Rowan Williams Bloomsbury Continuum, 240 pages I have often thought that Rowan Williams becoming Archbishop of Canterbury was the best thing for the Anglican Communion. That tenure lasted a stormy 10 years until Williams resigned, returning to his first love: teaching theology and writing on contemporary concerns. Since that time, there has been considerable effort to collect his various essays. Those collected in this book display Williams’ theological and pastoral depth and is accessible for a wide range of readers. His main theme is living into “holiness,” an old-fashioned word that Williams brilliantly recovers for contemporary Christians. He discusses prayer and spirituality from several angles including that of Teresa of Ávila and Julian of Norwich, two women who hold a special place in his rendering of the Christian life. For those wondering about health and healing, Williams writes, “We need to recover the sense that the Gospel is always about healing, because it is … [Read more...]

Samuel Wells Eerdmans, 245 pages Samuel Wells has developed quite a rich body of theological reflections on the practice of ministry. This is a superb addition to that body. It serves as a companion to his previous writings on the concept of “being with” as central to both pastoral ministry and the Christian faith. This book specifically follows on the insights of his previous books “A Nazareth Manifesto: Being With God” and “Living Without Enemies.” Neither of these books is necessary to read prior to this one, though they would benefit the reader. (Wells has also written a book of reflections about the value of improvisation for the practice of ministry.) In “Incarnational Ministry,” Wells brings all this rich background together for a beautiful vision of ministry that is funded by prayer, theological depth and authentic presence. In each chapter he explores seven dimensions of “being with” in ministry; each reflects the Trinity in an actual incarnational practice of following … [Read more...]

Walter Brueggemann WJK Press, 410 pages “It is my conviction – and hope – that serious Scripture reading is and can be a source of missional renewal in the church.” So begins Walter Brueggemann in this collection. Perhaps no one has contributed more than Brueggemann to serious Scripture reading by church members and leaders. This collection of study reflections is not a conventional devotional book, although it is laid out as such. The author eschews such books as overly romantic, preferring his own non-academic (but nevertheless critical) reflections on Scripture. What follows is a set of Scripture readings for each day of the year according to the lectionaries of the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches. In typical Brueggemann fashion, he encourages the reader to begin with Scripture, preferably reading it aloud, before exploring his study reflections. His comments are theological and exegetical, never far from the past-of-text and never far from the present-world. This is the … [Read more...]

Christian Wiman, editor Yale University Press, 232 pages Joy? One might blanch at the thought of poems on a subject that seems frivolous in the face of such suffering in the world. That’s understandable. The author himself is no stranger to personal suffering. That story is told in his memoir “My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer.” Here he takes up a bold exposition of joy through a selection of 100 poems collected from an array of poets. Along the way he admits joy is “that tired word ... used to peddle soap and salvation, the word requires some rehabilitation.” What a beautiful work Wiman has done in rehabilitating joy as the perfect response to world of pain. His opening essay is a sublime testimony to the deep transformative experience of joy as told in poetry. He then unexpectedly presents a way forward with joy as a guide so that readers will not live frivolously, but rather boldly and courageously. These poems range across time and the poets across a wide expanse … [Read more...]