This book is both an intellectual tour de force and a practical handbook for Chritian survival in the twilight years of the twentieth century. Faithful Christians will ignore it at their own peril. Those who would synthesize Christianity with women's lib will ignore it at the risk of losing their intellectual integrity. 

There can be no doubt about the vast learning of the author in almost every area of human knowledge. He seems to move freely and easily in several fields at the same time... As for the scriptural aspect of the book, it is only fair to say that the author displays professional competence at every point. As in all other sections of his work, here too his information is vast, solid, and accurate. His exegetical method is correct and is used properly.

Stephen Clark's rich and fascinating exposition of the most magnificent of all biblical themes is an outstanding achievement. Deep learning, deep orthodoxy, and deep insight mark this book throughout. It is both a devotional and an ecumenical milestone.

Back when I was in graduate school at Wheaton College, I asked a well-known pastor for his definition of great Christian teaching and preaching. 'Two things,' he said, 'stay with the major themes of Scriptgure and talk about Jesus.' Stephen Clark in Redeemer has down both of these things marvelously well.

The quality which makes this book unique comes from a blend of compassionate common sense with strong faith. Stephen Clark is able to perceive what we often pass by in the Old or New Testament, and then he gives that ancient message vibrancy for today.

Clark’s approach to the subject, as indicated in the book’s subtitle, is entirely scriptural. While any number of theologians have spoken of the “liturgy of the Sacrament” in the context of the “liturgy of the Word,” this author goes much further into detail, carefully examining many biblical themes that lie at the heart of eucharistic theology, such as revelation, covenant, sacrifice, presence, resurrection, and worship. One may describe this work as a sort of “spelling out” of the implications of that Gospel scene of the two disciples walking with the Risen Jesus along the road to Emmaus. Countless passages of Holy Scripture are here interpreted through the light of the Christian Mystery, all of them coming to perfection when the Lord is known in the breaking of the Bread. For the richness and complexity of this treatment, nonetheless, Clark’s book is a masterpiece of pedagogical simplicity. I can easily recommend it to high-school students.

The significance of Clark’s achievement is perhaps more obvious if one contrasts his approach with the treatment of the Bible and the Eucharist in Roman Catholic theology that was standard for centuries, not only in the pre-Vatican II theological manuals used in seminaries, but even in such monumental works as St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica. In all these examples of systematic theology, Holy Scripture was treated near the beginning, under the heading “Revelation,” whereas the Eucharist usually appeared only toward the end, in a section called “Sacraments.” Thus, although the Bible and the Eucharist were sometimes juxtaposed in ascetical works, such as Book IV of The Imitation of Christ, they were rarely studied together in courses of systematic theology. One may hope that Clark’s book, which bridges this unfortunate divide, thereby points to an interpretive path that other writers will feel disposed to follow.

With respect to style, Clark’s treatment of these biblical themes is supremely meditative, a feature that renders the book useful for lectio divina. He has obviously spent many prayerful hours being nourished by the pages of Holy Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, and his work provides living models for how it may be done. Indeed, each chapter ends with an explicit biblical meditation.