The Life of Faith

My boss bought all the staff this book. I think there might have been an idea that we would discuss some of it as a team or something, but when I got the book, I didn't really find out why as I then went on holiday for about 5 weeks. During that time I read this book. 

I don't mind a good systematic, and I usually try to be slowly reading one big theology book. I went into this one thinking this might be a good replacement for Grudem's systematic. I think Grudems is a good introductory systematic, it is easy to read, had a good didactic format and is quite broad in what it covers. It however has parts where I don't quite align. I thought this book, given its size and is written by an Australian Anglican (with the Thirty-Nine Articles listed in an appendix) may well be a good introduction to a systematic.

This book has 27 relativity short chapters (maybe around 10 pages each) spanning the main traditional topics you would find in a systematic. What struck me throughout was Jensen's way of always circling back to the gospel, or more specifically Jesus' death and resurrection. This event is the real heart of the matter and everything really flows from or points to here. 

At the end of each chapter, it would list a few key theological terms that were dealt with in the chapter and some questions for future reflection. I found sometimes that these key terms and questions probably added more depth than the chapter just read. Meaning, the chapter itself really only skimmed one idea and the questions asked added a more technical theological term to what was just read and asked a more probing question covered in the chapter. Each chapter also mostly references Gerald Bray's God is Love, Michael Horton's Pilgrim Theology or Bruch Milne Know the Truth books for further reading. This may give you more of a flavour that this book did live within the Anglican and Presbyterian traditions.

Overall I think I probably did align more with this book than Grudem's, but I don't think I still would be recommending this as an entry-level systematic. While I appreciated the method of always trying to tie things back to Jesus - the book was perhaps a little less broad and a little more shallow in what it covered. That doesn't mean it was a bad systematic in and of itself. But the other reason I probably wouldn't pass it on is that it was just a bit boring in its writing style. When reading, the sentences were all about the same length, mostly description/explanation which became boring after a little bit. At the start of each chapter, it didn't really hook you in describing why this topic is actually important for today or relevant to a past issue. It felt more like an intellectual exercise; like this might be a theology book that a lecturer might prescribe you to read for a theology 101 subject, rather than a reference book you might buy to help in leading a Bible study group or to go deeper in your own theological thinking.

For a very entry-level theology book, I would probably go with Concise Theology by J. I. Packer. I am probably going to read this with my eldest when we get to the end of Big Truths for Young Hearts.