Christian Doctrine at Its Best
“James Denney, ‘supreme alike as scholar, teacher, administrator, and man of God to whom many owed their souls’. . . affirmed the abiding truth of New Testament faith so memorably that it would be a significant loss to a new generation of evangelical Christians if these studies were not republished. . . Profound preaching is a scarce commodity…[A]nd rare is the contemporary theologian who has not confused scholarly objectivity with personal detachment…Denney’s conquest of both errors—sermons without thought and theology without commitment—single him out as a man whose contribution to our own day might conceivably be more needed than it was even in his.” Introduction to Studies in Theology, reprint of 1895 edition (Grand Rapids, Baker Book, 1976), v-vi.
“Few books have exercised a more potent influence throughout the religious world” [review of Studies in Theology by T. H. Walker, Denney’s first biographer], (Studies), vii.
“The best short book on Christian doctrine I know. . . would not exchange it for the entire works of Barth” [comments by A. M. Hunter] (Studies), vii.
Why has the evangelical church in America refused to embrace wholeheartedly this uniquely gifted pastor-theologian whose passionate expositions of the Gospel exceed anything that has been written or preached in the entire twentieth century? Pastor John offers a critique of the Introduction to James Denney’s Studies in Theology reprinted from the 1895 edition published by Hodder and Stoughton, (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1976).