by Ronald J. Allen and Clark M. Williamson. Louisville: WJKP, 2004. ISBN 0-664-22763-5. Hb, 261 pp., $24.95.
I welcome and celebrate this new commentary as a much-needed resource for my own preaching and teaching, and let me tell you why.
In recent years, the congregation where I serve (the Fifth Avenue Church in New York City) has entered into an ever-deepening relationship with a Reform Jewish synagogue (Central Synagogue), located just a few blocks east of us in midtown Manhattan. While the relationship initially grew out of a friendship shared between our senior pastor and the senior rabbi of the synagogue, it has significantly expanded in recent years to embrace a much larger congregation and staff. In 1998 when the synagogue tragically suffered a major fire, our congregation was among the first to offer our facilities to our Jewish brothers and sisters while their own house of worship was being rebuilt. In 2003-04, when our own building was undergoing major expansion and renovation, the synagogue reciprocated, and for 40 Sundays we Christians held our weekly worship services in the incredibly beautiful and holy space of Central Synagogue's sanctuary.
In the Ruins of the Church: Sustaining Faith in an Age of Diminished Christianity, by R. R. Reno. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2002. Pb., 208 pp. ISBN 1-58743-033-9. $15.99.
Editor's Note: This book review was written before the release of the recommendations from the PC(USA) Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity.
The General Assembly of 2001 met in Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Presbyterian Center, our denomination's national offices. With the strong encouragement of national officers, the General Assembly authorized a Theological Task Force to deliberate and then to report on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Though appointing a committee to address an issue is ordinary and uneventful, indeed unimaginative and uninspiring; and though the constant comparisons to the Commission of 1925 were insulting to evangelicals; and though the appointments themselves were more than a little disappointing to evangelicals, and the commission given was at least a bit ambiguous, needing re-visitation by a later General Assembly; and though as the Task Force deliberated over the next four years, more and more of it was done secluded from the witness of the Church; as a commissioner to that General Assembly, I found one decision noteworthy - the General Assembly admitted we are a divided fellowship.
This was and is a difficult but, I believe, necessary admission. We are unhappy. This is not the common life for which Christ prayed and we hope. It hurts; we hurt. To recognize and attend to this is right.
Little else in the General Assembly actions was as right.
The Wide, Wide Circle of Divine Love: A Biblical Case for Religious Diversity, by W. Eugene March. Louisville: WJKP, 2005. ISBN 0-664-22708-2. Pb., 139 pp. $14.95.
In his new book, The Wide, Wide Circle of Divine Love, W. Eugene March lays out a reasoned and compelling case for people of all faiths to communicate with and appreciate people of other faiths. He traces his long-time interest in interfaith relations to his days as a graduate student when he was under the direction of Jewish professors and working alongside Jewish students. "They were every bit as committed to the service of God as I was . . . If one could only know the 'Father' through Jesus Christ, how could I understand the clear reflection of God's way 'enfleshed' by these people?" (ix)
Today's world, even today's United States, is a far more pluralistic society than March encountered in New York forty years ago. We knowingly share the world with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Confucianists, Animists, Jews, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, and those of many more faith traditions. As a nation we have experienced the dire effects of militant extremism, practiced by those who "deny the right of any others to exist and... [are] willing to exercise any measure of terror...toward the eradication of all they judge to be their enemies"(xi). In our modern world, March maintains that it is more imperative than ever that we who profess faith in Jesus Christ realize that God's love is far wider than any human limits. The "Bible itself...clearly contradicts the narrow, supersessionist interpretation that God is concerned only with the chosen people, whether Jews or Christians"(118-119). After pointing out that we who are Christians also have been guilty of encouraging and at times actively supporting "terrible things in the name of faithfulness to God"(5), March lifts up texts from throughout the canon to support his argument that God's love is not intended for only a fraction of the human community; he also pushes his readers to consider biblical texts in context, asserting that there is room for more than one true religion.
edited by Ann M. Svennungsen and Melissa Wiginton. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005. 84 pages
Much has been written and spoken about creating a culture of call in the life of the church. It has been said that the once-fertile soil of homes, congregations, camps and colleges that nurtured faith and produced a harvest of talented ministers of Word and Sacrament has grown thin, worn out and eroded away. Family priorities have changed. Overcommitted youth are engaged in a myriad of activities and have little time for worship and little interest in church school. I heard an elder in a congregation say that the pastoral ministry was a dead end job and she certainly hoped her child was thinking about some other profession than pastoral ministry. Church camps are replaced with camps that offer flashier facilities and more upscale activities; church-related colleges drop their requirements in Bible and theology.
