“I want an afterlife like my life has been: one like Revelation 7:9, a great multitude of diverse people existing together in love of each other and their Creator. It’s not up to me to say who qualifies.” – Heidi Hall, journalist and Presbyterian elder who died on September 25, 2019 (in Religion News Service) … [Read more...]
Understanding the Sacred: Sociological Theology for Contemporary People
Murray Milner Jr. Wipf & Stock, Eugene, 134 pages Reviewed by David K. Garth Explanations and antidotes for the decline of mainline church membership abound, although few of them attack the problem frontally on theological grounds. Murray Milner starts with the premise that some modern Christians have given up on church simply because they cannot believe basic doctrines. “Understanding the Sacred” is his attempt to give classical Christian doctrines – such as the Nicene Creed – the kind of understandable language current in today’s world. Three things make his effort attractive to pastors, congregations and theologians. First, he writes as an insider, a lifelong lay Christian personally committed to the church’s worship and culture. Almost incidentally, he reveals his stance as a progressive in social causes. References to God move casually between male, female and neuter. This book is neither an attack nor a replacement for the language of the last 2000 years, merely an … [Read more...]
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
Ann Voskamp Zondervan, 240 pages I was gifted the book “One Thousand Gifts,” which made its way into my vacation reading this summer. A thought-provoking read, it invites the reader to experience a life of joy. The book offers a unique perspective on gratitude as Ann Voskamp presents a practical guide to living a life of joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama and daily duties in poetic form. The book invites its readers to awaken to God’s everyday blessings as well as God’s “all-pervasive grace.” Voskamp writes from her personal journey on farming, parenting and writing. However, before she arrives at this part of her journey, she reflects on the brevity of her first name “without the flourish of an e” and its meaning – full of grace. Following the accidental death of her younger sister, she struggles with what it means to live full of grace, or to “live fully alive.” Voskamp found in the innocence of her early childhood days that she was more open to the gifts of God. … [Read more...]
The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong
Karen Gonzalez Herald Press, 200 pages Reviewed by Neil Craigan Immigration is one of the hot-button issues in the current political landscape of the United States. It is an issue that is impossible to ignore and on which everybody seems to have an opinion. What is often missing in these largely partisan debates is the recognition of the full humanity of the immigrants. In “The God Who Sees,” Karen Gonzalez reminds us that “immigrant stories always matter, because immigrants are image-bearers of God.” In this book the reader will encounter stories, not policy — but those stories will challenge the way we think about immigrants and immigration. Throughout the book Gonzalez takes on the challenges of biblical exposition, autobiography and advocacy. Gonzalez invites the reader to step into the stories of several biblical immigrants: Naomi and Ruth, Abraham, Hagar, Joseph, the Syrophoenician Woman and the Holy Family. Examining the challenges faced by these immigrants, she uses … [Read more...]
The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities
Kate Bowler Princeton University Press, 368 pages Reviewed by Jill Duffield How do women in Christian traditions where official leadership roles are denied to them exercise their gifts for ministry? Kate Bowler, best known for “Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved,” explores the fine line women in religious leadership tread both in circles where ordination is off limits and in denominations where institutional endorsement exists, but other barriers persist. Bowler examines these questions primarily through the stories of evangelical megastars past and present — women such as Tammy Faye Bakker, Beth Moore and Joyce Meyer. Through their stories, Bowler surveys the various allowable roles in which they operate and how these women navigate narrow, acceptable norms in ways that expand their influence exponentially. The book is organized around roles of “the preacher,” “the homemaker,” “the talent,” “the counselor” and “the beauty.” And while the emphasis is on … [Read more...]
Lee Hale
“People have so many reasons that they might not be walking into a church, and rarely is that reason that they don’t care at all about God or faith.” – Lee Hale, religion reporter and host of the “Preach” podcast (in Religion News) … [Read more...]
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