W. David O. Taylor Eerdmans, 312 pages Reviewed by Kristin Stroble As a solo pastor of a traditional congregation, I spend a great deal of time shaping worship that honors our identity and tradition while also being inclusive, participatory and spiritually rich. What a surprise and delight to read David Taylor’s book which speaks of the power of the liturgical arts to form identity in a particular context and to open up and close down “possibilities for the formation of a human life in the particular context of corporate worship.” I own many books that give practical suggestions on the use of liturgical arts in worship. My shelves are filled with books of poetry, hymns, visual arts, multicultural liturgy and other worship resources. “Glimpses of the New Creation” provides a much needed basis for how the arts shape us and our congregations, as well as a theological understanding of the liturgical arts. He begins by defining worship and the arts before delving individually into … [Read more...]
The Courage to See: Daily Inspiration from Great Literature
Greg Garrett and Sabrina Fountain WJK Press, 376 pages How I love this new book! Let me count the ways. I could be begin with the luminous essay by Sabrina Fountain in the foreword that sets the deep purpose for this collection. There she describes her own love for books that provide more than solace and more than inspiration. They are more like the ground on which we stand. Fountain says something I understand: “I have a deep reverence for books and still find them profoundly comforting as physical objects.” This book is about the content within great literature that sustains the mind and heart throughout a lifetime. That, too, is what I love. She and co-author Greg Garrett have gathered a wide array of voices from literature across the centuries. It’s obvious the care that has gone into the selection. The title itself comes from a line said by preacher John Ames in “Gilead,” the now classic by Marilynne Robinson. As if literature were not enough, the authors have … [Read more...]
Preaching from the Old Testament
Walter Brueggemann Fortress Press, 196 pages Reviewed by Paul Rowland Jr. “Have you ever seen workers in the street lift off a manhole cover?” asked a gifted preacher friend. They move around the cover with a prying tool, searching for a point of purchase that will enable them to lift the cover, and that, my friend said, “is what I do each week in writing a sermon.” The manhole he tries to access each week, as with many pastors, is frequently from the Gospels and rarely from the Old Testament. Like their congregants, many preachers find “Old” off-putting and “New” attractive. Some complain that they find the Old Testament “so judgmental” though, as Working Preacher’s Presbyterian contributor, Matt Skinner, has often pointed out: Anyone who doesn’t believe the New Testament doesn’t include judgment or that the Old Testament doesn’t include grace, hasn’t read either closely enough. Though the lectionary suggests both a psalm and another Old Testament text each Sunday, many … [Read more...]
Making a Scene in the Pulpit: Vivid Preaching for Visual Listeners
Alyce M. McKenzie Westminster John Knox Press, 226 pages Reviewed by Layton E. Williams Alyce M. McKenzie begins her new book, “Making a Scene in the Pulpit,” by pointing out the profound impact of preaching that makes use of powerful imagery and story. I know what she means. So much of my faith in childhood and young adulthood was shaped by the vivid sermons of my church’s senior pastor, who was an excellent storyteller. In fact, when people ask about when I first felt called to ministry, I tell them about a sermon my pastor preached on the transformation of each disciple after they encountered the resurrected Christ. The pictures he painted were so compelling that I wanted to climb inside of them and live such a life of dedicated faith. Though McKenzie heartily acknowledges the power of vivid story and narrative preaching – especially as defined by the New Homiletic movement that dominated American preaching for the last quarter of the 20th century – she also agrees with … [Read more...]
Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Times
Catherine Meeks and Nibs Stroupe Church Publishing Incorporated, 160 pages Reviewed by Cynthia A. Jarvis If you read “Passionate for Justice,” you will find yourself included in the growing number of people who, like the authors, are passionate about Ida B. Wells. Wells was born into slavery in Mississippi. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed when she was 13, the last significant piece of civil rights legislation enacted by Congress until Congress outlawed the segregation of public accommodations in 1957. In 1883, when Wells was 21, the Supreme Court ruled the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. One year later (and 71 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery), Ida B. Wells refused to vacate her seat in the women’s car of a train leaving Memphis for a seat in the car reserved for black passengers. After biting the hand of the conductor when he tried to remove her, she continued to resist. It took three men to get her off the train. Her … [Read more...]
The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
Toni Morrison Alfred P. Knopf, 368 pages Reviewed by J. Stephen Rhodes Toni Morrison’s death leaves the United States bereft of a distinctive prophetic voice, for she engaged her readers with a remarkable blend of truth telling, nuance, artfulness and compassion that is currently in short supply in the public arena. In this, her last published book, she has assembled a collection of essays, lectures, speeches and meditations that forms an apologia for her life’s work, as well as a challenge to readers to engage with the world in all of its immediacies and complexities, tragedies and joys. She makes it clear that the kind of writing she undertakes seeks to unsettle, call into question and demand a deeper look: “Writers can disturb the social oppression that functions like a coma on the population, a coma that despots call peace … [because] truth is trouble. It is trouble for the warmonger, the torturer, the corporate thief, the political hack, the corrupt justice system, and for … [Read more...]
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