Book Reviews Turning Back The Darkness The Biblical Pattern of Reformation By Richard D. Phillips Forward by R.C. Sproul (Wheaton, Ill.; Crossway Books) 192 pages; $15.99 Reviewed by Craig M. Kibler February 2003

Turning Back The Darkness takes a critical look at major turning points in the history of the Christian Church. Focusing on the Reformation of the 16th century, it goes further and examines the Church from a full Biblical perspective. Using examples from both the Old Testa-ment and New Testament, including such pivotal examples as the wisdom expressed by Solomon and various letters to the churches, this volume provides an acute analysis of Christian history and what it means to be a reformer – a topic that is in the forefront of religious thought today. As R.C. Sproul writes in his forward: “The Reformers of the sixteenth century were not revolutionaries. A revolutionary is one who is engaged in revolt. A revolutionary wants a radical restructuring of current systems. In contrast, the Reformers sought not new forms, but a return to the purity of the original forms instituted by God. To reform presupposes a prior form that has been misshaped. To reform is to form again, to recapture the original.”

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