Roger Gench
Cascade Books, 144 pages
Reviewed by Andrew Taylor-Troutman
Roger Gench has written a lean book of spiritual substance. “The Cross Examen” is like an energy bar Gench might eat before one of his high-altitude hikes. The book is part theology, part biblical interpretation and part primer on prayer.
According to Gench, the “political theology of the cross” does not valorize the suffering of Jesus (or anyone else), but “exposes public abuses of power … embodied in regimes of power.” The resurrection interprets the cross, “for God is always at work seeking life out of wounded places.” To make this point, Gench paraphrases Ernest Hemingway: “The world crucifies everyone, yet God in Christ is always active in the world seeking to bring life out of the broken places.”
This political theology of the cross informs Gench’s interpretation of the fruits of the Spirit as “desperately needed virtues in a violent, polarized world.” Though familiar with Cornel West’s maxim that justice is what love looks like in public, my own teaching and preaching had interpreted Galatians 5:22-23 primarily in terms of individual ethics. Gench reimagines the fruits in terms of communal action — for example, gentleness as “the power of nonviolent, resistant love, exercised not as ‘power over,’ but as ‘power with.’” Not only has Gench informed future sermons, each short chapter on the “political fruit of the Spirit” is worthy of a group discussion among Christians with diverse political views.
This book is subtitled “A Spirituality for Activists.” In addressing many social-justice minded Christians, Gench is aware he faces an uphill climb: reframing the theology of the cross (particularly substitutionary atonement) through the Apostle Paul. But Gench supports his theological and biblical interpretations with an array of references, including Black and feminist scholars. He cites thinkers in other disciplines and religions, particularly Buddhist philosophy. At times, his own high-stepping prose is somewhat bogged down by quotations. But Gench also references the work of widely popular writers like Nadia Bolz-Weber and Rachel Held Evans to add energy and insight. Gench even quotes a few of his former parishioners. “The Cross Examen” is ultimately accessible to most readers.
As a young seminary student, I looked up to Gench. He was a prominent pulpiteer in a big steeple church. I saw his career as a roller coaster that only went up. In this book, he reveals his professional struggle with pastoral burnout. Building on the work of theologian Kristine Culp, Gench contends that “vulnerability is the pivot of salvation — indeed, the point at which salvation occurs.” He models this vulnerability through his practices of prayer.
For all its well-documented scholarship, the book is ultimately an invitation to prayer. Gench outlines two specific spiritual disciplines — the cross examen exercise and the cruciform (cross-shaped) breath prayer. He offers instructions for practice not only by individuals but also community. The hope is that corporate prayer fuels activism and social change.
During a time of the pandemic and inflamed political tensions, many pastors and educators will relate to Gench’s experience of hitting the wall in ministry — feeling overwhelmed and in danger of shutting down. Take a journey through these pages. Let Gench point you to the mountaintop: “God’s empowering, animating, transforming and resurrecting love,” which then inspires “an engaged spirituality … a commitment to participate in places where God is bringing life out of the death-tending ways of our world.”
