Review: Reversing Entropy

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Cover image of "Reversing Empathy" by Luci Shaw

Reversing Entropy, Luci Shaw. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640608702), 2024.

Summary: Poems that address the decay in the physical world and how human creativity and transcendent hope reverses entropy.

The second law of thermodynamics observes that the amount of disorder in any physical system will increase over time. Only the introduction of energy can counter the increase of disorder and decay. Luci Shaw, at 95, is a keen observer of the physical world as well as the changes we experience in our own bodies and much of this shows up in the poetry in this collection.

One of the delights is that Shaw observes what we often see only in passing. She celebrates the first star at night visible through her skylight. She notices the dance of the lichens. Many of her poems chronicle the drives she and her husband take. She observes the entropy of the autumn, the fall of gingko leaves, the single leaf pinned to the windshield.

Human creativity in music, the arts, writing and other ways help reverse the entropy in our human communities. Some of her poems share her creative process “when the words begin to arrive.” She likens poetry to laundering and describes filling the “fresh, clean page.”

Part three of the collection includes several exquisite poems on Mary and the incarnation, including one poem on “Mary’s sword.” Part four include more poems on the title theme. She captures, in “Energy Entropy” the dance between these two in all of our existence: “Pair the antonyms/energy and entropy,/unusual partners/twinned in the making of love,/to join with all the unmaking/and remaking within/the fluid universe.”

The title poem of the fifth part is “Love in a Time of Plague,’ and captures the healing of what was lost when we could unmask, and behold, and converse with each other. The sixth part deals with the ultimate expression of entropy, death. Vulnerably, she recounts both her brother’s failings, and of speaking and listening over the phone as he breathes his last, and the unfolding of grief. And here, she leans into the ultimate reversing of entropy, the Great Dance of heaven, the dawn of Light, the renewal of all that is only dimly foreshadowed in the creation and our own efforts to forestall entropy.

Shaw reminds us of the wonder of our lives in our world amid entropy’s relentless incursion. Her daily celebration of the quotidian beauties around us rolls entropy back, at least a bit. And her hope in the “deeper magic,” as C.S. Lewis would express it, stakes out a claim to the final reversal of entropy for which we all long. And what a gift to us that she wrote these poems around her 95th year!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Women

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Cover image of "The Women" by Kristin Hannah

The Women, Kristin Hannah. St Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250178633), 2024.

Summary: A historical fiction account of the experiences of women nurses who served in Vietnam war combat areas and what it was like to come home.

Frankie McGrath grew up in a strict Catholic household where military service was honored on a “wall of heroes” in the family library. So when her brother Finley enlisted as a Navy helicopter pilot, she decided to follow him in one of the few ways women could, by becoming a nurse. After completing nurses training, she enlisted in the Army, where she could go to Vietnam right away, ill-prepared as she was, leaving her parents in shock. The only “heroes” were men.

But she wouldn’t follow her brother. She would take the place of one who died in a helicopter crash in which no remains could be recovered. And soon she would discover that this was only the tip of the iceberg. She arrives at mildewed quarters amid a mass casualty event. She sees mangled bodies of young men and blood thick on the floors. Nurses Barb and Ethel, who become steadfast friends, walk her through it. A skilled surgeon, Jamie, teaches her step by step how to close wounds and perform procedures to save lives nurses would not ordinarily perform. She not only becomes good, she discovers a calling. Some men live because of what she does. She comforts many in their dying moments.

She re-ups when her friends go home to help the younger nurses. But something is wrong. The war is escalating and young men rushed into service come in droves to her evac. One day, napalm victims come to the hospital and she holds a napalm burned child as it dies. She watches Jamie, wounded severely under attack take off in a helicopter and a medic stopping CPR.. She falls in love with a helicopter pilot, Rye, who she learns died just before he was due to come home.

The second part of the book is about what happened after her tour ended and she returned home. People curse and spit on her when she arrives at the airport. Her parents don’t want to hear about her experiences. They want life to go on as if she hadn’t been in Vietnam. She learns they had given out the story that she was studying abroad in Florence. She’s not a hero to them. Rather, they are ashamed of her.

