MAGNIFYING GOD IN CHRIST
A Summary of New Testament Theology
By Thomas R. Schreiner. IVP. 272 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-414-5
This is a good book; it’s taken me ages to review it because I found it difficult to get into, but it was well worth the effort.
Schreiner takes the ‘big themes’ of the New Testament — the ‘already/not yet’ tension, God the Father, Christology, the Holy Spirit, Sin, Faith and Obedience, the Law, the Promise, and the Consummation — and summarises how the different New Testament writers write about them. Schreiner is thoroughly evangelical — he doesn’t believe the different writers are in conflict. But he does believe their different approaches and vocabularies enrich our understanding, and he’s right. There is so much here to enrich a careful reader’s understanding of New Testament themes, to say nothing of the sermons of a preacher who is prepared to take the time. I am disappointed with his treatment of the Sabbath question — but, then, I usually am with modern writers.
