Lord.

Fiction

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie.

I am not an aficionado of crime fiction as some of my friends are, but this has got to be one of the best. An excellent plot with a stunning plot twist. 

Favourite Books of 2021

Since so many friends are doing this I thought I would join them. I am a slow reader so I am in awe at the piles of books some people get through. I have read books in the fields of theology, missiology, religion, church history, military history, and horology (yep), as well as a few novels. I read to warm my heart as well as to feed my mind, or just to relax. A few books are re-reads, and one I have now read three times.

Here are my favourites, in no particular order:

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is Carl Trueman's attempt to trace the development of modern Western culture with its focus on sexuality and identity. He traces the development from Rousseau through the romantic poets, Wordsworth, Shelley and Blake, and the philosophies of Nietzsche, Marx and Darwin, and on to Freud and the New Left. He is a good writer so it is not as difficult as you might think. Well worth the effort.

In Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? Michael Morales gives us a biblical theology of Leviticus. It is packed with insights into the text and connections between the various parts of Leviticus and with other parts of Scripture. I found it very helpful.

I have been reading books on creation since I was a teenager. I started with The Genesis Flood but when I studied geology at university became dissatisfied with its treatment of the evidence.

In Seven Days That Divide the World, John Lennox, professor emeritus of maths at Oxford, argues, convincingly, that the biblical data does not require us to take a young earth position. 

Ray Ortlund's The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ is a powerful little book. It is in the 9Marks series on Building Healthy Churches and focusses on how a local church needs to cultivate a healthy gospel culture that matches and adorns the gospel doctrine that it confesses.

Juicy quote: "The command of Christ is that we love one another. The example of Christ is that we die for one another. The promise of Christ is that our love will show a skeptical world the difference he really makes" (112).

Everyone would benefit from reading this.

I have been following Tom Holland for a short while and am praying for him often. Last year I read his magisterial Dominion. He is on a journey, in his understanding of history and, I hope, in his understanding of the gospel.

This is the previous book he wrote, on the history of Islam. It didn't go down well with Muslims as it casts serious doubt on nearly all the claims of Islam's origins and early development. I met a lovely Muslim Pakistani doctoral student in Leiden last year who said that Holland's book destroyed his faith. Like Holland, though, Mohammed was not yet ready to confess Christ.

It is really important, in seeking to understand Muslims, to both read critical studies and talk with Muslims themselves. This book does a great job with the former.

I have developed a fascination with the history of the Burma Campaign in WW2, probably because it features the Gurkha Regiment so much. 

This is the sequel to Master's first autobiographical book, Bugles and a Tiger. It tells the story of his leading a battalion of Gurkhas and others behind enemy lines as part of the Chindit force. The description of battles and deprivation is gripping. The book is sadly spoiled by the parallel account of his unfolding adulterous relationship with another officer's wife.

This is my favourite devotional book of the year. We read it slowly at the breakfast table each day over a period of several weeks. Dane Ortlund (Ray's son, see above) takes a deep dive into the Bible's portrayal of the person of Christ, expounding especially Matthew 11:28-30, in which the Lord Jesus tells his disciples that he is gently and lowly of heart.

Some in the family did not find the extended quotes from Puritans so helpful but if you are struggling it is not a problem to simply skip onto the next paragraph where Ortlund lays it all out in contemporary language. Much to dwell on and chew over. Worth working through it slowly.

This is the book on horology - the study of time. Really fascinating historical account of how the 'longitude problem' was solved. I won't spoil it for you but it is a wonderful story of patience and persistence in the face of a consensus of scepticism. Clock making may seem not to offer much promise of interest but Sobel is a master story teller. I loved it.

Finally, this great little book by a bunch of pastors, many of whom are friends of mine, on the issue of depression. I have written about it already here.

The Southgate Fellowship: Theological Distancing and the Problem of Tribalism

This is the last of my series of posts on The Southgate Fellowship. You can use the label at the bottom to find the others. Here I pick up on yesterday's thread...

Harvie Conn (1933-99) taught at Westminster Theological Seminary after a significant period of ministry in South Korea. In his seminal and still important book, Eternal Word and Changing Worlds: Theology, Anthropology, and Mission in Trialogue, Conn argued that it is precisely because the faith “has travelled to Asia in confessional carts and wagons made in the West for a Western context” it has never taken root in Asian soil as it should have done (p. 246). As so few have taken heed of Conn’s warning, it is no surprise that it is still seen as ‘foreign religion’ to the vast majority of Asia’s people.

