By Christopher Tuckett
WJKP. 2001. 256 pp. Pb. $24.95.
ISBN 0-664-22431-8
Reviewed by John Barksdale of Madison, Va.
Christopher Tuckett, a lecturer in New Testament studies at the University of Oxford, has written a very readable and useful summary of what the New Testament writers thought about the significance of Jesus.
By Jean Stairs
Fortress. 2000. 213 pp. Pb. $20.
ISBN 0-8006-3239-7
Reviewed by William V. Arnold, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
In clear language, with no appeals to academic jargon, Jean Stairs undertakes a balancing act that brings pastoral care and spiritual direction into collaboration with each other. She wisely makes no attempt to have one discipline subsume the other. Rather, she recognizes and describes the gifts of each and the need of each for the perspective of the other.
By Martin E. Marty
Jossey-Bass. 2000. 240 pp. Hb. $22.50.
ISBN 0-7879-5031-9
Reviewed by Edward A. White, Washington, D.C.
This is a refreshing and clear-thinking description and analysis of the place of religion in the public life of our nation. Martin Marty sets forth six theses:
1. Public religion can be dangerous. It should be handled with care.
2. Public religion can and does contribute to the common good.
By Martin E. Marty and Jonathan Moore
Jossey-Bass. 2000. 164 pp. Pb. $23.
ISBN 0-7879-5033-5
Reviewed by Allan E. Strand, Oxford, Miss.
The thrust of Martin Marty's work in this volume is captured most succinctly in this: "In the midst of global, national and local change affecting world views and public action, religion is too widespread and too deep a phenomenon not to be reckoned with in primary, or at least secondary, schools and thereafter, no matter under what aegis or auspices" (p. 139).
By Jack Haberer
Geneva. 2001. 192 pp. Pb. $19.95.
ISBN 0-664-50190-7
Reviewed by Brent Eelman of Houston, Texas
This book should be mandatory reading for all commissioners to this year's General Assembly. Jack Haberer, who is well-known as an evangelical leader in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has written a thoughtful book that challenges the reader to rethink the easy categories that we often use to describe theological differences.
By Dean E. Foose
Geneva. 2001. 114 pp. Pb. $9.95.
ISBN 0-664-50041-2
Reviewed by Freda Gardner, Princeton, N.J.
The subtitle of this book is "A Roadmap for Pastor Nominating Committees." It is well chosen and Dean Foose, director of alumni/ae relations and placement at Princeton Seminary, is well qualified to describe a way for congregations and pastors to discover their respective callings.
By Robert Thornton Henderson
Providence House. 2000. 160 pp. Pb. $16.95.
ISBN 1 57736 203 9
Reviewed by Richard Ray, Pittsburgh
Utopian, iconoclastic, broad-brushed and frequently irreverent about venerable PC(USA) ways, Robert Henderson's Blueprint 21 is a provocative book. If you like your theology cool, your sense of churchmanship poised, your rhetorical style silky and smooth, and your exegesis in harmony with the claims of the Enlightenment, you had better head for your aspirin bottle before you begin to turn these pages.
By Barbara Brown Taylor
Cowley. 2000. 104 pp. Pb. $10.95.
ISBN 1-56101-189-4
Reviewed by Scott Dalgarno, pastor, First church, Ashland, Ore.
"In the age just past, nationalism has brought us Hitler, science has brought us the atom bomb and religion has brought us some really awful television programming." So quips the inimitable Barbara Brown Taylor in a new book on a topic most of us think we've heard quite enough about already: sin.
By Ronald P. Byars
Geneva. 2000. 96 pp. Pb. $11.95.
ISBN 0-664-50136-2
Reviewed by James G. Kirk, Glen Burnie, Md.
Much to the satisfaction of those of us who serve in parishes, Geneva Press, in conjunction with the Office of Theology and Worship, has initiated a new series of books called the Foundations of Christian Faith.
By Robert W. Herron
Thomas More. 2000. 188 pp. Pb. $15.95.
ISBN 0-88347-460-3
Reviewed by Margret Barnes Perry, a pastoral counselorin Asheville, N.C.
Yet another book on marriage? Yes, and this one is a worthwhile read in large part because it has a particular focus: making it through midlife with your spouse. In writing this book, Robert W. Herron claims his hope: that he will help couples "navigate this transitional period in life and marriage and feel better about themselves as they do."
Bill Williams has written a very good book for those who wonder why, if God is all-powerful, there is imperfection and suffering in this world. He had good reason to ask such questions. He was one of three children in one family who were born with cystic fibrosis. Noting that the odds of such an occurrence were one-in-four, no wonder Williams asks, "Why?"
ISBN 1-57075-279-6M. T. Winter, widely known as a "singing nun," is also widely appreciated as a friend of God and of all God's children. This book, as the subtitle indicates, is the story of her own faith journey from the blind belief of childhood to the mature faith of a medical missionary as Sister Miriam Therese.
ISBN 0-664-50129I expect devotional books to be sentimental and superficial, at best, and insipid at worst -- this book of meditations on the psalms by Thomas Currie is neither. Instead the reader will find here real theological depth and an authentic wrestling with issues of the spiritual life.
ISBN 1-57322-150-3"Everything unborn in us and the world needs blessing. My grandfather believed that the Holy has made all things. 'It is up to us to strengthen them and feed them and free them whenever possible to find and fulfill his purposes for them,
ISBN 0-8006-3240-0On this journey into classical Christian art, readers will not find themselves laden with the baggage of an in-depth history of art nor a catalogue of the greatest works from around the world. Helen de Borchgrave's book rather invites the reader to join her knowledgeable, guided tour of art treasures in sites close to their origin.
By Brian Wren
WJKP. 2000. 422 pp. Pb. $22.95. ISBN 0-554-25670-8
Reviewed by Melva Costen, Atlanta
By George Hunsinger
Eerdmans. 2000. 375 pp. $39. ISBN 0-8028-4644-0
Reviewed by Robert C. Bankhead, Wilmington, N.C.
ISBN ISBN 0-664-25844-1Lloyd Rediger is on a crusade. He has written his latest book, "Fit to Be a Pastor: A Call to Physical, Mental and Spiritual Fitness," as a challenge to the church to join the quest for healthy leaders. The book is a summons issued to all of us in church leadership, particularly pastors, to seek body-mind-spirit fitness and to do it now.
ISBN 1-58051-061-2The theme of this book is the reconciliation of folly and holiness. In beautifully written paragraphs, folly is described not as foolishness or buffoonery, but as vulnerability; risk above safety; truth above security; love above self-gain; and celebration over somberness. (Harvey Cox's "A Feast of Fools" and Henri Nouwen's "Clowning in Rome" play upon the same theme.)
ISBN 0800631846In this collection of 12 essays and lectures, Juergen Moltmann writes about some of the significant issues with which people must wrestle who seek to live in the modern world and address it from the perspective of a biblical and Christian faith.
ISBN 0800632303
ISBN 0-8308-1585-6Diana Garland has produced a comprehensive guide to family ministry. Based on her expertise in teaching and research, she presents social, cultural, psychological and historical understandings of family.
ISBN 0-664-22141-6This book is the report of a journalist's investigation into the many ways in which the Bible is understood, used and studied in America, and her reflection as a reporter on the findings of her study.
ISBN 0-664-50109-5"Being Presbyterian in the Bible Belt" is pithy, witty and well-organized. So much did I enjoy it that I bought five copies to give to my Austin, Texas, high school graduates this year. Although Ted and Alex claim the "Bible belt" as the arena for this, their first book together, I would recommend this book to my former youth groups in California and Utah in a heartbeat.
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