Category Archives: Book reviews

Robert S. McElvaine. Grand Theft Jesus

Leave a reply

Robert S. McElvaine. Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America. Crown Publishers, 2008.

For people like myself, practicing Christians horrified at the general image of Christianity as a violent, intolerant, right-wing religion widespread in our culture, this book comes as a kind of relief. McElvaine is a professor of history at a Bible Belt church-related college (Millsaps in Jackson, Mississippi). His basic argument, presented in a lively, in-your-face style, is that the Christian Right in America has profoundly corrupted the basic Christian message and needs to be called to account.

The author is a political and theological liberal, but places himself in the mainstream of biblical Christianity. He names names and minces few words in his harsh critique. He is not so much setting out to find common ground and persuade those on the Right to moderate their views as to rally the troops among Progressive Christians and to help those outside the churches to see a different perspective on the core values of Christianity.

I find myself quite sympathetic with McElvaine’s basic perspective. I like his constructive suggestions and agree with just about all of his criticisms. And I think it is good and important to have such criticisms. At times his take no prisoners style made me smile, but mostly I did find it a bit off-putting. Maybe it’s good to have someone write such an attention-getting polemic, but one wonders a bit whether such bitter sarcasm is fully consistent with McElvaine’s portrayal of Christianity as a faith centered on love. I don’t think Christ-like love is incompatible with sharp criticism, but I do miss a more compassionate, gentle sensibility that probably would have actually made the critique more powerful.

If you are unhappy with the general portrayal of Christianity in cahoots with the political Right in 21st century America and you don’t feel like you know enough about those who presence has set the tone for this portrayal, this would be a good book to read. And for many of us, it may serve as an encouragement to do something about this portrayal.

Christine Wicker. The Fall of the Evangelical Nation

2 Replies

Christine Wicker. The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church. HarperOne, 2008.

I’d like to believe the main argument of this book–that “evangelical Christianity is dying” (“evangelical Christianity” here meaning basically the kind of Christianity linked with right-wing politics and the culture wars in America). Wicker does give us some strong evidence indicating that the claims for evangelical power have been greatly exaggerated and that trends indicate that even the less powerful that assumed movement is losing steam and beginning to fade.

She looks at facts and figures concerning conversions, baptisms, membership, retention, participation, giving, attendance, and impact upon culture at large. The indicators all point downward. In part, her argument makes sense because the claims for extraordinary power and influence have never been subject to much scrutiny. And it has served the interests of many politicians, et al, that there be the general assumption that those claims be taken at face value.

To some degree, Wicker’s book was prescient leading up to our recent presidential election and the ending of the Right Wing hegemony in American politics.

Yet, the breezy style and lack of precision (such as her slippery definition of “evangelical” itself) foster a bit of a sense of skepticism on my part. This was a quick read and confirmed many of my suspicions about Right Wing Christianity’s actual power being based much more on perception than reality. But we need more solid research and careful writing on this topic.

The bigger issue for me that this book raises has to do with how “secular” is the American culture. Are we moving away from organized religion as many sociologists have been asserting for a long time? How do we account for the rise of the Christian Right? And has this movement actually (and ironically) accelerated the long-term diminishment of the influence of Christianity in the broader culture?

Michel Odent. The Scientification of Love

Leave a reply

Michel Odent. The Scientification of Love. Free Association Books, 2001.

If one approaches this book with the right attitude, it will be a stimulating and encouraging read–though maybe it’s not one I’d recommend for everyone. Odent, who is French, is an obstetrician who has pioneered humane childbirth practices. He’s philosophically aware, up-to-date in the scientific literature, and deeply committed to thinking through the implications of what he has been learning from his experiences of childbirth for our broader culture. What he’s not is an engaging writer. It’s not that his writing is overly-technical nor that his ideas are unclearly stated. But he is concise to an extreme, and this book is essentially a fairly disjointed series of short reports.

Nonetheless, the content is important–and for more than people directly involved in the various aspects of childbirth. Odent, essentially, is presenting the case that the scientific evidence is becoming more clear (though still too often ignored and even repressed) that human beings are naturally loving–and that treating others as if love is not central to all aspects of life has devastating consequences across the board in our world.

Specifically, he discusses the importance of immediate close human contact with newborns as a key to increasing the likelihood that the child will be able to thrive as a human being. He shows how we have powerful physiological as well as psychological bases for recognizing the importance of this contact.

The implications of Odent’s argument, which he does not spell out, point strongly in the direction that human beings are born with a strong need for and ability to connect with other human beings–that is, our basic instinct is toward love and we must be socialized (against the grain of our natural inclinations) to be detached, autonomous, and even violent.