Sadly, Conn’s august institution no longer even has a resident missiologist. As I have argued before, since Conn went to be with the Lord, there has been a retrenchment of Reformed thinking on mission. I can only hope that, with the publication of the TSF statement, this slide has reached its nadir. But I am not confident of a change any time soon for the following reason.

I have already noted that the TSF statement is endorsed by a panoply of the great and the good of the Reformed world, many of whose works have greatly blessed this writer and some of whom I have had the privilege to meet. These leaders had the opportunity to read the statement before its publication. It is worrying enough that they were happy to endorse it.

What is more worrying, however, is that a number of additional endorsements have been made astonishingly quickly since its publication. Did these signatories read and digest the entire document and give it the thought that it demands before endorsing it?

I make no judgment, but it strikes me that, who would want to jeopardise their ministry by being accused of ‘error’ for not signing up? Sometimes leaders get in touch to give me some encouragement for writing material like this. And they tell me they can't speak out publicly. In at least one case, they have been subject to a barrage of unrighteous emails for stating views like those that I have stated.

I don’t know the hearts of those who drew up the TSF statement, so I don’t pass judgment. However, I am concerned that some who endorse the statement will do so purely out of an evangelical tribalist motivation.

I am concerned that many are far too quick to make judgments about ministries and their statements on the basis of the endorsements of celebrity leaders than on hard, prayerful listening and thinking. Aping the polarized politics that has characterized both the UK and USA recently, we retreat into our favourite conferences and, like the Pharisee, pride ourselves on who we are not. 

While we are busy nailing our theses of theological precision on the front door, the devil sneaks in the back door and infiltrates our attitudes. Our worldviews are nicely sanitized, but the virus of evangelical identity politics catches us unawares. 

Paul had some strong words to say about such posturing: “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul” (1 Cor 3:5)?

The men of the TSF council (there are inexplicably no women) may have had no intention to exacerbate this problem. But the law of unintended consequences may well kick in.

So, I plead with my brothers to avoid such tribalism with the same effort we are giving to saving lives in the current pandemic. Let us learn to listen not only to each other across the North Atlantic, but also to those who are in Asia, Africa and Latin America; not only to those with whom we get along but also to those with whom we do not. And may the Lord use such brothers and sisters to sharpen our thinking and make us more faithful and fruitful.

The Southgate Fellowship: Theological and Missiological Method

So far in this series I have sought to engage with the statement of TSF by describing the group and pointing out a few minor issues, exposing a glaring omission, indicating where it seems to want to fight old battles, and examining how it works out priorities in mission.

That was the warm up.

In this post I want to discuss an even more important issue: the authority of Scripture and the way we do theology and missiology.

TSF argues rightly that Scripture is the ultimate authority for missiology thus:

18a) We affirm that Scripture is the ultimate authority to which all human disciplines, including missiology and social sciences, must be subject.

Whatever happened to theology in that affirmation? Is not Scripture the ultimate authority for that human discipline too? On what basis is theology given such an exalted and privileged place? It may be the queen of the sciences but it is still a science, and so subject to critique in a way that Scripture must not be.

Further on, they warm to their task:

71a) We affirm that local expressions of the gospel should always function in the context of the catholic Christian church, so that local theologians are accountable to the formulations of the Christian faith in the historic creeds and confessions of the church.

But wait, if Scripture is the ultimate authority then are not historic formulations auxiliary? 

This would be a good place to make this explicit. They don't.

Rather they go on the attack:

71b) We deny that faithful contextual formulations of the gospel are merely ‘local theologies’, which have their validity apart from the catholicity of the church.

In other words, a local theology can only be valid if it engages with the historic formulations. Even if there is no translation of those formulations in the local language.

So what are local theologies?

The process of doing theology and interpreting Scripture in a given local context has often been labeled ‘local theology’. For some theologians, such local theologies are context-determined, thus breaking the necessary link between theology and Scripture—the only absolute determining criteria of theology.

I have three problems with this statement:

1.     The phrase ‘context-determined’ is loaded. Everything we say is influenced by our context. The moment we open our mouths we are using language, and there is no context-free language. Thus, there can be no context-free theology just as there can be no context-free visible church, which they acknowledge (§99a). So also there can be no context-free historic creed or confession. If they mean overly influenced by the context to the detriment of the influence of the Scriptures, then they should state this more clearly.

2.     The final clause is recursive: how can theology and Scripture be the only absolute determining criteria for theology? 

