June 2012 Book Reviews (a couple of days late!)
A little late, I am afraid, but here is the June selection of reviews of 10 new theological works. Lots of meaty summer reading. Among them, two commentaries on Old Testament books, a new resource for post-confirmation, studies on "Fresh Expressions", Church History, the latest "Tom Wright" (just how does he keep up his publishing pace?!) and much more.
Buona lettura!
For the reviews press the read more button.
One of the fundamental questions facing all human
beings, whether religious or not, is what it means to be good. This new volume provides a fresh approach to this question from a distinctively
Christian perspective. The contributors to the volume are American university
professors in the fields of theology and philosophy. They explore what being
good looks like at both theoretical and a practical level. They do this by
looking both philosophically and theologically at eleven key Christian virtues;
faith, open-mindedness, wisdom, zeal, hope, contentment, courage, love, compassion,
forgiveness and humility, and ask what it means to live out these virtues in
everyday life. Following the example of St Paul in I Corinthians 13, the
chapters in the volume are grouped under the three headings of faith, hope and love,
and each individual chapter follows a five fold pattern in which (i) a virtue
is described, (ii) it is described philosophically, (iii) a Christian
perspective on the virtue is given, (iv) advice is given about Christian
formation with regard to the virtue and how it might be lived out, (v) a list
of questions is given for use in individual study or group discussion. This is
a very useful volume for anyone wanting to think anew about the key Christian
virtues and it might also form a useful starting point for discussion with
non-Christians about the nature of the good life from the Christian
perspective.
Dr W Ross Blackburn is an Anglican priest who teaches Biblical
Studies at Appalachian State University in the USA. He explores the book of Exodus and argues both that the book can be read as a
unified literary and theological whole and that the key to reading it in this
way is to understand the book as having a missionary focus. He builds on the
definition of mission put forward by Christopher Seitz that ‘mission,
biblically understood, fundamentally involves God’s seeking to put right what
has gone awry.’ He contends that if this understanding of mission is applied to
Exodus, that which has gone awry is that the world does not know God, and the
missionary focus of Exodus is consequently ‘the Lord’s effort to make himself
known among the nations for who he is, the God who rules over the universe and
redeems those who call upon him.’ On this basis Blackburn argues that Exodus shows how God humbles Pharaoh so that the world will
know that only God can save, that God gives Israel the law so that he might display
his goodness to the world and live in a state of order and blessing, and that
God deals with Israel's idolatry severely, yet mercifully, in order to ensure
that Israel’s missionary vocation can be fulfilled since God’s goodness cannot
be known if his glory is compromised. Blackburn’s conclusion is that ‘In
the end, Exodus not only sheds important light on the church's mission, but
also reveals what kind of God the Lord is, one who pursues his glory and our
good, ultimately realizing both as he makes himself known in Christ Jesus.’ This
book is a helpful contribution both to our understanding of the book of Exodus
and to our thinking about the nature of the Church’s mission today. The
challenge it poses is how we can apply today the lessons taught to us in Exodus
about how as a ‘kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Exodus 19:3) we can make
God’s name known among the nations.
Since the Mission
Shaped Church report in 2004, fresh expressions and pioneer ministries have
been two of the key growth areas in the life of the Church of England. However,
conversation with people about fresh expressions and pioneer ministry soon
reveals that there still is a widespread lack of clarity about what precisely
these two aspects of the Church’s life involve. Fresh! is a an introduction to fresh expressions and pioneer
ministry written by three members of the staff of Cranmer Hall, Durham who have
been deeply involved with both over a number of years and it is very helpful in
addressing this lack of clarity. It offers a clear explanation of what fresh
expressions is and is not and shows that both fresh expressions and pioneer
ministries have their roots deep in Scripture and the Christian tradition. It
also looks at how fresh expressions and pioneer ministries relate to
contemporary British culture. As well as clarifying the nature of fresh
expressions and pioneer ministries in this way, the book also offers helpful
practical advice for those who are already involved in fresh expressions or who
want to become involved in it. It provides a survey of best practice in fresh expressions
and pioneer ministry and offers guidance both about starting such ministries
and about sustaining them in the long term. This book is the best kind of
practical theology, drawing on a deep knowledge of Scripture and the Christian
tradition, but also applying this knowledge in a way that is relevant to the
practical issues facing the Church of England as it engages in mission.
