Thomas Schreiner. Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, September 15th 2015. 288 pp.
This is the first book in “The 5 Solas Series” that is being published by Zondervan. The book articulates and defend the classic Reformed doctrine of justification: that justification is forensic (as opposed to transformative) and accessed by faith alone (as opposed to works of the law). If the rest of the series is just as promising as this one I am definitely going to purchase them.
The book is broken down into three sections. The first is a historical tour of Sole Fide. This is followed by the second section which gives a biblical and theological presentation of the doctrine of justification. This is the “meat” of the book. The book then concludes with a section that examines contemporary challenges to Sola Fide. I will briefly go over the three sections of the book.
I was delighted with the historical survey of the doctrine of justification throughout church history. I thought Schreiner did a good job assessing the history of this doctrine with care and he was quite nuanced. For instance in looking at the evidence from the Patristics Schreiner reminded the readers that a fully developed doctrine of justification as expressed by Post-Reformation Protestants wouldn’t be found in the records because the doctrine took time to develop. One must also remember that doctrinal refinement occurs when a doctrine is attacked and justification wasn’t an issue of debate during the early church as it was later during the Reformation. Yet we must also avoid the other extreme of thinking that the early church as a whole denied justification by faith alone since there are affirmations and denials of certain truth claims by various church fathers that suggests some concepts of Sola Fide. I also enjoyed the book’s discussion of the views of the Council of Trent (chapter 4), John Owen, Richard Baxter (both in chapter 5) and Jonathan Edwards. I appreciated Schreiner’s discussion about Trent since so many controversies surrounds what the Council rejected and affirmed concerning a Protestant view of justification. I thought it was helpful for myself to get some clarity. I learned from this historical survey of how Baxter’s view of justification disagreed with John Owen’s view. Schreiner also did a good job arguing that Jonathan Edwards was still within the orthodoxy of a Reformed view of justification even though at times Edwards didn’t state things as clearly as he should have and other scholars have noted that. In all the historical surveys I appreciated Schreiner’s interaction with other important secondary sources as well, even with those that he disagrees with such as Thomas Oden on the early church, the Finnish interpretation of Luther and various scholars on Edwards such as Gary Steward and George Hunsinger.
The best part of the book is section two that gives the biblical and theological survey. Schreiner is a New Testament scholar and here his gifting really enhances the book. This section has ten chapters out of the twenty one chapters in the book. Beginning with the first chapter of this section, I enjoyed Schreiner’s wonderful presentation that refuted the idea that “works of the law” or “work” only refers to the rules that separates Jews from Gentiles that is often advocated by the New Perspective of Paul and Roman Catholics. Over several chapters Schriener also discussed about the range of meaning with the Greek word righteous. I loved his defense of forensic righteousness in Scripture. From reading the chapter on forensic righteousness, it seems that Scrheiner no longer takes the righteousness of God found in Romans 1:17 to be both forensic and transformative as Schreiner believed when he wrote his commentary on Romans for the BECNT series in 1998. If so I welcome that change.
The third part of the book examines some recent contemporary challenges to the classic Reformed view of justification. It was helpful to see the author interact with contemporary Catholics today, specifically with his evaluation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I personally thought the best part of this section of the book was the author’s evaluation of two joint ecumenical documents with Roman Catholics and Protestants, both the “Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification and the Evangelical Catholic Together. Schreiner argues that these documents are problematic for being intentionally vague, still not being fully biblical, compromises with Protestant beliefs if one is Protestant and in the end is more agreeable with Catholicism rather than Protestantism. I think Schreiner successfully makes his case. Schreiner also devotes two chapters to N.T. Wright’s New Perspective on Paul although it was repetitive of content already found in the biblical and thelogical survey of the book. Still I think it is worthwhile to have summarizing chapters on the problems with NT Wright’s New perspective on Paul.
Overall I think Schreiner modeled Christian scholarship well in this book. Schreiner’s exegetical skills are brought to bear to the subject at hand, while he also interacted with opposing perspectives and is gracious yet uncompromising. This is a good book.
NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Zondervan and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
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Very good review, Jim. Thanks! I’m currently reading the 2nd book in the series, God’s Glory Alone, which has some good material but strangely does not examine this sola in the context of the Reformation and the objections to Roman Catholicism’s “glorification” of Mary, the saints, and even the pope.
Wow interesting. Does the book have a section with a historical survey through church history and people’s belief and contention of Soli Deo gloria? How far along are you with the book? Are you planning to write a review of it? I was actually thinking about picking up and reading this book sometime in May, so if you ever have a review of the book, please be sure to let me know and pass me the link in case I didn’t catch it on your blog! Thanks brother Tom!
Hey, Jim. I’m currently on page 110 of 170 pages total. So far, no reference to the Reformers’ position on Soli Deo Gloria in comparison to Rome’s. I’ve already scanned ahead out of surprise and frustration but didn’t see a thing, which absolutely amazes me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a LOT of inspirational info and it’s been an enjoyable read but the “oversight” is incredible given the series’ theme. I’m trying to finish the book and write a short review prior to leaving for vacation on Friday. My reviews are nowhere as comprehensive as yours. BTW, I enjoyed Faith Alone very much. I thought that book did a good job of addressing the Reformers’ views vs. Catholicism’s, unlike the baffling 2nd book.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thank you Vincent for sharing this book review on justification by faith alone! Hope you have a blessed day my brother!
You’re very welcome! I did, have a Blessed evening Brother!
Wow, this sounds like an intense book. Thanks for the review SlimJim!
You’re welcome Nina for reading the book review!
Thank you for the good summary. I would like to read his book. Have you read John Piper’s book on justification?
Which one of Piper’s book?
[…] One of the important thing that came out of the Reformation is the recovery of the Gospel. From the Reformation we also get the five Solas. During the Fall 2015 Theology Conference at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary the five Solas was the topic that was discussed from some of evangelicalism’s finest scholars as they unpack for us the meaning and significance of each of these themes. From these lectures they have also partnered with the publishers Zondervan to released “The 5 Solas Series.” You might want to check out my review of one of the volume, Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification by Thomas Schreiner. […]
[…] Dr. Thomas Schreiner is a New Testament professor at Southern Seminary. My favorite work by Schreiner thus far has been his “Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification.” […]
[…] (For more on justification by faith alone and a response to Romanism and NT Wright check out this book).It is tragic to see in a chapter on the Gospel that the very poison against the Gospel is […]