3.     The irony of this statement is that, of course, the TSF statement itself is influenced by its context. But this is never acknowledged. Rather, it is held up as a context-free statement to be signed up to by evangelicals all over the world as if it is an absolute standard.

Ultimately this is all special pleading: every other discipline, they seem to be suggesting, must be subservient to theology. But make no mistake, theology here is systematic theology. The work of the systematician is a cut above the work of every other kind of theologian, most notably that of the missiologist.

But why should that be so? Why should it not be the other way around? This is their answer:

86a) We affirm that theology must drive mission methodology, because a failure to deal adequately with the effects of truth suppression will generate an overly positive view of human nature and will manifest itself in distorted methodologies.

Note here that missiology is a ‘methodology’, but theology isn’t. It is a put down.

Two responses to that:

1.     Systematic theology, for that is what this is, is itself based on a methodology, commonly called prolegomena. How bizarre, then, that the prolegomena of TSF’s statement doesn’t even deal with the method by which theology is systematized. It is almost as if the framers wanted to give the impression that the only discipline not open to discussion is systematics.

2.     Missiology proper is not a mere methodology. Ministry methods must come from a robust framework that emerges from a careful interpretation of Scripture in the cultural context in which that ministry is being conducted. 

But that is not how TSF views theology. Theology is a given. 

This view of theology has significant implications, as many cross-cultural workers are aware. 

This is one: when theology is taught in a different context the communication is unidirectional. After all, the theologian is complete. All he needs to do is take his package and ensure it gets across. 

Hence, 

84a) We affirm that theological teaching can legitimately adjust its teaching style, phraseology, selection of content, use of illustrations, and many other ways that prove significant in facilitating the communication and grasp of truth in the audience’s target language and culture.

What if the “target audience” (unfortunate language of objectification) is not even thinking in the categories in which the theology has been framed? No amount of adjustments to its phraseology or use of illustration will connect quite like taking the host’s culture and using that as a framework, all the while probing, extending, and challenging that framework from within.

Why is there such a hard line on contextualization?

83c) We deny that the exigencies of any given local context should dictate how Scripture is to be read, interpreted, and applied.

I trust that none of the writers or endorsers of the statement mentioned Covid-19 in their sermons over the past few weeks.

Review Article: Outside In

Margins of Islam: Ministry in Diverse Muslim Contexts

Edited by Gene Daniels and Warrick Farah (Pasadena: William Carey), 2018, 240pp, £12.30 (Amazon), £7.66 (Kindle)

I was in Indonesia last year, teaching in a couple of seminaries.[1] That vast archipelago constitutes the most populous Muslim-majority nation on Earth. Just a few months earlier, the country was shocked when radical Islamists (from one family as it happens) killed thirteen worshippers at Easter services in the city of Surabaya.[2] That violent extremism seemed far away from the folk I met there, such as the middle-aged hijabi who sat next to me on the long train journey across the island and offered me a share of her snacks. I also met the leader of a movement of people, outside mainstream evangelicalism, who meet regularly in small groups to read the Bible and worship Jesus. After twenty years, the movement’s leaders reckon their numbers have now reached six figures. The key feature of these vignettes for our purposes is that all these people would identify as Muslims.

Since then, I have met a number of Muslims as I have visited universities around the UK. Let me introduce some of them to you: the young Mancunian woman in her hijab, the mature Iranian man who dare not go home for fear of the state, the Algerian researcher trying to make sense of the modern world, the Egyptian postgraduate student who asked me why Christians are so private about their religion, and the young Saudi woman who told me she had rejected Wahabi Islam when she saw what IS was doing.

What staggering diversity. How do we make sense of Islam in a world of such variety? What, after all, is Islam? Is it a religion or a way of life or something else? 

This book is a major contribution to understanding Islam and ministry to Muslims. Read more here.

Thinking Mission Symposium

I had the privilege to be at this gathering in London on Tuesday. It had been arranged by Global Connections to discuss Mike Stroope's important book, Transcending Mission, which I reviewed last year. In God's providence the author was already planning to be in the UK so Mike was able to attend. (In what follows I beg forgiveness if I misrepresent any of the contributors and will revise it if an error is pointed out.)

Mike gave an introductory paper, telling us a little of his ministry story as well as informing us of the thesis of the book and of the reactions it has received. I was fascinated to hear that he had had a significant part to play in the SBC International Missions Board's leadership in the 1990s, a story told by Keith Eitel in Paradigm Wars. I had been in Nepal at that time and had seen some of the fruit of the machinations in the organization that Eitel documents. (I asked Mike about it at the end of the day but didn't have enough time to really interact. Suffice it to say that those events had a significant impact on the development of my missiology so I do hope I can interact further before long.)

