This is a masterly handbook. It covers concisely a biblical overview and an historical survey, and discusses five contemporary issues. Of course, the charge of superficiality may be justified. On the other hand, where else is there such a magnificent biblical and historical survey on Pastoral Theology?

Derek Tidball is to be commended for his wide scholarship, his biblical thinking and his sensitivity to students’ needs. The book reflects a pastorly concern for academic students keen to learn the essentials without becoming too weighed down with detail. The reader leaves the book appetized as well as nourished. This volume ought to be on the shelf of every theological student and every pastor, to be taken down and used in rather the same way that the New Bible Commentary might be—as a speedy, concise and ready reference.

Ours is a pragmatic age with a constant call for relevance and an impatience with theory. It is quite possible that Tidball’s book will be dismissed or ignored (to the great loss of the would-be reader) until such time in the future when some Twentieth-Century Theological Book Society will discover its value and reprint it as one of those gems never previously appreciated.

If the reader is looking for a guide to pastoral practice he had better turn elsewhere. Here is a basic Pastoral Theology—a study of God and his revelation set within a pastoral framework. It establishes firm principles from which pastoral practice may be deduced.

Wisely—and unusually—it begins with the Ministry of God, a theme repeatedly found in the OT but rarely discussed in pastoral theology. Sadly the promise of this early section is not developed further later on in the work on the NT. Issues such as his Fatherhood, grace and redemption are missing and in that major sense the work is lacking. However, there is so much else that will help the reader to understand the nature of a biblical view of pastoring. Tidball makes the point (p. 50) from Isaiah that ‘The basic problem was simply that they had a wrong conception of God’—which, after all, is fundamental to pastoral work. As such it really needs following through into the NT survey.

Tidball sets a good example of biblical understanding by the way he treats each section of Scripture. The reader will benefit greatly from his main thesis but will also learn something of how to handle Scripture faithfully using the critical apparatus at his disposal without falling into the trap of unhealthy and negative academic attitudes.

The historical survey (chs. 7–11) is as scholarly as the biblical, though I regret the paucity of material and discussion in the chapters on the early church and the Middle Ages—32 pages on 1,200 years seems unbalanced when there are 68 on 400 years; however, that is not untypical of our evangelical ‘school’.

The clear summaries of the influential—Luther, Bucer, Calvin and Baxter—are so very helpful and stimulating. That on Schleiermacher is both commentary and cautionary and is very valuable for that.

The contemporary issues raised by psychology are not ignored though perhaps they deserve more attention particularly in the light of the Adams’ emphasis and the increasing influence of Hurding’s ‘Roots and Shoots’.

The five contemporary issues are pertinent—Belief, Forgiveness, Suffering, Unity and Ministry—and reflect a developing stream of thought. The clear emphasis on ‘forgiveness’ and the exposition of this is very commendable—the subject needs greater emphasis in evangelical pastoring today and is one of those fundamental issues comparatively ignored in theological writing this century. However, in all the five chapters there seems a marked absence of biblical thinking in terms of conviction and conclusion. Contemporary comprehensiveness along with a mature desire for understanding. seems to have taken the edge off convinced biblical pastoral theology. In particular, the chapter on Ministry lacks commitment—it may ‘satisfy’ all sides but will not do more.

The summaries or conclusions at the end of some chapters are good—so good, in fact, that where they are omitted they are greatly missed (chs. 5, 6, 8 and 11). The writer is to be commended for his wide-ranging bibliography. That in itself is a remarkable resource and provides material for further thought and constructive study.

This book deserves reading. It would be a valuable ‘set book’ for second/third year theological students.

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