YOURS IS THE KINGDOM
A systematic theology of the Lord’s Prayer
By Gerald Bray. IVP. 206 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-209-7
I wish I could commend this book, and came to it expecting to do so; I’ve admired several of Bray’s trenchant editorials in the Anglican journal Churchman. But I’m afraid I just cannot, though it says many good things. Why not?
Well, for one thing Bray tries to treat the prayer as a systematic theology more than a prayer: ‘I have become convinced that it is essentially an embryonic form of systematic theology’ (page 8). Of course there’s theology in it, but it isn’t a systematic theology, it’s a prayer.
Worse, he makes assumptions that the text will not warrant: why oh why will evangelicals persist in assuming the liberals are right? (And why do IVP publish it when they do?) ‘The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of Jesus’s teachings, rather than a record of what he said on any occasion’, says Bray (page 12). ‘Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying…’, says Matthew. I believe Matthew.
Worse still, he is tempted to conclude that Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer ‘goes back to Jesus himself’, but Matthew’s version ‘represents a later redaction designed to make the prayer usable in Christian worship’ (page 13). Still, he kindly warns us that ‘…we must be cautious about rejecting the authenticity of [Matthew’s] version. It is not impossible that it also comes from Jesus…’ Oh, goody! And so it goes on.
When he comes to exegeting and applying the text, things are a little better, but still disturbing. He says, for example, ‘God is free to call us to do some strange things, and if he does, we must be prepared to do them, even if they go against the accepted norms of modern society of the official teaching of the church.’ Well yes, I agree with that. But it’s a bit dangerous if no parameters are set: after all, wouldn’t Gene Robinson say that’s what he’s doing? And — how does exegeting ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ lead to arguing ‘we must adopt a more realistic approach to our own lives, economising on fuel emissions where we can, recycling waste as far as possible and generally limiting our consumption to sustainable levels….’?
No, I’m sorry; there are lots of better treatments of the Lord’s Prayer available and I cannot recommend this one.
Gary Benfold,
pastor, Moordown Baptist Church, Bournemouth
