James Clark is the author of The Witness of Beauty and Other Essays, and the Book Review Editor at The North American Anglican. His writing has appeared in Cranmer Theological Journal, Journal of Classical Theology, and American Reformer, as well as other publications.
Anti-Methodism and Theological Controversy in Eighteenth-Century England: The Struggle for True Religion. By Simon Lewis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 224 pp. $85 (cloth). Peter B. Nockles notes in The Oxford Movement in Context that there is a “myth” that the eighteenth-century Church of England saw a “collapse of High Churchmanship” (6). In a…
Eternal Life and Human Happiness in Heaven: Philosophical Problems, Thomistic Solutions. By Christopher M. Brown. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021. 464 pp. $75 (cloth). A favored strategy among skeptics and atheists to undermine Christianity—albeit less common than the problem of evil—is attempting to poke holes in the Christian understanding of heaven….
The Sacramental Vision of Edward Bouverie Pusey. By Tobias A. Karlowicz. New York: T&T Clark, 2021. 232 pp. $115 (cloth). To call a work “revisionist” usually suggests that it seeks to overturn a commonly held understanding of its subject in favor of an interpretation that is implausible or strained, often in the service of some…
Patriarcha: The Complete Political Works. By Robert Filmer. Perth, AU: Imperium Press, 2021. 316 pp. $21.00 (paper). Liberal democracy is under fire these days, if the growing number of books critiquing it is any indication.[1] As part of this re-evaluation of liberalism, some on the reactionary right have written at length concerning what sort of…
Aquinas and the Cry of Rachel: Thomistic Reflections on the Problem of Evil. By John F. X. Knasas. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2013. 328 pp. $69.95 (cloth), $34.95 (paper). It is not a stretch to say that the problem of evil is the single most popular argument against Christianity. Most famously…
John Davenant’s Hypothetical Universalism: A Defense of Catholic and Reformed Orthodoxy. By Michael J. Lynch. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. 272 pp. $99.00 (cloth). Believing that Christ died only for the elect is often considered an essential part of what it means to be Reformed. The official blurb for From Heaven He Came and…
On Christian Priesthood. By Robin Ward. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011. 168 pp. $20.65 (paper). The nature of Christian priesthood, according to Robin Ward, has been obscured in recent decades: “Some theological themes which…are central to a proper understanding of ministerial priesthood in the Christian religion…have come to be seen as either unfashionable…
A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology: Introducing Beliefs and Practices. By Eve Tibbs. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021. 224 pp. $26.99 (paper). In a book designed to educate readers about a particular Christian denomination—or “tradition,” as many are now fond of saying—one can reasonably expect such a work to discuss the denomination’s distinctive character,…
Contemplating God with the Great Tradition: Recovering Trinitarian Classical Theism. By Craig A. Carter. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021. 352 pp. $32.99 (paper). Recently, there has been a marked effort among some Christian scholars to recover the classical Christian doctrine of God and the Trinity. This effort has included All That Is in God by…
Thomas Aquinas—known for centuries within the Roman Catholic Church as the “Angelic Doctor” and the “Universal Doctor,” among other titles—has received increased attention from Protestants in recent years. Some have explored the value of his thought as a whole,[1] while others have constructively engaged him as part of a larger treatment of a particular topic.[2]…