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Encountering God: Christian Faith in Turbulent Times

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Somewhere, sometime I read an assessment of the writing of C.S. Lewis. The commentator suggested that Lewis' arguments were so subtle that one missed the profundity. After finishing a chapter or an essay, the reader accepts Lewis' argument as obvious, failing to realize that Lewis' writing itself had affected a change. Although I readily grant that Drs. Purves and Partee are engaged in dogmatics and not apologetics, the same assessment could be applied to "Encountering God." The book wrestles with such difficult topics as the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, human suffering, predestination, and the perseverance of the saints. Throughout it all, the reader is attracted to the clarity of their arguments. The reader accepts as obvious what once was clouded.

On the back cover of the book, Eugene Peterson writes, "For some of us, thinking about God is a practical matter--indeed the most practical matter." Purves and Partee do not allow the doctrines of the church to remain stale, abstract and esoteric. The authors view dogmatics ultimately as a pastoral function. Their use of narrative allow the teachings of the church to bear fully upon the Christian life. At the very least, the book should remind pastors of their need for theological study in the pastorate. As the authors make obvious, theological inquiry must serve the church and ultimately the God to whom we bear witness.