by Charles R. Lane, Augsburg Fortress, 2006 ISBN 0-8066-5263-2 Pb. 128 pp. $11.99
It has long been my contention that, with very few exceptions, stewardship is the aspect of church life most neglected. Ask, Thank, Tell is one more welcomed book on the subject.
Charles Lane, Director for Stewardship Key Leaders in the Lutheran Church of America, brings to the table pastoral experience and a fervent desire to teach stewardship through faith commitment. The author clearly believes and states that stewardship begins with one's relationship with Jesus Christ, but then proceeds to present an open, honest conversation about money.
by Charles Denison. Atlanta: Chalice Press, 2005. ISBN 0827223293. Pb., 114 pp., $15.99.
Have you taken time lately to browse through the magazine section of your local Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstores? Gone are the days when a few magazines -- Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated -- dominated the racks.
Now you find literally hundreds of titles, each appealing to a narrow segment of the magazine reading audience, e.g. Cigar Aficionado, American Ceramics, Ad Busters.
Through his book Mainline Manifesto: The Inevitable New Church, Charles Denison wants us to understand that the American cultural landscape is similarly fractured and that our evangelism (and especially our new church development) needs to take account of that reality.
This is a tough movie to sit through. "Intense" is an understatement. It brings back all the horror, puzzlement, and shock of 9/11, and then it becomes oh, so personal.
John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) begins this day like any other: awake at 3:30 a.m., he stumbles to get dressed in the dark without waking his sleeping wife (Maria Bello). He quietly looks in on his four children, all snug in their beds, before he takes the George Washington Bridge into the City, where he works as a Port Authority policeman. He's a veteran sergeant. He sees himself as a true professional: someone who rarely smiles, who is all business. He thinks that a certain amount of distance from his men is necessary for them to maintain proper respect for his rank."
Three movies, three very different cosmologies. And all the heroes must risk life and limb to even make it to the end of the story.
The "Miami Vice" television show of the 80s featured "cool" actors playing laconic, iconic homicide detectives in a Miami filled with pastel colors, sun-splashed beaches, and upscale private harbors. Sunglasses required, jacket optional, repartee sparse.
edited by Patricia Lloyd-Sidle. Louisville: Geneva Press, 2006. ISBN 0-664-50287-3. Pb., 165 pp. $19.95.
Celebrating Our Call: Ordination Stories of Presbyterian Women should be required reading for all Presbyterians. Fourteen of our denomination's most visible and successful women in ministry share their highly personal and deeply felt experiences of God's call to serve the church. Gifted, passionate, and articulate--these women speak with joy about their various callings to parish ministry, to mission, and to academia. They are the voices of pastors and seminary presidents, denominational leaders and theologians, educators and ecumenists who speak from their perspectives as Caucasian, Korean, African-American, and Hispanic women.
Outlook Book Editor Randy Harris has asked several Presbyterians to select books for challenging and enjoyable reading during summer work and vacation times.
North Como Presbyterian Church, Roseville, Minnesota. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-595-34155-1. Pb., 588 pp., $46.95.
Congratulations to North Como Church for producing the most massive and comprehensive resource to date on the battle over ordination standards in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It is almost beyond comprehension that a congregational task force put together the massive, Ordination Standards: Biblical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. I am sure the process of working systematically through the many complex issues was rewarding for the Task Force and for the entire congregation. That their work is now available to the whole church is a gift, but it is a gift that must be received cautiously.
by Mark Douglas. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-7425-1432-3. Pb., 262 pp., $27.95.
Years from now, people who take their Christian faith seriously will still be reading and reflecting upon this exceptional work. Mark Douglas has written a book that will surely stand the test of time. Confessing Christ in the 21st Century is one of those rare books that will stimulate discussion and challenge thought for generations to come. The larger hope, however, is that it will serve a useful purpose for us even now. Indeed it does.
by Douglas F. Ottati. Louisville: Geneva Press, 2006. ISBN 0-664-50289-X. Pb., 116 pp. $17.95.
