Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John M. Frame [Hardcover]

John J. Hughes (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2009

Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John M. Frame is a festschrift honoring Prof. Frame's career in seminary teaching. However, this book does not merely collect essays on the subjects of Frame's interests; it analyses Frame's own work in the fields of theology, apologetics, ethics, worship, the church, and others. The authors include Wayne Grudem, Richard Pratt, Paul Helm, Vern Poythress, Bruce Waltke, William Davis, William Edgar, Peter Jones, Reggie Kidd, and others who are familiar with Frame's work. Many are Frame's former students and colleagues. This is the first large-scale analysis of Frame's distinctive approach.

Editorial Reviews

Review

There are few, past or present, whom I would place . . . ahead of Professor Frame. . . . He has been privileged to make a strategic and potentially huge contribution to the future well-being . . . of the entire evangelical world. --J. I. Packer

What is refreshing is his ability to model a firm stance on truth with a heartfelt affection for people. Razor-sharp reason is used to carve error away from truth, not skin off adversaries. --John Piper

John Frame has served the church as a teacher par excellence. . . . He has distinguished himself in the fields of theology, apologetics, philosophy, and Christian ethics. --R. C. Sproul

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1232 pages
• Publisher: P & R Publishing (October 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596381647
• ISBN-13: 978-1596381643
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,199,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JAMES H. GRANT JR. (MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Rossville, Tennessee. He also teaches theology at Westminster Academy and lives in Tennessee with his wife, Brandy, and their four children: Macy, Trey, Nate, and Addie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Colossal Collection of Many Fine Essays on Frame's Academic Contribution, March 25, 2010

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Mike Robinson "Mike A Robinson: Apologetic An... (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John M. Frame (Hardcover)

"Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John M. Frame" puts the "giant" in "gigantic" since this festschrift honoring Professor Frame is over 1200 pages - Amazing! Subsequently if you've only a cursory acquaintance of Dr. Frame, scholar/academician/philosopher/worship leader who has been called Van Til's second most significant advocate, you may be surprised to learn what a forbearing apologist he is.

"Speaking the Truth in Love" is teeming with outstanding essays by a variety of erudite apologists, ministers, and theologians. Herein are chapters touching an array of fascinating and diverse topics. For the Presuppositional devotee there are three essential chapters that offer fresh and potent analysis and application of Frame's employment of Cornelius Van Til's apologetic commencing with James Anderson, Don Collect and pressed further by Steve R. Scrivener.

Additional chapters (editor is John J. Hughes) have a mix of superb, splendid, captivating, ordinary, tedious, and lackluster writing from first-class scholars such as:

- Wayne Grudem
- Richard Pratt
- Paul Helm
- Vern Poythress
- Bruce Waltke (resigned from RTS due to his defence of "scientific evolution.")
- William Davis
- William Edgar
- Peter Jones
- Reggie Kidd
- Don Collett (his chapter is his third published revision of his essay on Van Til's TAG)
- Frame's most recent reply to Collect's defense of the Transcendental Argument for God's Existence (TAG)
- And more mostly fine essays.

An extraordinary chapter includes Steve R. Scrivener's cogent essay contrasting and intermingling of Frame's and Van Til's apologetic while utilizing insights from Greg Bahnsen: fresh, perceptive, remarkable, stupendous, and profoundly contemplative. Scrivener makes use of the work of Frame, Van Til, and Bahnsen as he issues a powerful defense of TAG. He then reformulates the classical arguments in a TA formulation. One may not affirm all of Scrivener's innovations and amalgamations, but all readers will be challenged and encouraged in the employment of TAG. Scrivener discusses the work of Craig and other non-presuppositionalists as he presses the need of presenting the Gospel as the center of one's apologetic approach.

Another superb essay comes from the pen of Esther L. Meek on Frame's epistemology in comparison with Michael Polanyi's (1891-1976, a European chemist who became a groundbreaking philosopher and epistemologist) epistemic insights. Polanyi asserted that epistemic rights are obtained by central and subsidiary aspects of awareness while fixing on the article at hand while focusing on less important derivative things as epistemic backdrops. Meeks notes that for Polanyi "normative structures such as interpretive frameworks, or even languages, work like hammers... I indwell them, I pour myself into them, to attend beyond me a further focus or project. All knowing involves integrative orientation from subsidiary to focal, from `from' to `to' and beyond" (p. 619). Meek's work in this volume is captivating, enthralling, instructive, and enlightening. A must read for Christians interested in epistemology.

Classical apologist R. C. Sproul acknowledged that "John Frame ... has distinguished himself in the fields of theology, apologetics, philosophy, and Christian ethics."
The Necessary Existence of God: The Proof of Christianity Through Presuppositional Apologetics
This massive volume offers several convincing assessments of Frame's academic efforts regarding the following issues:

- Theology
- Van Til's apologetic
- Ethics
- Worship
- Ecclesiology
- Classical apologetics
- Evidential apologetics
- Law and government
- Moral absolutes.

A chapter that is well-fitted for a pastor is Bruce K. Waltke's explication of "Psalm 19: A Royal Sage Praises and Petitions I AM." Waltke delivers an exegetical gem infused with precision and hearty application. His exposition is laden with exceptional scholarship that makes for a stirring devotional read and will drive many men of letters to their knees in humble thanksgiving (note: Professor Waltke resently resigned from RTS due to his defence of "scientific evolution," but not "philosophical evolution").

Two other noteworthy chapters discuss "The Attributes of God Within Frame's Theology"(Derek Thomas) and Paul Helm on "Frame's Doctrine of God."

The price of this admirable book is nearly cut in half since its publication; moreover I would heartily recommend this volume for Christian apologists, philosophers, epistemologists, and ministers of all apologetic schools and disciplines.
Truth, Knowledge and the Reason for God: The Defense of the Rational Assurance of Christianity
One Way to God: Christian Philosophy and Presuppositional Apologetics Examine World Religions