Christianity Today has recognized “The Mystery of God: Theology for Knowing the Unknowable” this year as a top choice book to “shape evangelical thought, life, and culture.” Authored by Eastern University’s Dr. Steven D. Boyer and Dr. Christopher A. Hall,the book was published by Baker Academic and was released on November 1, 2012.
This novel focuses on how God is something which humans cannot fully understand or comprehend, but one does not have to base beliefs off of faith alone. It claims that there is concrete evidence of the presence of God. Boyer and Hall discuss the importance and purpose of salvation, incarnation and prayer by exploring three key foundations in understanding the “unknown” God: biblical, historical, and practical. “The Mystery of God” was written to help theology students, pastors, church leaders, and anyone else in search of understanding.
The book was reviewed by Christianity Today on January 25, 2013 by Louis Markos. Markos writes about Boyer and Hall’s in depth look at how God has made himself known to the world through the trinity, Jesus–a man being all human and all God–and through a community of love in marriage, family, and friendship relations. Markos states, “All Christians know that the God of the Bible is personal, but few have gone as far as Boyer and Hall in drawing out the full implications of God’s radical, transcendent Personhood.” The book was given an award for theology and ethics.
James Beilby, a professor of biblical and theological studies at Bethel University states, “Boyer and Hall do an excellent job unpacking the subject of mystery, which is constantly alluded to in theological work but rarely carefully analyzed. The authors achieve clarity without sacrificing depth.”
When asked about his reaction to the book being one of the top picks of the year, Hall remarked that it was “encouraging”. Hall says, “When I got the news I thought, that is really encouraging to be judged by experts in the field of theology and have them find the content within our book to be significant –to be recognized as a contribution to the audience of Christianity Today and to help people know more about their faith.”
Dr. Boyer states, “The sun is too bright to stare at and yet it illuminates the world and everything in it. Like the sun, we can’t stare into God, but we see what he does in everything around us and we know he is there. He desires us to approach him.”
Sources: christianitytoday.com
mysteryofgoodbook.com
bakerpublishinggroup.com
eastern.edu