Then the nightmares begin. She has flashbacks when she hears a loud noise at a party. She can’t keep nursing jobs. Drink and drugs help her self-anesthetize. Frankie seeks help at the VA and is told women didn’t serve or see combat in Vietnam. She cannot find help. Something is broken inside, but she doesn’t understand what. She tries to pull herself together, with the help of Barb and Ethel, only to lose it all when a triggering event sends her spiraling out of control

We watch her self-destruct, despite the people, including her parents, who try to care for her. We wonder as we read if she will get the help she needs to pull out of the death spiral she is in.

Kristen Hannah captures a story too-seldom told. It took nearly twenty years to unveil The Vietnam Women’s Memorial in 1993. It depicts a combat nurse caring for a wounded soldier.

Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Washington, D.C. Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

I have a friend, a former colleague, who was a nurse in Vietnam. She has never talked about her experiences in the war or coming home. I wonder if they were anything like this book. Kristin Hannah helps me understand why she may have remained quiet. She also helps me understand the debt we owe to all the women who served. I grieve the painful things they saw and the horrible ways many were treated when they returned. I grieve hearing “no women served in Vietnam” when 265,000 did in military and civilian roles. Thanks to Kristin Hannah’s fine account that affirms that “they were heroes, too.”

Review: Gospel Media

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Cover image of "Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Circulating Jesus Traditions" by Nicholas A. Elder

Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Circulating Jesus Traditions, Nicholas A. Elder. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802879219), 2024.

Summary: Addresses myths and generalizations about reading, writing, and publication in the Greco-Roman world shaping ideas of how the gospels were composed, used, and circulated.

Nicholas Elder writes to address the myths around how people read, wrote, and circulated written materials in the Greco-Roman world. It is assumed, for example, that no one read silently. Reading was a communal rather than solitary act. Likewise, it is assumed that texts were rarely composed in one’s own hand and that the gospels all reflect the same compositional practices. Circulation of written texts was believed to follow a “concentric circles model from intimate associates to a broader public. Elder’s study of Greco-Roman practices and the gospel texts reveal a much more complicated picture than has been generally assumed.

Reading

Elder observes that there are examples of both silent and vocal reading in the Greco-Roman world. He also notes at least one example in the gospels, when Jesus reads from Isaiah. Jesus would have read silently or at least scanned, to find the text he read. Reading also was not always a communal activity. For example, the Ethiopian eunuch was reading on his own when Philip came along. People read alone both silently and aloud. Also, reading aloud with others occurred in various settings, from large groups to intimate family settings, or even one person reading for another.

The gospels reflect these different reading practices. Mark reflects the oral recitations of the Jesus tradition converted to text whereas Matthew wrote a “book,” that best worked when read in sections communally. Luke reflects an account written for an individual, if we interpret Theophilus as such, that was also used communally. John is written as a document reflecting awareness of the other accounts, and complementing these. Elder notes the concluding colophons in John 20 and 21 in support of this idea.

Writing

Contrary to the idea that the same compositional practices, often in the form of dictation to an amanuensis, pertained in all instances, Elder proposes that the evidence supports a variety of practices. Both composing by mouth and by hand may be used, or some combination, whether in writing or revision. All of this may or may not be in connection with a prior oral event, with or without the approval of the speaker (such as unauthorized dissemination of lecture notes).

Elder notes evidence for very different compositional approaches with the gospels. He sees Mark as reducing oral preaching to text to be re-used in other oral readings. Matthew and Luke both reflect written compositions, working with Mark and other sources, removing the oral residues (for example, reducing the use of “and”). Matthew wrote for communal readings (its five-fold structure) whereas Luke wrote for individual and communal reading. John is more complicated, reflecting both oral and written aspects and the evidence, for Elder is less clear.

