Fall 2024 · Vol. 53 No. 2 · pp. 207–209
Book Review
Patience: A Theological Exploration. Part One: From Creation to Christ
London, UK: T & T Clark, 2023. 599 pages.
This book fulfills Jones’s longstanding promise to publish a monograph on the topic of patience. Indeed, Jones tells us early (and often) that this is the first of a projected two-volume study, as the current book defers to the promised second volume, the full taking up of Christology and other topics based primarily in the New Testament.
Jones’s project serves as a thick account of patience, both human and divine, and therefore it is difficult to isolate a single definition of patience. Nonetheless, the three trains of thought that Jones sees in the Bible include the following: “patience as a matter of forbearance, whereby God tempers or postpones judgment, affording creatures time and space to repent of sin and to follow God’s directives; patience as a feature of God’s governance of history, as God realizes God’s saving purposes; and patience as a dimension of human life, made manifest in a network of dispositions and behaviors that extends from a toleration of sin to steadfastness of purpose in the enactment of discipleship” (18). Beyond describing the practice of patience, Jones offers a full-blown theological work, one in which “patience plays a leading role in a theological account of God’s ways and works” (2). He describes the book as a “project distinguished by a fairly grand ambition: to apply the motif of patience to major loci, and in so doing to engage dogmatic concerns of abiding importance” (62). Another way of understanding the thrust of the book is to understand that Jones uses patience as a “conceptual hub” that “can serve as a capacious cantus firmus [firm song] around which sound interlocking melodies, rhythms, harmonies, and counterpoints, all of which constitute the frame in which Christ can be identified as ancient Israel’s messiah, divine patience incarnate” (358, 360). A further crucial observation here is that Jones sees himself working at what he describes as a “dialectical reversal”: he refuses to treat patience as a human matter but instead “reorders thought by making an account of God’s patience the starting point for reflection” (227).
Jones pursues his ambitious project at the pace suggested by the subject matter—nothing is hurried about the unfolding of his argument. His lengthy introduction sets the stage by addressing questions such as the nature of theological reflection and the role of the Bible—topics marshaled to undergird his theological exploration and imagination—as well as important themes he will explore. Following the introduction, Jones pursues his argument in two broad categories, namely, Interpretation and then Construction. The projected second volume will continue the latter category. p. 208
The first part of the book, Interpretation, provides readings of historical figures, beginning with patristic sources and extending to the twenty-first century. While Jones is clear that this sampling is not designed to be a comprehensive analysis of the history of theological thought regarding patience, he carefully has chosen salient figures to highlight important developments in the history of the theology of patience. Central here is Jones’s interest in the question of whether patience is treated primarily as a human practice, or a work of God; most of these figures lean toward an emphasis on human affairs, which Jones sees as problematic. It is important to highlight the pivotal role that Karl Barth plays in Jones’s work. Barth’s influence runs deep, both in terms of his Reformed theological approach and in his influential treatment of God’s patience as a perfection of God. That is, the way Barth works and his specific content on God’s patience—especially the notion that God gives the created world space and time to become what they were intended to be—are essential components of Jones’s project. Also important is Jones’s treatment of patience as a burdened virtue, showing that he is fully aware that while an emphasis on patience holds much promise, it is also fraught with peril; it carries with it dangers of problematic notions, such as inaction, support of an unjust status quo, and asking those who suffer to bear heavy burdens. So, writing about patience means disaffiliating patience from these kinds of worrisome conventions (269).
Part 2, Construction, makes good on the promise that patience will act as Jones’s conceptual hub for doing constructive theology. In the first section here, Jones deals with the dogmatic category of the patience of God as Creator, addressing topics such as creatio ex nihilo, creatio cooperativa, imago dei, and imago mundi along with an extensive excursus on the relationship between the environmental crisis and the patience of God. In the second and third sections, Jones addresses the patience of God as Provider, arguing that God’s providence and longsuffering are God’s responses to real human waywardness, and drawing a robust connection between divine patience and God-directed history at large. Jones also makes an argument for and understanding of the formation of Scripture as a case of patience rewarded. His focus throughout these constructive sections is on the Hebrew Bible, deliberately deferring his work on the New Testament to his forthcoming second volume (this deferral carries in its train what Jones calls a Christological reticence).
Reading Patience: A Theological Exploration calls on the reader to exercise patience as Jones purposefully moves slowly to fulfill the tasks he has set for himself. Overall, this is an impressive book, displaying deep, wide scholarship that draws on a vast range of sources, marshaling arguments that serve the author’s constructive project in convincing p. 209 ways. Jones is successful in his dialectical reversal of focus, drawing our attention to God’s patience, and that not simply as some kind of analogy for human practice. Divine and human patience are not unrelated, but they are disanalogous. This argument makes room for Jones to use divine patience as a hub, creating the space for the many creative ways to consider dogmatic categories through prolonged, sustained emphasis on the Hebrew Scriptures. One might say that learning about patience in this book is a fruitful way to learn about God, the history of the Christian tradition, and much more. Especially this is true of the relationship between God, the world, and humanity within that created world sustained by the patience of God.
Without diminishing my positive assessment of this impressive book, I nonetheless want to raise some questions. The first has to do with Jones’s self-described Christological reticence, which he claims makes it possible to focus on the Hebrew Scriptures in ways that might not have been possible had Christology been central earlier in the book. Could Christology play an earlier, perhaps more generative role? Would the important emphasis on the Hebrew Scriptures be lost if Christology led the way? I’m not sure the latter would be case.
I wonder also what one is to make of Jones’s provocative but brief references to the importance of impatience, again asking the reader to wait until the second volume for more development. Jones is clear: he does not mean that God is “long-seething” (494), hanging on to anger until wrath can finally be unleashed. But it’s not clear to me that impatience, either divine or human, is to be avoided. I hope that Jones finds traction in “militant patience,” a concept he mentions twice in passing but without significant development. That is, when action done quickly is called for (including judgment), could it be that such action could be construed as an extension of patience, not a switching out of patience for impatience? I look forward to seeing Jones’s work on this in the promised second volume.
Jones’s book constitutes an exciting contribution to theological discourse and to the shaping of the life of the Christian and of the church, whose faithfulness is made possible by God’s patience.
