Hugh Rayment-Pickard, 50 Key Concepts in Theology (London: Dartman, Longman, and Todd, 2007), vi +170 Pps.
Hugh Rayment-Pickard is a parish priest in west London. He is also the author of ‘The Devil’s Account: Philip Pullman and Christianity’ and ‘The Myths of Time: From St Augustine to American Beauty’. Within this title, Rayment-Pickard picks out 50 key concepts in theology, as the title suggests, and gives a brief but accurate introduction to them for the general reader in short essays. The book is intentioned to be useful, interesting, accurate, and readable to the non-specialist. In being readable, it attempts to bypass theological jargon, opting instead for terminology that relates the information in what may be called ‘layman’ terms. Arranged alphabetically, the entries provide an erudite introduction to the concept, which serves to whet the appetite of the reader, who can then follow up on the topic by exploring the referenced thinkers, ideas, and books within each section.
Notable entries within the title include Atheism, Atonement, Creation, and The Divine Attributes. Moreover, Rayment-Pickard’s coverage of Heresy, Hermeneutics, and Miracles is to be commended. While Rayment-Pickard acknowledges that his book is not meant to be comprehensive, I do have some reservations regarding his choices to include – and thereby exclude – some topics. In fact, the range of themes and thinkers follows Rayment-Pickard’s own interests. One can detect this in his coverage of Ecotheology, Feminist Theology, Inclusive Theology, Liberal Theology, Narrative Theology, Process Theology, and Theological Ethics. Various questionable inclusions within the 50 ‘key’ concepts are The Death of God, Mysticism, Radical Orthodoxy, The Soul, and The Truth. I am not belying the import of these topics, but do question why they are apparently selected as some of the fifty most important.
Some notable exclusions from the ‘key concepts’ are, for example, soteriology, immanence (Rayment-Pickard included the correlate of transcendence, note), and Pneumatology (again, Rayment-Pickard included the correlate of Christology). These reservations aside, I nonetheless would recommend this title to be read in conjunction with other titles of a similar nature, as it does give a succinct and readable introduction to various important themes within theology today.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA