Book Review | “The Trials of Theology”

Cameron, Andrew J. B. and Brian S. Rosner. The Trials of Theology. Edinburgh: Christian Focus, 2010. 192 pages | $14.99 |

Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner have edited this helpful little book about “becoming a ‘proven worker’ in a dangerous business.” The book complements a previous book that Rosner edited, The Consolations of Theology.The book’s goal is to demonstrate that a dichotomy exists between the head and heart of most theologians. It is one thing to be a student of the Bible; understanding the language, words, sentences, paragraphs, but it is entirely another thing to know the Bible. One of the main things I took away from looking at this book was the idea of not getting lost among words when studying the Word.

The target audience of this book is clearly the theological student, scholar, and minister. Though others can certainly benefit from it, the target lies with the mentioned group. The book is broken down into two sections; voices from the past and voices from the present. The first five chapters compose articles written by respected men from yesteryear on how the study of the Word should impact the theologian. Articles in this section are from Augustine, Martin Luther, C. H. Spurgeon, B. B. Warfield, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and C. S. Lewis.

The articles presented from present voices are from John Woodhouse, D. A. Carson, Carl Trueman, Gerald Bray, and Dennis Hollinger. Each man in this category supplies an essay that is relevant to the discipline they are in (biblical, systematic, historical, etc.).

As a professor in a university and an assistant director of a graduate school I sense the dichotomy of the head and the heart frequently…in myself. I know that what is true of myself in this situation is also going to be true of any of my students as well. While reading this I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 8:1-3:

We know that ‘we all possess knowledge.’ But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.

Cameron and Rosner have done the academy a great service in providing this collection of essays. They are helpful, convicting, and useful for today’s theological student, scholar, and minister.

FTC Rhetoric: I do not receive payment for my book reviews. I do sometimes receive free review and giveaway copies from authors, publishers, and publicists. My first responsibility is to my readers, therefore, I am committed to honest reviews.