What Christianity Is Not, by Douglas John Hall

In essentials unity; in nonessentials liberty; in all things charity.” It is a great slogan, one that my own denomination holds dear. But what are the essentials around which we’re to unite? Creedal statements are intended to reflect a consensus, but no lasting consensus has yet been reached. Perhaps it would be better to identify what Christianity is not.

If we’re to take this negative route to a reach a positive outcome, we will need an experienced and thoughtful guide. Few persons are better equipped for this task than Douglas John Hall, professor emeritus of Christian theology at McGill University in Montreal. Hall claims that What Christianity Is Not, which he completed at the age of 84, is his last book, a final theological testament.

It is appropriate that Hall opens the book with a dedication to his grandchildren. He writes as one who recognizes his own mortality and ponders the future of the faith to which he has devoted his life. As he surveys the current scene, he sees expressions of Christianity that are, in his estimation, “spiritually cheap and intellectually debased” and that will not succeed in addressing the spiritual angst of our age.