B.H. Carroll’s Pastoral Theology
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 58, No. 2 – Spring 2016
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
By Andrew B. McGowan. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014. 320 Pages. Hardcover, $34.99.
Anyone interested in the worship practices of the Church should read this book. Andrew McGowan has produced an excellent resource describing early church practices with obvious implications on contemporary expressions. The research of the book is impressive, the organization is clear, and the content is well written. The topics covered are as follows: meal (Lord’s Supper), Word, Music, Initiation (Baptism, Anointing, and Foot Washing), Prayer, and Time (Feasts and Fasts). Within each of these topics, the author shows their development and impact on the Church.
Throughout the book, McGowan’s demonstrates an impressive familiarity and interaction with early church writings. Informed by the author’s earlier work on the Lord’s Supper, the rich impact that celebration had on the history of the church is a frequent and intriguing discovery throughout the book. In each of the topics addressed, the author unpacks the richness and complexity of the Christian tradition. He sheds light on current worship practices, but also helps the reader understand how those practices influenced other areas like ordination (159–60), preaching styles (76–78), devotional practices (78–86), and more.
The strengths of the work are McGowan’s chapters detailing the history of the Lord’s Supper (chapter 2), Baptism (chapter 5), and Holy days (chapter 7). He is honest on areas where there is a lack of clear evidence for the development of certain practices in areas like music (117, 118–19, 122) and specific times of prayer (188, 202–03), but also insightful where clear implications can be drawn, such as the impact of the growth of the church on buildings, land, and political influence (59–62).
At times, this reader would have liked to have seen more appeal to Scripture or the original languages. For example, in the section on music, a brief discussion of the history of music in relation to David and Jehoshaphat might have strengthened the historical development of the topic. However, the confines of the book are clear and may have prevented such a discussion.
This book would be a helpful addition to any minister’s library. Readers will want to read it slowly. Have a highlighter and a pen handy as nearly every page contains informative and engaging content. From the perspective of this reviewer, as soon as I finished the book, I added it to the required reading for my course and immediately made plans to read it again.
