Book Review: John Webster, God without Measure, Vol. I

John Webster, God without Measure: Working Papers in Christian Theology. Volume i: God and the Works of God (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016)

God without Measure i is the first of a two-volume collection of essays on Christian theology by John Webster. The essays are grouped into two parts. Part i is entitled ‘God in himself’, and here Webster examines theology proper – the life of the triune God, the importance of the Son’s eternal generation, the place of Christology in systematic theology, and an examination of the Christology of the letter to the Hebrews. In Part ii, ‘God’s Outer Works’, Webster focuses on creation, God’s relation to creation, and essential doctrines such as soteriology and ecclesiology.

Throughout, Webster is concerned to emphasise that any doctrine starting from the works of God rather than from God in se is likely to generate a host of unnecessary theological problems that only a return to theology proper can resolve. Thus Webster starts each of his doctrinal examinations first by attending to the triune God from whom all things have come, and to whom all things are ordered. In this, the influence of Thomas Aquinas on Webster’s contemplations is hard to deny, as is that of Augustine, John Calvin, and Karl Barth. But the voice pervading these essays is unmistakably Webster’s, and those already appreciative of his prior publications will likely welcome these carefully nuanced contributions.

It should be noted that most of the papers have seen print elsewhere; only the first and third chapters are original to this volume. While it is genuinely helpful to have some of Webster’s finest essays in one place, the fact remains that God without Measure i is an expensive book for an individual scholar to buy if all s/he requires are the two previously unpublished articles on the matter of Christian theology and eternal generation. Also, the nature of this volume as a collection of previously published self-contained pieces means that there is some repetition between the chapters – though the consistency of Webster’s thought soon becomes apparent. Established scholars, postgraduate students, and advanced undergraduates and ministers should all find much of value in this book.

This review was originally published in Theological Book Review 27:1 (2016), pp. 50–51