Yet, this is only part of the picture. After years of declining attention to the culture of call, fresh interest is being given to how we can help a new generation of young adults hear the call to serve God through their vocations. The concern is not only about helping young adults discern a call to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, but to see their daily lives, loves and labors as their vocation, their calling to serve and glorify God. Certainly, the Lilly Endowment, the Fund for Theological Education, and other organizations have worked with congregations, colleges and seminaries to help them become fertile soil for discerning call. Congregations are waking up to their role in helping young people identify their call; church-related colleges are beginning new efforts to awaken students to their life's vocation; seminaries are reaching college students and even high school students with fresh, creative opportunities to explore vocational questions through special programs in theology, the arts, Bible study and service.
The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates, by Bradley J. Longfield. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Pb., 352 pp. ISBN 0-19-508674-0. $30.
Editor's Note: This book review was written before the release of the recommendations from the PC(USA) Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity.
Along with Jon Walton, I serve as the Co-Moderator of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians and was glad to be asked to recommend a book that might be instructive to members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as we awaited the full report and recommendations of the Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity. I asked for suggestions from many friends and colleagues. One book got several mentions and so I ordered it and then wondered if I would stay awake as I read it.
When one is pondering "summer reading" possibilities, suffice it to say that the title, The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates, would not seem to be the best choice to slip into your beach bag! That said, I thoroughly enjoyed--yes, enjoyed--reading this interestingly written and instructive book by Bradley J. Longfield. I believe that this book ought to be on every pastor's reading list and required reading for seminarians. It should be accessible to laypeople who seek to understand the Presbyterian Church's ways of debating important issues and trying to work through times of disagreement by a responsible use of our polity and understanding of our history.
by David Dark. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. ISBN 0664227694. Pb., 173 pp. $14.95.
The Gospel According to America is a winding path through the literature, film, and music of the American consciousness. It curves through theology and brings onto the stage of awareness figures ranging from Bayard Rustin to Dorothy Day, Fr. Daniel Berrigan, and Will Campbell. It is not an easy read for those unaccustomed to Melville, Hawthorne, and Pynchon--and far less easy for those who have never listened to Wilco, REM, or Dylan. Written in a style that at times leaves one considering the possibility that David Dark's marvelous offering was translated from the German (not so), the book is demanding; it is not a book for the beach. So why make the journey? Is the demand on the reader worthy?
Indeed it is. For Dark brings biblical insight--delivered in diverse cultural forms--to bear upon our history. He calls us to "stand firmly within the Jewish- Christian tradition and its teaching that evil doesn't come to us self-consciously, introducing itself and offering us a choice ("Join us in our evil"). It's more like a Faustian bargain, a narcissism in which we believe our fantasy to be the only real, unbiased version of events. We surround ourselves with voices that will affirm our fantasy and dismiss as treacherous (or evil) any witness that would call our innocence into question. (p. 76)
by M. Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock. Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, Hardcover; 827 pages. ISBN: 0-664-22754-6, $39.95.
Here is a one-volume commentary on the New Testament with up to date information that is also very much in line with what Presbyterians believe. I am tempted to say, "This is the commentary for you;" because I firmly believe that every household should have one handy reference work that helps each person understand Scripture, and you would find this book to be exactly that.
by Robert McAfee Brown. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. $24.95. Hb. 305 pp. ISBN: 0664224040
Bob Brown didn't yield the floor until the Grim Reaper nudged him out. Son Peter: "When he quite literally was on his deathbed, a week before he drifted off, and still somewhat rational, I asked him how he was doing. ... I thought he would say something to the effect that all was well, that he was unafraid, that life had been good, that he was ready to move to meet God, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson and all the others. Instead, he looked at me with great determination and said, 'Publish that book.' "
We've all been conditioned to fear the Saudi, the terrorist with the thick Middle Eastern accent and the half-crazed look in his eye. But what if we board a plane on a "red-eye" flight and the killer turns out to be a nice, slender, attractive, blue-eyed Anglo?
Wes Craven delivers a straight suspense movie, no tricks, nothing supernatural, not sci-fi. It's the story line that propels this movie, and the stars do a nice job of taking us all for the ride.
Here are two suggestions for reading as summer activities wind down and our fall schedules begin:
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