A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original review appears below. David Stewart is Associate Librarian at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C.
These essays were collected as a tribute to Dr. Rennie on the occasion of his 65th birthday, when he retired from his duties as Dean of Ontario Theological Seminary.
The selection of contributors and subjects, as well as the arrangement of the book into three sections (“The Renewal of Theological Education,” “The Renewal of Church Life,” and “The Renewal of Presbyterianism”) provide a fair representation of this pastor-historian’s range of interests and influences during a long and distinguished career. (This review will refer only briefly to some of the fifteen essays.)
Donald Lewis, in his Foreword, provides a helpful overview of Dr. Rennie’s life and ministry. In the first section of the essays (“The Renewal of Theological Education,”) Douglas Webster surveys the current uncertainty over the mission of theological schools, and reflects appreciatively on the decisive contributions of Dr. Rennie at Ontario Seminary. The late George Rawlyk provides a brilliant overview of the rise and fall and rise of evangelicalism in Canadian higher theological education: beyond the encouraging numerical trends, he wonders if evangelical theologians and pastors can wield once again the influence they did in bygone days. In an essay which is complementary to Rawlyk’s, Professor John Stackhouse makes a persuasive case for enriching the content of theological education by placing more emphasis on the study of Canadian culture, even if this means retooling Master of Divinity curricula.
Under the heading “The Renewal of Church Life” (part two) Glenn Smith of Christian Direction (Montreal) outlines the increase and implications of urbanization in Canada. In a reprinted essay, Brian Stiller (now president of Ontario Bible College and Theological Seminary) analyzes pluralism in a similar way. Dr. Linda Cannell’s essay (“Selective Amnesia”) concisely and lucidly makes the point that true and lasting renewal cannot be anti-historical: “The thoughtful historian is a keeper of memory, a true teller of the stories of God’s mighty acts among his people, a chronicler of the persons who journeyed before us, a reminder of that which most clearly defines our identity as the people of God…”(125).
Of the book’s three sections, the last (“The Renewal of Presbyterianism”) perhaps parallels Dr. Rennie’s interests most closely (judging from Grant Gordon’s excellent bibliography at the book’s conclusion.) Here Dr. Brian Fraser considers the life and ministry of James A. MacDonald (1862- 1923) as a figure of Presbyterian leadership and renewal in Canada. Donald MacLeod surveys the circumstances and issues which provided the original impetus for The Renewal Fellowship Within The Presbyterian Church of Canada, and charts the progress of that movement to 1987. And Mariano Di Gangi considers Canadian Presbyterianism’s postWorld War II commitment ministries of social concern, against the backdrop of its own steady decline in membership in recent decades. He wonders if there has been an undue preoccupation with social concerns “to the virtual exclusion of genuine gospel outreach.” (206). In one of the concluding essays, John Vissers considers the dual role of pastor-historian which has characterized the career of Dr. Rennie. Surveying the various approaches to Presbyterian history, Vissers concludes, “not philosophies of history, but the belief in the God of providence and gracious selfrevelation who has chosen a people in Jesus Christ gives a light to the path so that something of the hidden history of God’s will in specific events and relationships may be seen.” (224-25).
The focus of a festschrift like this one is expressed in at least two ways: by the stated title, and by the life, interests and work of the one to whom it is dedicated. Its contents and quality ought to do justice to these themes and to this person. Most readers will recognize in this volume a number of uneven qualities. The most serious of these is the lack of overall cohesion: some of the essays, while good enough in their own right seem to contribute little to the stated subject of the entire volume. Another disparity exists between the level of incisiveness of the essays. This is far from suggesting that only a book which is highly academic throughout would serve the purpose of this tribute to Dr. Rennie, only that the gap between some of the more scholarly contributions and other, strictly anecdotal essays is too wide. My hunch is that the editors had to work hard to pull together a collection as diverse as this.
On balance, the book’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses (there are some essays which one could usefully return to time and again). It is as a gesture of friendship and gratitude that this volume must be read and appreciated. No doubt the greater and more enduring tribute to this leader’s contribution is and will continue to be evident in the work carried out by scores of pastors and scholars who follow his good example.