He Shines in All That's Fair, by Richard J. Mouw

These chapters are the written version of the author's Stob Lectures, given at Calvin Theological Seminary in 2000. The lectures retain distinct traces of the specific context in which they were delivered, but this actually works to the book's advantage, making even more vivid the spirited attempts of one Christian scholarly community to answer a perplexing question: "What can Christians assume they have in common with people who have not experienced the saving grace that draws sinners into a restored relationship with God?"

The opening chapter offers a concise and illuminating snapshot of how au courant this topic is: some groups still deny common grace's existence, some are drawn toward the notion, and some still find it offensive. Next Mouw (a philosopher who is president of Fuller Theological Seminary) fleshes out some of the ways common grace has been considered and contended over in recent years in his own Dutch Calvinist milieu.

Mouw explores some of the tough questions emerging from current theological discourse, such as, "Is the ultimate destiny of human beings the only thing God thinks about in assessing what we think, feel and do?" He reasons that since Genesis explicitly states that God took pleasure in, and was glorified by, the nonhuman dimensions of creation, it is quite plausible that God takes delight in certain human states of affairs, "even when they are displayed in the lives of nonelect human beings." He notes that even historic Reformed confessional thought allows that it cannot be a matter of complete indifference to God whether the unregenerate do good or evil.