Circulation

How were written compositions circulated? One assumption is that many New Testament documents were circulated in codex, or book, form. Also, it was believed that compositions were circulated in successively larger concentric circles. This goes from initial text, to friends, a wider friend circle with feedback, a public release, and then further copying of texts by others.

Elder proposes that both the form in which they were circulated and the process varied with different documents, both in Graeco-Roman society and with the gospels. Things may be accidentally or intentionally published abroad with or without the author’s approval of the text. Or it may go through more limited circulation with authorial revision. It may even be suppressed.

Elder thinks that Mark was circulated in codex form to a select group, and presumably they circulated it to other churches. He believes Matthew and Luke to have been circulated in roll form in a public release. John, he believes, was read intramurally among friends, and then circulated more widely. This felt to me the most speculative part of his book.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought Elder raised interesting questions and proposed reading, writing, and circulation processes that are as complex as they are today. I found the section on reading fascinating as I relate to contemporary readers who also read in a variety of ways. The section on writing helped me reflect on the differences of the four gospels from a compositional point of view. I think the section on circulation the most speculative, but challenging the general adoption of codices seems to point to a direction for further research. What I most appreciated was Elder’s attention to textual detail in the gospels for clues to how they were written, form whom they were written and how they were intended to be used. All told, I thought this a fascinating account that challenged prevailing assumptions and asked interesting questions.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The After Party

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Cover image of "The After Party" by Curtis Chang and Nancy French

The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics, Curtis Chang and Nancy French. Zondervan Books (ISBN: 9780310368700), 2024.

Summary: How we might shift toward a better Christian politics through humility and hope.

There are many Christians longing for a better way to engage in politics. We’ve lost friends and family, who have “disappeared.” We recognize that we will always have political differences, even among Christians, but believe this shouldn’t result in demonizing those who differ with us. We are concerned that we cannot sustain the fabric of civic life with the level of hostile discourse we see around us. But we wonder if a better way is possible.

Earlier this year, Curtis Chang and David French of The Good Faith Podcast, teamed up with Russell Moore, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, to produce a six part free video curriculum to help churches move toward a better Christian politics, titled The After Party. This book is a companion piece, written by Chang and Nancy French, an award-winning journalist, and the wife of David French, a columnist with the New York Times. The book and the course complement each other but may be used independently.

The focus of the book is a call for us to allow Jesus to shift us from the what of politics (ideology, party, and policy) to the how of politics (spiritual values, relationship, and practices). They point to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus calls for mercy, peace-making, refraining from angry mocking of opponents, prioritizing reconciling over winning, avoiding sexual scandals, and truth-telling. This is not a critique of politicians but rather how we engage in politics. The authors focus on humility and hope as two key spiritual values that help us move toward a better engagement.

They use these two qualities as X and Y axes identifying four types:

  • The Disciple: high in both humility and hope
  • The Combatant: high in hope, low in humility
  • The Exhausted: high in humility, low in hope
  • The Cynic: low in humility and hope

They include an assessment tool accessible through a QR code. There is a written version in the appendix, allowing readers to identify the type that may most closely fit.

Most of the remainder of the book explores each of the types. As it turns out David French, Russell Moore, and Curtis Chang identified as the Combatant, The Exhausted, and the Cynic. The chapters include narratives of each on how they matured as disciples, growing in hope, humility, or both.

The final chapter invites us to move from us-versus-them politics to the after party of peace at the foot of the cross. While we cannot fully embody that this side of kingdom come, we can be living icons, signs of what is to come as we live in humility and hope across our differences.

This book offers a clear alternative to our politics of division. Is it too simple? I don’t think it is the be all, end all solution. But it offers a starting point, with tangible practices we can try with our “disappeared” friends. Rather than waiting for politicians that practice a better politics, it proposes that Christians, particularly evangelicals, in churches across this country take the first steps.

Will it be enough? I don’t know, but true disciples of Jesus don’t ask those questions. They listen for the call of Jesus and follow. At least they’ve taken the first steps toward a better politics, and nothing good can happen until someone does.

Review: Why Study History?

