DEFENCE OF THE TRUTH
Contending for the Faith yesterday and today
By Michael Haykin. Evangelical Press. 160 pages. £7.95
ISBN 0 85234 554 2
My experience is that as evangelicals we tend to be good at our history of the Reformation and Revival periods of the church, but are not so at home with the early church fathers.
Michael Haykin is Principal of Toronto Baptist Seminary and in this book takes us on a whirlwind tour of the Letter to Diognetus, Irenaeus, the millennium in the thinking of the Greek fathers, Athanasius (‘the black dwarf’), Augustine’s City of God, Patrick’s defence of mission and outreach. The chapters usually focus on one particular incident where the truth of Scripture had to be defended. The exception is the chapter on Athanasius, where we move over quite a large period of time and on to the battle for the truth of the deity of the Holy Spirit as well as that for the deity of Christ. However, the writer wisely does not try to say everything that could be said and judiciously picks his points.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …