WRITTEN FOR US
Receiving God’s words in the Bible
By Peter Adam. IVP. 258 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-208-0
Peter Adam is Principal of Ridley College, Melbourne, and this book could well be described as his third book on the Bible, after Speaking God’s Words and Hearing God’s Words.
This book expounds Adam’s convictions about the Bible by taking one summary phrase, ‘Receiving God’s words written for his people by his Spirit about his Son’, unpacking this large phrase one smaller phrase at a time. In doing so, he deals in some detail with an impressive number of Scriptures (Exodus 19-25, Isaiah 55, Ezra 7, Nehemiah 8, Psalm 1, Matthew 22, Mark 7, 1 Corinthians 10, Romans 15, for example, in just two sections).
He does this because he wants to unpack what the Bible says about itself in the Bible’s own terms, rather than imposing terms from theological disciplines on the Bible.
He largely succeeds; theological students will find it a helpful introduction, while preachers and other church members will find it stimulating. For me its weakness is that, in trying to stay within biblical categories, he does not explain clearly enough what he means by ‘inspiration’, nor deal with the question of ‘inerrancy’, and I wish he had.
A helpful book, and the kind of presentation of Biblical Orthodoxy that IVP ought to be doing.
