“BY GRACE you have been saved through faith . . . not by works. . . For we are . . . created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2.8-10). The provocation for this marvellous book is the suggestion that Protestant Christians have fixed upon the first half of that quotation, but forgotten the second. Why, it asks, has so much Protestant theology passed over injunctions to be “zealous for good works” (Titus 2.14)?

The central contention of the authors is that salvation includes sanctification, and that good works are a means by which God sanctifies us. That makes good works integral to how God saves us. Such a position, they write, is not to stray from Protestantism, but a return to the sources, within a tradition that has lost its way. Within that discussion, a good many related topics also come into view: a theology of work or labour, for instance, and a discussion of what evil actions, and sloth, mean for the standing of the Christian before God, indeed, even for their salvation. To be negligent in good deeds, the book concludes, is even to imperil one’s redemption.

The chapters on the Bible start with a well-judged survey of the Old Testament, covering the Law (with an emphasis on Genesis), and a sequence of discussions of selected individual books (Psalms, Isaiah, Amos, and Micah). The chapter on the New Testament begins — deliberately and provocatively — with the Gospels: why not start with the teaching and example of Christ, the authors ask. The treatment of the epistles is also strong, but focused, missing out the Pastoral and Catholic Epistles, other than James. The Revelation of St John is covered (although I find it odd that Revelation 14.13 receives no attention).

The authors cover a variety of classical Protestant positions on good works. These traditions generally (but only generally) have no place for good works in justification, but in sanctification they do — very much so. A loose end, to my mind, concerns the treatment of glorification and eschatology. The authors will not allow that good works are in any way meritorious, and yet the biblical traditions that they quote often use the language of “reward”. Here, they might usefully have explored St Augustine’s comment, addressing God, that “In crowning our merits, you crown your own gifts.”

The chapter before the conclusion offers a practical report on some projects of good works, across four Churches (in the United States, Mexico, and Kenya). As they are non-denominational Evangelical Churches, the balance and tone of what is described will differ from what may be familiar in Church of England parishes. None the less, there is much there to move and inspire the reader.

This is a fine book, although I wish there had been a little more room for doctrine. We have one historical chapter, drawing on the glories of 17th-century Protestant writing, and one more systematic chapter. What we are given is wonderfully worth while, but I was left hoping for more on various topics that are touched upon: “final perseverance”, for instance, and the risk of losing one’s salvation; or the relation of the book’s themes to habit and virtue. I suppose it is a good characteristic of a book for it to leave you wanting to read more.

This is a book that deserves to be widely read: first, because the topic is important, but neglected; second, for the way in which it turns our eyes back to a golden age of Protestant theology, when it had a range and rigour that may surprise the average churchgoer today.

The Revd Dr Andrew Davison is Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, and a Canon of Christ Church.

The Doctrine of Good Works: Reclaiming a neglected Protestant teaching
Thomas H. McCall, Caleb T. Friedeman and Matt Friedeman
Baker Academic £23.99
(978-1-5409-6520-2)
Church Times Bookshop £21.59