January 2004 Bookshelf
C.S. Lewis’ Reflections on the Psalms, The Geography of Thought, some liberal smash-mouth irreverant political works, The Story We Find Ourselves In, Mudhouse Sabbath, Practicing the Presence of God and others in the January 2004 Bookshelf.
Reflection on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis has grown to become one of my favorite authors over the last twelve months. I find his perspectives on spirituality constantly refreshing, insightful and genuinely inspiring. I love the fact that, despite being seen by many as being “wooly around the edges,” he seemed to never lose his willingness to be candid or to challenge himself and others to live by the hardest parts of the Scriptures. This book is a small collection of his thoughts on the Psalms. My favorite sections were those on “The Cursings,” “Death in the Psalms,” and “The Fair Beauty of the Lord.”
In “The Cursings” Lewis asks himself to first recognize that their attitude is wrong, but to contemplate from where do such strong feelings come from? He puts himself in the shoes of the wronged and sees their anger, not as justifiable, but as understandable. In that understanding comes his recognition that these deep feelings of anger and hatred have been born in others because of things he himself has done to them. What an interesting perspective!
“Death in the Psalms” is a fascinating, if brief, discussion on how the Hebraic mind viewed death and the afterlife. For those amateur theologians, you may know that some people struggle with how little is said of the soul by the Jews in the Old Testament. Scholars debate whether the idea of an immortal soul is an originally Greek or Hebraic idea; most believe it is Greek in origination. I found it interesting that our soul, the need to believe in not just our own mortality but the type of existence we will have, is a very Western and Greek idea. The Hebraic mind, as shown in its most contemplative of moods here in the Psalms, is not so consumed with this idea of soul. It seems more willing to let questions of such specificity be left to God. The primary importance of any discussion on the afterlife in the Psalms is relational. Lewis says: “It is even arguable that the moment ‘Heaven’ ceases to mean union with God and ‘Hell’ to mean separation from Him, the belief in either is a mischievous superstition; for then we have, on the one hand, a merely ‘compensatory’ belief (a ‘sequel’ to life’s sad story, in which everything will ‘come all right’) and, on the other, a nightmare which drives men into asylums or makes them persecutors.”
The last section of the book that I truly enjoyed was “The Fair Beauty of the Lord.” A brief section from it follows: “He had never heard of music, or festivity, or agriculture as things separate from religion, nor of religion as something separate from them. Life was one.” What an incredible insight into the connections between Hebraic faith and Hebraic culture! No wonder that to this day, the idea of being Jewish but not practicing your faith causes so many to struggle so much! Their culture is so connected to their belief about God that to have one without the other robs either of its depth, its richness and its true value.
The Geography of Thought by Richard Nisbett
I had the pleasure of reading Dr. Nisbett’s book at the same time I was reading C.S. Lewis’ commentary on the Psalms. I found some interesting synergies between the two books. C.S. Lewis is commenting on a work of eastern antiquity - insights into the mind of the ancient Hebrew mind. Nisbett is commenting on the pattern of thought unique to eastern and western cultures. C.S. Lewis in one chapter says: “The Jews were not, like the Greeks, an analytical and logical people; indeed, except the Greeks, no ancient people were.” Dr. Nisbett’s book is a straight forward read and is a must-read for anyone in business, statesmanship, politics or even theology who wishes to understand the differences between the two cultures. This book impacted me such that a more complete review of it has been posted here.
Dude, Where’s My Country? by Michael Moore
Michael’s current emotional construct is very familiar to me: it reminds me of the anger and hate I saw during my active years within the Republican Party, those years that marked the unique animus that evolved during the Clinton administration. At his best moments (which I would suggest are Downsize This and Stupid White Men) he is brilliantly funny - the type of humor that only a very gifted mind can generate. His humor is wedded very closely to his sense that the “average Joe” is not looked out for by big business or big government. At his worst moments, Michael has given up that which makes him insightful; he has given up his humor at the alter of anger and vitriol. In this book it comes across pretty obviously that he simply put, hates President Bush. Perhaps somewhere he has addressed the impression of “hate” he leaves his readers with; but I could not agree with him downplaying the anger his writing reeks of.
