Tulip: The Five Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture

Rating:
Summary: Good, if one sided, introduction
Review: As can easily be deduced from the other reviews of this book, Duane Edward Spencer has charged headlong into a theological minefield with his effort here to succinctly outline the 5 points of Calvinism. I found this book to be a solid introduction to explaining the 5 points, as well as providing the Scriptural support that is regularly called upon to defend the 5 points. I am frankly startled that the negative reviews of this book are so seething, given that the purpose of this book is to explain the 5 points in summary fashion and citing what Spencer believes is Biblical support. If that is the purpose of the book, and since the negative reviews of this book have little to do with critiquing whether Spencer adequately achieved this purpose, I'm not sure the negative reviews are a good reflection of whether the author achieves what he sets out to do here. This book is a succinct introduction to the theology of Calvinism, and I think the author does a good job of presenting Calvinism in an honest light. Whether someone personally agrees with Calvinism is a separate issue. My review is based on whether Spencer does a good job or not of honestly presenting Calvinism to the reader. I believe he does, and does it well.

This book is definitely a summary. The book is less than 100 pages, and devotes between 10-15 pages to each of the 5 points. These chapters, in a succinct and precise way, explain each point, the Biblical passages that Calvinists believe support each point, and there is also a discussion of the Arminian point that the Calvinist point is responding to. Clearly, the reader should recognize that this book is not even close to exhaustive of the myriad of issues that separate Arminianism and Calvinism, and does not delve into many of the nuances that have been the source of ongoing debate and friction for centuries between the two camps. But the book is not intended to do that. What this book is trying to do is to give a reader who wants to get their feet wet on Calvinist theology a way to do so.

I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5 for a few reasons. First, the negative reviewers of this book do make one valid point in saying that Arminianism, as presented in this book, is not given its full due. The author rightly feels compelled to offer a summarized view of the 5 points of Arminianism since the 5 points of Calvinism were drafted as a direct response to the 5 points of Arminianism. Therefore, it is appropriate and necessary that in order for the reader to get a deeper understanding of the origins of the 5 points of Calvinism, one must have some knowledge of what these 5 points were/are responding to, which would be the 5 points of Arminianism. I found Spencer's summary of the 5 points of Arminianism to be too summary oriented, and not totally explaining the rationales and Scripture passages that Arminians tend to rely on to support their view. So in that respect, the comparison between the 5 points of both camps is not as good as it could have been.

Secondly, as mentioned previously, this book, if read by an inquisitive reader, will likely leave that reader hanging a bit. After reading about the 5 points of Calvinism, a reasonable reader may well be left with burning questions concerning the Calvinist view of human free will, the problem of evil, the role of missions in Calvinist thought, and whether Calvinism endorses a sort of fatalistic determinism. All of these issues are huge, and none are explored in any great detail in this book. And while I understand that it was not the author's intention to explore these issues since they are somewhat beyond the scope of a basic examination of the 5 points, the author should have done a better job of anticipating these kind of issues and referring the reader to other Calvinist resources that deal with these issues. Spencer includes a very basic bibliography at the end, but I think it could have been beefed up considerably in such a way to offer relevant resource suggestions to readers who raise the above issues.

So in summary, this book gets into a redhot theological area, so it isn't surprising that emotions run high in many of the reviews of this book. But as someone who is still wading through some of these concepts, I found this book to be helpful, succinct, and beneficial for anyone who wants to begin their theological journey without trying to digest a lengthy and nuanced treatise. To be fair, the open minded reader who sincerely wants to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion on these issues should also pick up an introductory Arminian book and see the other side before coming to any definitive conclusions about these vital issues.

Rating:
Summary: Arminian ax grinding
Review: I bought this book in hope of getting a fairly well balanced presentation of the 2 different systems. What I got from the preface on was a tainted and one sided presentation that I found virtually worthless. I can appreciate the author's zeal as to his new found revelation, yet it was not a book in which each side was even somewhat fairly and evenly represented. It takes an extreme either/or tack. We've all heard about the reformed drunk who goes about with great zeal making known his change of heart often to the extreme, this seems to apply to this book as the author is a reformed Arminian who I perceive simply as an ax grinder for the cause. Although it represents the Arminian view in a very poor light, it puts the Reformers in an even poorer light through the bias of the representation of dealing with an opposing view in truth and fairness. This is a poor representation of both sides and a waste of money. I'm sorry I spent the 10 dollars.

Rating:
Summary: How Not To Argue for Calvinism
Review: I picked this book up because, though I knew generally what the five points of Calvinism were, I wanted to learn more about the arguments and scriptural support for the Calvinist viewpoint, and this book seemed like a good place to start, as it was short and seemed to fairly compare and contrast the Arminian and Calvinist viewpoints. After reading this book, I have to say that I sincerely hope that these are not the best arguments that Calvinism has to offer. If they are are, then Calvinists are in deep trouble.

While Spencer claims to be demonstrating the truth of Calvinism from scripture, he really attempts, unsuccessfully at that, to force Calvinism on to Scripture. His argument, in a nutshell is "We should be Calvinists because Jesus was a Calvinist," though he also fails miserably in attempting to force Jesus's words to conform to Calvinist doctrine. Take for example the classic statement of Christian faith given in John 3:16, "For go so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have eternal life." Spencer goes through some terribly tortured reasoning, hand waving, and redefining of terms to argue that "world" doesn't really mean the whole world, just the elect, and that "whosoever" doesn't really mean everyone, just the elect. In a few instances, Spencer only quotes parts of verses, making them appear to support his argument, leaving out the rest of the verse which would serve to undermine his argument. (See his handling of 2 Peter 3:9) He also quotes verses that have absolutely nothing to so with soteriology, forcing them to somehow support the Calvinist viewpoint. Indeed, since his appeals to scripture consist of quoting single verses or even parts of verses out of context, the book comes across as nothing so much as a long exercise in proof texting and apriorism.

Given that some very intelligent people in history have been Calvinists-- Luther immediately springs to mind--and given that some very well-read, well-educated, and intelligent people today are Calvinists, I have to believe that there are valid, sound, scripturally based, and well-reasoned arguments for Calvinism. If those arguments exist, however, they are not to be found in Spencer's book.