Chris Currie Parson’s Porch, 152 pages Every Sunday, all across the world, preachers stand to proclaim a “word from the Lord” to a particular people, in a particular place, at a particular time. It’s an incredibly inefficient process, and one that various technologies and ecclesiologies may continue to challenge. But “in the meantime,” this kind of face-to-face communication is the primary means by which Christ becomes present to local congregations, week in and week out. Chris Currie is well aware that compiling a written artifact of such particular proclamations is problematic at best. It risks “removing them from the intimacy of the congregation in which they are preached” and “ripping them from the struggles a community may be facing.” A “prayerful imagination” (Eugene Petersen’s term) will be required for these printed words to come alive for the reader. Nevertheless, I think this works in this particular case. First, the congregation of First Presbyterian Church in … [Read more...]
Glimpsing Resurrection: Cancer, Trauma, and Ministry
Deanna Thompson Westminster John Knox Press, 175 pages Reviewed by Sharon K. Youngs “Cancer stories are everywhere,” writes author Deanna Thompson in the opening sentence of her latest work. One of those stories is her own. Ten years ago, Thompson was diagnosed with stage-IV breast cancer. “I went from being a healthy, active forty-two-year-old wife, mother, daughter, sister, professor, neighbor, and friend to being a virtual invalid with a life and family in crisis and a lousy prognosis for the future.” While this Lutheran professor of religion at Hamline University in Minnesota has an intimate knowledge of her subject matter, this isn’t merely Thompson’s autobiographical journey of living with cancer. She includes the stories of four individuals, also living in the “land of the ill,” whose experiences illustrate the physical toll cancer takes; how the pressure to tell “positive stories” curtails more realistic versions of what it’s like to be “undone by illness”; how cancer … [Read more...]
Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
Anne Lamott Riverhead Books, 208 pages Who doesn’t love Anne Lamott? I know there must be some, but that’s a group I would not want to be around for long. Seriously, reading Lamott is like eating comfort food when you’ve heard some dismal news, only much healthier. There is nothing quite like meatloaf with a side of mac and cheese when you are down. Likewise, when you need to hear some good news, pull Lamott off the shelf. She is so reliable that even the New York Times called her the “guru of optimism.” While that’s a fair description, it’s a bit misleading because there is more to Lamott than funny stories with a happy ending. In “Almost Everything,” she delivers plenty of the humor, yet the beauty of her humor is that she never flinches in the face of horrible human tragedy. In a chapter on death, she reveals that her mother, aunt and maternal grandmother died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Terrified at first of death, Lamott describes how hospice taught her to … [Read more...]
Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are Vanishing – and How We Can Revive Them
Jonathan Merritt Convergent Books, 256 pages Reviewed by Dana Hughes Jonathan Merritt is worried. The Christian, writer and linguist is concerned that the rich language of faith is suffering from misuse and disuse in America. As a lover of words and the Word, Merritt is troubled by how infrequently sacred language is used beyond the Sunday morning hour of worship; how ignorance, indifference and avoidance still the tongues of believers and unbelievers alike; and how the lexicon of faith is appropriated by secular ambition. In his new book, “Learning to Speak God from Scratch,” Merritt addresses these issues with passion. He is like Jeremiah with a burning fire shut up in his bones, and weary with holding it in, he unleashes it as ink. “Words are the fires we carry to each other,” he writes, “but the embers do not originate with us. They were handed to us by messengers from generations past, and now we pass them on to others.” His is an urgent plea not only to keep the fire of … [Read more...]
Catch Your Breath: God’s Invitation to Sabbath Rest
Don Postema Faith Alive, 93 pages Does a book like this ever go out of favor? I hope not (in the same way that I hope quiet classics are not forgotten). Years ago, Don Postema published a classic, “Space for God.” This book, “Catch Your Breath,” is equally a classic and draws upon the themes of “Space for God.” There is a need, indeed a necessity, for humans to rest - catch our breath - in order to know God and experience peace. That sounds so easy, and perhaps trite. The truth is that this counsel remains a necessity for our time in the same way that it has for generations upon generations. Postema devotes six chapters to Sabbath practices: mindfulness, rest, refreshment, receptivity, release and refocusing. His introduction and conclusion draw from his own experience. It will not shock anyone to say we are a people in need to deep rest. We are a people who must find creative ways to honor the Sabbath rest that God intends. Nothing about this is new. What Postema does is provide … [Read more...]
Miracles: God’s Presence and Power in Creation
Luke Timothy Johnson WJK Press, 392 pages True story: A young pastor wrote an article for the church newsletter one Easter making the point that the resurrection was the keystone of the Christian gospel. Two families declared that that was too much for them to swallow, and they hit the road. Anyone who has been on a pastoral staff knows there are others with similar sympathies who keep it to themselves. Such knowledge tempts those who preach to turn the volume down when it comes to the bolder affirmations of the gospel. Embarrassed by and recoiling from aggressive fundamentalisms, mainstream Protestants risk a theological timidity meant to calm those in the pews for whom a polite skepticism seems the best way to defend their integrity. Luke Timothy Johnson is professor of New Testament emeritus at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, and decades of observation leave him dismayed that “Christians have more or less given away the game by debating things like miracles in terms … [Read more...]
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