For the past few months, I have been conducting a very unscientific survey among PWPAs (Persons With a Presbyterian Affiliation). I think I've talked with around a hundred folks. I asked: "What does it mean to be a Presbyterian today?" The most frequent response is a glazing over of the eyes, a couple of mumbles, followed by, "Gee, I wish I knew." I often have followed this up by asking, "Then why do you stay?" The most frequent response? "I don't know. (Sigh) I just don't know."
Lately, I've been asking a third question of people who seem receptive: "How would you describe being a Christian these days?" Puzzled looks and slow, rueful headshakes are very common. "You got me. I don't know how to describe that. (Pause.) Y'know, I don't think about it all that much."
Admittedly it is an unscientific sample, but thinking back over the years it rings way too true. Folks like this are not simply missing a denominational identity, they are missing a core Christian identity as well. For these folks, "faith" is a series of very blurry, abstract concepts that have nothing to do with "real life." Church is strictly an "if convenient" proposition that has to do with social contacts and "feeling good" more than anything else.
by Michael Jinkins. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2006. ISBN 0802827519. Pb., 186 pp. $15.
For almost five years we were privileged to be in a program developed by the Office of Theology and Worship entitled "Excellence from the Start." The design of the program was to put new pastors in groups of seven or eight under the leadership of experienced pastor/mentors. Groups met twice a year for theological reflection on ministry in light of assigned readings.
by Phil Noble. Montgomery: NewSouth, 2003. ISBN 158838120X. Hb., 168 pp. $24.95
Growing up in north Alabama, I vividly remember riding in the back seat of my father's Mercury and hearing him and a friend of his, an insurance salesman from Cullman, talk with some pride about the fact that Cullman, Ala., did not have any African-American residents. My father's friend said he called on one elderly woman regularly in Cullman who had a small arsenal in a bedroom in the back of her house which was ready to be used by several men in that small town to intimidate any African-American who thought to try moving into the city limits. The conversation between my father and this man was filled with the kind of racial epithets that I routinely heard in my childhood. This was 1978.
(fully revised and updated), by the Society of Biblical Literature, Harold W. Attridge, general editor. HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN 006078685X. Hb., 2272 pp. $44.95.
In these days of hitormiss Hollywood sequels, one picks up a "revised and updated" work in fear and trembling. The new edition may fail to rise to the level of the original. Something of the essential character of the original may be removed or replaced in an effort to make the new edition somehow "better."
Such fears are unfounded here.
I was a seminary student when the first edition of The HarperCollins Study Bible came out in 1993, and have found it to be an indispensable tool both in the classroom and in the church. As a student, I realized that it reflected well the insights and interpretive methods of the biblical scholars whose works were among my seminary readings (much as the Oxford Annotated RSV did for previous generations). As a pastor, I have found it to be a useful way to bring the fruit of current biblical scholarship into Bible studies without having to lug around numerous volumes of commentary. The pages of my original edition are underlined, dogeared, torn, worn, and crumpled; alas, one section has even fallen out. I hope my copy of this new edition will be similarly worn in a few years--except for loose section!
1) Ask one member of the group to research the life of William Wilberforce, and how the movie emphasized certain parts (his opposition to slavery) and omitted others (his views on 'The 'Trouble in The Colonies,' the American Revolution). He served 45 years in Parliament. What American politicians have enjoyed such a breadth of service in Congress, and what legacy did they leave?
by Edith M. Humphrey. Eerdmans, 2006. ISBN 0-8028-3147-8. Pb., 295 pp. $21.
This is an exciting book. It links the doctrine of the Trinity with the spirituality of ordinary Christians. Humphrey, who teaches New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, organized her book around three triads: love, light and life. In keeping with the Trinitarian motif, each triad has three sections.
The heart of Humphrey's work is her understanding of the Triune God and how this God relates to believers. For her, the Trinity is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in a perfect community of love and sharing. The Triune God is not self-contained but stands outside the divine self. This is the meaning of ecstasy. The purpose of this ecstasy or standing outside of the divine self is to have an intimate relationship with men and women. This is the "holy tryst" that Humphrey defines as "a holy meeting in which God, through his very own love, brings humanity (spirit, soul, body) to himself" (p. 17). This occurs especially through the action of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, for Humphrey, Christian spirituality is "the study of what happens when the Holy Spirit meets the human spirit" (p. 17).
by William G. McAtee. Martha Gilliss, editor. Louisville: Witherspoon Press, 2006. ISBN 1571530657. Pb, 434 pp. $24.95.
Dreams Where Have You Gone? is several things: a survey of Presbyterian history, a chronicle of the Union Presbytery Movement, an oral history of that movement, a memoir of a Presbyterian pastor, and a probing assessment of where the Presbyterian reunion of 1983 came from with questions about where we are going. It is a wonderful book that can be read at several levels and will provide wisdom and insight for all its readers.
Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) had it all: he was a star athlete, young, handsome, and charming. He's driving a convertible at night along a country road, and wants to show his date, and his best friend in the back (with his date), how amazing it is to drive with the lights out and watch the luminescent fireflies. They are at once enchanted, thrilled, and frightened. As he speeds up to heighten the sense of danger, the others start "freaking out," begging him to turn on the headlights, and as he does, they all see the combine inexplicably parked on the road, just before they hit it head-on.
by Fleming Rutledge. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005. ISBN 0-8028-2786-1. Pb. 81 pp. $12.00.
One of the great traditions of the Christian Church is to take time, during Holy Week, to reflect upon the words Jesus spoke from the Cross. Sometimes this happens in a three- hour service on Good Friday, in which the combination of the crucifixion accounts in the four Gospels are read and interpreted in turn. Out of this tradition, Fleming Rutledge has created a series of mediations that are helpful for personal reading, reflection, and devotional use at any time of the year.
