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Written by: Dale Appleby

Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found The Hidden Gospels. Janet Soskice. Vintage Books 2010. ISBN 9780099546542.

Janet Soskice is Professor of Philosophical Theology in the University of Cambridge. She is the first Roman Catholic woman to be a Professor of Theology at one of the ancient British Universities. She has written a ripping story of two Presbyterian Scottish sisters who were awarded Honorary Doctorates by European Universities before Cambridge was awarding any kind of degrees to women.

Agnes and Margaret Smith were twins. Their mother died two weeks after their birth in 1843.  Their father, a lawyer, brought them up in the tradition of strict Scots Calvinism, and encouraged their education, independence and foreign travel. He promised to take them to each country whose language they learnt. So they mastered French, German and Italian while still young.  He died while they were still single and left them an enormous fortune. So they decided to travel down the Nile.

Read more: Book Review: Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found The Hidden Gospels

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Written by: Dale Appleby

Codex Sinaiticus: The Story of the World's Oldest Bible. DC Parker. The British Library/Hendrickson 2010. ISBN 9780712358033

 One of the moving experiences I remember well is seeing Codex Sinaiticus in the British Library some years ago. What it is, why it is important, and how it got to the Library is told in this very interesting book.

In one way the book is the report and promotion of the collaboration of four groups in the research, and making available to the world, of Codex Sinaiticus. The project came together in 2005 when the Archbishop of Sinai, the British Library, the Leipzig Library and the National Library of Russia, St Petersburg agreed to collaborate in making their different portions of the Codex available to the world. 

This book is a report of the collaboration and an introduction to the Digital Project which now has the whole of the Codex viewable by anyone with access the World Wide Web  [codexsinaiticus.org].

Read more: Book Review: Codex Sinaiticus: The Story of the World's Oldest Bible

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Written by: Steven Daly

Essential reading for Essentials readers:  Taking God Seriously:  Vital Things We Need To Know, by J. I. Packer. 

My title overstates my position.  I do not think J. I. Packer’s new book is literally essential reading.  Nevertheless, I would like to heartily encourage you to buy this little volume (totally 175 pages and 8 chapters) and read it carefully.  It is wonderful little book and a great resource to have at hand. 

J. I. Packer’s new book is several things at once, and it is hard to answer the question ‘what is this book about’ succinctly.  In the Preface, the author tells us at some length that his book is about catechesis—“… intentional, orderly instruction in the truths that Christians are called to live by, linked with equally intentional and orderly instruction on how they are to do this.” 

However, the book is not really about catechesis.  The author does not provide us with a defence of catechesis as a teaching method in comparison with other teaching methods, nor even an outline as to how to conduct catechism classes.  Indeed, beyond the Preface there is hardly any discussion of the concept of catechesis at all.  I understand from others that catechism classes traditionally revolve around the memorization of answers to set questions, such that Christian doctrine is memorized and understood according to set wordings.  But I have no direct experience of this myself—having been raised in a non-church family and having been discipled since conversion in churches that concentrated on small group Bible studies augmenting weekly expository Bible preaching sermons—so my questions about catechism, and its place in discipleship, were left largely unanswered. 

Read more: Book Review: Taking God Seriously: Vital Things We Need To Know

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Written by: Neil Walthew

Gps: God's Plan For Salvation
Allan Chapple Aquila Press 2014 ISBN 9781922000965
Reviewed by Neil Walthew

Allan Chapple's book, 'GPS - God's Plan for Salvation’ is a guidebook or map to the whole sweep of salvation history presented to us by God in both the Old and New Testaments. It is the product of many years of teaching the big picture of the Bible and as such is a very accessible book for the person who has never read the Old Testament in detail and who wants to know more so as to understand the New Testament better, through to the person who would want to use the book as a resource to teach others.

In the introduction Allan makes it clear that he sees the Bible's centre of attention is Jesus. The Bible is the word of God about the works of God. Three words to sum up the Bible are Creation, Covenant and Christ. So having set the centre, Allan's book now begins by taking the Old Testament, literally in your hands, and showing the relative parts that make up the Old Testament, later Allan will do the same with the New Testament.  He then makes a simple diagram of the Old Testament using events around entering and leaving the land either from or to Babylon/Assyria and Egypt. The books of the Old Testament, significant Old Testament figures and dates are then placed on this diagram.

Read more: Book Review: God's Plan For Salvation

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Written by: Ben Underwood

Christ Died For Our Sins  
Edited by Michael R Stead   ISBN 9781921577185
Barton Books, 2013
Reviewed by Ben Underwood

This book of essays on the atonement has been produced by the Doctrine Commission of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia. As Philip Freier remarks in his introduction, 'The Doctrine Commission reflects the theological diversity of our church’ (2), and if that leads you to expect some theological tussling in the book, you would not be misled. However, in publishing these essays the Commission wishes firstly to highlight the unanimity shared by its members on substantial points regarding the atonement (2). And the points of agreement articulated are substantial: that the atonement is grounded in God's love, not his wrath; that Father and Son are united in the atonement; that sin makes the atonement necessary, that the atonement demonstrates God's justice; that it depends on more than Christ's death; that no single image is sufficient to encapsulate it (2-3). The commission wishes also to identify clearly points of difference and to model respectful dialogue over those differences (142).

The most contentious point is penal substitutionary atonement, the idea that Christ's suffering and death was our deserved punishment diverted onto him by God, and this disagreement is the subject of a dialogue between John Dunnill and Peter Adam in a dedicated chapter of the book. Aside from the debated differences over penal substitution, there are also conflicting views expressed about the universality of the benefits of Christ's atonement, and whether the wrath of God has any proper place in an account of God's action in the atonement.

Read more: Book Review: Christ Died For Our Sins

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Written by: Dale Appleby

Planting a Church
Peter Carolane has led a team in planting a new congregation in Melbourne's inner-north. Essentials asked him how they have gone about it.
1. Please tell us when and how this church plant started.
1.1 Initial Research for the Plant
Throughout 2012, Revd. Peter Carolane, Bishop Stephen Hale (with assistance from Archdeacon Condie and Bishop Huggins) investigated the viability of a church plant in the inner-north.
In December 2012, Peter Carolane held the first meeting for people interested in the plant.
1.2 Planning, Prayer and Vision Meetings
In February 2013, Peter formed a steering team of nine St Hilary’s people who started meeting weekly to plan the launch of the church plant
Midway through the year, two extra people joined the leadership team from St Jude’s Carlton.
In March 2013, a vision development day was held at Northcote Town Hall including about 25 people who inputed into the formation of the vision statement. The results from this day were further refined by the steering team and Peter (see below).

Read more: Interview: Peter Carolane - Church Planting