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Cover image of "why Study History?" by John Fea

Why Study History? (Second Edition), John Fea. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9781540966605), 2024.

Summary: A Christian historian explains why the study of history is important to us, what historians do, and helpful and unhelpful ways to relate our faith to the study of history.

It seems to me a sad consequence of our “post-truth” age is our lack of trust in nearly everything. Sadly, this includes for many the study of history, which some will claim is just shaped by agendas across the political spectrum.

John Fea, in a book meant as an introductory text for students, as well as for more general audiences, both admits that history reflects a process of constant revision as new sources emerge and yet that because of the disciplined processes (including the 5 C’s of historical study) academic historians use, it is possible to attain approximations to the truth that give us reasonable confidence in what happened in the past and why. While we never attain to absolute certainty, this does not mean that we cannot learn from historians to our profit.

He contends that the study of the past may inspire us, sometimes offer an escape from modern life, and at other times help us understand who we are and how we got here. We are in constant dialogue with the past whether we admit it or not. At the same time historians teach us to use the past without misappropriating it. First, we must understand the past on its own terms, as an “other,” rather than through the eyes of our particular present. This involves empathy and humility, which he illustrates with the example of an evangelical scholar studying at a Latter Day Saints school, who only made progress in understanding their history when he recognized that whatever he thought, LDS adherents believed the teachings they received and acted in accord with them.

Fea tackles the question of providence as it relates to historical study. While he affirms providence, he contends that this is the province of theologians, and that historians are doing something besides history when they attempt to read God’s providence into historical events. He does not outright deny the possibility of writing providential history and notes examples of those who have attempted such writings. He believes this must be done with great humility, recognizing our inherent limitations in knowing the plans of God.

Fea does believe there are Christian resources we may bring to bear in the study of the past: our understanding of the imago dei, the reality of human sin, the relevance of the incarnation to the study of a physical past and the use of our minds, and the use of moral reflection upon both the good and the bad we encounter in our study, not to preach, but to see.

The study of history is important to cultivating a civil, democratic society. Careful work at understanding combined with humility and empathy are not only skills necessary in the study of history. They are the skills necessary for reaching across the divides in our national discourse. If there is any hope of healing our discords, these practices are crucial. History may also be transformative. It is a form of public engagement, of loving our neighbors in the past. For the Christian, it may be a spiritual discipline calling forth prayer, self-denial, hospitality, charity, and humility as we study the “other” in the past.

One of the objections to studying history is the problem of getting a job with that major. Fea admits the challenge but seeks to open our eyes to the range of occupations that draw upon the skills learned by those who study history. He describes a student who subsequently worked in a children’s hospital in Malawi. She learned to listen well, write well, and tell good stories. She learned empathy walking in the shoes of the dead, and learned how to step out of her own approach to the world. Fea goes on to list famous people who studied history and shares examples of some of the things he sees his former students and others doing: writing, marketing and digital analytics, business, sales, television sports, filmmaking, medicine, ministry, criminal justice, and real estate.

In an epilogue, Fea discusses the importance of doing good history for the church, and the public engagement of those who have studied history. He describes his own public engagements around his book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? in which he challenges many aspects of this notion. Those engagements have led to fruitful conversations, stretched his own thinking, and made him reconsider how he pursues his calling as an academic theologian to not only advance knowledge in his discipline, but serve the wider Christian community.

This is such a good introduction that I would commend it not only for students but all thoughtful Christians. In helping us understand the work of historians, Fea gives us tools to evaluate historical claims and narratives rather than defaulting to pervasive skepticism or just accepting the opinions of our tribe. More than this, Fea show us what kind of person we must become to study history well and that these virtues equip us well for life in society. Finally, he gestures toward ways we bring our faith to bear in the study of history to elucidate rather than distort what we are seeing as we listen to the past through sifting various sources. All of this seems vital and useful as we seek to understand the times, both past and present, and live with wisdom in our time.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: June 9-15

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person wrapping a book
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to read the first Weekly Wrap and were so encouraging in your comments. I think we’ll try this for another week!

