Dean K. Thompson and D. Cameron Murchison, editors Eerdmans Publishing, 240 pages Reviewed by Heath K. Rada Run, don’t walk, to purchase your copy of this new book. Outstanding theological leaders Dean Thompson and Cam Murchison have assembled material from some of the most respected and competent mentors known to religious leaders today. This book has the potential to be a classic in its field, and fills a major void in studies of faithful mentoring. The various mentoring perspectives throughout this book will appeal to many mainline Protestant groups, their pastors and laity, evangelical pastors and laity, Roman Catholic clergy and laity, seminarians and their professors, youth and young adult advocates. But it also has significant information and foundational data related to African-American and Hispanic/Latino/a groups, advocates of women’s equality concerns, as well as a range of readers concerned about social and cultural criticism, ethics, theology, biblical studies, … [Read more...]
Days and Times: Poems from the Liturgy of Living
Paul K. Hooker Resource Publications, 88 pages Reviewed by Dana Hughes Of all the poets alive or dead, Paul Hooker is by far and away my favorite. I’ve known the author for many years as a gifted preacher and teacher who reads Scripture in every ancient tongue and speaks its truth in today’s vernacular. That skill alone would seem enough for one person, but not so for Hooker. As it turns out, he’s also a poet — but not the sort of poet who dribbles thoughts across a page in order to exorcise some inky demon. Hooker is a poet with a fire in his bones who pulls threads from the ancient texts and weaves them through the warp and weft of faith and doubt, experience and observation, certainty and supposition. The results are at once lovely and arresting, inviting the reader to grasp the whole and then zoom in for a closer view of the individual fibers in all their astonishing complexity. Hooker’s style is eclectic; on one page he plays with traditional poetic formulae just because … [Read more...]
Our God Loves Justice: An Introduction to Helmut Gollwitzer
W. Travis McMaken Fortress Press, 240 pages Reviewed by Kenneth E. Kovacs Thirty years ago, one of the assigned texts for Theology 101 at Princeton Seminary was “An Introduction to Protestant Theology” by Helmut Gollwitzer. It was the only text I read by him and I never learned anything more about him. It’s only now that I realize we were reading one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century. W. Travis McMaken aims to revitalize Gollwitzer’s legacy. McMaken believes that Gollwitzer’s challenging theological voice still has much to say to the church in North America, especially to white Christians in the United States who need to relinquish their privilege for the sake of the gospel. Gollwitzer (1908-1993) began his theological studies in 1928. He earned his doctorate under Karl Barth, becoming one of Barth’s most significant students. Gollwitzer was a prophetic pastor-preacher in the Confessing Church resistance movement. He served as assistant pastor … [Read more...]
Denial is My Spiritual Practice (And Other Failures of Faith)
Rachel G. Hackenberg and Martha Spong Church Publishing, 144 pages Reviewed by Jennifer Burns Lewis In her book, “The Gift of Imperfection,” sociologist and TED Talk star Brené Brown wrote: “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy — the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” There is little denial in “Denial is My Spiritual Practice,” but the authors confess their capacity to deny themselves their human tendencies to doubt, despair and grace. In so doing, Rachel Hackenberg and Martha Spong offer a window into their vulnerability as women of faith, daughters, mothers, spouses, members of religious communities and as children of God — and invite us to identify our own capacities to put space between … [Read more...]
Fall books: Briefly noted
Being Human Rowan Williams Eerdmans, 112 pages Rowan Williams’ recent small books “Being Christian” and “Becoming Disciples” have been helpful in describing foundational Christian belief and practice. Here, Williams turns his attention to what makes us human and how we can sustain what is humane when it is being increasingly threatened. Taken with the other two, it makes a trilogy worth reading together. By the author’s admission, these essays are perhaps more intellectually challenging. Yet they are worth the effort. As Williams says, “Unless we have a coherent model of what sort of humanity we want to nurture in our society, we shall continue to be at sea over how we teach, how we vote … how we think about the beginning and end of life.” It concludes with a sermon on the ascension of Jesus. Anxious to Talk About It Carolyn B. Helsel Chalice Press, 128 pages Helsel wants ordinary white folks to engage the conversation about race in a way that propels them forward into … [Read more...]
Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ
Fleming Rutledge Eerdmans, 426 pages Fleming Rutledge has gathered from her repertoire of (mostly) unpublished materials a number of sermons and writings to help others who preach to understand and grapple with the rich themes of Advent, often passed over lightly. Rutledge is not fussing about the way Christmas seems to have seized Advent and misshapen it so that it matches the secular holiday that begins before Halloween. She is concerned that the Advent themes are too central to the gospel to be easily surrendered in an annual rising tide of sentimentalism. Mainline Protestant churches, acutely uncomfortable with the apocalyptic, have tended to avert their eyes from it, leaving it to fundamentalists, who have seemed overly fond of literal interpretations that favor themes of punishment for a huge cast of characters that probably includes us. Only recently have some mainliners begun to appreciate that God’s project is not a matter of getting to heaven one at a time, but a far … [Read more...]
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