Book Reviews

Theology in the Service of the Church:
Essays in Honor of Thomas W. Gillespie

Wallace M. Alston Jr., ed.,
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000, 281 pp., $35)

Reviewed by Robert P. Mills
July/August 2000
Theology in the Service of the Church
According to local legend, when Thomas Gillespie was being considered for the presidency of Princeton Theological Seminary, he was opposed by members of the faculty who protested, “But he’s a pastor! What does he know about leading a seminary?”

Since moving from the parish to PTS in 1983, Gillespie has shown that he knows quite a bit about both the church and the academy, which makes this volume of essays in his honor an appropriate tribute.

In “To What End Knowledge: The Academic Captivity of the Church,” Ellen Charry argues that “by ridding truth and knowledge of attachment [to God], the modern university captured theology for itself and bifurcated the human soul into head and heart. ... If theology is not only to inform about God, but also to serve God’s salvific purposes, it must help believers become vulnerable to God.”

David F. Wright looks at “Habitats of Infant Baptism,” particularly its decline from sacrament to family custom, and concludes “The church is the critical habitat for the vitality of infant baptism,” thus “We should not expect sacraments of the gospel to thrive in an ecclesial context where the gospel itself is stunted or impoverished.”

Also worthy of special note are the essays by William Harris, John Leith, Bruce McCormack, Thomas Torrance and Leanne Van Dyk.
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