I read books for many purposes. To amuse and to entertain me (I am an avid fan of the detective story). To inform me (I try to keep up with recent biblical scholarship) but, also, to enrich my spirit. As I seek a closer sense of God's intimate presence, I have been helped from several very different sources.
By Rosmary Radford Reuther and Herman J. Reuther
Fortress. 2002. (2nd ed.) 320 pp. Pb. $18.00. 
ISBN 0-8006-3479-9
—reviewed by Daniel Durway, Raleigh, N.C.
Most Americans know what is going on in the Middle East, but few Americans know why it is going on. Indeed, according to Rosemary Radford Ruether and Herman J. Ruether, theologian and political scientist, respectively, "Much of the world does not know the actual history" (p. iv).
By John Leith, Charles E. Raynal,ed.
Geneva. 2001. 363 pp. Pb. $29.95. ISBN 0-664-50151-6
— reviewed by Richard A. Ray, Bristol, Tenn.
In 1949, John Leith included these words in a sermon on race relations preached in Nashville:
"It is hard to be a Christian. But after all, it is about time that we should get into our thinking that this business of being Christian is and always will be an arduous and dangerous business. It is not made for cowards and for the weak."
By Joan M. Martin.
WJKP. 2000. 190 pp. Pb. $24.95. ISBN 0-664-2580-0
— reviewed by Portia Turner Williamson, Durham, N.C.
What a well-crafted volume, significantly advancing the discussion concerning slavery in America! Joan Martin is a theological ethicist who employs womanist methodology to discover the meaning of work in this context.
"Discovery" is a technique that renders the internal as external. By means of this method, she examines the social, theological and political aspects of blackwomen’s antebellum work.
By Edwin S. Gaustad.
Eerdmans. 1996. 246 pp. Pb. $18.00 ISBN 0-8028-0156-0
—reviewed by Herbert Meza Jacksonville, Fla.
No one, with the possible exception of James Madison, had a greater influence on the founding of the United States than Thomas Jefferson. Unlike many of the founding fathers, Jefferson’s name has not faded. The Declaration of Independence stands as an enduring witness to Jefferson’s religious, moral and political views.
By Mac N. and Anne Shaw Turnage
WJKP. 2001. 136 pp. Pb. $12.95. ISBN 0-664-22567-5
— reviewed by William V. Arnold, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Since their own confrontation with cancer in 1973, Mac and Anne Turnage have focused considerable creative faith and energy, to our benefit, on the care of people affected by cancer. Since their first book, More Than You Dare to Ask: The First Year of Living With Cancer, in 1976, they have led countless support groups, formed and led organizations of cancer survivors to provide support and encouragement, and, in the process, modeled pastoral care at its finest.
By Richard Lischer.
Doubleday. 2001. 243 pp. Pb. $$23.95. ISBN 0-385-50217-6
— reviewed by Agnes Norfleet, Decatur, Ga.
Richard Lischer is a Lutheran pastor who teaches preaching at Duke Divinity School. Open Secrets: A Spiritual Journey Through a Country Church is a wonderfully engaging memoir of his first experience as a parish pastor. It reads like a novel with character development, plot, intrigue, pathos, humor, conflict and sometimes even resolution. And yet it is more than a good story.
By Frederick Buechner.
Harper San Francisco. 2001. 160 pp. $22.00 ISBN 0-06-251752-X
—reviewed by Blue Calhoun Wood, Watkinsville, Ga.
A month after the August 2001 publication of this anticipated new work of Frederick Buechner reverberated with particular poignancy. Its title, from Shakespeare's King Lear, expresses the necessary response to "the weight of this sad time."
By Wesley A. Kort
Oxford. 2001. 208 pp. $25. ISBN 0-19-514342-6
— reviewed by Daniel L. Durway, Raleigh, N.C.
If you last read something written by C.S. Lewis during your student days, or if you have never read anything at all by him, you may want to pick up C.S. Lewis Then and Now by Wesley A. Kort, professor of religion and member of the graduate faculty at Duke University.
By Thomas G. Long
Alban. 2001. 115 pp. Pb. $16. ISBN 1-56699-240-0
— reviewed by Art Ross of Raleigh, N.C.
Because, suddenly, we live in a world at war, the title of the book is unfortunate; but so too is the spirit of the debate over worship in the life of many churches. The opening words of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Common Worship, "Worship is at the very heart of the church’s life. All that the church is and does is rooted in its worship" are true.
By Ronald C. White Jr.
Simon and Schuster. 2002. 256 pp. $24. ISBN 0743212983
— reviewed by John M. Mulder of Louisville,Ky.
Just in time for Lincoln’s birthday comes Ronald White’s exposition of and meditation on what he rightly describes as Abraham Lincoln’s greatest speech — the Second Inaugural Address. Brief and lucidly written, White’s exposition includes not only the historical context in which Lincoln delivered the speech (with colorful anecdotes) but also an excellent literary and theological exposition of the text of the address itself.