All of this having been said, I have to admit to sharing much of Michael’s frustration. I too am a frustrated American; frustrated with Republicans and with Democrats. I feel they both are captive to special interests - different kinds - yes, but still special interests who seek to marginalize my vote and maximize their power. Where once Michael humorously captured my questions, my frustrations and what I saw as meaningful inconsistencies, he has now jumped onto a bandwagon of anger. There are some things in this life that are worth hating: this current political administration is not one of them. I just can not give in to the anger Michael writes with. This was not his best work, and I hope he can step back from the brink of anger to embrace his quirky insight and the work many of us love seeing from him.
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Al is a great comedian. He is a great satire writer and this book was a number one NY Times bestseller for a reason. It is written with crushing insight and biting satire. I honestly would not recommend this to a conservative friend because it is written with sufficient insight as to be provocative beyond the point of humor. Where people mistake Al for only being a comedian, they should attempt and deconstruct his lines of reasoning. They are rarely one-dimensional and typically marked by well reasoned debate that hides within his wit and humor.
Within his book is a chapter of comics called “The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus.” This is one of the most damning and provocative pieces of religious satire I have ever read. He captures in a cartoon the perception of many in the world that conservative politics (think not just moral issues, but economic ones as well) have become so intertwined with religion that one can not be both religious (I believe he would agree with me that the right word is “spiritual”) and political. It is a damning argument and one that is appropriate for too much of the political dialogue in America.
Smoke on the Mountain by Joy Davidman
Joy Davidman was C.S. Lewis’ wife late in both of their lives. She had been previously married but he had not. The love they felt for each other is obvious in his writing, in particular his grief after her death, a grief he so eloquently articulated in his book A Grief Observed. It is not difficult to see what C.S. Lewis lost when Joy parted this world: her mind as shared with us in this book was a gift of God. This book is not fun to read. Is it a unique, refreshing and updated look at the Ten Commandments? Yes. But do not be misled to assume that with this nuanced perspective she sacrifices the immediacy of the Ten Commandments. If anything, her arguments require more action - not less.
In her book, Joy walks a fine line between Christian liberty and Christian legalism. She seems to write with a pronounced ability to see both sides of the issues. Her words speak best to how she easily addresses both sides of the Christian life:
“Why do we so make war upon the gifts of God? We may guess at our own motives: the despair that hates other men’s hope, the love-lessness that would deny other men love, the plain vulgar envy and malice that can’t bear to see other men happy. For self-denial, there is a philosophical justification - only when duty is unpleasant can we be sure that we’re doing it for its own sake and not out of selfishness … One fact must be faced honestly by all true Christians: an impulse to spoil others’ fun comes straight from the devil.” (Emphasis mine - page 56).
“For the only way to get rid of a sin is to admit it. Without honesty, repentance and forgiveness and grace are not possible. Nowadays the conviction of sin is widely misunderstood - secularists pity Christians, whom they picture as men bowed to the ground under an enormous burden of self-condemnation, men who go around all he time feeling guilty. Actually, of course, as anyone who has experienced conversion knows, the Christian is the only man who does not go around all the time feeling guilty. For him, sin is a burden he can lay down; he can admit, repent, and be forgiven. It is the unfortunate creature who denies the existence of sin in general, or his own in particular, who must go on carrying it forever.” (Emphasis the author’s - page 113)
Joy’s last quote reminds me of what I have read from George G. Hunter III as to Saint Patrick’s view of his past sin. Saint Patrick acknowledged his guilt before God, laid it at His feet, and went on living his life, always in remembrance of the act of forgiveness, not of the sin. What a wonderful book, and what a wonderful and refreshing insight into how to make the Ten Commandments come alive and gain depth and dimension in this day and age.
Fermat’s Last Theorem by Amir D. Aczel
This book was a challenge to me. The author, a mathematician of his own rite, sets out to write the story of a seemingly improvable mathematical theorem (Fermat’s Theorem - which states that xn + Yn = zn has no whole number solution when n is greater than 2). This theorem has been unsolved for several hundred years. Having been recently solved, I hoped the story of its solution would be interesting - I did not find the story behind the theorem itself, or its recent solution, particularly enjoyable.
A Christian book on masturbation … yep, you read that right. This is a great book for parents who have teenagers beginning their odyssey of sexual development. The book frees people from the historical position of the church in the sense that it gets beyond Onanism (masturbation in whatever form is wrong because of Onan spilling his seed) and into issues of lust. Steve argues that masturbation is an appropriate issue to discuss as a wisdom issue with teenagers as it will provide them with a reasonable outlet to sexual tension. I found his line of reasoning well developed and, to the extent that the logic can be used in other gray areas (what he calls “wisdom” issues), his reasoning is worth internalizing.
