So we’ll be giving away (yes, for free!) some of the highlights from Churchman hot off the press! We are unashamedly excited about our journal, Churchman, and we want everyone to see how good it is. So keep your eyes open for selected book reviews, article extracts, and editorials. And if you want the full thing, with much more content, delivered right to your doorstep, head on over to our subscriptions page. Here, Mark Smith reviews Peter Sanlon’s, Simply God: Recovering the Classical Trinity.
‘Why should I buy thee? Let me count the ways…’ Dr Sanlon’s fine new book, Simply God, deserves a place on your bookshelf for a number of reasons.
Firstly, this is a clearly-written and accessible guide to the main contours of the classical doctrine of God: that understanding of God’s divine nature and character which runs like a golden thread through the orthodox Christian tradition, from Augustine, through Thomas Aquinas, to the greats of Reformed scholasticism. Sanlon is (as the title of the book suggests) especially keen to explain and commend the doctrine of God’s simplicity (i.e. God is, as our Article 1 puts it, ‘without body, parts, or passions’). Divine simplicity, he says, is ‘the engine in the car of a healthy theology’. Sanlon’s defence of God’s atemporality, omniscience, omnipotence, and impassibility is also much to be welcomed, at a time when those venerable doctrines are under attack from several quarters. This would make an ideal textbook for courses on the doctrine of God, especially at Anglican seminaries – not least as an antidote to Moltmann’s nefarious influence.
Secondly, this is a pastorally-engaged book that never allows matters of the head to be divorced from matters of the heart. Each chapter ends with a meditation, addressed to God directly. These are winsome and well-written, in a style that puts one (not unhelpfully) in mind of St Augustine’s Confessions. Sanlon’s approach here also helps to hammer home the point that the study of the doctrine of God is not an end in itself, but should drive the reader to his knees in prayer and worship. Sanlon doesn’t let us forget that the proper end of doctrine is doxology.
Thirdly, this is a glorious account of the perfect, eternal, dynamic love of God. Sanlon has grasped the bull by the horns here, since a perennial critique of classical theism (and the doctrine of divine simplicity in particular) is that it leaves us with a God who is insufficiently ‘relational’. By exploring the perfect triune love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he shows that this critique is groundless, and does so with aplomb. The final chapter helpfully applies the fruits of these findings to the task of modern cultural engagement. Sanlon touches briefly upon how a classical doctrine of God might inform and enrich our church services – perhaps in a future edition he could say more on this important theme.
This is, in short, a splendid book, which delights the mind and warms the heart – may it lighten the wallet too!
Smith, Mark. Review of Peter Sanlon, Simply God: Recovering the Classical Trinity (Nottingham: IVP, 2014), Churchman 128/3 (2014): 269–270.
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