There is an old joke which says that confirmation is the
Church of England’s version of a passing out parade, in that those who are
confirmed normally pass out of involvement in the life of the Church
thereafter. This joke goes back to the days when confirmation functioned as a
social rite of passage for people in their early to mid teens and it may no
longer be applicable given that those who are being confirmed today are
increasingly older people who have chosen to be confirmed as a way of
demonstrating an adult Christian commitment. However, the fundamental issue
that the joke raises, namely that we ensure those who are confirmed persevere
as Christians and continue to grow in their understanding and practice of the
Christian faith, remains an important one and it is an issue that is helpfully
addressed in this new book from SPCK. The book is written by the Bishop of
Southwell and Nottingham, Paul Butler, who has long experience of working with
children and young people and by Peter Maidment, who is youth officer for the
Diocese of Winchester. As the title indicates, it is a post confirmation study
guide that is intended to help people to live out their confirmation. The book
consists of ten chapters that work through the promises made by the candidates
in the confirmation service, looking at what these promises mean and then
exploring how they can be lived out in everyday life. Each chapter starts with
a word from Paul Butler and there is then an opening section which looks at the
topic of the chapter in more depth and its relevance to daily life. This is
then followed by further reflection on the topic and a chance for the reader to
reflect for themselves and finally there is a ‘react’ section which contains
suggestions for practical action. This book is primarily aimed at young people,
as is shown by the purple headers, boxed sections and scruffing around the page
edges, but the content is adaptable for us with people from all ages and the
book provides a much needed resource for anyone concerned with continuing
Christian formation of those who have been confirmed.
Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) is widely regarded as one of
the great Roman Catholic writers of the twentieth century. A philosopher,
teacher and writer, he was an influential interpreter of the thought of St
Thomas Aquinas. He lived for many years in the USA, teaching at
Princeton and Columbia Universities. After the Second World War, he served as
the French ambassador to the Vatican
and he also helped to draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. This new book re-publishes two key essays by
Maritain, Christianity and Democracy (first published in 1943) and the Rights
of Man and Natural Law (first published in 1942). These essays were written in
the faith that Fascism and Nazism would be defeated (something that was not at
all clear when they were first published), but also in the conviction that the
new world which would emerge after the war needed to be inspired by a Christian
understanding of the true nature of human existence, if the mistakes of Fascism
and Nazism were not to be replicated by the powers that had defeated them. In
these two essays Maritain contends that human rights and a Christian inspired
democracy necessarily go together. He shows that Christianity cannot be made
subservient to any political form or regime, that democracy is linked to
Christianity, and that in order for democracy to thrive, it must reflect
certain values historically derived from the Gospel. As Maritain sees it, modern
Western style democracies, even with all their weaknesses, represent an
historic gain for the human person and they spring from the very Gospel they can
often overtly repudiate. These essays are well worth reading for two reasons.
Firstly, they show the philosophical and theological roots of the emphasis on
democracy and human rights that has characterised the Western world since the
end of World War II. Secondly, they make it clear that the Western tradition of
democracy and human rights rest on a specifically Christian vision of the human
person and that therefore secularism is in the long run actually inimical to
this tradition.
In this new book from Hodder and Stoughton the journalist
and writer Nick Page gives a fresh account of the development of the Early
Church from the day of Pentecost to the end of the first century. The title of
the book reflects the way that the first Christians were viewed by their
contemporaries. As Page puts it in his introduction: ‘To outsiders these first
Christians were dubious characters. They were definitely antisocial and
probably criminal. Not to mention stupid. Fools That was the main thing. Celsus,
the first pagan we know to have written against Christianity claims that
Christianity deliberately set out to attract ‘the foolish, dishonourable and
stupid, and only slaves, women and little children.’ Celsus claimed that the
Christians did not welcome anyone who had been educated, ‘or who is wise or
prudent, but if there are any ignorant, unintelligent, or uneducated, or
foolish persons, let them come with confidence.’’ The fact that their
contemporaries viewed them in this light raises the question, says Page, of how
a ragged
collection of lowly tradesmen, women, and slaves created a movement that
changed the world. How did this happen? How did the kingdom of fools conquer
the mighty empire that was Rome
Professor Roger Scruton is a lay Roman Catholic philosopher
who is Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. This book is the
published version of his 2010 Gifford Lectures which he delivered at the
University of St Andrews. He examines the phenomenon of modern atheism and
suggests that ‘it is not only an intellectual problem, expressing a disbelief
in God, but also a moral phenomenon, involving a turning away from God.’ As
Scruton sees it, we can state the atheist position in terms of two fundamental
doctrines: ‘that everything happens in accordance with the laws of nature and
that these laws are contingent, summarising the way things are and being without
any further explanation.’ As Scruton also sees it ‘it is not easy to be
satisfied with a world view that maintains these two positions. Surely, we
feel, the law governed nature of the universe requires an explanation? We may
not phrase the question in religious terms, but there is nevertheless a
question: why is the universe governed by comprehensible laws?’ In order to
provide a satisfactory answer to these questions, Scruton develops a form of
natural theology which draws on the work of Immanuel Kant. In this theology the
human face is seen as the paradigm of meaning. That is to say, when we look at
the human face we find both the proof of our freedom and the mark of
self-consciousness and this in turn provides a basis for understanding the
fundamental nature of the world and attaining to the knowledge of God. Scruton
also argues that on the moral level belief in atheism is motivated by the
attempt to escape the judgement of God. You escape from the eye of judgement by
blotting out the face and this, according to Scruton, is one of the most
disturbing aspects of the times in which we live and is at the root of the
habits of pleasure seeking and consumerism that are increasingly defacing our world.
They are ultimately an attempt to hide from the face of God. His book defends a
vision of the world as sacred against these habits of desecration, and offers an
account of what it means to live a religious way of life in an increasingly
Godless culture. This is an important study of the philosophical and moral limitations
of contemporary atheism, and a vigorous and challenging argument that a proper
study of the human person necessarily points you towards a God centred view of
the world.
The book of Numbers is often disregarded theologically
because it is seen as consisting of censuses, detailed legal regulations and
morally disturbing acts of divine judgement. In this commentary the American theologian and
ethicist David Stubbs challenges this depreciation of the value of Numbers. He
contends that ‘Numbers not only informs us of Israel’s historical, physical
journey, but as scripture, it authoritatively shapes and finds itself in mutual
conversation with Christian understandings of the calling, purposes and
commandments given to the people of God in other times and places: tells us
much about God’s reactions towards us and plans for blessing his people; and
also alerts us to the temptations common to God’s people.’ As he sees it,
Numbers has three major parts that form an ABA chiastic structure, A1.1-10.10,
B 10.11-25.18, A 26.1-36.13. Understood in this way ‘the first and third parts
show what Israel ’s
vocation entails in terms of a visible polity and worship life. The crucial
middle part of the book shows the struggle needed to create a holy zeal and
faithfulness in this sinful, yet chosen people who are called to be blessed, to
be holy, and to bear the name of God among the nations.’ From this perspective,
declares Stubbs ‘Numbers is a book that focuses on the vocation of the people
of God and the sins that constantly work to keep Israel from fulfilling it. Because
of this, Numbers is a wonderful book for the Christian church to reflect on in
the midst of important contemporary discussions about the nature and mission of
the church. Numbers pushes the Christian church towards an incredibly high view
of its calling, while at the same time being utterly realistic about the ways
in which people fail to fully live into it. It pushes us to be a people of zeal
and hope and of humility and honesty.’ This is a wonderfully stimulating
commentary which should be read by anyone who wants to think more deeply either
about Numbers or about what it means to be the people of God on the way through
the wilderness of this world to the land of promise.
