MysteriousFaith

January 2004 Bookshelf

Given an extended business trip in Asia, I had the opportunity to work through a large list of excellent reads. Some challenging material from Cass Sunstein, John Hick and NT Wright as well as some additional research on homosexuality.

January 2005 Bookshelf

When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Choices Today by Harvey Cox

In this book Professor Cox presents an answer to the interesting question of what Jesus means to today’s college students. Yes, his perspective is limited to the students he has taught at Harvard; however, the breadth of beliefs and cultures represented in his classes is worth reflecting on. What remains amazing about Jesus is how he resonates through the ages.

America Alone: the Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order by Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke

This is the most thoughtful critique of the Bush administration’s foreign policy I have read yet. Written by two former members of President Reagan’s foreign policy team, these two Republicans represent a voice that perhaps conservatives are willing to listen to. Both wholly avoid the isolationism of Pat Buchanan, arguing instead that the Bush administration’s policies ultimately will do more to destabilize the world than most appreciate today.

The Battle of Salamis: the Naval Encounter that Saved Greece — and Western Civilization by Barry Strauss

Did Salamis truly save Western civilization? Probably not a question best answered by historians, rather soothsayers. None the less, Salamis was a critical battle that allowed the fledgling democratic city-state of Athens to rise up and claim its rightful place as the first functioning democracy. Today’s politicians would do well to recall the lessons history holds for democracies as evidenced by Athen’s own foreign policy and domestic difficulties.

Terror in the Mind of God: the Global Rise of Religious Violence (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society, 13) by Mark Juergensmeyer

Juergensmeyer’s book is perhaps the defining work on the role religion plays in acts of terrorism. The complication to understanding the motives of religious terrorism is understanding what part of their underlying motivation is based on simple hate and what part (if any) is based on genuine religious idealism. Juergensmeyer argues that while it is not fair to judge all religion by the most extreme elements, it is inappropriate to entirely set aside the role their religious values do play. Juergensmeyer’s critique is complicated if for no other reason than his analysis may be perceived by others as being unique to religion. I do not believe he argues for this uniqueness; however, it is important we all remember that religion at its extreme is no more dangerous than a love affair with secularism or humanism. Taken to an extreme, almost any ideology destroys dissent and ends up with brittle claims of absolute truth that require making others believe as you do.

Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit by Clark Pinnock

Pinnock, a theologian I deeply admire, has written what most people consider to be his best work in Flame of Love. The book serves as an explanation of who the Holy Spirit is and what its role is in the life of a Christian. I have to say I was under-whelmed by the book. I freely admit that I had just finished John Hick’s The Metaphor of God Incarnate and may have been unnecessarily antagonistic towards Pinnock’s book. None-the-less, parts of the book leave me mystified: “Belief in the Trinity is even rational to a degree. Unity is a relatively simple notion in mathematics, but not simple elsewhere. For example, it is not simple in ‘single’ organisms, which are highly complex. The higher the entity, the more complex unity seems to be. Think of unity as a work of art. Unity is not a simple idea. Unity can admit of great complexity. Why expect divine unity to lack complexity? Trinity is a mystery, but it is not an irrationality. It epitomizes the complexity in unity that we find in experience.” My problem with this (other than its seemingly endless circuitous logic)? The complexity in unity he posits seeing in nature is explainable, whereas the unity he is attempting to argue for is not. I am unsatisfied with the explanations in this book, even though I do recognize the underlying reality that I can not know all that is of God or is God.

God is Not: Religious, One of Us, an American, a Capitalist by D. Brent Laytham et. Al.

A collection of essays, this book frustrated me. I appreciated the over-all tenor the book was written in, arguing that we need to stop making God into our image, and yet I found some of the statements by the authors to be frustratingly one-dimensional. As an example, D. Stephen Long asks the question of whether or not “God is Nice.” Here we see the limits of human language as Long first engages what we mean by this word; however, here is how he ends his essay: “We are knit to God by and through God’s kindness, even though God is not knit to us.” Long sacrifices a lot that is within the concept of God’s love over his desire that God be more doctrinally pure and theologically sound. I wonder how we can rise above fundamentalism if people like Long are seen as progressive. This is no answer, and this does not help. It adds to the idea of a God who can take us or leave us. Ultimately, that changes the idea of how and why God loves us dramatically, leaving many outside the fold.

Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright

This work needs the mind of a seminarian to fully appreciate. I am not a seminarian and as such, seek to limit my comments of this seminal work. Wright’s The Victory of God series is today’s leading edge orthodox evangelical manuscript. Wright places Jesus and his teachings firmly in the mind of a first-century Jew, arguing for fresh perspectives on his teachings once they are understood as they would have been heard by people of this age. Foremost among Wright’s argument is that the kingdom Jesus advocated was wholly non-political, and that his apocalyptic warnings were for the ears of the Jews - teaching them that rebellion against Rome was folly and unworthy of a people called to follow God. In finishing this book I had a lagging concern: what lasts is simple beauty. If truth is hidden within ideas of enormous complexity, time and practice will strip away the complexity and reduce truths to simple discernable ideas. I wonder if Wright’s Jesus requires a system so complex that it only further confuses seekers. I look forward to reading other books Wright has written that present his thesis less academically and more approachably.

The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible by James L. Kugel

I have heard many sermons taught by well-educated preachers whose insight comes from folding into the text the history and culture of the day. In the Old Testament, the typical exposition struggles to incorporate the question of how the culture of the Middle East in general impacted the Jews specifically; most expository teaching goes in the other direction - how Israel impacted the world around it. Kugel’s book is one of the very gracious and thorough treatments of the Hebrew Bible as seen from their own story and the influence of cultures around them. The difficulty in Kugel’s analysis is that one will have to incorporate this external influence into the development of the Jewish faith, a struggle that may ultimately alter what we can call absolute truth.

The Metaphor of God Incarnate: Christology in a Pluralistic Age by John Hick

I am not prepared to argue, as does the author of this book, that Christ was not divine. I have many more miles to walk in that journey and suspect I may never be able to say definitively. My current questioning means that I am willing to ask questions where previously I was not willing to; however, the danger here is that I may respond to these questions simply by reacting and not reasoning. No doubt some truth did exist in how I was raised - it is critical that I not dismiss everything simply because it represents my past.

Why Societies Need Dissent: (Oliver Wendell Holmes Lectures) by Cass R. Sunstein

This is one of the most profitable books I have read in the last twelve months. Sunstein develops the idea that dissent is critically important in the development of a healthy and productive society. Sunstein develops three concepts that explain how large groups of people develop group movement: conformity, social cascades, and group polarization. The argument behind social cascades has a role to play in the development or theology as it suggests we have to recognize how belief develops by the interplay of real events and cultural extrapolation.

Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke

How you read this book is highly dependent on how you view the Bush administration. Clarke’s book is best seen as a treatise on how the US government attempted to manage - through successive presidents - the challenge of terrorism without dedicating serious time and attention to this threat. Clarke’s contribution to the Iraqi debate is two-fold: he is another voice inside the administration that presents evidence of the Bush administration’s attempts to illegitimately tie together 9/11 and Saddam Hussein, and Clarke is another presents the overt politicization of the intelligence gathering process as led by Vice President Cheney.

The Burning Tigris: the Armenian Genocide and America’s Response by Peter Balakian

A powerful if not damning history of the Turkish attempt to obliterate the Armenian people. This book led me to struggle again with the morality of the Canaanite genocide.

Walking the Bible: a Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses by Bruce S. Feiler

What a beautiful book! Written by a Jewish man who returns to the Middle East with the company of an Israeli archeologist, the author traces the stories of the Pentateuch. As Bruce connects to his past through the land he feels his soul being reawakened. Part travel memoir, part history, part personal spiritual diary, this book is well worth the time.

Orientalism by Edward W. Said

Said’s plea is to allow Middle East cultures to tell their own stories and to stop speaking for them. Orientalism as a concept means, to Said, the artificial and somewhat condescending presentation of Oriental culture by people with heavy bias. For most of us, any sense of personal or cultural prejudice is largely historical. We look backwards and realize how wrong our personal, familial or cultural attitudes were towards a particular group of people. Too few of us are willing to draw into today what these lessons of the past would teach us, content rather to enjoy the sense that we are somehow better today than yesterday, not whether or not we are right. Said’s book paints a picture of the past, a picture whose aged colors from some two hundred years ago, even now impacts our views of the Middle East.

The Jester by James Patterson and Andrew Gross

Returning from Korea on business I picked this book up at an airport book store. Patterson is usually reasonably low hanging fruit and obvious mind candy. Not a great read, but a good story about the lance of Christ and the Crusades.

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic by Chalmers Johnson

Books like this are best when they avoid taking the simple approach that all within American policy is bad. Johnson’s analysis misses hitting the mark for me in large part because it’s analysis of American military policy exists only due to America’s militaristic objectives. This is simple minded: to say that our European policy had nothing to do with World War II (a war we did not start) and the rise of Communism (something we could have handled better, but something that rightfully so challenged us and found us in some ways wanting). Johnson’s core thesis would have been better supported if he had shown the gradualism that has led to the position we are in today versus a one-dimensional analysis that seems overly prejudiced in its anti-American tendencies.

Homosexuality and Christian Faith: Questions of Conscience for the Churches Edited by Walter Wink

This short book has a collection of essays from a number of progressive theologians whose love and grace is extended equally to fundamentalists who loathe homosexuals and homosexuals themselves. The balancing act is nuanced and marked by a spiritual maturity that is no doubt indicative of the deeper truths these theologians have discovered themselves. I highly recommend this book as an introduction, a book that has much good to say at the very least about how we approach the contentious issue of homosexuality.

Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour

Written by a Christian Father who was born and raised in Palestine, this book is the essence of any possible reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews. For those who see the question of Israel from only one side (pro-Israel), Chacour’s biography will question many of the beliefs you hold dear. His story is the best way of understanding both sides of this tense discussion.

Anarchy and Christianity by Jacques Ellul

The thesis of this book is, in the words of the author, to challenge the “simplistic and uncontested beliefs” that anarchy is incompatible with Christianity. To make his point, Ellul first deconstructs what it is that some anarchists oppose within Christianity. He rightfully (as a professing Christian) agrees with their stance against the systematic abuse of power by the institutionalized church. But he disagrees with those anarchists who resist religion (here he does not need to be specific to Christianity, although his book specifically addresses the ideas about God that are specific to Christian theology), simply because they will not accept the idea of God as master. Here he eloquently argues that much, if not all, of what anarchists oppose about God are ideas that are not within Scripture but are rather philosophical extrapolations about God that need to be set aside as antiquated remnants of philosophy long gone bad.

Ellul’s analysis of the treatment of political power in the New Testament has symmetry with NT Wright’s view of the teachings of Jesus. Wright argues that much of what the Gospels’ record as Jesus’ teachings have more to do with warning the Jews to avoid political revolution in the interests of embracing the kingdom of God - an essentially different form of power than what is offered by politics.

For someone who desperately wants to combine politics (believing that this word can mean much more than it means in contemporary America) with his faith, Ellul’s advocacy that anarchism is the purest form of Christian politics disheartens me. Having said that, I can see Ellul (and other anarchists) belief that ultimately man should hold out hope that a system of government that allows each to be genuinely equal participants without the vestiges of hierarchy or autocratic power, is worth believing in. Will mankind ultimately develop to this form of autonomy? If so, it will be on the backbone of education of the masses, something our current culture strongly avoids. Anarchy is ideal to the point of naïve, but its idealism is not to be wholly discounted as idealism can become reality in time, with leadership and with optimism.

The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

Sagan’s review, a treatise on the importance of critical thinking, rationality and science as answers to myth and religion, functions well in a limited way but errs in its attempt to construct science and rationalism as all that is necessary for life. See my more expanded review of the book here.

Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality by Andrew Sullivan

Andrew’s approach in this book - by dividing up those who participate in the question about rights of homosexuals into four philosophical bents, is quite gracious as it allows him to treat their objections as something more than simple prejudice. His approach rises about the raucous hyperbole he feels ultimately is not at the core of most people’s reluctance to accept homosexuality. I highly recommend this book.

Patriotism and the American Land by Richard Nelson, Barry Lopez and Terry Tempest Williams

This book is a compilation of three short essays on a part of patriotism overlooked in the post-9/11 world - the responsibility we all have to the American environment.

previous post: Book Review: The Demon Haunted World
next post: Question #4: Can the Church be trusted?

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• January 31, 2005

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