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Godly jealousy

His alone

GODLY JEALOUSY
A theology of intolerant love
By K. Eric Thoennes
Christian Focus. 304 pages. £10.99
ISBN 978-1-84550-027-6

Eric Thoennes has set out to write a book that is ‘scholarly yet accessible’ on the great subject of God’s jealousy. This book is a worthy book. There is no doubt about that. It thoroughly explains a key characteristic of our holy and almighty God and shows how Scripture defines and describes his jealousy. Yes, it’s a worthy book; yet it’s difficult to recommend it wholeheartedly.

First of all, it is too technical for most readers. Greek and Hebrew words abound; there are footnotes on nearly every page, sometimes taking up more than two thirds of the page space; the bibliography runs to over 200 references. This makes the format very difficult to penetrate. Secondly, it is too descriptive. The book does a thorough job of identifying God’s jealousy (and human jealousy of the same kind) from Scripture but spends precious little time applying this great truth — just a short 20 page chapter which feels like it has been added into a theological thesis. Some US books frustrate with their over-long illustrations and anecdotes — this book was crying out for just one!

Thirdly, and perhaps most significantly, the author says he has written this book because jealousy is a much undervalued and overlooked doctrine (true) and that no one is writing about it (surely not true?). He then goes on to explain that God’s jealousy is often evident in Scripture, even when that word is not used. Yet he seems to have failed to analyse Christian books using the same basis. It seems, to this reviewer at least, that plenty of other writers are writing about jealousy even when they are not using the word.

This book does come from the Christian Focus ‘Mentor’ imprint, and this is certainly where it will be of most use: if you are looking for a scholarly analysis of the biblical data on jealousy, this book is for you. Otherwise, and for most of us, there are better places to begin, for example with Piper or many of the Puritan reissues and modernisations which are currently in print. Scholarly, but, sadly, not so accessible.

Adrian Reynolds,
pastor, Yateley Baptist Church