The level of enjoyment reading books which one has been asked to review can vary. These two books were indeed a pleasure to read and much can be learned on the way. David Brown is a prolific writer with many books to his name. These two volumes, excellently edited by his ex‐students and friends Christopher Brewer and Robert MacSwain, not only impress by the breadth of themes but by the fact that they provide a fine introduction and overview of Brown's thought. The editors must be commended for their idea to bring the articles, most of them previously published elsewhere, into two accessible, cohesive volumes and thus to a wider audience; they have done Brown a service in friendship and appreciation.
The titles of both books already give a strong idea that Brown is not someone who has striven to be a specialist in a limited field. A specialist's knowing more and more about less and less is the polar opposite to Brown's ambitions. On the contrary what marks his thinking is an unusually expansive vision of theology.
God in a Single Vision contains thirteen chapters divided into four parts: ‘The Created Order’, ‘Experience and Revelation’, ‘Incarnation, Trinity and Redemption’, and ‘Heaven and Our Communal Destiny’. The chapters deal with the question of creation, ‘creation and its alternatives’, theodicy, ‘realism and religious experience’, revelation and problematic biblical texts, biblical texts and current interpretations, models of understanding the incarnation, discussion of ‘Trinitarian personhood and individuality’, Anselm's understanding of Atonement, a reflection on other images or metaphors of atonement including sacrifice, beauty (atonement in art and poetry), and penalty, a discussion on the importance of saints, a positive re‐evaluation of purgatory and an article on ‘Heaven and the Communion of Living and Departed’.
From creation to heaven the articles make for interesting reading. Coming from an Anglo‐Catholic perspective, and writing in a country much associated with analytical philosophy, Brown, instead of going down the usual modern route of separating theology and philosophy, takes an always generous view and aims to integrate perspectives from both disciplines in discussing Christian doctrines. Not only that, he clearly has stepped beyond the inclinations of some theologians to argue primarily from their respective denominational stance. Thankfully, it is one of the results of the ecumenical movement that theologians increasingly adopt as the first theological criterion genuine truth‐seeking, i.e. whether something makes theological sense, rather than always needing to defend one's denominational teachings as the sine qua non. Thus Brown's reading and argumentation takes in Protestant as much as Catholic perspectives, philosophers, theologians, New Testament scholars, as well as some insights from Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. I found all chapters much worth reading, but it is maybe the one on purgatory which surprised me most and it is an example of how Brown operates. Here he goes back to an ‘old‐fashioned’ Catholic notion, as one might put it, and, as an Anglican, provides an incisive examination of the idea that ‘there can be no Heaven for any of us without Purgatory first’. Whether one agrees with him or not, his argumentation is incisive and makes a lot of sense. And so, whether with regard to creation or revelation, to purgatory or the communion of saints, to perspectives on biblical texts or theodicy, Brown tends to focus on a variety of, and even ‘unfashionable’, themes with a view of re‐examination and throwing balanced, new perspectives on these. In so doing, occasionally he is not shy to critique his dialogue partners, while at other times fully endorsing their views.
Divine Generosity and Human Creativity likewise is made up of four parts – ‘Foundations’, ‘The Power of Symbols, ‘Artists as Theologians’, ‘Meaning in Religion and Architecture’ – and thirteen chapters: ‘In the Beginning was the Image’, ‘Why Theology needs the Arts’, ‘Learning from Pagans’, ‘Understanding Symbol’, ‘Baptism and Water as Cosmological Symbol’, ‘Finding God in Limited Light and Darkness’, ‘The Annunciation as True Fiction’, ‘Why the Ascension Matters’, ‘Artists on the Trinity’, ‘Architecture and Theism’, ‘Interfaith Dialogue through Architecture’, ‘Tensions between Politics and Religious Symbolism in Architecture’, ‘Worshipping with Art and Architecture’. Again the chapter headings evidence the breadth of Brown's engagement with faith and the arts.
Against dividing Brown's career into the first half as philosophical theologian and the latter as more interested in arts and culture, as some have suggested, Brewer incisively argues that there is an ‘underlying unity’ in Brown's work ‘which might be described from one side as a sustained argument against deism and for a generous God or, from the other side, a sacramental vision of reality that is mediated through inspired human creativity’. This sacramental vision of reality – Brown's appreciation of the arts as manifestations of glimpses of revelation – unfolds throughout the book from his brilliant examination of the meaning of symbols to his writing on images, art and architecture. Those, like myself, who have been involved in this field of study with its unprecedented growth over the last twenty years have worked from the premise that the church has often failed to pay tribute to the arts as loci theologici. This is developed and echoed repeatedly in Brown's work: Art must not only be viewed in terms of illustrating the Christian faith, as decoration or ancilla theologiae, but art itself is revelatory and offers new perspectives of revelation and religious experience. Through the centuries artists have engaged with biblical themes and have interpreted these from their own perspective through their own media. Artistic perspectives hence must inform and challenge us as theologians. Image and word, art and theology ought to mutually respect, inform and learn from one another. Art, as he says, must be valued as ‘innovative’ in theology and can work as an ‘independent vehicle of truth’. Even those theologians who deem themselves interested in the arts may actually use art only as a medium which confirms belief, instead of valuing art as opening up new, surprising, challenging vistas. Brown's knowledge of the arts is remarkable and he includes many examples of works of art in his discussion which make for stimulating reading, from Lazarus to Led Zepplin et al. The final chapter is a little repetitive of issues that are already discussed in earlier chapters.
A Renaissance man in a time of ever‐growing specialisation, Brown's work impresses in scope, research, energy and erudition. Both books complement one another well and provide the reader not only with a spectrum of Brown's theological method and content but in that way also offer perspectives on some central Christian doctrines in an inclusive fashion. His knowledge is breath‐taking.