I have been absorbed this week in Kristin Hannah’s The Women, an account of the experience of combat nurses in Vietnam. I have a former colleague who did this. She never spoke about her experience. Reading Hannah’s book helps me understand as she describes the horrific things that happened to soldiers, the terrible reception anyone who served in Vietnam received when they came home, the lack of recognition combat nurses received until many years later, of their services and of the skills they acquired. Like other of Hannah’s books, I carry this one around in my head even when I’m not reading it.

Don’t you just love writers who write with such skill and power?

Five Articles Worth Reading

If you follow this blog, you know I review a number of books. I don’t get paid, other than in free books, for doing it. I do it for the sheer love of reading and the fun of connecting books and people who want to read them. There was so much I resonated with in Christine Smallwood’s A Reviewer’s Life, and I’m glad I have a day job, as her comments on the pay freelance reviewers receive portrays a challenging way to make a living.

For those who enjoy audiobooks, Audible has published its list of Top Audiobooks of 2024 So Far, which Bookriot picked up. I’m not an audiobook listener, but this list tempts me…. The Bookriot article also offers links to other “Best of” lists and recent articles.

I went through a season of reading a number of the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the most creative science fiction/fantasy writers of her time. She passed away in 2018. This week, her family announced (AP News Story) that her Portland home, built on plans from a Sears catalog with a view of Mt. St. Helen’s, will become the Ursula K. Le Guin Writers Residency. Aspiring writers will have the opportunity to write where she wrote some of her most famous books.

I would love to see this in every city. Publisher’s Weekly ran a story this week, “Free Children’s Bookstore Opens in Pittsburgh.” Children may select up to three books they may take home and read.

I’ve been struck that we are witnessing the emergence of an incredible array of talented women writers. One of these, Rachel Cusk, has just published a new novel, Parade. I found this Guardian article, “Where to Start With: Rachel Cusk” a good introduction to her work.

Quote of the Week

Dorothy L. Sayers, mystery writer, playwright, essayist, and translator of Dante was born June 13, 1893. I like this quote from her, apropos of our time.

“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I’ve been reading a book that explores the reading and writing practices in ancient times, which spurred me to think of all the ways we “read” in our day. I wrote about it on Friday at the blog, “The Ways We Read.”

I’ve loved the stories of George MacDonald since I was a college student. But I’ve never come across someone who wrote in ways reminiscent of him until a young Australian writer, Peter Kostoglou, reached out to me asking me to review a little collection of seven short stories, Sillies, Fancies, & Trifles. I found them exquisite, and wrote about them on Thursday.

I thought with Peter Jackson’s productions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, we had seen the definitive film works. I learned that Jackson is at it again with “The Hunt for Gollum” and that an animated production of “The War of the Rohirrim” is also in production. Of course, Christopher Tolkien has carried on his father’s legacy, mining his notes for other stories. I’m reading Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth which delves (a dwarfish word!) into the background of things alluded to in Tolkien’s most familiar work. What amazes me is how J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t just write a long story, but conceived a whole history behind it, as well as numerous languages. No wonder Tolkien has been a source for so much creative rendering of his work. There is actually far more to tell than we’ve seen thus far. The only thing I would ask for is a few less Orc battles!

Well, that’s a wrap!

The Ways We Read

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Picture of a young girl sitting cross-legged on a table reading a book.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

I’ve been thinking lately about the ways we read. Ways? Most of us think reading is sitting in your favorite spot, a physical book in hand, our favorite drink at our side, and under good light.

But readers are far more versatile than that. The book could be an e-reader or tablet. Or an app on our phone, used on a bus, or train, or tram, or sitting at an airplane gate.

Or we may be “reading” by listening to someone read a book. While we drive. Or walk. Or exercise. Or cook.

Of course we don’t just read books. There are magazines, newspapers, instruction books, employee and student handbooks. even cereal boxes!

But we don’t just read silently. or alone. Even when it appears we are, we really are in conversation with the author, a communion of minds and thoughts.

