<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: A book that will change your perspective
Review: I am forced to demur in regards to the other posted reviews of Professor Tupper's monograph. I was a student at Southern Seminary during the last days of Dr. Tupper's professorship there and I can attest to the fact that this work accurately reflects the content of his teaching at that time. Dr. Tupper's thesis can be summed up neatly in the following: "In times of greatest human need, God always does the best that God can." While that sentiment may work for your local State Farm agent, it can in no way serve as a historically and/or biblically informed definition of divine providence (unless the human language has lost all definiteness of meaning). Tupper has abandoned confidence in the sovereign Lord of the Old and New Testaments, not because the biblical texts supporting the time-honoured doctrine of God's sovereign providence have changed or have been misread. Rather, Tupper has given up on orthodox theology at this point because it does not complement his life-experience (and, of course, that is an infallible basis for understanding ultimate reality). Tupper's methodology throughout this tome is not worthy of the term "scholarship": his "exegesis" of relevant texts is sloppy and his theologizing is largely anecdotal. This is a sadly maudlin piece of self-expression that speaks much more to the nature of the author than it does to the nature of God.
Rating: 
Summary: A Scandalous Heresy
Review: I am forced to demur in regards to the other posted reviews of Professor Tupper's monograph. I was a student at Southern Seminary during the last days of Dr. Tupper's professorship there and I can attest to the fact that this work accurately reflects the content of his teaching at that time. Dr. Tupper's thesis can be summed up neatly in the following: "In times of greatest human need, God always does the best that God can." While that sentiment may work for your local State Farm agent, it can in no way serve as a historically and/or biblically informed definition of divine providence (unless the human language has lost all definiteness of meaning). Tupper has abandoned confidence in the sovereign Lord of the Old and New Testaments, not because the biblical texts supporting the time-honoured doctrine of God's sovereign providence have changed or have been misread. Rather, Tupper has given up on orthodox theology at this point because it does not complement his life-experience (and, of course, that is an infallible basis for understanding ultimate reality). Tupper's methodology throughout this tome is not worthy of the term "scholarship": his "exegesis" of relevant texts is sloppy and his theologizing is largely anecdotal. This is a sadly maudlin piece of self-expression that speaks much more to the nature of the author than it does to the nature of God.
Rating:
Summary: A book that will change your perspective
Review: This book is a wonderful journey that at times seems despairing, but in the end reveals a victory for the writer's faith in God. He tracks God's providence through episodes in the Gospels. What better source? What more touching conclusions?Those who summarily dismiss this book will likely dismiss much that is outside the standard line to which they march. The search conducted by Tupper is the very activity to which God calls us. Through such searching and grappling, our lives, loves and relationship with God are animated and enriched. Dive into this book. The trip will unnerve you at times, but the pathos of this man's personal quest for God during a time of great loss will move you closer to the God who has sought us since before people began sensing there was something out there much bigger than us.
Rating:
Summary: Memories Of Seminary
Review: Tupper's book takes me back to the wonderous days of seminary as I attempted to capture his passion on paper during his lectures on providence. These pages contain what I failed to document. He asks the questions all seeking Christians ask when facing the hard issues in life. After reading Tupper's book, no Christian would ever again say in an off handed manner "it is God's will". Dr. Tupper's gentle and insightful use of scripture deepens our understanding of God's loving activity in our lives. A must read for pastors.
<< 1 >>
| 
