by Fleming Rutledge. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005. ISBN 0-8028-2786-1. Pb. 81 pp. $12.00.
One of the great traditions of the Christian Church is to take time, during Holy Week, to reflect upon the words Jesus spoke from the Cross. Sometimes this happens in a three- hour service on Good Friday, in which the combination of the crucifixion accounts in the four Gospels are read and interpreted in turn. Out of this tradition, Fleming Rutledge has created a series of mediations that are helpful for personal reading, reflection, and devotional use at any time of the year.
by N. T. Wright. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 2006. ISBN 0-8308-3398-6. Hb., 176 pp. $18.
Every pastor and every politician should read N.T. Wright's newest book, Evil and the Justice of God. It serves as both a concise explanation of what the Christian faith has to say about evil and also as a way of understanding all of the terrible things happening in the world around us.
Wright starts by discussing the problem of evil, which is not only a philosophical riddle but a terrible reality in our world today. Wright says that most of us in the West have accepted the Enlightenment myth of progress. Thus we tend to ignore evil in the world for as long as we can, and when it slaps us in the face, we respond to its existence in immature and inappropriate ways.
Theodore J. Wardlaw reviews Barbara Brown Taylor's "Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith."
by Harry S. Stout. New York: Viking, 2006. ISBN 0670034703. Hb., xxii + 552 pp. $29.95.
Wars take on their own mythologies and none more so than the American Civil War. It stands at a center of American consciousness and identity. More than 100,000 titles have been written on the conflict, in its various facets. Now Yale historian Harry S. Stout has given us a "moral history" of the Civil War, providing a unique--and disturbing--view of the years when this nation tore itself apart.
by N.T. Wright. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN 10:0-06-050715-2. Hb., 240 pp. $22.95
N.T. Wright admits, "Being a Christian in today's world is, of course, anything but simple. But there is a time for trying to say, as simply as possible, what it's all about, and this seems to me that sort of time."
Now is that sort of time, it seems to me. Some who claim that Christianity "makes sense" pare it down until the mystery is peeled away and we are left with a God whose edges are sharply drawn and whose greatest attribute is clarity. N.T. Wright is not to be confused with these voices that reduce Christianity to simplicity.
by Allen C. Guelzo, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans. Paperback edition, 2003. ISBN 0-8028-3872-3. 528 pp. $24
Lincoln has been the subject of an unending stream of biographies. Among the many good treatments of Lincoln's life and times, Guelzo's excellent biography deserves special attention because he examines Lincoln as a man of ideas. Lincoln famously wrapped his political ideas in religious themes, a trait that led many to lionize him as the "Christian president." Often forgotten, however, is that Lincoln entered politics as an enlightened skeptic (friends burned a scandalous, irreligious pamphlet "Infidelity" so it would not ruin his political career). The story of the development of Lincoln's philosophical and religious thought makes a fascinating story and Guelzo tells it well.
Good News for a Fractured Society: Matthew Speaks to Divisions of Power, Wealth, Gender, and Religious Pluralism, by Stephen McCutchan. Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2006. ISBN 1425956785. Pb., 196 pp. $15.95.
In the darkness of Christmas morn
by James E. Atwood. Victoria, B.C., Canada: Trafford. ISBN 1-4251-0004-X. Pb., 120 pp., $13.95.
Last summer, my brother gave me a book of church humor filled with lame stories every pastor has heard before: the children's sermon that involves describing a small animal ("It sounds like a squirrel, but I know you're going to tell us it's Jesus."); the man stranded on his roof during a flood who waved away the life boat and the helicopter believing "God would save him" only to be chastised at heaven's gate for refusing God's practical assistance.
You know the kinds of stories I'm talking about. Corny, schmaltzy stories with shaky theology and dated metaphors. This is not that book.
Another sign of the holidays--the Outlook book editor compiles a sampling of books that make both good gifts for Christmas and good books to get and read for yourself. Here is the 2006 list:
Resources for Year C
Luke for Everyone, by Tom Wright. WJKP, 2004. ISBN 0-664-22784-8. Pb., 320 pp. $14.95.
Wright's popular for Everyone series combines the diligence of his New Testament scholarship with his passion for preaching and teaching in the life of the church. Here Wright offers constructive expositions and useful illustrations for each section of Luke's Gospel, along with his own translation of each text.
New Proclamation Commentary on the Gospels, by Andrew Gregory, David Bartlett, Morna Hooker, and Henry Wansbrough. Fortress, 2006. ISBN 0-8006-3752-6. b., 320 pp. $35.
A one-volume commentary on the four Gospels as they are represented in the Revised Common Lectionary. The authors represent Anglican, American Baptist, Methodist, and Roman Catholic traditions.
by Randall Balmer. New York: Basic Books, 2006. ISBN 0465005195. Hb., 242 pp., $24.95.