Some book titles provide no clue to what lies within. Douglas Ottati's latest book is as advertised: theology for liberal Presbyterians (and other endangered species). I take issue with the title only in the sense that I think the book is not just "for" liberal Presbyterians. What Ottati has to offer can enrich the quality of theological reflection and discourse regardless of one's perceived and preferred label.
edited by Robert H. Bullock Jr. Louisville: Geneva Press, 2006. ISBN 0664502792. Pb., 133 pp., $17.95.
While I understand the logic of doing so, I rarely seek a second opinion on a medical matter. When I find a doctor whose insights I trust, I typically embrace his or her observations and insights.
Truth be told, I often do the same in other areas of my life. When drawing conclusions about issues before the church, I tend to listen to persons whose opinions I trust (since they generally mirror my own), and having had my own point of view affirmed, I enjoy the sweet satisfaction reserved for those who are confident of being right.
"An Inconvenient Truth" is an hour and a half of preaching. That is, it is Al Gore preaching to us about the impending crisis of global warming. Mr. Gore has all the current statistics displayed by all the latest technologies, and he's shown speaking before packed-to-overflowing houses of attentive and empathetic listeners, appealingly designed to emphasize youth and include several minorities. (This is the kind of congregation we would all love to have on Sunday mornings.) There's no hymn singing, though, and no praying, just clear-eyed, somber warnings about the impending disasters, complete with dire predictions of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, and other natural disasters (see Matthew 24:7).
by Richard Robert Osmer. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. ISBN 0-664-22547-0. Pb., 347 pp. $29.95
Last fall my daughter entered her senior year of high school and with that came the extracurricular activity of filling out college applications and writing application essays. Though each school has had its own list of suggested topics, most of them have included an option that goes something like this, "If you could invite any three guests, from any time in history, to a dinner party, whom would you invite and what would you want to discuss with them?"
by Jack Rogers. Louisville: WJKP, 2006. ISBN 0-664-22939-5. Pb., 176 pp. $17.95
You are invited to travel with Jack Rogers on a life-changing, personal journey as he moves from being a conservative evangelical who viewed homosexuality as a "sin" to a progressive evangelical who now promotes the acceptance of homosexual orientation and practice.
Dr. Rogers, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly in 2001 and former professor of theology at Fuller and San Francisco Theological Seminaries, was asked by his pastor, Dean Thompson, in 1993 to participate in a Bible study about homosexuality. The group took seriously the seven official guidelines of the Presbyterian Church for Biblical interpretation. The first of these is "To recognize that Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the center of Scripture." The seventh guideline is to "Seek to interpret a particular passage of the Bible in the light of all of the Bible."
For the churchgoing Christian, there's plenty to like about "The Da Vinci Code": The whole time, people are talking about the faith. The important places are locales like museums, libraries, and sanctuaries. Knowledge of ancient languages, (Western) history, culture, and art is essential. And it's oh, so literary, even to the point of playing with words, so that the keys to the puzzles lie with being able to figure out the clues within the words. Just delicious.
Ah, but for the churchgoing Christian, there's plenty not to like, as well.
by Anne Rice. New York: Knopf, 2005. ISBN 0-375-41201-8. Hb., 336 pp. $25.95.
Jesus has lived the first seven years of his life in Alexandria, Egypt. The novel covers his family's move back to Galilee after King Herod's death and Jesus' first year in Nazareth. The plot concerns how the boy Jesus discovers his birth story and true identity.
Two incidents found in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas open the novel. Jesus' blunt words to a bully result in the bully's death. In view of the ensuing ruckus caused by the dead boy's family, Jesus decides to raise him from the dead. In the context of that incident, we also learn that the child Jesus had earlier fashioned sparrows out of clay on the Sabbath day, and then clapped his hands to make them fly away after he was criticized for working on the Sabbath. In an afterword, Rice defends her decision to embrace these apocryphal accounts because she finds a deep truth in them that speaks to her.
