The second part of Carl Trueman’s work The Wages of Spin is entitled ‘Short Sharp Shocks.’ These essays are shorter and more accessible. If I had to comment on the balance of the types of essay, I’d argue Trueman should have included more of these short essays. Essay 1: The Importance of Evangelical Beliefs
Carl Trueman argues in line with Gresham Machen and the Apostle Paul that Christianity does not exist unless history and doctrine are indissolubly united. While we may gain respectability in applying Jacob de Zoet’s aphorism, ‘The truth of a myth lies not in its words but its patterns,’ (The Thousand Autums of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell) to Christianity, if we do so we lose the Gospel.
Essay 2: What Can Miserable Christians Sing?
“In the psalms, God has given the church a language which allows it to express even the deepest agonies of the human soul in the context of worship.’ (p 159)
This is probably Trueman’s best essay in this collection (out of several very good essays). He expresses that often the church has partially bought into the commercialism the West and with it the idolatry of health, wealth, and happiness. To this end, we end up denying that brokenness is part of the human—yes, even the Christian—condition. This is reflected in our worship; our songs as a whole don’t express this brokenness.
Trueman states that the Psalms have a higher priority in singing. In the Psalms, there is the range of emotion of man’s soul. Let us learn to lament with the language of the Psalms, argues Trueman, and we’ll have a healthier and more evangelistic church. To which I can only respond, ‘Amen’.
Essay 3: The Marcions have Landed!
Marcion lived in the 2nd century and held to a cannon consisting only of a redacted version of the Gospel of Luke and ten epistles of Paul. The rest of Scripture, including the Old Testament, he rejected. He formulated this cannon because he believed the gospel message was exclusively of love.
The essay proposes that modern evangelicals have so focussed on the love of God they have excluded a notion of his wrath. (Consider how the doctrine of penal substitution has recently fallen on hard times.) Unwittingly, this places them in line with Marcion’s theology.
Another aspect of neo-Macionism is the neglect of the Old Testament ‘in our theological reflection and devotional life.’ (p 166) Again, ‘As the Old Testament is the context for the New Testament, so the neglect of the Old Testament leaves the New as more or less meaningless.’ (p 167)
Trueman concludes with, ‘think truncated thoughts about God and will will get a truncated God; read an expurgated Bible, and you’ll get an expurgated theology; sing mindless, superficial rubbish instead of deep, truly emotional praise and you will eventually become what you sing.’ (p 168)
If our doxology suffers so will our life and witness; let us call evangelicalism back to the God of the whole Bible.
Essay 4: A Revolutionary Balancing Act Or: Why Our Theology Needs to be a Little Less Biblical.
My original review started, ‘And now an article with I disagree with Trueman.’ But after some discussions learned that Carl Trueman is (mostly) right. In this essay, he argues that while Biblical theology is a good thing and has valuable insights, it should not be done to the exclusion of systematic theology. Originally I thought he overemphasized the problem that people were ignoring systematic theology, but after a discussion with my pastor, he stated that not only is there some ignoring systematic theology but down right despise it. I am grateful for my time in the Reformed world, that my pastors have been balanced in their use of biblical and systematic theology.
Essay 5: Boring Ourselves to Life
Carl Trueman begins his essay with an amusing anecdote with the news showing people in preparation for a winter storm by ‘stocking up’ on rental movies, lest they be stuck in their houses and become bored.
Why do we place such an emphasis on entertainment? Why are celebrities and sports figures paid so much? Why is entertainment more valueable to us than a host of other services and goods such as government and education?
To answer this, Trueman turns t o the writings of Blaise Pascal in his Pensées. Left to ourselves we think about the reality of death and our mortality. ‘Why do we pay sports stars, actors, and the various airheads that populate the airwaves more than we pay our political leader? Because they help to take our minds off the deeper, more demanding truths of life, particularly the one great and ultimately unavoidable truth: death.’ (p 177) Trueman concludes his essay by urging us to spend some time reflecting on the claims of Christ and the truths revealed in him.
Essay 6: Why you shouldn’t buy the big issue.
This is a great essay asking, ‘Why is homosexuality one bridge too far?’. Carl is right on; if we’ve tolerated heresy as theological diversity then we should not be surprised when morality crumbles. We should defend more concerns such as the deity of Christ, his literal resurrection, etc., while also affirming Christian morality. The proverbial line in the sand should not be drawn at homosexuality but at much earlier point with the integrity of Scripture and doctrine.
The essayist points out that when we make homosexuality the Big Issue rather than theological concern we come across not as being principled and biblical but merely bigoted and out of touch. Of course, we probably come across and bigoted and out of touch in any case but at least the world would be able to see a consistent ethic and practice if we were to take seriously the whole of God’s Word.
Evangelicalism Through the Looking Glass. A Fairy Tale
Carl Trueman’s last piece shows his characteristic wit. (I know I may not have mentioned it in the above reviews, this is of course why should read him and not me.) He humorously retells the Alice and Humpty-Dumpty encounter that must be read to be appreciated.