This book will anger, frighten and give hope.
Balmer is professor of American Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University, and visiting professor at Yale Divinity School. He is also a Baptist whose evangelical credentials are impeccable. He calls his book "An Evangelical's Lament," lament because the religious right has hijacked traditional evangelicalism, and, in its lust for political clout and legitimacy, has sold its soul to the ultraconservative wing of the Republican Party. To be perfectly fair, religious liberals in the sixties and seventies did likewise, often identifying Democratic Party platforms with the promise of the kingdom of God. But that was then; this is now. Have we learned nothing?
by Jacqueline Lapsley. Louisville: WJKP, 2005. ISBN 0-664-22435-0. Pb., 154 pp. $19.95.
This exploration of four Old Testament narratives about women begins by recounting two different experiences that reflect well the difficult relationship between feminist scholarship and the church.
The first story is of Lapsley's conversation with a clergyperson who bemoans yet another book on women in the Bible! This experience speaks of a certain tiredness with respect to the topic, its redundancy given the many treatments that already exist. But it also might hint at impatience with the task of feminist scholarship and its hermeneutics of suspicion, an interpretive position that often denies the Bible's ability to speak a word of God for women's lives.
The second experience is a story about a student who admitted to throwing her Bible across the room in disgust and outrage over the sexist worldview that inhabits the Scriptures. This story reveals the importance of the feminist task but asks how God's word can be heard when the dominant voices in Scripture undermine and often harm the well being of women
What Christian books are believers reading and discussing? Publishers list their top sellers for fall 2006, both new books and continuing bestsellers.
It may seem unlikely that Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson and Rolling Stone Magazine would have much of anything in common. Sure, both are seeking to make an impact upon American culture by communicating particular messages and beliefs. But that is like saying that Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush are similar because they both desire to motivate and persuade a particular group of people.
Granted, it has been for very different reasons, but James Dobson and Rolling Stone have found at least a bit of common ground in that both recently have been at odds with the relatively new and somewhat controversial TNIV. "The TNI...what?" was the response I received most when attempting to gather thoughts and opinions from Presbyterian friends. I have to admit, upon first hearing of it, I thought the T stood for "Teen." It doesn't.
The Bible: Today's New International Version (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005).
Since the appearance of the English Revised Version in 1870, considered by many the beginning of modern English translations of the Bible, more than 150 translations (often of only the New Testament) have appeared. Many of these are forgotten private translations, although some of the "giants" are still remembered (e.g., James Moffat, E. J. Goodspeed, J. B. Phillips).
The major advance in translation by a committee was made with the appearance of the Revised Standard Version (New Testament 1946; complete Bible, 1952). The next two major moments were the publication of the New English Bible (1961; 2d ed., 1970), a British production with a very interpretive flair, and the New International Version (1973), done in part to have a "conservative" alternative to the RSV.i
After a year with the TNIV ... I have found it illuminating to do my daily readings in new Bible translations. Often I see familiar passages in fresh light because of new turns of phrase or word choices. Not long after its initial publication, I found the NIV a wonderful new rendering of our beloved Book. But over the years it has come to feel dated on several accounts -- something unavoidable when the goal is to translate into language as current as possible.
©2004 by John R. Erickson. Used by permission.
I was surprised the first time an elementary school librarian invited me to read my Hank the Cowdog stories to her children.
I knew nothing about children's literature and never dreamed that children could understand the subtle humor in a story whose main character might be summed up in a paraphrase of St. Paul: "That which I do, I should not, and that which I should not, I do--all the time." Hank, who narrates the stories, exaggerates, often tells little lies to cover his mistakes, has no self-knowledge, and ... well, isn't very smart. That's pretty subtle, and I wrote the first Hank book for adults, not children.
Six million books later--most of them purchased by or for children--it is clear that I was not a marketing genius.
by Frederick Buechner. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006. ISBN: 0-06-084248-2. Hb., 320 pp., $24.95.
Here is a noteworthy collection of sermons by one of our most celebrated Christian apologists, Frederick Buechner. Ranging from sermons delivered in the 1950s to the late 1990s, this anthology lives up to its subtitle, presenting a half-century's worth of thinking aloud about the Christian way. Buechner, who has described himself as a part-time Christian and a part-time novelist, offers the reader many windows into the oftentimes hidden world of Christian truth.
