05 September
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On
In Book Reviews, The Bible and Scientific Issues

by Jonathan Sarfarti (Master Books, 2004)   Review by Rowland S. Ward written 2005 This book was given to me to review by one who said it was a bit out of his field. Its subtitle is self-explanatory – “A Biblical and Scientific Refutation of ‘Progressive Creationism’ (Billions of Years), as popularised by Astronomer Hugh Ross.” I would also plead incapacity to assess many of the arguments drawn from scientific disciplines. Indeed, I question if much of the material is appropriate or necessary for the popular defence of the Biblical doctrine of creation. Obviously Dr Sarfarti of Answers in Genesis thinks otherwise. Recently, a 16Read More →

31 July
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On
In Book Reviews, Current Issues

Review: Fractured Families:  The story of a Melbourne Church Cult by Morag Zwartz $19.95  ISBN 09587955 1 7 Distributed by Openbook Publishers, Adelaide   From The Presbyterian Banner,  March 2005 Rowland S. Ward Back in June 1991 I reviewed David Millikan’s book Imperfect Company, which primarily referred to the perfectionist cult founded about 1940 by Lindsay Grant in Sydney. The current work by Morag Zwartz, a competent writer, gives attention to the somewhat similar group associated with Lindsay’s older brother, Ronald, who was based in the large Camberwell Presbyterian Church in Melbourne and who died in 1996. Eighteen years ago I obliquely referred to themRead More →

05 July
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On
In Book Reviews, Exegetical and Biblical Commentary

Review: A Study Commentary on Daniel by Allan M. Harman (Evangelical Press, 2007) hbk., 333pp. Allan Harman has written another OT commentary that displays the typical marks of his work in sensitivity to the text, honesty and sobriety in exegesis, and clarity of expression. Additionally, as befits the EP Study Commentary series, there are points of practical application at the end of each section. The Commentary reads well, the print is clear, and its perusal will profit the average busy pastor and stimulate the more advanced student. While I regard Harman’s work on Deuteronomy and Isaiah as very helpful, I am less confident about theRead More →

03 July
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On
In Book Reviews, Doctrine of Scripture: Creed and Confessions

BOOK REVIEW: The Divine Spiration of Scripture [in the USA, The Divine Authenticity of Scripture] by A.T.B.McGowan (Apollos, 2007 £14.99 ; IVP, 2008 US$22   Rowland S. Ward The blurb to the soon to be released USA printing of this book by the Principal of Highland Theological College [HTC] in Dingwall, Scotland, reads in part: Evangelicals have taken extraordinary care in formulating and articulating a high view of Scripture. And yet the doctrine is not without its inadequacies and its internal critics–both past and present. Reviewing the evangelical discussion and formulations over the past century and more, particularly in the Reformed tradition in North America,Read More →

30 March
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On
In Book Reviews, Doctrine of Scripture: Creed and Confessions

SPECIAL BOOK REVIEW Inspiration & Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament by Peter Enns (Grand Rapids: Baker 2005) pbk. 197pp $19.95 ISBN 0801027306   Reviewed by Rowland S. Ward in The Presbyterian Banner, May 2006   This book is by the Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. [Enns has left the Seminary as of mid 2008.] He was also editor of the Westminster Theological Journal 2000-05. My initial knowledge of it came through a somewhat abrasively hostile review in New Horizons (the Orthodox Presbyterian Church magazine) last year, which I am surprised was published inRead More →

23 December
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On
In Book Reviews, Covenant Theology

REVIEW: Lewis Bevans Schenck, The Presbyterian Doctrine of Children in the Covenant (Phillipsburg: P & R Publishing 2003). lge. pbk., xx + 188 pp.   Reviewed by Rev Dr Rowland S. Ward, minister of Knox Presbyterian Church, Melbourne, Australia. This review appeared in the Confessional Presbyterian, Vol 2 (2006) pp 181-184   The republication of this historical study of the significance of infant baptism in the Presbyterian Church should be welcomed by conservative Presbyterians even if they find cause to disagree with some of the author’s arguments, and are less than satisfied by aspects of his historical reconstruction and arrangement. The modern introduction by FrankRead More →

12 December
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On
In Book Reviews, Church History

POLITICS, RELIGION AND THE BRITISH REVOLUTIONS – The Mind of Samuel Rutherford by John Coffey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), xii + 304pp., £40. also now in paperback. This review originally appeared in the Reformed Theological Review, April 1998.   Samuel Rutherford (1600-61) was a complex character known chiefly to later generations through his much-admired Letters still in print in several languages. These evince a piety that has enriched the devotional life of evangelicals ever since. Yet this Scottish Presbyterian minister and commissioner to the Westminster Assembly was also a writer of polemical treatises which seem worlds apart from the Letters. To dip into theRead More →

10 December
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On
In Book Reviews, The Bible and Scientific Issues

by William Ryan and Walter Pitman (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1998) 298pp US$25 [See note added 6 Sept 2010 at end.] The Melbourne Age on 29/10/1999 carried a story about the views put forward by Willian Ryan and Walter Pitman, geologists from Columbia University one of whom gave a public lecture at Melbourne University on his theory. Essentially the two geologists have established that the Black Sea was once a fresh-water lake with a water level 100 metres below the Bosporus. However, in 5600 BC rising sea levels as a consequence of glacial meltwater overflowed from the Mediterranean at a rate 200 times thatRead More →

10 December
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On
In Book Reviews, The Bible and Scientific Issues

by Peter Lemesurier (London: Piatkus Books 2000) pbk. 325pp) ISBN: 0749921633   From The Presbyterian Banner, September 2002 Peter Lemesurier appears to be one of the more sane followers of Michel de Nostredame (1503-66), if that is not a contradiction in terms. Nostradame, later known as Nostradamus, was a contemporary of his fellow Frenchman John Calvin (1509-65), but was a far different character. Nostradamus was of Jewish extraction but a practising Roman Catholic. He achieved considerable fame as a physician of the plague, although his medical qualifications are uncertain, and he did not claim great success himself. He was also famed somewhat as an ‘astrologer’,Read More →

09 December
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On
In Book Reviews, The Bible and Scientific Issues

 By Peter Harrison (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), xii + 313pp., A$105 This review by Rowland S. Ward appeared in the Reformed Theological Review, December 1999.   Peter Harrison is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bond University, Qld. He has authored a volume that is well-written and rsearched and which is very valuable in understanding the origins of the natural sciences. A common view since the 1930s has been that the Puritans were the key to the rise of the sciences since so many of them were involved in the founding of the Royal Society. They were also over-represented in the sciences compared to theirRead More →