No Other Gods Book

This volume was at once brilliant and frustrating. Radner provides a powerful argument for remaining within church bodies that do not possess the purity one would like, an important reminder for today's schism-prone church. The theme of Radner's work here is his insistence on a figural reading of scripture and its relation to divine providence, which he affects with aplomb. The conclusions he reaches are suspect, however. In discussing the current debate over sexual practice within the Christian Church, he, effectively, bows to traditional readings of scripture which provide arguments for the traditional understanding of sexual ethics but not necessarily arguments against their revision in light of developments in the sciences and society. To his credit, Radner recognizes the diversity of sexual practices, even in the Church, prior to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, something conservative thinkers in Christianity often fail to recognize, and he recognizes the importance of conscious in these matters. While I find Radner's argument for traditional sexual ethics wanting, I do believe that this book provides an excellent model for any Christian who finds themselves disagreeing with the current or evolving doctrine of the body providence has placed them in. Radner advocates for a suffering within said body as an evangelical, in the traditional sense, exercise, that illuminates the gospel of the suffering Christ. Instead of retreating to a foxhole with other "orthodox" or "like-minded" individuals, an approach advocated by Evangelicals and traditionalist Orthodox and Catholics (e.g. Rod Dreher), Radner argues that remaining and submitting to whatever discipline, which, he states is often overblown by conservatives, is the Christ-like response to divergence from "orthodox doctrine." If one is in search of a robust argument for the retention of traditional sexual ethics within the Christian Church, "Hope…" is not necessarily your best choice, however, this an excellent volume for those who are striving to discern how best to represent Christ in a splintering Church.