The collection begins with a sermon called "The Magnificent Defeat," concentrating upon the all-night wrestling match between Jacob and God at the ford of the Jabbok. The encounter leaves Jacob crippled and helpless but, as Buechner describes it, in the end Jacob sees "something more terrible than the face of death--the face of love." (p. 7). Thanks to Buechner's vantage point, one can share a sense of authentic surprise the original Phillips Exeter Academy student-congregation must have felt at hearing the news that out of defeat can come blessing.
by William Stacy Johnson. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. ISBN 0-8028-2966-X. Hb., 320 pp. $25.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. ... William Stacy Johnson believes that it is time: to address the issue of same-gender unions as a society and church and to lend his reasoned voice to the discussion. In A Time to Embrace he offers a well-documented, cogent argument in support of a welcoming and affirming posture toward persons in exclusively committed same-gender relationships. In so doing he traverses the terrain of religion, law, and politics, carefully reviewing where we have been, analyzing where we are, and setting forth a path for where we might go faithfully into the future. He limits his affirmation to those in committed, monogamous, egalitarian, same-gender relationships, for it is in these unions that he finds not only the possibility for compassionate support, but also the responsibility for faithful action.
Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action by David Ray Griffin. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. ISBN 0-664-23117-9. Pb., 246 pp. $17.95.
reviewed by Christian T. Iosso
What does a rationalist do when so many irrational things are happening?
As David Ray Griffin summarizes them, we have a global warming crisis, continued nuclear proliferation, massive death by preventable poverty and growing social inequality in the United States, still the world's most militarily powerful nation and hence the most responsible for these trends. But why does the US government focus about 58% of our federal budget--inclusively calculated--on a unilateral militarism that alienates most of the world and blocks social progress? The reason given is the "war on terror," and the defining moment of that continues to be 9/11.
by Fred Lehr. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8006-3763-1. Pb., 147 pp. $18.
On a recent day, three committees of the presbytery I serve met at the same time. As meetings broke up, the young woman on the Committee on Representation and I headed down to my office to get information about college scholarships for her. On the way we were stopped at least five times by people who just wanted to say a word to the presbytery executive. Finally, when we were alone, as I apologized for the delay, she, a preacher's daughter like me, said, "Oh, Paige, it's fine, really. It was just like being with my dad after church. I know how it is. We have learned to wait 'til we get home if we need his attention for something."
It was an instant bond between us, two women forty years apart in age who realized instantly that we had grown up to love the Presbyterian Church and our fathers, patiently waiting our turn while they served the flock.
by Charles R. Lane, Augsburg Fortress, 2006 ISBN 0-8066-5263-2 Pb. 128 pp. $11.99
It has long been my contention that, with very few exceptions, stewardship is the aspect of church life most neglected. Ask, Thank, Tell is one more welcomed book on the subject.
Charles Lane, Director for Stewardship Key Leaders in the Lutheran Church of America, brings to the table pastoral experience and a fervent desire to teach stewardship through faith commitment. The author clearly believes and states that stewardship begins with one's relationship with Jesus Christ, but then proceeds to present an open, honest conversation about money.
by Charles Denison. Atlanta: Chalice Press, 2005. ISBN 0827223293. Pb., 114 pp., $15.99.
Have you taken time lately to browse through the magazine section of your local Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstores? Gone are the days when a few magazines -- Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated -- dominated the racks.
Now you find literally hundreds of titles, each appealing to a narrow segment of the magazine reading audience, e.g. Cigar Aficionado, American Ceramics, Ad Busters.
Through his book Mainline Manifesto: The Inevitable New Church, Charles Denison wants us to understand that the American cultural landscape is similarly fractured and that our evangelism (and especially our new church development) needs to take account of that reality.
edited by Patricia Lloyd-Sidle. Louisville: Geneva Press, 2006. ISBN 0-664-50287-3. Pb., 165 pp. $19.95.
Celebrating Our Call: Ordination Stories of Presbyterian Women should be required reading for all Presbyterians. Fourteen of our denomination's most visible and successful women in ministry share their highly personal and deeply felt experiences of God's call to serve the church. Gifted, passionate, and articulate--these women speak with joy about their various callings to parish ministry, to mission, and to academia. They are the voices of pastors and seminary presidents, denominational leaders and theologians, educators and ecumenists who speak from their perspectives as Caucasian, Korean, African-American, and Hispanic women.
Outlook Book Editor Randy Harris has asked several Presbyterians to select books for challenging and enjoyable reading during summer work and vacation times.
North Como Presbyterian Church, Roseville, Minnesota. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-595-34155-1. Pb., 588 pp., $46.95.
Congratulations to North Como Church for producing the most massive and comprehensive resource to date on the battle over ordination standards in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It is almost beyond comprehension that a congregational task force put together the massive, Ordination Standards: Biblical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. I am sure the process of working systematically through the many complex issues was rewarding for the Task Force and for the entire congregation. That their work is now available to the whole church is a gift, but it is a gift that must be received cautiously.
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