For Tim Meadowcroft, the Word of God, at least in the scope of this book, is not simply a synonym for the Scriptures. The book is a much wider consideration of how God speaks, looking at the divine communication and self-revelation through general and special revelation, the written words of Scripture and Christ, the incarnate Word. One of his key, underlying concepts is that of ‘speech-act theory’, stressing “the inseparability of speech and action…The concepts developed in this theory are helping readers of Scripture to appreciate afresh that when God speaks he acts, and that God acts by speaking.” (p26)
Meadowcroft approaches his subject by a series of detailed expositions of passages from throughout Scripture and in this, he undoubtedly achieves at least one of the stated ideals for the now well established and highly respected series, The Bible Speaks Today (BST), of which this is a volume in their ‘Bible Themes’ collection. The series’ aim is to “expound the biblical text with accuracy” and there is no doubt that Meadowcroft is a diligent and faithful exegete and scholar of the biblical text.
However, this is heavy going and, unlike most other volumes in the BST series, will surely only really appeal to the scholar and academic. One general commendation of the BST series describes them as “…not only scholarly but inspirational”, but I couldn’t honestly say that applied in this case. Scholarly it certainly is, but I feel the author made an inspiring subject rather dull.
IVP (21 Oct. 2011)