BOOK REVIEWS

Guy, Fritz. Thinking klogically: Admtht Cb&ianityandthelnterpretcttion ofFaith.

Berrien Springs: Andrews University Press, 1999. xi +271 pp. Paper, $24.99.
Everyone who has listened to Fritz Guy or read his work over the years will
appreciate having his essays on theology in permanent form. His book addresses
issues of fundamental importance clearly, logically, and carefully. An evidence of
Gut's tidy way of thinking is his table of contents. Note the careful parallelism of
section and chapter headings.'

Expounding the Argument

Guy's study is far too rich to summarize in a short space. It moves through a
long parade of theological issues, from logical fallacies to be avoided, through
presuppositional issues.tobe addressed,to various structures of biblical and historical
theology, and different ways of pursuingtheologicaltopics-synchronic, diachronic,
and focused (214). But the last chapter of the book is clearly the best, and readers
would benefit from reading it first.As Guy describesit, theologicalthinkingmust be
tripolar: it must include care@ reflection on "the Christian gospel, our spiritual
center; our cultural context, where we live, worship, witness, and serve; and our
Adventist heritage, the foundation of our theological identity" (225).
It is important to realize that a tripolar conception of theological thinking is
not the same as a tripartite division of the theological task, or a mapping of the
theological territory. When we think theologically about any topic, Guy argues,
attentionto the gospel, to culture, and to our denominational heritage will all play
a role. They cannot be separated because they are all dimensions or aspects of our
religious identity.2 We cannot extract ourselves from our culture or our

'Table of contents:
Explaining the activity
1. What theological thinking actually is
Exploring the task
2. Why everyone should think theologically
3. How theological thinking should begin
4. Why theological thinking is open-ended
5. how to think with intellectual integrity
Explaining the ingredients
6. How Scripture should function
7. What else is involved
8. How culture makes a difference
Envisioning the work
9. What logical presuppositions need to be idendied
10. What forms theological thinking can take
11. Why tripolar tbinking is essential.
'Guy, 25G251, states: "Thethree 'poles' of Adventist theological &inking. ..are not
separate fromeach other and do not represent separasetasks. Rather, Adventist theology is
a single task-one comprehensive,integrated activity of interpretingfaith, albeit with three
denominational background when we think nor should we try. The important
thing is to be aware of their influence and their proper roles, so we can maximize
their appropriate contribution.
As Guy describes the gospel, its central element is the notion that God is universal
love, and that this deserves a preeminent role in religious reflection. His remarks on
cultural context express one of the pervasive concerns of the book, namely, that we
m o t think about anything,including our faith, apart from the situation in which we
frnd ourselves. And his suggestive account of the Adventist heritage serves as a
programmatictheologicalessay of its own. The comments on sabbath, advent hope, the
ministry of Christ, human wholeness, and especially on truth, not only engender a deep
appreciationfor the Adventist perspective,they provide excitingglunpses of what a full-
fledged Adventist theology might look like.
Another important feature of Guy's proposal is the way he relates the
Adventist heritage to the Christian gospel. While he affirms the importance of
authentic Adventism, being Adventist is a way of being Christian, not something
other than or more than being Christian. And the features which we share with
Christianity in general are more fundamental, more important, than the
distinctives that set us apart (229,251).

Theology as Crafi
One of the most helpful aspects of the discussion is Guy's description of
theological thinking as something that all serious Christians not only should but
can do. It is not the province of the specialist alone. Like every human endeavor,
it has its superstars, figures whose ideas are widely discussed, sometimes for
centuries. But these are rare exceptions. Theology, to use Guy's distinction, may
be a profession, but theological thinking is notm3 It is accessible to every dedicated
church member. In this respect, theology is more like a craft than an art. You
don't have to be a genius to do theology. The required skills are accessible to all.
You just have to be willing to put in the time to acquire them4

Expanding the Discussion

Although Guy's book makes a number of helpful points, it also raises a
number of important questions.