This is an important contribution (even if not self-consciously expressed in this way) to a pacifist anthropology.

Bob Goudzwaard. Idols of Our Time

Leave a reply

Bob Goudzwaard. Idols of Our Time. InterVarsity Press, 1984.

This short book, written nearly three decades ago, though dated in many ways, offers an insightful analysis of modern Western culture and its challenges to authentic Christian discipleship. Goudzwaard is a Dutch economist and politician and a committed member of the Dutch Reformed Church. His writing is clear and focused.

He offers a sharp critique of the myth of progress–especially pointed coming from a professional economist–and shows how ideologies serve as the conduits for idolatry. He then looks at various ideologies, including belief in technology, nationalism and material prosperity, showing how these all stand in tension with biblical message of humanity created in God’s image and called to shalom and compassion.

His concluding chapter, “Hope Awakens Life,” serves as an excellent nutshell description of the contrast between biblical values and those of these modern idols.

This book is long out of print, but inexpensive used copies seem plentiful online. I highly recommend it.

Rebecca T. Alpert. Whose Torah? A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism

1 Reply

Rebecca T. Alpert. Whose Torah?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism. The New Press, 2008.

This short book is part of a new series, “The Whose Religion? Series” published by the politically leftist New Press. This book and the series are welcome attempts to link progressive religious faith with progressive political activism.

Alpert is a pathbreaking rabbi and professor, one of the first women in Jewish history to be ordained a rabbi, a professor at Temple University, and long time political activist. All of these elements of her life are evident in this interesting book. 

I mildly recommend this book. I like Alpert’s general philosophy of life and that she refused to choose between her sense of calling as a leader in her faith community and her sense of calling to work for social change in our wider society. It is encouraging to read about the ways elements of the Jewish tradition can be understood to underwrite progressive politics.

At the same time, I felt a bit disappointed at the lack of theological depth I found. The title of the book, Whose Torah?, gave me hope that I would find a penetrating rationale for a politically progressive reading of Torah from a Jewish perspective–a repudiation of the idea that you either center on the Bible or on a contemporary, essentially secular, social justice agenda that gets its main guidance from present-day experience and Enlightenment humanism. But in the end, Alpert has very little to say about the content of Torah. 

I appreciate her affirmation of the progressive elements of modern Judaism, but I would have liked more grounding in the ancient texts–not because such grounding is the only valid way to be politically progressive but because I think the entire progressive community would benefit from more of an awareness of how progressive many elements of the biblical writings are.

 

Peace Theology Book Review Index

Amy-Jill Levine. The Misunderstood Jew

Leave a reply

Amy-Jill Levine.The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus.  HarperOne, 2006.

This book addresses a crucially important issue–and from a distinctive point of view.  Levine is a prominent member of a pretty exclusive club, Jewish New Testament scholars with appointments at major Protestant seminaries (she teaches at Vanderbilt).

She is clearly highly qualified to address Christians on the issue of Jesus’ Jewishness and its significance for contemporary Jewish/Christian relations. She writes clearly and engagingly. She tells us many important things, especially about Jesus, including, for example, Jesus’ affirmation of Torah.

For Christians whose consciousness has been raised in the past generation by scholars such as Krister Stendahl and numerous others since, Levine’s argument won’t be earth-shaking. But the book aims at a wider audience, so it will surely be read by many who definitely need to be challenged to see Jesus as a Jew–and even more to be challenged toward a much less polarized view of Christianity’s relationship with Judaism.

I am totally affirmative of any careful and sensitive attempt to overcome anti-Jewishness among Christians. And I believe the best place to start is with Jesus and Paul. I appreciate Levine’s contribution to this work. She offers many good points to help Christians to understand the key differences between Christianity and Judaism even amidst the close links.

Yet, I did find the book increasingly annoying as I read through it. For one thing, while surely her critiques of many Christian perspectives are valid, I felt myself chafing because the kinds of generalizations she makes about “Christians” are not ones I accept as characterizations of my views (and I know I am not alone). I would have liked more nuance on her part.

And as the book proceeded to her recommendations for present-day practices, I felt myself being lectured to. I sensed a kind of condescension and self-assuredness of her standing on the moral high ground. I almost got the feeling that she wrote this book as a “favor” she is deigning to offer us, not as something that comes from her own passionate desire to meet Christians halfway and work together toward a world of peace, as task to which we each have distinctive contributions to add.

Millard Lind. The Sound of Sheer Silence and the Killing State

Leave a reply

Millard Lind. The Sound of Sheer Silence and the Killing State: The Death Penalty and the Bible. Cascadia Publishing House, 2004.

This book is a fitting conclusion to the career of Mennonite Old Testament scholar Millard Lind. Lind has written several important books on the Old Testament and ethical issues such as war and peace and the use of the law. This book on the death penalty, published when Lind was 86 years old, is a nice capstone.

Focusing on three biblical prophets–Moses, Elijah, and Jesus–Lind presents a strong case for see covenant love, not retribution, as the heart of Torah. As with his other writings, especially Yahweh is a Warrior: The Theology of Warfare in the Old Testament, Lind’s strength here lies in his careful reading of the texts. He asks penetrating questions that allow him to see the peace-oriented message in the challenging parts of the Bible that is too often missed in conventional interpretations.

This book does not present a wide-ranging argument directly engaging contemporary issues (two helpful books by the late lay biblical scholar Gardner Hanks [Against the Death Penalty and Capital Punishment and the Bible] are more socially engaged). Lind’s focus is more narrow and its achievement more modest. But we should be most grateful that Lind was moved to produce this final testament. For Christians wrestling with their response to the death penalty, this book will be a useful resource.

D. Seiple and Frederick Weidmann, eds. Enigmas and Powers

Leave a reply

D. Seiple and Frederick W. Weidmann, eds. Enigmas and Powers: Engaging the Work of Walter Wink for Classroom, Church, and World. Pickwick Publications, 2008.

Walter Wink has made a tremendous contribution to biblical studies, peace activism, and spirituality in his career at Union and Auburn seminaries. This short book contains 24 brief statements in tribute to Wink’s thought and life.  Most of the papers were presented at a May 2005 celebration of Wink upon his retirement from Auburn.

It is nice to have this collection to get a sense of the breadth of Wink’s influence. Several prominent scholars appear–such as Marcus Borg, Bruce Chilton, Joseph Hough, Amy-Jill Levine, Jack Miles, Robert Raines, and Wayne Rollins. 

Most of the pieces are quite short, so the book works much better as a series of “toasts” than as analyses uncovering or extending the depths of the implications of Wink’s scholarship. [Full disclosure: I have a small contribution in this volume, “Walter Wink and Peace Theology.” I have co-edited a more thorough tribute volume to Wink, Transforming the Powers: Peace, Justice, and the Domination System.]

Douglas John Hall. Bound and Free

Leave a reply

Douglas John Hall. Bound And Free: A Theologian’s Journey. Fortress Press, 2005.

One of North America’s most important Christian theologians gives us a brief theological memoir in this volume. Douglas John Hall, now professor emeritus at Montreal’s McGill University, has been a prolific writer for years, including a multi-volume systematic theology and important works on stewardship.

As far as mainstream Protestant theologians writing in the latter part of the 20th and early years of the 21st centuries go, Hall is pretty good. He respects the tradition and takes the Bible seriously–but also engages culture and pushes his readers toward social engagement. It is clear in this book, though, that Hall only wants to challenge the tradition so much and go only so far in pushing out the socially transformative message of Jesus’ way. His teachers are Tillich, Barth, and Reinhold Niebuhr–brilliant theologians, of course, but definitely practitioners of kinds of theology that do little, in the end, to transform the status quo.

I read this book quickly and found myself having self-consciously to push onward to finish. It’s a nice little book that gives some insights into life as a prominent theologian, but I didn’t find anything here, really, that inspired and challenged.

Steve Jeffrey, et al. Pierced for Our Transgressions

1 Reply

Steve Jeffrey, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach. Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution. Crossway Books, 2007.

If you are aware at all of the heated debates in Christian theology about the atonement, the title of this book will make clear to you the stance of the authors. One of the book’s contributions is to make clear, if anyone might have wondered, that the “penal substitution” doctrine (that in his sacrificial death, Jesus substituted for later Christians by receiving God’s punishment that all human beings deserve which then allows God to forgive sinners) is alive and well.  “Alive and well” at least in the sense of widely held and vigorously argued for.

Pierced for Our Transgressions has many things going for it. It is pretty well written and covers a wide range of issues in its 373 pages. The forcefulness of the authors’ convictions does not help those who are not convinced by their assertions to feel a part of a genuine conversation, but it does make the book readable and engaging. The authors are quite aware of many of the challenges to their position and to their credit seek thoroughly to engage those challenges. I picked the book up because I wanted a wide-ranging and up-to-date defense of the substitutionary atonement position (for some reason, I find myself uncomfortable with the term “penal substitution”) and was quite happy with what I found in that regard. This book is up-to-date and lays out the position with clarity.

As is to be expected from evangelical Christians seeking to defend an essential truth they feel is under attack, the tone of the book does at times cross the line and become harsh and unfair toward theological opponents. But I have read books that are much worse on this score, and I do respect the authors’ attempt to be what they would understand to be fair and balanced.

Probably the two biggest contributions the book makes in developing its argument are (1) a long chapter 2 on “the biblical foundations of penal substitution” and (2) a discussion of “the historical pedigree of penal substitution” in chapter 5.  Chapters 6 through 12 are a fascinating litany of responses to criticisms of the substitutionary atonement position. Most of the responses to the kinds of criticisms I would make seemed pretty superficial–and one major criticism (which I will discuss below) is not directly discussed.  So I did not find this section nearly as informative as I hoped it would be.

The discussion of the biblical materials is wide-ranging and makes very clear how well thought through the authors’ position is. It’s internal logic is impressive and the support for that logic in terms of “prooftexts” does get one’s attention. However, this support comes much more in the form of small bits and pieces gleaned from throughout the Bible and not from wrestling with the large plot or storyline of the Bible. The larger plot makes clear that God’s mercy is the bottom line of the story, not the kind of “holiness” and “justice” that the authors see as underwriting God’s ultimately punitive response to human sinfulness. The big issue, then, becomes one of hermeneutics–do we interpret the small bits and pieces in light of the larger storyline or do we treat them as autonomous pieces of revelation in the form of bits and pieces? Given the authors’ hermeneutical choices, their conclusions are difficult to refute. But those choices are not based on a straightforward reading of the Bible nearly so much as emerging from theological conclusions seeking biblical support.

Likewise with the historical material. We are bombarded with a series of short quotes from all eras of Christianity but not given much in the way of context and the broader theological stories within which the quoted parts were written. I do have to admit to being impressed with the quantity of writers we are exposed to in this chapter–going back to the early church. Clearly, the theological dynamics that undergird the substitutionary atonement view do go way back. However, I am left with a couple of questions.

Even if the substitutionary view goes back to Eusebius, is that necessarily support for the assertion the authors make that this theology is thoroughly biblical? What about the gap prior to Eusebius (they quote just one writer from before the 4th century, Justin Martyr)? Is it a coincidence that theology with a more punitive and coercive bent emerges only after the Constantinian moment?

And, why is Anselm completely ignored? Normally in this kind of historically-oriented discussion you would find Anselm in the index between Ambrose and Aquinas (and playing a much larger roll than either). But not here. Certainly it is possible these authors want to differentiate their substitutionary views from Anselm’s “satisfaction” argument–but given how closely these views typically are linked, shouldn’t the authors have at least explained why they want them to be separate?

The one big issue that arises for me in considering this kind of understanding of salvation (and I would myself want to link Anselm closely with the view defended in this book), is this: Why does God need to be “satisfied” or “turned aside” from punishing sinners if God is the one who does indeed save us (as both Anselm and those holding to the substitutionary view insist)? Why does God need a sacrifice when God is the one who provides the sacrifice?  These authors (along with everyone else within this school of thought) develop an intrictate theory that explains many details concerning the necessary sacrifice of Jesus as the perfect offering God requires in order to offer salvation–but they never really address my question.

If God needs this sacrifice in order to be able to be free to save, how can it be that God then is the source of the sacrifice and the one who offers it? What actually is the difference between a God who loves human beings enough to sacrifice his own son to make forgiveness possible and a God who loves human beings enough simply to offer forgiveness? If God truly is acting out of love, why are these mechanistic processes of sacrifice necessary?

The authors of Pierced for Our Transgressions add a further wrinkle–echoing some but not all of their predecessors. They argue (briefly) in favor of what has traditionally been called a “limited atonement” (they prefer the term, “particular redemption,” pages 271-78). The gist of this idea is that “God did not will to save all” (page 270), but only those chosen by God before the beginning of time. The reason God “does not act to bring about the salvation of all…is that God sometimes allows something bad to happen (the death of the sinner) to serve a higher end. The highest end of all is his glory and, strangely perhaps to our minds, it brings him more glory not to save all: against the backdrop of the fate of those without Christ, God’s grace towards those in Christ is more gloriously seen” (page 270).

To say the least, this belief is troubling–and seems to run counter to the spirit of biblical faith. Maybe another reason these authors ignore Anselm is the other big idea Anselm has been known for, the ontological argument for the existence of God. God must exist since God is the “being than which no greater can be conceived” and if this being doesn’t exist then it’s not the greatest conceivable being since it would be a greater being if it did exist. Well, it is very easy to conceive of beings, imaginary or real, who are greater than a God who brings non-chosen creatures into existence in order to give “himself” glory when “he” condemns them.