Many pastors today see themselves primarily as counselors, leaders and motivators, and this often comes at the expense of the more fundamental reality that the pastorate is a theological office. Kevin Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan make the historical case that the pastor was long understood as the church's resident theologian, trace how that vision was lost to professionalisation and specialisation, and set out what recovering it would mean for study, preaching and the ordinary work of a week.

The argument is constructive rather than merely critical: the authors describe the pastor-theologian's task as mediating the knowledge of God to a particular people in a particular place, which is public work and not academic retreat. Interspersed essays from working pastors show the vision in practice. Written for pastors, elders, seminarians and the congregations who call them.