fundamental concerns. . . . For the whole point of the metaphor of polarity is to insist that
the concerns associated with each of the three poles should be continually recognized and
addressed in our collective interpretation of faith."
'Schubert M. Ogden, in "Toward Doing Theology," states: "A profession is
distinguished from a trade or a craft only insofar as the practice of it is informed by a proper
theory" ( J o u d of Religion 75 [1995]: 13).
'It could be argued that theological thinking is like a craft in other ways,too. It is best
learned not through theory, but through practice,specifically,by repeated contact with those
who know the craft well and communicate their skills effectively. And like a craft,
theological thinking ofthe sort Guy describes is typically done in asomewhat "ad hocaway,
by addressing concrete problems as they arise rather than constructing a theoretical edifice.
The Audience
I am not sure this project quite achieves Guy's objectives. His intended audience
is the "serious generalreader." But I am not convinced that's who will profit most from
it. When people say, "I'm not writing a book for experts," the subtext is usually, "but
they will be by the t i e they finish readmg this." In spite of Guy's declared intentions,
this is not a how-to book for the general church member. It is a manual for
professionals.It is a helpful discussion for people who already have a pretty good idea
of what theology involves. In fact, I think it provides an excellent description of what
a good ministerial education should doacquaint students with all the facets of
theological inquiry in ways that uplift the life of the community.
I am particularly interested in the way this book m&t serve the needs of
Adventist pastors. And I am curious that there is very little said here about the pastor's
role in thinking theologically. After all, who is the person most likely to assist the
church members in this area of their lives? Guy's book shows that theology plays a
pastoral role in the life of the community. But the pastor also plays a theological role,
and I would like to see that aspect of ministerial service developed here.
Guy's proposal also raises important questions about Adventist education. If
thinking theologically is something everyone in the church should do, then training
people to think theologically should be a high priority in the church. In this
connection, we need to hear more about the distinctive role of Adventist SChooIs,
specifically collegesand seminaries, asplaceswhere thiswork shouldbe carriedout. The
fundamentaltask of ~dventisteducationis arguably to do preciselywhat Guy describes
as theological thinking. That is, to encourage and equip young church members to
think carefully through their beliefs, with professional assistaace in light of the
challenges these beliefs face in the contempomy world. Educatorsneed to hear Guy's
call for thinking theologically.

E$e Church as Theological Community

While emphasizing that every member of the church should think theologically,
Guy also describes theology as a function of the church as a whole. He speaks of "the
community's theological vocation" and calls for a "community-wide discussion" (180,
43). And at the end of chapter 7, he remarks: "Everything I have said here about
individual religious experienceas an ingredientin theology has parallel in the life of the
community of faith: the shared experienceof the community is a significanthgmhent
in its collectiveunderstandingof faithn (156). Well and good, but how hoes thiswork?
Just how does the community asa communitydo its thinlung?What are the organs of
theologicalcommunication?What are the goals of theological interaxion?
In this connection, Guy speaks of theological thinking as a professionally assisted
activity, and says some helpful things about the contributions that those whose
"vocation is the ministry of theology" can make (4041). One of them is "to identify
major theological issues" that should be "addressed by the communityas a whole." But
just how does the community as a whole address these issues? And how does the
community as a whole make its decisions? We need to hear more about the way in
which "the community as a whole, as distinct from its organizationaland institutional
structures" carries on theological conversation (9).
 Experience as a %eological Resource
Guy's discussion overall focuses predominantly on Adventist beliefs.
Theological thinking is surely an intellectual enterprise and this methodological
proposal consists of thinking about how we ought to think. In this connectionwe
have chapters on how to analyze beliefs, determine their meaning, assess their
truth. But Guy also tells us that our theology should arise from what the
communityof faith "experiences"and "practices," not simply what it believes (38),
and he identifies "personal-experientialingredients" in theology (156-157). We
need to hear more about this connection between experience and theology. How
do we cull or extract theological convictions from the rich matrix of personal and
communal religious experience? This is a more pressing theological task than
analyzing explicit beliefs. It is also more difficult. A community's beliefs are only
a pan of its religious dynamic. They are intimately connected with other factors,
and these factors deserve attention, too.
Although Guy portrays theology as a fundamentally intellectual activity, it
has other dimensionstoo, and these need exploration, particularly if the intended
audience is general church members. This would be a good place to explore the
interaction between theology and worship. There are theological proposals that
devote significant attention to the church's liturgical life as the place where
theology is enacted.' But Guy says little about the corporate worship of church as
a theological activity. He says more about ethical issues as a theological concern
(232,248), but it would be helpful to hear more from him io this regard as welL6

