James. E. Atwood  Cascade Books, 224 pages Reviewed by Walter Owensby “Gundamentalism” is not a dispassionate summary of the issues of guns in American life. It is a moral and theological critique of a society that seems out of touch with reality on this matter and is politically deaf to the will of the great majority of Americans – including most gun owners – for reasonable laws that respect responsible gun use while limiting the human damage of today’s powerful weapons. The author, a retired Presbyterian minister and an avid outdoors sportsman and hunter, came to embrace guns as a public policy concern by way of having to pray too often at the bedsides and gravesides of the victims of gun violence. This is a book filled with engaging stories and data that preachers, teachers and discussion leaders will find invaluable in illuminating how guns affect a broad range of social and community issues. But most of all, it is a book for ordinary people who cannot … [Read more...]

  Frances M. Young Cascade Books, 141 pages One of the most brilliant living theologians – and least known to Americans – is British writer Frances M. Young. For decades she has been writing significant theology that explores how to understand and embrace the cross of Jesus without being locked into narrow atonement categories. In this book she continues that work, going deeply into biblical and patristic sources that pre-date “theories” of the atonement. The result is a construal of the cross that reveals life at the very heart of the instrument of death. Young describes her theological work here as theōria, “a kind of insight or spiritual discernment that comes through imaginative engagement or storytelling, rather than literalizing exegesis; through liturgy and living, rather than legal transaction; through poetry and preaching, rather than rationalistic system.” This method frees her to see the Passover meal as the original way early Christians understood the sacrifice … [Read more...]

Marney Ault Wasserman Wipf & Stock, Eugene Ore. 120 pages Reviewed by Chip Andrus It is not often that a resource comes our way that can be commended for every church regardless of size, demographic, denomination, theological worldview or any other category we use to describe communities of faith. Marney Wasserman has given the church a tremendous gift in “Companions.” I recommend that every church keep multiple copies of this book on hand. Rarely do we find resources that are so adaptable to every context. It offers a spiritual, theological and biblical grounding that gives a solid foundation for the rich encounter of conversation and prayer to emerge. Many of us are familiar with “new member classes” or other information-centered ways of engaging people who are interested in joining the church. These programs abound, and in a culture of anxiety over church growth they seem to be intentionally or unintentionally driven to one end: church growth, meaning more … [Read more...]