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I have struggled for 20 years to find just the right introductory reading material for beginning theology students and laity in churches. The search may be over. The only problem now is choosing among these equally fine contributions. The three-volume Doctrine and Devotion series by Alan P. F. Sell and Invitation to Theology by Michael Jinkins nicely fill a gap in contemporary evangelical resources for theological education.

Many systematic theologies and handbooks of doctrine are too wordy, academic, and speculative for beginning students and their teachers. Certainly most laity and pastors find them of little use as introductions to or refreshers in Christian belief.

On the other hand, many single-volume introductory texts in doctrine and theology fail to challenge readers' minds, or grow pedantic and leave the impression that the "happy science" is just a bunch of facts to be learned.

Alan P. F. Sell is a well known and influential British Reformed scholar and ecumenist who has served as a pastor and educator in the United Kingdom and Canada. He was theological secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Geneva and is now professor of Christian doctrine and philosophy of religion at the United Theological College in Aberystwyth, Wales. Sell, an evangelical, strives to bridge the differences between competing theologies. He is not interested in heresy hunts or watering Christian belief down to a lowest common denominator. Like Sell, Michael Jinkins is a moderate Reformed theologian. He teaches pastoral theology at Austin (Texas) Presbyterian Theological Seminary and has served as pastor for several congregations.

These volumes and their authors have much in common. For one thing, they breathe the same irenic spirit of generous orthodoxy found in the more voluminous writings of evangelical Reformed theologian Donald G. Bloesch. (I hope the comparison is acceptable to all three theologians.) Anyone who wishes that Bloesch's multivolume systematic theology existed in an abbreviated form might look into these books by Sell and Jinkins. They are orthodox in that they follow the Apostles' Creed, which serves as a guiding norm (under Scripture) for their theological reflections. Their orthodoxy is generous in that it strictly avoids polemical condemnations of those Christians who hold a different perspective on secondary matters of belief. "We should not too readily neglect the old landmarks [of doctrine]," Sell writes, but "certainly we must never make anyone feel uncomfortable because they are unable to formulate a Christological theory! We are not saved by works—even by technically theological works!"

They are irenic in that they seek to overcome what Jinkins calls the "theological paranoia" that characterizes too much theology on both the left and right. Neither author expresses fear of other theologies and theologians—be they evangelical or liberal, conservative or liberationist. Instead, Sell and Jinkins engage a variety of Christian thinkers and schools of theology with a spirit of critical openness. Like Bloesch, they are rooted in the pietist tradition of warm-hearted, peace-loving Christianity that holds to the motto, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."

Another common feature of these works is their attempt to communicate theology in a practical, devotional way. Sell's three volumes contain a great deal of Christian poetry and hymnody to illustrate doctrinal affirmations. Jinkins organizes his book as a course in doctrine and theology, but he also introduces illustrations and points out practical application of doctrine for spirituality and daily Christian life. At times Sell's abundant use of hymns (by Isaac Watts, John Newton, Charles Wesley, and Horatio Bonar) can be distracting; a couple per chapter would suffice. Jinkins's illustrations and applications often breathe of contemplative and even mystical spirituality (e.g., of Eastern Orthodoxy) which may put off some traditional Protestant readers. Overall, however, both authors' books go far toward proving that doctrine and theological reflection need not be abstract.

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April 22 2002, Vol. 46, No. 5