Theology as Interpretation
The key word on the cover of Guy's book is interpretdtion. It points to a
particular configuration of the theological task, and in our current context this
raises questions that cry out for discussion.
Behind this c o n f i t i o n lies a consistent emphasis in lhinking i%dqp&y.
We are willy-nilly citizens of our time, inhabitantsof our cultural world, and we a n
no more depart this setting than we could change our address to another plulet. All
thought and experience take place within a framework of inherited and largely
unrecognized assumptions. And our cultural perspective is with us whenever we
approach the gospel, and whenever we attempt to communicate it to others. We
cannot speak effectively about the gospel to anyone without taking into account his
or her cultural setting as well as our own. As Guy says: 'Our culture is, whether we
like it or not and whether we admit it or not, a significant ingredient in our
interpretation of faith" (160). 'No one can live in the contemporary world without
breathing its intellectual atmosphere anymore than one can live in a place without
;nhalingits air" (236-237).
Accordingly when we describe the task of theology (or of theological
thinking) as interpretation, it implies a work of mediation. The interpreter
%ee, for example, Don E. Saliers, Worship ar Zdogy: Foretarte of Glory Lhim
(Nashville:Abingdon, 1994).
%ee, for example, the spstematic theology of James W. McClendon, which devotesvoL
1 to ethics and vol. 2 to doctrine (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994).
undertakes to mediate between the faith of the ages and men and women who live
in the twenty-first century. As Guy put it: "The constructive way of being
theologically relevant is to take seriously the need both to understand the
contemporary world of knowledge, beliefs and values, and to understand (and be
true to) the gospel within this world" (236).
With this view of things, Guy standsin the tradition of theologians who see their
goal as mediating between the gospel and the contemporary world Whether we
describe the poles of theological dinking as message and situation (Paul Tillich),'
message and existence (Laqdon ~ i l k e ~ )or , 8religion and culture (Bernard Lonergan),S
the essential mategyis the same.The theologicalthiaker moves between the gospel and
the modern mind. H is or her task is to render the contents of faith intelhgble within
our cultural context. This gives theology a bipolar con&guration. As Schubert M.
Ogden put it, theological propods must satisfy two criteria, "appropriateness and
credibility." They must represent the same und- of faith as expressed in
"normative Christian witness." They must as0 meet "the relevant conditionsof truth
universally established with human existence."10
Theproblem for theologicalthinkingis the relativeunintelligibii of theoriginal
and originatingexpressions of the Christian faith to secular persons of the twenty-first
century. One solution is to rephrase the biblical and historical m a t e d in terms and
categories that make the relatively unfamiliar more accessible.
Those undertaking thistask face certainhazards. There is always the danger that
the message may be lost in the tramlation. Paul Tillich acknowkdged that exchanging
the traditional language for and psychological concepts in his method of
correlation runs the risk of losing the substance of the Christian message." Similarly,
Guy acknowledges that " c o n t e ~ t i o is n not risk-free." It carries with it the
possibility of "letting the context control the content of our theology" (236).
In recent decades, a number of Christian thinkers have mounted a vigorous
protest to this way of looking at things. They want to "reverse the trend in
modern Christianity of accommodationto culture." In their view, the attempt at
interpretation has cost Christianity its unique voice and reduced it to an echo of
the world around it. Their critique goes roughly like this. Modern theology is
"shaped by the Enlightenment's demand for a ground common to a l l rational

7PaulTillich states: "A theological system is supposed to satisfy two basic needs: the
statement of the truth of the Christian message and the iaterpretationof thisuuth for every
new generation.Theology moves back and forth between two poles, the eternal uurh of its
foundation and the temporal situation in which the eternal uuth must be receivedw
(Systmtic Theology,3 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951-19633 1:3).
Tangdon Gilkey,Message and Existene An I n i d n c t h to Obristian Z d o g y (New
York: Seabury, 1979).
?Bernard Lonergan states'. "A theology mediPes between a adturd matrix and the
~ i g ~ c a and e of a religion in that ma&
n ~role (Method in 7hedogy [New Yo& Herder
and Herder, 19721, xi).
1°Schubert M. Ogden, On ZImdqy (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986), 4-5.
beings."12 Accordingly, God becomes a way to thematize our essential human
religiosity. Christ becomes a symbol of the authentic humanity available to all of
us. And the Bible loses its authoritative voice. When Guy says that "the answers
to some religious questions are logically prior to the interpretation of faith and
even to the experience of faith itself," and speaks of "a theologically neutral
standpoint, outside of faith," and "basic religious belief," he reflects the
Enlightenment mentality to which these critics object (183,195).
As they see it, the goal of theology is not to find ways to render the claims of the
gospel intelligible to the modern mind, but to bring our minds into conformity to the
gospel. In other words, the theological task is to adapt the framework of our thrnlung
to the contents of Scripture, not the other way around. Postliberals embrace
"Chriiianity's unique and historical particularity," and they propose a hermeneutic in
which "the scripturalworld structuresthe church's cosmos and identity." "Rather than
translating Scripture into an external and alien frame of reference, which devalues and
undermines its normative exposition and eventually produces an accommodationto
culture, the postliberals call for an intratextual theology that finds the meaning of the
Christian language within the text."13
To etch the contours of his position more clearly, it would be helpful if Guy
answered such questions. We must avoid a narrow biblicism, but we need to be
attentive to the biblical modes of thought, to the narrative patterns of biblical
expression, and to the desire to make every thought captive to Christ.
I agree with a friend of mine who once said: "Nothing is more prauical than a
good theory." But we need praxis as well as theory. I urge Guy to continue his
theological work by f u E h g the practical promise that 7'hinkhg i%dqmdy
povides, and by extending the consuucive theological work outlined in his
programmatic final chapter. Guy has shown us around his shop, defended the
- -