We read aloud. As children called on in class. When we want to hear the sound, the rhythm of words in a poem. I read aloud when I edit an article. Sometimes I read dense writing aloud, phrase by phrase, aurally unpacking closely written ideas.

We read aloud to others. In church or synagogue, reading lectionaries or sacred texts. Sometimes one reader. Sometimes responsively or antiphonally. Sometimes in unison, joining our voices together. Some of us gather in small groups to study the Bible, and often before discussing a text, it will be read aloud.

Authors give readings of their works. We sometimes read favorite passages to each other. Lovers read poetry to each other…or at least once did.

Before audiobooks, my wife and I read to each other on long car trips. And we cherished family read aloud times at our son’s bedtime, sometimes all snuggled up on a sofa, as when we read through the Little House books.

We read to those unable to read. I taped textbook readings for a sight-impaired student. I shudder to think of the hours he spent listening to my voice! I wish I had thought to throw in a few jokes!

We read to the infirm who cannot read. We read to those seriously ill, even nearing death, words of comfort from Psalms, poetry, perhaps an author favored by us both.

We read aloud on holidays, texts appropriate to the day. “I Have A Dream” on Martin Luther King Day, the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July, “The Night Before Christmas” on Christmas Eve, the Seven Last Words on Good Friday.

All this is amazing for a learned skill, acquired with varying degrees of difficulty. As I look at all the ways we read, I’m struck with how much reading is part of the warp and woof of our lives. It’s a cultural good worth preserving, a way of preserving richness and imagination against the forces of banality and entropy that would wear away at us.

All the ways we read.

Review: Sillies, Fancies, & Trifles

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Cover image of "Sillies, Fancies, & Trifles by Peter Kostoglou

Sillies, Fancies, & Trifles, Peter Kostoglou. Resource Publications (ISBN: 9798385207695), 2024.

Summary: A collection of seven short stories, all with an element of the fantastic, inviting us into the mystery of beauty, the deep joy in the world, and the power of love.

I likely would never have heard of this book were it not for the initiative of a first-time Australian author who reached half way around the world and politely inquired if I would review his book. I am so glad he did, because I was introduced to seven short stories that reminded me of a wonderful collection of George MacDonald short stories published in two volumes by Eerdmans, The Gifts of the Child Christ. I’ve read nothing like it since, until this collection.

“Onawish” opens the collection and begins with the scene of a boy’s birthday party, a boy so eager to eat the cake that he is befuddled with “onawish” or “honorwish” until he finds himself transported to find himself plopped headfirst into a giant cake. Through a series of adventures, he discovers the deep pain his father bears, and a deepened love.

“The Conference of the Trees” follows the courses of two trees from before the “Days of Man,” Shema and Iver who, in seeking to discover what “treeness” is, take very different paths.

“The Boy and His Rod” traces the story of Daniel, given a rod formed of a serpent of great power by a voice in a burning bush, that he might act in the name of the voice to make a great nation. It’s a story of how power may tempt, even the power to do something that seems good.

In “Hanz,” Antigone, skipping through her garden, stumbles, falls, and finds herself in a strange conversation with a gnome in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Phoebe, in “The Antiquated Mirror” loves being “Queen” over her younger sister until their fights get her sent to her room where she glimpses herself, approaches an antique mirror, and finds herself trapped in it while an evil “twin” escapes into her household.

“The Man Who Lived in Darkness” was a personal favorite. A father and daughter are estranged as her father chooses a dark, anti-social and depressing life until her daughter wants to meet her grandfather.

In “Lilies of the Vale” a man tries to “Draw Love,” plucks a lily for a girl he loves, and learns a lesson from lilies of what it means to love.

This last makes explicit what runs through these stories, the lessons of what it means to love in our flawed yet beautiful world and how that fits into a larger way of love, an idea explained in a final word. Peter Kostoglou’s stories carry the echoes of this love, inviting to tune our ears, to quiet ourselves to listen, to look with greater attentiveness at the everyday ordinaries in which extraordinary love is hidden.

