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STANDING FOR ORTHORDOXY, The Historical Endeavour In The Service Of God’s People, Essays In Thanksgiving For Peter Barnes. Ed. Brett Lee-Price. Tulip Publishing, PO Box 3150, Lansvale (Sydney) 2166. Published in 2025.

Peter Barnes is a man of many parts – family man, brother in Christ, pastor-teacher, scholar, apologist, author, conference speaker, missionary, defender of the preborn – and altogether a man in Christ. As such he is well-known in many countries around the world, particularly in Evangelical and Reformed circles.

It is therefore fitting that his ministry should be acknowledged with a festschrift titled Standing For Orthodoxy because in all of the above roles he has staunchly upheld the truth, authority, sufficiency and relevance of God’s Word, the Bible, in faith and practice.

 Brett Lee-Price, the editor of this handsome volume, has drawn together these essays from fourteen of Peter’s fellow travellers with a foreword by Iain Murray and a brief biography by Peter’s son Graham.

The fourteen essayists, ranging from the ultra-famous to the less-well-known, come from Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, but all stand with Peter on the common ground of ‘the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 1.3).

The editor notes that the essayists ‘engage crucial questions of pastoral care, confessional integrity and theological fidelity. From discussions from the Early Church Fathers and John Calvin to explorations of Abraham Kuyper, A.W. Pink, and contemporary issues facing the church today, these essays illustrate the rich interplay between historical depth and practical insight.’

And indeed they do – fittingly, because Peter has done all of his scholarly work in the context of parish ministry, so keeping himself solidly grounded, his congregations well informed and his scholarship widely useful.

The essayists from overseas include Joel Beeke, President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids; Michael Haykin, Professor of Church History, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Carl Truman, Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies, Grove City College; Mark Jones, Pastor of Faith Vancouver Church (PCAmerica); and Geoff Thomas, pastor emeritus of Alfred Place Baptist Church, Aberystwyth, Wales.

 Colleagues of Peter from the three theological colleges of the Presbyterian Church of Australia have contributed essays: Keeping The Faith In Pastoral Care (David Burke); Preaching Christ In Early Reformation Bern (John McClean); The Age Of Augustus And The Age Of Jesus Christ (Wesley Redgen); Limited Or Universal Atonement? Why Not Have Both? (Jared Hood).

In any collection of essays, though all may be worthy of careful reading, different ones will stand out to different readers. The standout essay for me as a former editor is The Age Of Augustus And The Age Of Jesus Christ: Reading Luke 1-4 In Its Historical Pastoral Context by Wesley Redgen, Lecturer in New Testament at Queensland Theological College. The Prologue in Luke’s Gospel has always provided me with the theological undergirding needed for the task of Christian writing, editing and publishing, but this essay delves far more deeply into this endeavour than ever I had imagined or been capable of doing myself. Oh that it had been written before I had set out on this task rather than at the end! I highly recommend it to all servants of the Word. Standing For Orthodoxy is worth getting for this essay alone. The other thirteen are a valuable bonus.

                                                                                                                        Bob Thomas