Gavin Ortlund’s What It Means to Be Protestant promises, impressively, to be both timely and timeless. It is timely because Ortlund has put his finger on what seems to be a growing trend of ecclesial angst for many. One of the surprising blessings of our disenchanted and rootless age is that the instability of our culture is forcing not a few tired souls to ask big questions about meaning and ultimate reality. Burnt out on modernism, there seems to be a growing trend of what Justin Brierley has called a Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God (Carol Stream: Tyndale Elevate, 2023). Given that those reconsidering Christianity today are exhausted by our late-modern world, they are not likely to find solace in a brand of Christianity that looks as old as yesterday’s secular trends. We ought not be surprised, therefore, by the phenomenon of evangelicals leaving seeker-sensitive low-church settings and converting to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy (see W. Bradford Littlejohn and Chris Castaldo, Why Do Protestants Convert? [Landrum, SC: Davenant, 2023]). Far from being a deterrent from seekers and uneasy evangelicals today, the ancient flavor, mysterious and otherworldly liturgies and rituals, and apparent historical pedigree of these traditions are some of their strongest selling points.

Ortlund’s work is timely because he has a pulse on the exact kinds of questions and concerns that animate so many today. Contrary to popular opinion, the book shows how Protestantism offers just as rich, ancient, and liturgically satisfying a home as these other traditions. But What It Means to Be Protestant is also poised to remain timeless because it represents a necessary and surprisingly underrepresented book category. This book is not strictly a polemic against Christianity’s other major ecclesial traditions, nor is it strictly an apologetic for the Protestant Reformation and ongoing “protest” (though Ortlund includes these elements). It also offers a clear and straightforward definition of what mere Protestantism is in itself. On this point, Ortlund is transparent from the very beginning: “In sum, I commend Protestantism as first, a renewal of the gospel in the church; second, a return to the authority of Scripture; and third, a removal of historical aberrations” (p. xx). In this way, What It Means to Be Protestant is not only a critique of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy but also a positive and catholic vision of Christianity, with Protestantism held up and defended as a faithful expression thereof.

Structurally, Ortlund’s book is divided into three distinct sections. Part 1, “Protestantism and Catholicism,” is dedicated to a definition of Protestantism in se. Ortlund contends in these chapters that Protestantism is a renewal movement within the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, and therefore lays claim to the entire Christian tradition as its heritage. Against the charges of sectarianism brought against it, Ortlund argues here that Protestantism is poised to be more catholic than its rival traditions since Protestantism defines the Church along confessional and spiritual lines rather than institutional lines. The conscience-binding tendency of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, who definitionally anathematize those outside of their narrow institutional borders, is not, according to Ortlund, in the spirit of catholicity. Ortlund also shows in this section that Protestant distinctives like sola fide do not originate ex nihilo in the 16th century but rather lay claim to ancient precedent.

Part 2, “Protestantism and Authority,” develops a case for and defense of what is arguably the most distinctive mark of Protestantism: sola scriptura. In these chapters (5–8), Ortlund pulls together a wide range of scholarship to cogently and accessibly defend sola scripture, as well as answer its common objections. Since this doctrine is one of Protestantism’s most misunderstood and misrepresented beliefs (by both Protestants and non-Protestants), this section alone is worth the price of the book. Sola scriptura, Ortlund shows, is not a rejection of all other authorities but rather a refusal to attribute infallibility to any authority but Holy Scripture. This framework is set in stark relief against competing authority frameworks, represented by the Papacy and Apostolic Succession (as defined and defended by Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy).

Part 3, “Protestantism and History,” takes up John Henry Newman’s famous quip: “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” Ortlund begs to differ with Cardinal Newman on this point. He defends Protestantism as a product of historical retrieval at its core. In the spirit of John Calvin in his famous letter to Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto, Ortlund shows how the Protestant Reformers were deeper in history than their Roman and Constantinopolitan counterparts. In defense of this position, Ortlund concludes his study with two case studies—Mary’s Assumption and Icon Veneration—to demonstrate how some of the distinctive dogma of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy prove their failure to be sufficiently deep in history. Though these beliefs have a relatively long historical pedigree, Ortlund shows how they originated on spurious historical grounds.

Ortlund is to be commended for writing such an irenic yet clear-throated definition and defense of Protestantism. He has done us all a great service by helping to dispel the false dilemma of either embracing Protestant doctrine or being historically rooted and catholically minded. Throughout the book, Ortlund’s warm pastoral heart is never difficult to discern, rendering the vision he paints of Protestantism not only intellectually satisfying but also desirable. I cannot commend this book highly enough.