A Little Book for New Theologians: A Review

I couldn’t put Kelly Kapic’s book down and highly recommend it for readers of The Sovereign blog. If you might think you aren’t a theologian, Professor Kapic will convince you that all believers are theologians. His definition of Christian theology on the last page of the book (p. 121) clarifies this:

“In its most fundamental form, Christian theology is an active response to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, whereby the believer, in the power of the Holy Spirit, subordinate to the testimonies of the prophets and apostles as recorded in the Scriptures and in communion with the saints, wrestles with and rests in the mysteries of God, his work and his world.”

This book is not a theology book, but a much-needed encouragement for believers to know and worship God, fully integrating our lives with our theology. Dr. Kapic proposes these characteristics needed for our theology:

• faithful reason
• prayer and study
• humility and repentance
• suffering, justice and knowing God
• tradition and community
• love of Scripture

I hope the following quote from this wonderful book will further encourage you to pick up a copy.

As you read Psalm 113, notice the transition from the “high” beginning of the psalm to the “low” ending of the psalm. Dr. Kapic marked this in bold. I’ll follow this psalm with his comments.

Psalm 113

¹ Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, you his servants;
    praise the name of the Lord.
² Let the name of the Lord be praised,
    both now and forevermore.
³ From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
    the name of the Lord is to be praised.

⁴ The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
    his glory above the heavens.
⁵ Who is like the Lord our God,
    the One who sits enthroned on high,
⁶ who stoops down to look
    on the heavens and the earth?

⁷ He raises the poor from the dust
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
⁸ he seats them with princes,
    with the princes of his people.
⁹ He settles the childless woman in her home
    as a happy mother of children.

Praise the Lord.

“Claus Westtermann described Psalm 113 as reaching from above the impossible heights of the heavens down to a little room in a little house where a mother rejoices over her child. Divine splendor and holy tenderness perfectly come together in this psalm as it calls us to praise God for his beauty, the beauty that bends from above. The main point is not God’s holy exaltation or his stunning condescension considered separately, but how together they inform our praise. The psalm contradicts the common mistake of thinking that greatness and compassionate presence are mutually exclusive… This psalm anticipates what will be most clearly manifested in the incarnation of the Son of God.” (pp. 80 – 82)

I’m grateful to Dr. Kapic for stretching me and challenging me to grow in my relationship with God and in worship of Him. I’m taking his humble advice very seriously.

Let me know if you read this book and what you think of it.