One of the features of Jesus’ ministry that is recorded in
all four gospels is the way in which he healed those we would now call
disabled, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the paralysed and the dumb.
Theologically these healings show God’s love towards these people and their
inclusion in God’s kingdom. The question for us is, if we do not possess the
same gift of miraculous healing, how too can we demonstrate in practical ways
that disabled people are loved by God and fully included in His kingdom? To
look at the same issue from another angle, if we are all made in the image of
God (Genesis 1:26), 'fearfully and wonderfully made' as the Psalmist puts it (Psalm
139:14), what does that mean if we can't see, or can't walk; if we can't hear,
or can't speak? How can we be said to share in God's unconditional love if we
are humiliated by epileptic seizures, or if we can't remember our own name because
of the ravages of dementia, or if the only response of which we are capable is
a smile? How can we truly be a valued and valuable part of the Body of Christ
here on earth - the Church? These are the kind of questions that are addressed
in this new book written by Dr Gordon Temple, the CEO of The Torch Trust, and
Lin Ball, who is Chair of the Association of Christian Writers. The book
provides a rich resource of material for ministers, congregations and small groups and challenges us
to get to grips theologically and practically with what the Bible says about
disability - and what the Church could do in response. It explores themes of
understanding, inclusion and interdependency through discussion, prayer,
worship, hands-on activities and listening to the voices of disabled people
themselves. Almost all churches will include disabled people and this book is a
must read for anyone who wants to think how both to minister to disabled people
and to discern how, in and through their disabilities, they in turn can play
their full part in the life of God’s people.
Bishop Tom Wright has combined writing
his popular For Everyone commentaries with a series of major academic studies of the New Testament and middle-weight works that attempt to express the themes of his
big academic works in a more accessible way for ordinary members
of the Church. Like his previous work Simply Jesus, his new work How God became
King falls into this third category. While Simply Jesus is about the ministry
and message of Jesus himself, this new book looks at the message of the four
gospels. The basic argument that Wright put forward in this book is that ‘we
have forgotten what the four gospels are about.’ He does not mean that
the Church has forgotten the contents of the gospels; he means that the Church
has forgotten the message that the gospel writers were trying to get across
through the contents of the gospels. He argues that we have for
too long read the gospels from the perspective of the creeds which jump
straight from the incarnation to the cross and the resurrection, and leave out
everything in the middle. According to Wright this way of looking at things is
a mistake because ‘if we start with the creeds, granted the way our Western
Christianity is now more or less bound to read them, we will never understand
the gospels, and hence the whole canon itself. If, however, we start with the
gospels, which form the heart and balance point of the whole Christian canon,
and if we understand them to be telling the story of how God, the creator God,
Israel’s God, became in and through Jesus the king of all the world, then we
can return to the creeds and say them in a very different spirit. Put tradition
first, and scripture will be muzzled and faded. Put Scripture first and tradition
will come to new life. Better still, as Jesus himself said, put God’s kingdom
first – put first the revelation that as the gospels have been eager to tell
us, this is the story of how God became king! – and all these things will be
added to you.’ As this extended quotation indicates How God became King offers
us Wright at his robust and theologically provocative best. Not everyone will
agree with his re-reading of the gospels or the creeds, but anyone who reads
this book will be forced to think hard about what the gospels and the creeds
say and if they eventually disagree with Wright’s conclusions they will be
better informed theologically for having gone with him on the journey and for
having been forced to grapple with his arguments.
The Numbers book intrigues me. I read through it last year - without too much excitement, I must say - this book piques my interest.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your "Book" posts.
Thank you for putting this list together.
Be Blessed,
Patricia