I hope this is the first of many such collections from this author. These silly, fanciful, and trifling tales are only so in appearance while carrying profound ideas that capture the imagination and delve the recesses of our hearts.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Awakening to Justice

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Cover image of "Awakening to Justice" by Jemar Tisby et al.

Awakening to Justice, The Dialogue on Race and Faith Project, Jemar Tisby, Christopher P. Momany, Sègbégnon Mathieu Gnonhossou, David D. Daniels III, R. Matthew Sigler, Douglas M. Strong, Diane Leclerc, Esther Chung-Kim, Albert G. Miller, and Estrelda Y. Alexander. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009185), 2024.

Summary: How a long-forgotten journal led a team to recover the stories of three abolitionists and their times.

Imagine working as an archivist when a large box arrives of miscellaneous memorabilia, that sat forgotten for many years in a college supply closet. Most of it looked like it came from the 1950’s except for an old notebook with a marble cover that was filled with handwriting with dates going back to the late 1830’s. This is what happened in 2015 when an archivist at Adrian College called Chris Momany, chaplain and religious historian.

As he read, he was stunned to find a drawing of a ship, Ulysses, impounded in Jamaica holding 556 slaves in incredibly cramped and sordid conditions. He was able to figure out that he was holding the diary of David Ingraham, an abolitionist missionary to Jamaica. He had been part of a group known as the “Lane Rebels” who left Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati to enroll at Oberlin College, where Charles Finney was on faculty of an abolitionist school that admitted Blacks. The college president was Asa Mahan, who became a mentor, and later left Oberlin to become Adrian College’s president, which may be how the notebook ended there.

But what to do? Consulting fellow historian Doug Strong, the two wondered if the journal might be the basis of a project studying the people around Ingraham, who died of tuberculosis in 1841 for what may be learned from these abolitionists for our day. Thus was formed The Dialogue on Race and Faith Project, convening a multiracial group of fourteen scholars who met together, traveled to Cincinnati and Oberlin, and produced the collection of papers that make up this work, amply fulfilling the vision of Momany and Strong. In particular, they focused on two others associated with Ingraham, James Bradley, a former slave and Lane Rebel, and Nancy Prince, an African American from Boston, who taught with Ingraham in Jamaica. Both wrote memoirs that served as compelling primary sources of their experiences in abolitionist and mission work.

After an introduction that sets the three in the revivalist/holiness context around Lane and Oberlin and the ministry of Finney, Christopher Momany offers a composite biography of Ingraham, Bradley, and Prince. In chapter two, Sègbégnon Mathieu Gnonhossou, describes what Ingraham found onboard the impounded Ulysses, and offers a detailed account of slaving in West Africa. David D. Daniels III, in chapter three recounts the experiences of both racism and inclusion encountered by Bradley and Prince in the North. Prince spent some years in Russia, which at the time was more racially enlightened than New England.

How were the abolitionists sustained in this arduous struggle, both at home and in Jamaica? R. Matthew Sigler explores in chapter four the important role of worship and personal devotional in the lives of the three. Chapter five examines the theological underpinnings of these “ordinary abolitionists.” showing how a sense of the all-embracing love of God and devotion to Christ spurred them both to evangelism and advocacy for justice for the slaves.

Diane Leclerc, in chapter six considers the hardships faced by both black and white women in this era. She details the exploitation of Black women’s bodies, and also the hardships faced by women like Sarah Ingraham Penfield, who followed her parents to Jamaica, also following them in death by tuberculosis while facing isolation due to her insistence on equality, the Oberlin Principles, convictions not shared by other missionaries. Philanthropy, such as that of the Tappans, played a vital role in the efforts of the abolitionist, as Esther Chung-Kim shows in chapter seven. Albert G. Miller shows the struggle Oberlin, both the town and the college, faced in maintaining racial equality in enrollments, campus housing, and restrictive title deeds for properties in Oberlin.

