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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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October 2006 |
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Book Review - An Enigmatic LifeReviewed by Lindsay Stoddart Leaving a Tasmanian Parish Church, a parishioner recently returned from a visit to the Emerald City asks me why Sydney churches are buzzing and growing. My biased view is that it is relevant biblical teaching that gives the person in the pew certainty and hope. Broughton (Dr David Broughton Knox) had an uncanny knack of influencing bright young Christian men (women were never high on the Sydney agenda), and the hallmarks of Broughton's theology were the revelation of God, the Trinity, the theology of the church and the value of human relationships. Perhaps most influential and provocative was Broughton's theology and teaching on revelation. Broughton taught that the revelation of God is essentially propositional; that God reveals himself entirely in words and not in event. Not that God has not intervened in his creation, but the authority of the Bible is undermined by those who deny its essentially propositional nature. I remember in Theology 2, I had had Broughton for Theology 1 the year before. As a lawyer I take full notes. Hearing the first question from Tim on Day 1 of Term 1 for Theology 2, I think to myself, 'I have heard that question before.' In my study I open my Theology 1 notes. From the same questioner, the same question with the same response from Broughton, hammering the authority of the Bible. An Enigmatic Life starts slowly. I might have put it down by Chapter 2 but it becomes engrossingly interesting: Broughton's theology of marriage (he almost agrees with Marcus Barth and does not tell the wife to obey her husband); his differing reformed view of the atonement; his theology of the local church, which has resulted in Sydney's congregationalism, anti-nomianism and lack of trust in things 'purple'; his hermeneutical leaps - one has to shout 'No! No!' to his unbiblical view of social justice (page 312) and the mission of the church (page 209). I was saddened to read of his undermining of the place of liturgy. Sydney parishes have little commitment to good liturgy. Broughton seems to have sown the seed. But here was a brilliant man who built two strong theological colleges: Moore with its strong academic and publishing faculty and the largest theological library in Australia, and George Whitfield College in South Africa. Broughton was an Apostle-Apologist, a Theologian, a Builder of Institutions and Men and a great Man of God. I remember him as a prayerful man of God who loved the
scriptures and a man who taught his students to value
friendships - with God and in family and church.
Recommendation - a valuable read. What makes Sydney tick? |
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