Book Reviews

Robert F. Shedinger, Jesus and Jihad: Reclaiming the Prophetic Heart of Christianity and Islam. Eugene. Oregon: Cascade Books, 2015, 176 Pages, $21.00.

Margaret A. Farley. Changing the Questions: Explorations in Christian Ethics. Maryknoll, NY: 2015, 376 pages, $30.00

Heidi B. Neumark, Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets, Memory, and Faith. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2015. 213+xviii pp. $24.99 (hardcover). $16.99 (paperback).

Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Vainglory: The Forgotten Vice. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014, 167 pages, $14.00

In her book, Theology and the End of Doctrine, Christine Helmer diagnoses the current subject-matter crisis of academic theology. Does theology belong in the contemporary secularized academy? After evoking a couple of sharp dismissals of the idea that theology still deserves a place on university campuses (including one critic’s rather bloodthirsty suggestion that theologians are now “fair game” to religious theorists), Helmer insightfully points out that it is precisely theologians’ historic focus on doctrine that makes their less charitable colleagues want to hunt theologians down in the enlightened woods of the post-Enlightenment academy.

Since readers have the benefit of two fine reviews that trace the argument of her book plus her own responses, I will refrain from repeating that exercise with its interesting appropriation of Barth and Schleiermacher and its important concern for reconnecting theology and religious studies in the academy. Perhaps what follows may have some implications in that latter case and perhaps suggest another conversation. From the vantage point of my somewhat limited endeavor, however, it will be most helpful to focus on several statements which seem to express her vision of theology’s vocation for the purpose of doctrine.

Is doctrine of interest anymore to theologians and ethicists? If the answer to this is no, if doctrine ceases to incite curiosity and inspire questions, then the work of Christian theology and ethics too, will end. If the answer is no, then theologians will no longer inquire into the nature of doctrine, study doctrinal formulations from the past, and figure out how to best construct doctrine. Ethicists will no longer ask how human behavior relates to God; they will not prescribe action in community that is predicated on the doctrine of redemption. The end of doctrine would be the end of both theology and ethics.​

Hollowell, Adam Edward. Power and Purpose: Paul Ramsey and Contemporary Christian Political Theology. Grand Rapids, M.I.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2015. x + 230pp. $28.00.

Dialectical Theology and Jacques Ellul: An Introductory Exposition. Jacob E. Van Vleet. Fortress Press, 2014.

Namsoon Kang, Diasporic Feminist Theology: Asia and Theopolitical Imagination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014, 378 pages, $39.00.