Donald Fairbairn’s Life in the Trinity: An Introduction to Theology with the Help of the Church Fathers is superb in many respects. He shows the intimate connection between theology proper and soteriology (theology and economy) in the church fathers and urges contemporary Christians to learn from them how theosis unites theology and practice. His biblical exposition is careful and exciting, and he fills the book with judicious selections from the church fathers. The book is pastorally rich. Fairbairn writes very clearly.

One passing comment caught my eye in particular. He explains the difference between Trinitarian monotheism and other forms of monotheism by saying that “Judaism and Islam properly maintain the distinction between God and all that he has created, but they offer human beings little more than servant status in God’s purposes.”

That’s true, and it’s very revealing: It means that Judaism and Islam are both stuck in the pre-Christian world, in the childhood and adolescence of humanity. Only Christianity surpasses the childhood of man by insisting that in Christ we have become God’s friends, participants in His life, co-rulers of His world.