Mike spoke graciously and humbly, admitting that he had had some pretty strong negative reactions to his argument. That is to be understood as the book really calls much of the modern missions movement into question.

David Smith's Mission after Christendom was a tremendous help to me when I arrived back in the UK after 20 years in Asia. David was asked to prepare a response to Mike, which he did ably and winsomely. Sometimes there can be a hard spirit in such gatherings, where egos seem to count more than truth and the good of the church and the glory of Christ. Not so here. David expressed his admiration for the book, situating it in a line of very significant works such as Cragg's The Secular Experience of Christ, Bosch's Transforming Mission, and the work of Andrew Walls (David's mentor), and suggesting that Stroope's book extends the long-running disputes of those authors.

He then highlighted three issues that the book throws up:

1. The relationship between mission and colonialism

The modern missions movement had an ambivalent relationship with the colonial project. There was significant overlap without a doubt, though this is often overplayed. David then argued that Mike's book misses out on the very important role that missions had in the emergence of World Christianity and even of the revitalisation of cultures in places such as Africa.

Furthermore, Protestant mission movements were not monolithic. Many early pioneers, such as William Carey (1761-1834), were dissenting Baptists. Far from being at the centre of power, they were at the margins. Carey's approach towards Hinduism was respectful: hardly a colonialist attitude and very different from the high period of colonialism of a later generation.

2. The relationship of terminology and concepts of mission and the Bible

Stroope argues that mission, missions, missional, etc have become sacred rhetoric with no biblical foundation. Smith challenges this main assertion of the book in two ways:

a) How, if we cannot employ such a concept as mission, can we explain what Paul had in mind when he instructed the Roman church to support him in his vision to go to Spain, a challenge that would have necessitated a two-step process of translation to Latin and Iberian languages (Rom 15:23-24)? Paul was a model for what might be done by other disciples of Christ. How do we talk about that? What language should we use? Furthermore, Paul, as has been pointed out before, was reaching out from one marginal position to another, not from a position of power.

b) Is the 'pilgrim witness' language that Stroope argues for, the most appropriate? And what do we mean precisely by the 'kingdom of God'? [My notes are a bit incoherent here!] David questioned whether the missions movement was really subverting the kingdom of God, as seems to be suggested. There are clearly examples of unrighteous acts done by some missionaries (and here Smith mentioned the missionaries of one particular country, who are the subject of a PhD dissertation which he recently examined). But there are very many examples of good work going on too. Moreover, we need to note the emphasis on human agency that Carey asserted in his Enquiry, in the face of a hyper-Calvinistic challenge. 

3. The use of 'transcendence' - what might it look like?

Are we now moving beyond Bosch's liminal stage? Smith here mentioned Walls' recent Crossing Cultural Frontiers and his discussion of migration. Surely both persuasion and demonstration are important in the work of witnesses. Here David also referred to an article on 'Theological Method' in the Global Dictionary of Theology and Terry Eagleton's Culture and the Death of God.

Further interaction

Two shorter presentations were also given - by Rosalee Veloso Ewell, giving a female and global South perspective, and by a Redcliffe College student, Aaron, giving a Millenial perspective. Short opportunities for interaction were given after each presentation.

Mike Stroope gave a final reaction to the day in which he informed us he was working on a follow-up book expanding on the epilogue of Transcending Mission. 

My reaction

The audience gave a sympathetic and respectful hearing to the argument and responses. I found the day very stimulating indeed. I was heartened at the spirit of interaction, especially by the two main speakers. I think the concerns with the book that I expressed in my review were shared by others. Although I think Mike's thesis is basically correct, I continue to believe he overstates his case. I find it difficult to see how vast chunks of humanity will be exposed to the glorious person of the Lord Jesus without a more intentional approach.

One concept that seemed to have achieved virtual consensus in the papers and discussion is that of World Christianity. I whole-heartedly agree that we need to be learning from each other across the cultural and continental divides. However, there seems to be little or no awareness of the fact that there is a growing body of followers of Christ who do not identify themselves as belonging to World Christianity. We may listen to Christians in their countries and still be way off really understanding our other brothers and sisters. And we will remain just as handicapped in our efforts to reach out to the vast numbers who, while open to considering the person of Christ would find World Christianity far too alien.

On a personal level this book challenges me to reflect on my words, my actions, and my character, as I continue to seek to work out how the Lord would have me continue to use my gifts, experience, and energies for his glory.