Author HANS BOERSMA
Publisher Wm.B.EERDMANS
ISBN 978-0-8028-6542
Subtitled “the weaving of a sacramental tapestry” here is the scholar holding the J.I.Packer Chair in theology at Regent College, Vancouver, Canada surveying the barriers between the natural and the supernatural that have been erected in contemporary thought. He delves deeply into the origins of this great divide looking at the church fathers, Augustine, and more recent theological trends such as those in a wing of Roman Catholicism known as ‘Nouvelle Theologie’ that contained such writers as Yves Congar and De Lubac. This book is unabashedly seeking to show that the ‘protestant’ wing of the church and the Roman Catholic are not so far apart. It points towards a union although acknowledging significant differences. It is the way that this author approaches the subject matter that is instructive.
The loss of the sense of the sacramental that was so present in the early church, the fact that there is an ‘otherworldliness’ about the things that are seen and that has been reduced through the more recent centuries to a rather intellectualized faith is obvious from these pages. The analogy of the hidden in the things that are seen is examined and contrasted to the scholasticism that was particular prevalent in St Thomas Aquinas for instance and the apparent triumph of reason that emerged in the ‘secular’ world. So, this book, to a significant degree is challenging the secularity so dominant in the thinking of many. It also reflects some of the quest of the younger evangelical and even ‘emerging church’ writers as they pursue a course to a faith that is less built upon Reformation doctrinal propositions. We will be helped if we grasp the fact that the Incarnation is at the heart of a sacramental view of all things and that from there follows a real understanding that all creation does indeed show forth the glory of God. This is a book that reflects and seeks to retrieve and cultivate a greater awareness and understanding the eternal mysteries that are made known in the things that are made, that we are able to partake of the divine life in, but not in a massive separation from the things that are seen. What is very helpful in these pages is the way the author shows that theology is not primarily an exercise of the mind but has the purpose to discipline us to enter right into participation with God in His truth and to come under His sway. So, remember, this is thoughtful theology by a man expert in his field. It will stretch the mind of anyone who is prepared to make his or her way through it.