Both films feature, prominently, the country's president--a fit, trim, handsome, well-dressed, well-manicured white man somewhere in his 50's. Both feature terrorist plots against the president. In both, the terrorists themselves are somewhat shadowy foreign figures whose motivations are uncertain, but seem more political than personal. In both, an affair not only undercuts the integrity of the participants, but puts everyone else at risk, as well. One is a deadly serious drama and the other a completely satirical goof, but both have somber, sober, cynical undertones.
by Thomas G. Long. Louisville: WJKP, 2005. ISBN 0-664-22943-3. Pb., 267 pp., $24.95.
In the preface to this Second Edition, Tom Long writes that when he first wrote The Witness of Preaching in the late 1980s, he was attempting to do two things. First, he sought to provide a basic textbook on preaching that would be both accessible to new preachers and yet still helpful to experienced pastors. Second, he hoped "to create a textbook that was in direct conversation with other voices and opinions in the field of preaching" (p. ix).
It is easy to see that Long delivered on his first promise. The textbook immediately found its way into introductory preaching courses in divinity schools and seminaries of all types, and countless experienced preachers found renewed passion for their preaching after reading The Witness of Preaching. What made the original particularly helpful was its rich theology of proclamation that clearly gave life to the nuts and bolts of sermon crafting that Long espoused.
by Robert W. Jenson. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville, John Knox Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8042-3117-6. 106 pp, $24.95
"It may be," says the author, "that the chief purpose of a commentary on (the Song of Songs) is not to provide interpretation but to provoke it" (p. 12). In this masterful commentary, Robert Jenson does both.
From the author's engaging preface, through a most informative introduction that makes one eager to read on, and throughout the commentary, Jenson leads the reader on an extraordinary adventure in the study of Scripture.
by Wendy Farley. Louisville, KY: WJKP, 2005. ISBN 0-664-22976-X. Pb., 208 pp., $19.95.
On the back of Wendy Farley's new book, The Wounding and Healing of Desire, the brief description of her project uses appropriate descriptive language like "inspiring" and "passionate" to invite the reader into this beautiful work. The description ends by calling Farley's book a "theological memoir." If this categorization entices you to pick it up and read it, then I am happy with the choice of genre the publisher made. As a theologian, however, I find the description unsatisfying even as I grope for an alternative way to capture what Farley has accomplished. Indeed this book does pour forth from an intimate integrity that connects her experience with the way she constructs theology. Her project, however, is more ontological than it is a narrative of or theological reflection on her life.
by David L Goetz. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN-13-978-0-06-075670-3 Hb., 214 pp., $23.95.
The inspiration behind this new book is fascinating. Author David L. Goetz asks whether or not life in the suburbs is harmful to a living faith. As an answer, he claims it can be, but with the deliberate method he delineates in this book it does not have to be.
We recognize the concerns he raises: that showiness and barrenness are the suburbia stereotype. In the lovely bedroom communities of America, it can appear that the inhabitants are more worried about orderly landscaping than they are the landscape of the soul. Such a message is intriguing to me and would be to many clergy. If you serve a congregation in which a large number of your members are suburbanites, the question is there, even if unasked: In the hectic pace and everyday diversions of the suburbs, is it possible for people to discern, to have a word with and have a word from the Living God?
"Tsotsi" means "thug" in South African dialect. Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae, in a remarkable debut) is a thug, all right, from the slums of Johannesburg. He glares constantly, as if always boiling with rage. He is cruel, violent, and humorless. He surrounds himself with other thugs, and together they go to the central train terminal, where they find their victims. They rob people who are unguarded enough to flash a wad of bills when they are paying for a newspaper. When they return to their slums, they spend their stolen money gambling at dice, and when it runs out, they go steal again. Tsotsi seems to be practically unredeemable. And then something unexpected happens.