Read the appendices! They provide a helpful timeline of the persons and events and crucial writings of Bradley, Prince, and Ingraham, including a facsimile of his journal page with a diagram of the layout and confining dimensions of Ulysses. Hearing their own words about their faith and passion to fight slavery is stirring, including Ingraham’s plaintive question:

“O where are the sympathies of christians for the slave + where are their exersians (sic) for their liberation. O it seems as if the church were asleep + Satan has the world following him.”

I love this example of how a community of Christian scholars collaborate, using the discovery of a journal, to tell both the stories of Ingraham, Prince, and Bradley as well as the larger stories of slavery, racism, and abolitionist activism in their time and the inspiration it gives for our own day. As an Ohioan, I’ve been inspired by our Underground Railroad history, tracing its routes through the campus of Ohio State and through the areas around my home town of Youngstown. I’ve known some of the history of Lane and Oberlin, including seeing the historic buildings shown in archival photos in the book. Reading this work makes me both proud of this spiritual and abolitionist history and determined to carry it forward in our day.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Matthew Through Old Testament Eyes

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Cover image of "Matthew Through Old Testament Eyes" by David B Capes

Matthew Through Old Testament Eyes, David B. Capes. Kregel Academic (ISBN: 9780825444784), 2024.

Summary: A commentary on the Gospel of Matthew showing both obvious and subtle references to the Old Testament of how the life and ministry of Jesus fulfilled the plan of God articulated in these passages.

The Gospel of Matthew would seem the ideal book to look at “through Old Testament eyes.” Matthew wrote for a primarily Jewish audience and cites numerous OT passages and alludes to others. This commentary draws all that out, including a very helpful chart on the twelve fulfillment quotations (yes, the number is significant) (pp. 136-137). Through inline verse by verse commentary, sections on the structure, passage overviews “through Old Testament Eyes” and “Going Deeper” discussions on particular passages, David Capes helps the reader of Matthew understand how Jesus, in his life and ministry, fulfilled the redemptive purposes of God, glimpsed by the writers of the former Testament.

In my review, I want to highlight some of the fresh insights I gained from this study:

  • Capes notes the chiastic structure of the genealogy that highlights Jesus as Messiah, son of David and Son of Abraham.
  • He ties Herod into the bad shepherds of Micah.
  • He notes the connection of the servant song (Isaiah 42) to the Father’s “with him I am well pleased” at the baptism of Jesus.
  • The beatitude form is one found throughout the Old Testament.
  • The idea of the Two Ways restates themes found in Deuteronomy and elsewhere.
  • The three clusters of three miracles in Mt. 8-9 each end with teaching on some aspect of discipleship
  • The promise of rest in Matthew 11:28-30 sounds much like that in Jeremiah 6:16.
  • Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is intentional, even premeditated, and not accidental.
  • Capes sees parallels between King Ahasuerus and his oaths to Esther and Herod’s oath to his daughter at the banquet. A fascinating comparison!
  • Only Matthew uses the term “church” in the “on this rock” promise to Peter.
  • The elevation of children as models of discipleship is highlighted.
  • Jesus arrival in Jerusalem on a donkey harks to Zechariah 9:9 and signifies the kind of king he is.
  • Jesus is clear about his identity as the cornerstone, his rejection, and its consequences.
  • Capes offers a helpful outline of the apocalyptic discourse of Matthew 24-25.
  • It was not blasphemy for Jesus to claim he was Messiah, but rather to sit at God’s right hand and come on the clouds.
  • Psalm 22 underlies the account of the torture, humiliation, and crucifixion, and Jesus cry of dereliction.
  • Jesus Great Commission recapitulates his whole ministry–he exemplified what he commands.

This is only a selection. Capes helps us see the large structure of the five sermons and the bookends of Matthew as well as smaller details, such as parable or miracle groupings and their significance. Most of all, he helps us recognize in the story of Jesus the realization of the story of God’s history with Israel. Capes also helps us see how this gospel is a manual of discipleship, both for the first followers of Jesus and those of us coming along centuries later.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.