Their Rock Is Not Like Our Rock: A Theology of Religions
Overview
The reality of the West’s postmodern, post-Christian context has meant that, more than ever, Christians face questions posed not simply by the existence of other religions, but also by their flourishing. If secularization is alive and well, so too is society’s sacralization. Hence, a theology of religions is one of the most significant concern confronting Christian mission and apologetics in the twenty-first century.
There has been little evangelical theology offering a detailed, comprehensive, and biblically faithful analysis not only of the question of salvation, but also questions of truth, the nature and history of human religiosity, and a host of other issues pertaining to Christian apologetics and contextualization amid religious pluralism. In Their Rock is Not Like Our Rock, lecturer and vice principal of Oak Hill College in London, Daniel Strange, explores these issues and offers the beginning of a theology of other religions.
For more on Christianity and pluralism, check out Introducing World Religions: A Christian Engagement.
- Develops and deploys a biblically rich and nuanced theology of religions
- Provides a Reformed, presuppositional, and missional approach
- Paves the way for future discussions
Contents
- The Task before Us
- Homo Adorans
- The Curious Case of Remnantal Revelation
- Towards a Religio-Genesis
- No Other Gods before Me
- The Perilous Exchange
- “For Their Rock Is Not as Our Rock”
- “A Light for the Gentiles”
- “But I have Raised You up for This Very Purpose. . .”
Top Highlights
“Keller. There is no doubt that he is a very gifted communicator and strategist, but theologically he is not innovative and ‘radical’ in that he self-consciously remains totally within the tradition of Dutch Reformed theology and missiology, sitting on the shoulders of his teacher Harvie Conn, who himself was influenced heavily by the apologetics and systematic theology of Cornelius Van Til and the missiology of J. H. Bavinck. What Keller has done, though, like Newbigin before him, is to reflect missiologically upon our Western culture and apply missiological tools to areas that have not been considered to be ‘mission’ fields.” (Pages 31–32)
“From the presupposition of an epistemologically authoritative biblical revelation, non-Christian religions are sovereignly directed, variegated and dynamic, collective human idolatrous responses to divine revelation behind which stand deceiving demonic forces. Being antithetically against yet parasitically dependent upon the truth of the Christian worldview, non-Christian religions are ‘subversively fulfilled’ in the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Page 156)
“It also forms the core of my overall definition of the religious Other, which I seek to demonstrate in this study as follows: from the presupposition of an epistemologically authoritative biblical revelation, non-Christian religions are sovereignly directed, variegated and dynamic, collective human idolatrous responses to divine revelation, behind which stand deceiving demonic forces. Being antithetically against yet parasitically dependent upon the truth of the Christian worldview, non-Christian religions are ‘subversively fulfilled’ in the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Page 98)
This crucially important book should be read by missionaries, professors, pastors, and all those who teach the word of God and who long to see God’s name praised among the nations.
—Thomas R. Schreiner, professor of New Testament interpretation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
- Title: Their Rock is Not Like Our Rock: A Theology of Religions
- Author: Daniel Strange
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Print Publication Date: 2014
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Pages: 384
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Theology
- ISBNs: 9780310527145, 0310527147
- Resource ID: LLS:9780310520788
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-28T22:13:56Z
Reviews
0 ratings
Steven Duncan
6/25/2015
Under the category of Christian Group, this book would be better described as "Reformed" than "Evangelicals." From a thorough Amazon review: "As Strange returns to the missional nature of his theology of religion the thinking of Van Til again takes center stage." Also: "Despite the entirety of Strange’s thought being distinctly Reformed, this chapter displays the more familiar Reformed doctrines of soteriology and predestination. Though insightful, the reliance on Reformed thought from Romans 9-11 will provide a major split for some evangelical readers." Also: "In conclusion, Their Rock Is Not Like Our Rock is a tour-de-force of Reformed theology towards other religions."