Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (2nd Edition)

Written by Walter A. Elwell (ed.) Reviewed By Daniel Strange

The Themelios reviewer of the first edition of the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (1985) stated that the work ‘must be viewed as the definitive theological dictionary from an evangelical standpoint … Here is a reference tool that ought, without question to be on the shelf of every university student seminarian and Christian worker’ (Themelios 11.1, Sept. 1985, p. 34). Over fifteen years later, and taking six years to complete, we now have the second edition of the Dictionary that covers the spectrum of theological disciplines: systematic, historical, and apologetic as well as theological ethics. Two hundred and fifteen new articles have been added and one hundred deleted, making a total of over 1,300 articles written by over 200 evangelical scholars, drawn predominately from North America. The editor notes that one of the major changes in the new edition has been to include living theologians and so there are articles on figures like Packer, Pannenberg, Lindbeck and Reuther. This is to be welcomed although there are some notable omissions: Cupitt, Milbank, Gunton, Von Balthasar. A number of new theological trends and movements are noted: Post-liberalism and the Jesus Seminar to name but two. However some current evangelical ‘hot potatoes’ like ‘The Openness of God’ and the ‘New Perspective on Paul’ are not mentioned in their own right. As with the first edition, each article has a useful cross-reference section and a bibliography for further reading although it was frustrating that this latter section contains no publisher or publication date details. Overall, and like the first edition, the quality of scholarship contained in the articles is high for a work of this nature and although there is not a complete theological uniformity among the contributors, the dictionary can be placed, I think, at the ‘conservative’ end of the evangelical spectrum. This is an important reference work that students will benefit greatly from.


Daniel Strange

Daniel Strange is director of Crosslands Forum, a centre for cultural engagement and missional innovation, and contributing editor of Themelios. He is a fellow of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics.