It is safe to say that the work of the Nonconformist British theologian P. T. Forsyth (1848–1921) is mostly unknown to many theologians—especially Roman Catholic theologians—in North America and beyond. It is also safe to say that Jason Goroncy's study may help to remedy this problem. For those who have the wherewithal to engage Goroncy's painstaking exposition of Forsyth's body of work, a reward awaits: an excellent discussion of a brilliant thinker on a topic often conspicuous by its absence in contemporary soteriology—namely, holiness.

Goroncy's primary achievement is a meticulous dissection and exposition of Forsyth's body of work to highlight the theme of holiness, heretofore overlooked in studies of Forsyth's writing. Goroncy contends that sanctification—the “hallowing of God's name” that is the first petition of the Lord's Prayer—is not simply a gap within the literature. Rather, Goroncy argues that sanctification is the theological key to understanding the large corpus of Forsyth's writings. Thus, Goroncy's study can assist the scholarly community to approach Forsyth as a thinker whose body of work holds together as a whole rather than as a thinker whose writings, although brilliant, are disparate, fragmentary, and without a common thread. Goroncy explains: “For Forsyth, holiness is a moral power which constitutes and directs all being, binding a coherent universe in such a way as all remigrates to its source in God. . . . [Forsyth] consistently exposits the claim that holiness is not merely a religious idea, but the religious idea, and one of utmost practical import” (53).

Goroncy makes his case in five chapters. Chapter 1 places this study within the landscape of the literature on Forsyth and then introduces Forsyth as a Nonconformist British theologian, who, like Paul, locates the cross at the center of Christian faith. Goroncy makes it clear that for Forsyth there is no understanding of salvation and sanctification apart from God's self-sacrifice to destroy sin. Chapter 2 situates Forsyth within his context of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Scotland and England, and discusses his theological and ministerial training and maturing protest against the theological liberalism of the day. Chapter 3 examines Forsyth's understanding of Jesus Christ as “holiness incarnate,” whose “confessing holiness to the Father ‘from sin's side’ bears its judgment against sin and creates a new humanity” (5). Chapter 4 focuses on what Goroncy calls Forsyth's “moral anthropology”—that is, the connection between sin, atonement, and moral living in which the human conscience is the privileged location for understanding what it means to be human, and where holiness is apprehended, divinely judged, and embodied. Chapter 5 concludes the study by examining Forsyth's conflicted views on universal salvation.

Among these fine chapters, chapter 5 is the strongest. Here, Goroncy moves from a somewhat glowing appreciation of Forsyth's thought of the previous four chapters to a more critical assessment of his theology. He astutely shows how the logic of Forsyth's eschatology of sanctification demands universal salvation, even though Forsyth did not wish to affirm a doctrine of universal salvation. Goroncy makes a convincing argument that Forsyth's thick theology of sanctification requires such an affirmation.

This is a book for scholars, upper-level graduate students, and those interested in an excellent technical treatment of a figure often ignored and a topic often swept under the rug. It is based on Goroncy's doctoral dissertation and as such is carefully researched and highly informative. It is also written in dense prose that occasionally becomes opaque with theological jargon, and the hardcover edition is so expensive it seems to be marketed only toward university and seminary libraries (both of which should add this to their collections).

It is an open question whether there will be a revival of interest in Forsyth that has a lasting impact on Christian thought, or whether he will remain an obscure figure consigned to the realm of specialists and historians. In the meantime, Goroncy's thorough exposition of Forsyth's soteriology on the theme of sanctification has paid off. This is an excellent study that will be of great value to the academy and (perhaps) beyond.