The Analogy of Faith: The Quest for God’s Speakability Archie J. Spencer. The Analogy of Faith: The Quest for God’s Speakability. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015. pp. 445. $28.00 (paperback). Reviewed by Michael Reed   One of the great ironies of modern theology is that in attempting to ensure we speak accurately about God we find ourselves with less and less to say. Can we have any confidence that human speech about God ‘reaches’ God in any meaningful or accurate way? Archie’s Spencer’s The Analogy of Faith: The Quest for God’s Speakability labors over this foundational question. His answer—to put it in simple and Barthian fashion—is that we cannot unless God in Christ shows us how. His monograph is meant to establish the preconditions for reliable human speech about God in a Christological “analogy of faith”—that is, in the correspondence between God and humanity...

      God Without Measure: Working Papers in Christian Theology. Volume I: God and the Works of God John Webster. God Without Measure: Working Papers in Christian Theology. Volume I: God and the Works of God. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015. pp. 240. $120.00 (hardback). Reviewed by Kevin Vollrath   John Webster’s new release collects his recent thoughts on a variety of doctrines. The book is thereby accessible for narrow reading on a particular doctrine, but the organization builds on itself with recurring themes and echoes to previously and later developed thoughts. The refrain of the book is the precedence of the trinity before all other doctrines: proper Trinitarian theology is the means of explicating any and every other doctrine. Webster repeatedly shows how any attempt outside of such grounding consistently falls short. Webster offers frequent quips about the nature of...

      Opera Omnia Vol. III: Christianity, Part One: The Christian Tradition Raimon Panikkar. Opera Omnia Vol. III: Christianity, Part One: The Christian Tradition. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis. 2015. pp. 370. $90.00 (cloth). Reviewed by John M. Allison   The Christian Tradition is the latest addition to the compilation of pluralist theologian Raimon Panikkar’s (1918-2010) completed works. This is a difficult book to summarize – and that is not only because Panikkar’s project is unapologetically cosmic in scope. The volume covers over a decade of intellectual development and is comprised of nine separate works: six articles, two lectures, and one book (1961’s Humanismo y Cruz, which itself consists of a series of ten articles and lectures from 1948-1961). Suffice to say, then, that it would be a vain undertaking to attempt to condense Panikkar’s reflections on Christianity with any...

      Religion in Hip-Hop: Mapping the New Terrain in the US Monica Miller, Anthony B. Pinn, Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, eds. Religion in Hip-Hop: Mapping the New Terrain in the US. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. pp. 296 $34.95 (paperback). Reviewed by Gregory Rapier   Consisting of fourteen original pieces by as many authors, Religion in Hip-Hop offers a variety of voices with varying critical lenses the opportunity to examine the nuanced relationship between hip-hop and religion. The resulting work reads more like a cipher than one succinct argument, with authors conversing with one another, bouncing off of each-others work, and riding over the same beats from opposite angles to radically different conclusions. The result is a battleground where the very souls of hip-hop’s greatest appear to be on the line. Is Tupac a modern day Christian prophet? A priest for the...

      Character: New Directions from Philosophy, Psychology, and Theology Christian B. Miller, et. al. eds. Character: New Directions from Philosophy, Psychology, and Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. pp. 720. $74.00 (hardcover). Reviewed by Tasha Striker   This anthology features groundbreaking research in character traits from leading scholars in philosophy, psychology, and theology. The book’s content is pertinent to both students and experts whose interests lie in the interdisciplinary study of character. The curious layperson will also find it accessible. Within the compilation there are thirty-one essays, written by both budding scholars and the book’s four editors, who are established voices within their respective fields. The rising scholars’ contributions were selected as a part of a fellowship competition, supported by the Character Project at Wake Forest...

      Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice Belden C. Lane. Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. pp. 288. $24.95 (hardcover). Reviewed by Rachel McKinley Cheney   Backpacking with the Saints serves as both a hiking memoir and a collection of spiritual reflections by Belden Lane, Professor of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. Lane organizes the book into two sections. The first part presents a survey of overarching themes. These themes are more like principles to take on the trail. In arriving at these guiding principles in wilderness spirituality, Lane relies on his own experience in the wilderness coupled with the writings of select spiritual giants in Christian history. In the second part, Lane draws on the voices of a variety of saints and theologians ranging from...