I’ve never met Gerald Bray, but based on many stories I’ve heard about him from friends, he’s an eccentric genius. Some have told me that he’s the most brilliant person they know.
Bray is an Anglican theologian who knows something like two dozen languages. The bachelor has one of those English accents that, to many Americans, makes him automatically sound intelligent—though it’s acquired because he is Canadian by birth. And I’ve heard that native Russians can’t tell that he has a foreign accent when he speaks Russian!
His latest book is about as eccentric as he is:
Gerald Bray. God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012. 768 pp.
The book is definitely worth owning, but it’s not your typical systematic theology:
- The organizing theme of God’s love is unusual (see the contents above).
- The organizational layout is more informal. It’s not outlined (like Grudem’s ST), and it doesn’t have many subheadings and numbered lists. It feels like a polished transcript of Bray talking to a group of lay people who don’t know much about theology and who certainly don’t understand technical terminology (cf. p. 12). It would make a better audiobook than most STs. (I’ve spent about five hours dipping in and out of it, and I’ve categorized it many places in my Zotero system. But I don’t plan to read every word with my eyes at this point. I would, however, gladly listen to the whole thing straight through as an audiobook on double-speed.)
- The only source Bray interacts with in this book is the Bible. He doesn’t interact with modern secondary literature at all. Footnotes include only Scripture references or short explanations and clarifications.
- Bray does not spend much time explaining current theological controversies, especially ones that he doesn’t think will last very long, but instead attempts to write with long-term impact (cf. p. 13).
- Bray is an Anglican who takes theological positions that are more generic. Here’s how he puts it: “Although it is firmly Protestant, classical Anglicanism does not promote devotion to a particular founder or doctrines and practices that distinguish it from other churches. It is best understood in terms of what John Stott called Basic Christianity or what C. S. Lewis called Mere Christianity, the titles of two influential books that have been read far beyond the bounds of the church that produced them” (p. 12). Cf. Bray’s section entitled “Different Types of Christians” (pp. 679–83).
- Bray gives more space than usual to addressing demonology and other religions to help the book better serve people internationally.
- Since Bray has written a superb book on the doctrine of God, it’s not surprising that his section on the Trinity is one of his finest.
He’s preparing a companion volume to this systematic theology: a historical theology that considers the writings of influential theologians.
Related:
- Matthew Claridge interviews Bray about this book.
- Matt Smethurst interviews Bray about this book.
The first thing that impressed me was that Bray includes sections on divination and demonization, usually a lacuna in Western literature.
Andy,
At what reading level would you say this is? High school? College?
Probably high school (though it wouldn’t be my first choice as a text)
Andy,
1. To your audiobook suggestion: I don’t own a Kindle, but with a Kindle device such as the Kindle 3 (whose text-to-speech feature is demonstrated here), you could buy the book for the bargain price of $9.99 and have your Kindle read the text to you, though not as fluently as a polished human reader.
2. To your correct conclusion that Bray’s title and organization around God’s love is unusual, you might want to compare God So Loved the World [publisher], a similarly titled, thorough Lutheran systematic theology for non-theologians, written by Lyle Lange. Lange organizes his work in a traditional way, but sticks exclusively to the Bible to substantiate doctrine. (As you might expect, he also refers in a secondary way to the historic Lutheran confessions in the Book of Concord.) Lange’s preface explains his three reasons for the title. That preface and the table of contents are in this PDF. I recommend it to you and your readers.
What would be your first choice for a high school Sys Theo text?
Probably this.
I had Bray for a class on the Trinity in the 1990s. I lived in Romania at the time and took a course at Schloss Mittersill in Austria. The story I remember best was about him preaching in English somewhere (somewhat remote area if I remember rightly), and non-English speakers came to him after the message and told him that they understood the message. At that time I was not as open as I am now to special operations of the Spirit in unique and pioneer situations, but it left an impression on me. He is an engaging teacher.
Thanks for the nice write-up! I think all geniuses are eccentric, don’t you? What else could they be? As for the level of the book, newspapers generally aim for a readership that has a reading level of 14 (high school). That way they communicate. Most people today, including most seminarians (and virtually all who have entered the ministry late in life) are incapable of following the average theology textbook because it is too technical. I am also concerned to reach third-world students, who have almost nothing that meets their needs in a format they can understand. It is not just Americans who speak English as a foreign language!!!!
I just came across this quote from C. H. Spurgeon: “[D]id you ever know a good man who was very successful, who was not a little eccentric?”
Nice to meet you, Dr. Bray!
Your second sentence is hilarious.
I’m getting this book.