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
I think I can summarize this book by citing two sub-chapters: your French fries taste good because they are fried in beef flavored tallow and your beef tastes good because it has shit in it. OK, maybe that isn’t why the hamburger tastes good, but the burgers are too-often times polluted! Since I read this book I have not eaten one fast food meal (which my wife is thankful for but my tailor is angry about). I fear that the ramifications of what Eric is writing about go beyond the simple discussion of our fast food culture.
What he describes in the labor violations, the reach of technology into areas where it can no longer be seen only positively - without consequences - the unwillingness of large corporations to allow their smaller partners (in this case farmers and meat packers) to be profitable; all of these are symptomatic of where the international economy already is. Schlosser could well have changed industries and written about retail, only to have argued that what McDonald’s is to the cattle rancher, Wal-Mart is to the family-owned consumer product manufacturing firm.
Living at the Edge of the World by Tina S. and Jamie Pastor Bolnick
This book took me a bit to get into, not because the story was un-interesting, but because Tina S. (the homeless girl who contributes to the writing and whose life made the book possible) has such a chaotic life and as a result of this chaos, writes in a chaotic fashion. Her writing and story seem to smooth out about a third of the way through the book. After she settles down, the book becomes more readable. As Tina begins to pull herself out of the life she had within the homeless community in New York City, her story takes on several dimensions. You see her honestly not understanding the lessons the shelters are trying to teach her. She is given rules, but does not understand why they exist. While she tries to live by them, ultimately she breaks them until she figures out why they are put into place. She has to be given several chances and makes multiple regressions back into the world she has known so well. Ultimately she breaks free and begins building her own life. This book is worth reading, it is worth dwelling on, and it should color how we view the challenges of homeless people becoming a productive part of society. She was not psychotic, she was not even incredibly angry at the world, she was just lost. How many people have I known that have been confused and lost? Is their regression from reality partly due to my unwillingness to get dirty and embrace their uniqueness, to look past their struggles and help them get better?
The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian McLaren
This book is an excellent addition to McLaren’s A New Kind of Christian. I did not find this book as insightful as his first book - not because it was not well done, but because I felt like it re-addressed the topics he touched on in the first book. His first book is probably one of the most formative books in my Christian life I have ever read. I do not believe I would be a Christian in the coming years were I not to have been exposed to McLaren’s writing. Once I grasped his position on post-modernity and another way of living the Christian life in the first book, I felt I had been reborn. This book did not entice me in the same way. This book discusses evolution and is set within one character’s life coming to an end. It is well written, very easy to read, and insightful. Just not as insightful as his first book from this series!
Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren F. Winner
Lauren is a Christian who is attempting to integrate her Christianity with her Jewish roots. This book goes through various Jewish practices that she has introduced into her spiritual disciplines. It is encouraging to see how God can be experienced across cultures (perhaps even across faiths?). I am thinking about incorporating certain practices she writes about as a way of honoring those whose past disciplines have fostered life-long commitments to Christ. There is a depth to her faith that is missing in the Protestant “work” view of worship. There is mystery in her writing and in her enjoyment of the presence of God.
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
Books do not come more simple and yet more profound than this book. Something that is almost more a pamphlet than it is a book has truth within that is profound. Can you be with God only in moments of solitude, in stolen moments of quiet in your morning devotions? Or can you experience God in all moments of the day, regardless of what you do? Can you, as Brother Lawrence could, experience God profoundly in the washing of dishes, the cleaning of a kitchen? Have you secularized your world, carving out only those moments of solitude as being God-moments? If so, you will be struck at the profound simplicity in how Brother Lawrence practices being in the presence of God.
The Search for Significance by Robert S. McGee
This book was recommended to me as an insight into how our view of our fathers is carried over into our view of God. I did not find that to be the case. If so, it was not an in-depth analysis of this relationship. I would suggest the book Attachments as a more profound, even Trinitarian, insight into how our psyche is impacted by missing or improperly formed relationships with our parents. We are built for relationships and when relationships are damaged so too are the parts of our lives that rely on solid relationships to fully and properly develop.
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“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
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