With Easter Week, spring break and other incentives to use our time to read something inspiring, we recommend the following:
For adults
Were You There? Finding Ourselves at the Foot of the Cross, by Erik Kolbell. Louisville: WJKP, 2005. ISBN 0-664-22778-3. Hb., 163 pp., $14.95.
What would you have done were you there during Jesus' passion? Would you have provided comfort, as did Mary? Would you have betrayed him, as did Judas? Would you have abused the power entrusted to you, as did Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate? Kolbell skillfully puts us into the story of Jesus' passion and death in such a way that we are there--and that then is somehow now, too. Retelling Jesus' passion from the perspective of multiple characters, he offers rich insight into Jesus' story, and into our stories, as well.
by Wes Avram. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2005. ISBN 1587430886. Pb., 156 pp., $14.99.
In the first of the sermonic essays in this collection, Wes Avram recounts a story from a physician's memoirs about a young man who lost his leg to bone cancer. The young man went through long and difficult therapy to learn to live without his leg. During his physical therapy, the doctor sometimes asked the young man to draw a picture of how he was feeling. On one occasion he drew a picture of a cracked vase, depicting his feeling of being broken right at the center of his being. As the years went on, the young man gradually accepted his new life and learned to find joy again. Much later, the doctor met the patient again, and had an opportunity to pull out of his files the old picture of the cracked vase. The former patient took the picture back and said, "This isn't finished." He added something to the drawing. "'Now it's complete,' he said and turned it back to the doctor. He had drawn rays of light shining from inside the vase. He said, 'Now I know that the crack is where the light shows through.'" [p. 31]
Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, by Miroslav Volf. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006. ISBN: 0-310-26574-6. Pb., 247 pages, $12.99.
Read this book; it will strengthen your Lenten preaching. Free of Charge is the Archbishop of Canterbury's "Official 2006 Lent Book." In the Forward, Archbishop Rowan Williams says, "This is a book about worshipping the true God and letting the true God act in us." Volf captures the essence of his book in a more engaging way in the Postlude, a conversation with a skeptic who questions all Volf's assumptions, even his view of God. Volf responds, "I don't mean to insult you, but I wrote this book mainly for myself and maybe for folks like me, not for you. Most books I write, I write for myself as a spiritual exercise almost. And to tell the truth, my biggest problem is not with the arguments that may pull the rug from beneath the whole Christian way of life. In a sense my biggest problem is not an argument at all." (p.229)
Volf and the skeptic continue the dialogue. Volf says, "I am what we Christians used to call a 'sinner,' though we are now a bit embarrassed by the term." (p.230) "In the book, I argue, among other things, that we should embrace our enemies as Christ has embraced us. Well, an 'enemy'- a small one -- arose in my life after I wrote the book, and I sensed in myself the propensity to return in kind and exclude rather than forgive and embrace. And then I heard myself saying, 'But you argued in your book ...' It was like an academic version of the still small voice my wonderful and godly mother so often speaks about."
"Did that help?" the skeptic asked.
"It did! It reminded me that I was failing, that I wasn't true to God and to myself. It helped me resolve to act differently, to love my 'enemy.'" (p. 232)
As I was preparing this review of David Kelsey's provocative treatment of redemption, none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, was already bandying about the word in the media. Explaining his refusal to commute the death sentence of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the governor-cum-theologian said, "[Williams'] redemption may not be complete."
It is clear that the governor was operating under a certain definition of redemption, clearly popular in our hyper-individualistic culture, bathed as we are in self-help. In our cultural milieu, redemption is a human act of will, something that Mr. Williams ought to be able to "do," and, barring that redemptive accomplishment, he somehow forfeits his right to live. Lest any in the faith community believe that this understanding is remotely Christian, Kelsey's book comes along and reminds us that redemption is not a self-help project or a human project at all; redemption is a gift of grace, an act of God, and we are simply invited to live into this redemptive space in response.
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