Positioning himself against “ecclesial fall narratives” that suggest that the failures of the church have muted God's deposit of revelation, Levering writes this book to defend the faithful mediation of revelation by Scripture and church. Revelation, for Levering, is a gift received from God and not constructed by the church (146), yet at the same time, revelation is “inseparable from the mediation of the covenantal community” (3). Consequently, any adequate doctrine of revelation must include an account of both its enduring content and its faithful transmission through Scripture and church together. Appropriately, Levering's two main dialogue partners throughout the book are Protestants who prioritize Scripture over church because of their conviction that “the Church's mediation is inevitably a creaturely and fallen work” (59), and nonfoundationalist theologians who prioritize human practice over doctrinal content because of their conviction that Scripture and tradition alike are “principally…human constructions” (143).

The first four chapters provide an insightful critique of contemporary (Reformed) Protestant ecclesiology. Levering's primarily scriptural arguments seek to show that Scripture itself presents the liturgy as Scripture's normatively revelatory context (chapter 2), that Scripture anticipates and defends episcopal polity (chapter 3), and that Scripture's own presentation of the gospel as a participatory reality requires a more robust ecclesiology than Protestants are able to produce (chapter 4). While Protestants may at times find Levering's exegesis strained (especially regarding Scripture's endorsement of episcopal hierarchy, the linchpin of his argument), Levering's thorough scriptural defense of church authority contributes much to ecumenical dialogue. (For an alternative Reformed Protestant account of Scripture and church as extensions of the triune missions that nonetheless grants Scripture authority over the church, see the work of John Webster and Kevin Vanhoozer.)

In perhaps the most important chapter (chapter 5, “Tradition”), Levering utilizes Congar's distinction between tradition and traditions to challenge Terrence Tilley's claim that because all tradition is “invented and reinvented” through human practice, it is not possible to identify an enduring content of revelation in tradition. Throughout the chapter Levering specifies the difficulties involved in reconciling Tilley's rejection of propositional truth claims (161), relegation of Christian tradition to a species of tradition generally (153), and reduction of truth verification to the criterion of practical fittingness (157–58) with a Christian understanding of revelation. Because tradition is the “inbreaking of divine revelation,” tradition must contain “an enduring doctrinal and moral content” even while it is mediated though ever-changing traditions (172). (Readers desiring a more philosophical defense of propositional truth should turn to Collin Gunton's text, noted by Levering in the introduction.)

Somewhat perplexing is Levering's ambivalence toward historical-critical biblical scholarship (chapter 7, “Inspiration”). Defending Scripture's faithful mediation of revelation, Levering rightly argues that Christians must develop a view of biblical history that assumes God's providential oversight of both events and the production of scriptural texts (in which even nonhistorical typological characters may be incorporated into Scripture's unified story of salvation history). This account of biblical inspiration seems to account for, and even depend upon, insights of historical-critical methodology. Yet Levering exhorts theologians to “challenge the theology of history at work in contemporary biblical scholarship” (244), and specifically criticizes biblical scholar Dale Allison (seemingly a proponent of Levering's account of inspiration) for presenting findings as a historian that appear incompatible with the Gospels' presentation of Jesus (234–37). Levering's assurance that the church grows in understanding of revelation by its discovery of truths external to Scripture (chapters 6 and 8) would seem to legitimate such historical quests; yet in this chapter it is unclear what benefit Levering sees in a Christian engagement with what Allison calls “the messy work of excavating [the Gospels] for history” (234).

Overall, this book provides an excellent introduction to current discussions about revelation and would be an ideal text for a graduate course in foundational theology. Levering's depth of knowledge on a wide range of topics, his fairness in representing opposing arguments, and his clarity in articulating his own position make this book fruitful reading for anyone who wishes to engage the doctrine of revelation.