Colin Kerr CRK Books, 194 pages Reviewed by Nicole Childress Ball Remember Etch A Sketch? That red, plastic box that was full of aluminum powder and had two white knobs? The Etch A Sketch creates lineographic images — artwork made without lifting your pen, pencil or brush. The left knob draws horizontal lines, while the right knob draws vertical lines. However, if you move the two knobs simultaneously, and with just the right amount of skill, parallel lines and right corners can be transformed into swirls and curves. What if you want to start over? Simply turn it over, give it a good shake and the grey screen will produce a fresh canvas for the imagination to run wild. But the Etch A Sketch of my childhood did not always erase my creation completely. Memories of my original work would remain, reminding me that some things always stick. If an Etch A Sketch could depict my faith journey thus far, it would be a beautiful mess of clean lines and swirling loops. This book etched … [Read more...]

K.J. Ramsey Zondervan, 224 pages Reviewed by Christina Tutterow This was half the book I needed. K.J. Ramsey writes beautifully about her life experiences, her theological convictions and her vocationally acquired understanding of psychology and neurobiology. She states that the book is about the “messy middle” of her life, which includes both the diagnosis of a chronic, pain-filled illness that is unlikely to be healed and an abrupt ending to a church call that left her feeling doubly wounded. The latter event is only briefly mentioned in the preface. I could have written this book. I should have loved it — which is an odd thing to say about a book so unapologetically focused on suffering. But misery does love company. The book doesn’t follow a linear or a chronological trajectory. Each chapter could stand on its own as a faith-tinged essay. The tome is more scholarly than personal, though there is the feeling that the author means it all to be personal for us, the readers. … [Read more...]

Tod Bolsinger IVP Press, 256 pages Tod Bolsinger has gained wide recognition for his leadership expertise displayed in “Canoeing the Mountains.” Since then, he has continued to build upon the work of Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky focused on adaptive change, along with that of Edwin Friedman’s attention to organizational systems. In this book, he uses the metaphor of tempered steel to describe the skills necessary to be a leader capable of leading deep change in the face of massive resistance. Martin Luther King Jr.’s line about “hewing hope from the mountains of despair” figures prominently. (It’s clear that Bolsinger has listened to his critics who suggested he address the experiences of people of color.) “Leading change,” he writes, “is disruptive. And everything within resists disruption.” He writes in a compelling manner, combining storytelling with data and filling the book with illustrations of the tempering process. Remarkably, Bolsinger participated in a blacksmithing … [Read more...]

Roger Gench Cascade Books, 144 pages Reviewed by Andrew Taylor-Troutman Roger Gench has written a lean book of spiritual substance. “The Cross Examen” is like an energy bar Gench might eat before one of his high-altitude hikes. The book is part theology, part biblical interpretation and part primer on prayer. According to Gench, the “political theology of the cross” does not valorize the suffering of Jesus (or anyone else), but “exposes public abuses of power … embodied in regimes of power.” The resurrection interprets the cross, “for God is always at work seeking life out of wounded places.” To make this point, Gench paraphrases Ernest Hemingway: “The world crucifies everyone, yet God in Christ is always active in the world seeking to bring life out of the broken places.” This political theology of the cross informs Gench’s interpretation of the fruits of the Spirit as “desperately needed virtues in a violent, polarized world.” Though familiar with Cornel West’s maxim that … [Read more...]

M. Shawn Copeland Orbis Books, 160 pages This book by a prominent womanist theologian could not be more timely for our present moment of racial and political reckoning. For Shawn Copeland, the connection between the cross of Jesus and the suffering of our world is deep and broad. She argues that theology must help us “work out the relation between the murderous crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth and the murderous crucifixion of countless poor, excluded, and despised children, women, and men whom we have impoverished, marginalized, and excluded through our power privilege, and position.” Indeed, the cross of Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of neutrality or innocence with respect to the suffering of countless people on account of racism, economic exploitation and homophobia in our communities and world. The social disorders that create oppression are not someone else’s disorder or oppression, they are ours. As she puts it, it is “our consciousness, not someone else’s, that is permeated … [Read more...]