EMQ » October–December 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 4
By Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun
Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2019
208 pages
USD $21.99
Reviewed by Glendon Osborn, DMin (Columbia International University), past President and Minister at Large with China Outreach Ministries.
This a theological book for theologians but should not be dismissed as merely academic. Volf and Croasmun address the current disconnect of theology and life. At the very beginning they state, “We believe the purpose of theology is to discern, articulate, and commend visions of flourishing life in light of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ” (11). The term “flourishing life” is key to their treatise. By it, they mean the goodness and fullness of life that humanity strives for and desires. The most important human question is therefore “What is the true, flourishing life, and how can we live it?” (17). The book seeks to explain why and how theology should be concerned with this question.
The authors state that theology in the university no longer addresses the question of the meaning of life and what we should value. “Theology is in crisis, largely because it has lost its nerve and forgotten its purpose to help discern, articulate, and commend compelling visions of flourishing life in light of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ” (34). The authors spend a full chapter describing this crisis. Waning interest in Theology results in a lack of opportunity and funding for research. Compounding this problem are theologians who focus on topics that interest very few people. Christian theology has moved away from what it should be and what it needs to be for the sake of the Gospel and the sake of the world.
The authors proposed solution is to make the purpose of theology to understand the “flourishing life,” similar to Jesus’ purpose to give us “abundant life” (John 10:10). They point to creation before the fall and the ultimate establishment of Christ’s reign as times of fullness of life in right relationship with God and evidence of God’s plan for us to have flourishing life. In addition, they emphasize the importance of theologians living out what they teach, describing in detail what that means and looks like.
Although this is very heavy reading, I was personally refreshed by the passion and commitment of the authors to theology serving all of humanity by speaking truth to the deepest felt need that God has placed in us all—the need for a flourishing life. This is a book I need to read again!
I was also encouraged by their commitment to Scripture, the Word of God made flesh in Jesus, and the working of the Triune God in those who respond to His grace. These authors live and move in higher academic settings which are often foreign to the truth that sets men free. As I read the pages, I could see how this work could be used of God in the personal lives of theologians, to bring to them the “flourishing life.”