By Roberta C. Bondi
Abingdon. 2000. 292 pp. $25. ISBN 0-687-02405-6
— reviewed by Judy Haas Acheson of Kansas City, Mo.
In this age of terrorism, is it not so that each of us have become more pensive and introspective individuals? Isn’t there a certain melancholy to this contemplative mood that seems like a form of prayer? Is it not also true that in these reveries our minds focus first on ourselves and then widen into remembering our family stories and histories in an attempt to see how we fit into these tense current historic events?
By Leander Keck.
Fortress. 2001. 207 pp. Pb. $ 21. ISBN 0-8006-3170-6
— Reviewed by Gordon W. G. Raynal, pastor, Inman, S.C., church
Leander Keck, emeritus professor of biblical theology at Yale Divinity School and past president of the Society of Biblical Literature, has joined the ranks of scholars writing about the relationship between understanding Jesus as a figure of history and a figure of theological affirmation. In Who Is Jesus? Keck takes the reader on a tour of the history of this scholarship since the Enlightenment, when interest in the Jesus of history began to flourish.
By Samuel K. Roberts
Pilgrim. 2001. 307 pp. Pb. $26. ISBN 0-8298-1424-8
—reviewed by A. Elaine Crawford, Atlanta, Ga.
Sam Roberts' book builds a strong case for the development of a unique African-American ethical consciousness. While he focuses on the African-American community, Roberts understands various cultures as singular, but none, including African-American culture, as exclusively normative. He argues that African-American ethical consciousness has been shaped through the particular historical and cultural experience of African Americans in America.
By Anne M. Clifford
Orbis. 2001. 287 pp. Pb. $21. ISBN 1-57075-238-9
— reviewed by by Isabel Rogers, Richmond, Va.
The goal of Christian theology, says Anne M. Clifford, "is to bring faith to understanding for a Christian community" (p. 179). That is what she aims to do in this book -- to help the Christian community understand its faith, especially in light of the experience of women.
By Lewis S. Mudge
WCC Publications and University Press of America, Inc. 2000.312 pp. Pb. $27.50 ISBN 2-8254-1332-1
— reviewed by Louis Weeks, president, Union-PSCE, Richmond.
This collection of articles and essays by Lewis Mudge -- which have previously appeared in a variety of publications during the past 30 years -- offers a good summary of his thought. He believes that the whole church needs to think fresh thoughts about its identity as the body of Christ. More, it must develop its identity in the world. Ecclesial life for Mudge is a reality, and social theory can illumine its existence.
By Christine Eaton Blair
Geneva. 2001. 138 pp. Pb. $12.95.ISBN ISBN 0-664-50148-6
— reviewed by Margaret Parks Cowan Maryville, Tenn.
Christine Eaton Blair has produced a lively and practical guide for teaching Bible study to adults. She acknowledges the problem of biblical illiteracy and the difficulty of motivating adults to participate in Bible study. While she presents different approaches to the text and theological implications of those approaches, the strength of her book lies in its discussion of insights from adult learning theory and practical strategies for teaching that flow from these insights.
By Conrad Cherry, Betty A. DeBerg and Amanda Porterfield
University of North Carolina Press. 2001. 316 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-8078-2623-5
— reviewed by Allen Proctor, Presbyterian campus minister
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.
Religion on Campus is a valuable and unique resource for all who are interested in what is actually happening in the religious life of students and faculty on college campuses today. Are you interested in getting inside a meeting of Campus Crusade for Christ to see all that is said and done? What happens during a gathering of the Lutheran Student Movement and what feelings and thoughts do students report in interviews following those gatherings?
By Howard L. Rice and James C. Huffstuttler
Geneva. 2001. 233 pp. $24.95.
ISBN 0-664-50147-8
Reviewed by Ronald P. Byars, professor of preaching and
worship,Union-PSCE, Richmond, Va.
"Word-centered worship appeals to the mind . . . sometimes to the neglect of the emotions. Partly because of this emphasis, the flight of the young from Reformed congregations has been particularly noticeable, and the feeling that something is wrong is very deep" [p. x].
By Eric Mount Jr.
Pilgrim. 1999. 188 pp. Pb. $19.95.
ISBN 0829813551
Reviewed by Guy B. Hammond of Blacksburg, Va.
As the book's subtitle suggests, Presbyterian scholar Eric Mount's work can serve as an introduction to the entire field of Christian ethics, approached from a particular vantage point.
By Peggy Shriver
WJKP. 2001. 112 pp. Pb. $14.95.
ISBN 0664223338
Reviewed by Jane C. Perdue of Canyon Lake, Texas
Through her book of poems, The Dancers of Riverside Park, Peggy Shriver travels with her eyes wide open. Whether riding the subway in New York City or viewing the tomb of Lenin in Russia, her antenna is out to sense the moment.
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).
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