Dr John Austin Baker is an Anglican writer who was formerly Bishop of Salisbury and chairman of the Church of England Doctrine Commission. He is probably best known for his previous book on Christian doctrine. The Foolishness of God, which was published in 1970, and The Faith of a Christian should really be viewed as an abbreviated and updated version of this previous work.

The conviction lying behind The Faith of a Christian is set out by Dr Baker on p. 11 when he declares that what has been wrong with the Decade of Evangelism is ‘the lack of a message’. As he sees it, ‘Too many church members are not sure what to say, whether they believe all of what they are expected to say, or whether anyone else could be expected to believe it either. As for those who have no doubts about what to say, they, alas, have too often merely been repeating words which those outside the churches, or their parents’ and even grandparents’ generations, have already heard and found wanting. In his view, the remedy for this situation is ‘… a coherent total presentation of the Christian vision of reality which is true enough to human experience for many of the customary objections not to arise in the first place. But that means being prepared to replace a good many of the time-honoured set pieces with new ones.’

In attempting to present such a vision in his book he draws on the findings of biblical criticism and the natural sciences and also contemporary moral insights on matters such as animal rights and homosexuality. The resulting presentation of the Christian faith is one that reflects both the strengths and weaknesses of liberal Anglican apologetics.

On the one hand there is a commendable desire to take seriously the intellectual context in which we now find ourselves and to show how Christianity makes sense in this context. This is a necessary task that evangelicals need to take with the utmost seriousness. Furthermore, Dr Baker presents a form of Christianity that is broadly in line with credal orthodoxy in affirming belief in a trinitarian God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.

On the other hand, in conformity with the liberal Anglican tradition, he does not accept that the whole Bible has binding theological authority. Instead he concentrates on those parts of the Bible that agree with the overall theology he is seeking to commend. The result is a universalist form of Christianity in which the incarnation takes centre stage as the point at which God unites all humanity, and indeed all of creation, into his family and ensures their eventual participation in eternal life. What is downplayed, however, is the significance of the cross—which is seen as a demonstration of God’s love but not the point at which God exercised his judgment on sinful humanity—and the need for a personal faith in Christ given to us by God through his Holy Spirit in order for the work of Christ to become effective in our lives.

So, is the book work reading? Yes, because of the number of genuine insights it does contain and its stimulus to think out a more biblical vision of what Christianity is about. Is it worth buying? Probably not, because there are better books of apologetics and doctrine which will be of greater and more lasting value.