importance of theology, described its objectives, praised its values, appraised its
challenges, summarized its history, and demonstrated the impressive array of tools at
his d.tsposaL Now, let's hope, he will turn on the equipment and build us*os
more.

Extending the EJqbrt

Books on theological method are often symptoms of theological malaise.
Whenever Christian thinkers run out of interestingthings to say, they seemto spend
their time spinningtheories about what it means to say somethinginteresting. They
offer people the sort of thing Jeffery Stout disparages as "seemingly endless
methodological foreplay." Instead of robust expressions of religious faith, they
merely give the cultured despisers of religion less and less to disbelieve."
On the other hand, books on theological method may point to something
altogether different. They may show that a church feels a fresh burst of energy.
'*Timothy R. Phillips and Dennis L. Okholm, lk Nature ofConfkFSion:Ewng$zcals
and Postliberals in Conversation (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996)' 11,lO.
"Phillips and Okholm, 13.
"Jeffery Stout, TheFligbtfiornAuthority:Religion,Moralityand the QuestforAutonorny
(NotreDame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981), 147.
They may also indicate that the community has acquired a new level of maturity,
that its members have come to realize that reflecting carefully on their faith and
life can enrich their experience and enhance their witness.
I hope that Guy's book is an indication that Adventism has reached a point
where it can confidently survey the resources at its disposal, think methodically
about its task, and develop an expression of its faith and life that will do justice to
the vitality of the movement-to the breadth of its vision and the depth of its
convictions. But only time will tell.
Lorna Linda, University
Lorna Linda, California

Dederen, Raoul. Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology. Commentary

Reference Series, vol. 12. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 2000.
xxiv+ 1027 pp. Hardcover, $37.95.
Under the skillful editorship of Raoul Dederen, Emeritus Professor of Theology
at the Seventhday Adventist Theological Seminary, the findbook of Smth-day
Adzrentirt 7hology consists of twentyelght chaptersarticulatelyaddressingallthe major
doctrines of Christianity and the distinctive doctrines of Adventism. The subjects of
these chapters closelyparallel those of the SDA Statement of Fundamental Beliefs. The
chapters were written by twenty-seven contributors, with the editor authoringthe two
chapterson Christologyand ecclesiology.Thisfindbook, representingawidediversity
of scholarly disciplines, was ten years in the making. It was produced in cooperation
with the BiblicalResearchInstituteCommittee,which reviewed each chapter. T'he aim
of the editorial staff and contributors has been to produce a work of reference writfen
in a spirit of unqualified loyalty to the Scriptures as the written Word of God, in the
hope that these pages will be fruitfulfor personal retlecton in faith and practice" (xi].
Each chapter includes four sections. The first section, and by far the most
prominent, presents a given subject from a scripturalperspective. A second section
highlights the historical and theological developments of the doctrine. The last
two sections offer a selection of quotations from Ellen G. White and a short
selected bibliography. Given the high caliber of detailed biblical and theological
studies found in the first two sections, the third section on Ellen White's thought
is a disappointment. Only a few chapters offer commentary on her perspectives,
while the rest provide only quotations. This gives an unfortunate semblance of
proof-text methodology when it comes to Ellen White, a methodology that many
are consciously trying to get away from.
One of the great assets of this work is its theological strength. To the editor's
credit, the different authors' theological contributions are well linked together so
that many chapters build on each other. This volume is focused on its intended
theological purpose. Thus the chapters on "Revelation and Inspiration" and
"Biblical Interpretation" convey a clear and consistent theological approach. The
same can be said of the chapters on the "Doctrine of Man,""Sin," and "Salvation."
Throughout the Handbook one finds evidences that common beliefs are
shared by Adventists and many other Christians on such docuines as the
infallibility of Scripture, an Arminian/Wesleyan understanding of the doarines