Mount St. Helens

The Month in Reviews: January 2016

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Welcome to the first “Month in Reviews” of 2016–can you believe a month has passed already? This month’s reviews included a book on beginnings in Genesis, and a book on the end, looking at “end times” passages throughout the New Testament. I read a couple of new books on the university world. There was classic sci fi and some good science writing on Mount St. Helens. I read a biography of King Arthur, a biographical novel of labor organizer Joe Hill, and a theological memoir by Thomas Oden. The month’s reads also included a book on “battered leaders” and strategies for communication when we differ. Here are the review summaries with links to the full reviews in the titles. The full reviews include publisher links.

Undisciplining KnowledgeUndisciplining Knowledge, Harvey J. Graff. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. This is a historical study of interdisciplinary efforts in universities, looking at successive efforts in the twentieth century and considering the location of such “interdisciplines”, the relationships between disciplines, and the organization of interdisciplinary efforts.

King ArthurKing Arthur, Christopher Hibbert. New Word City, 2014. King Arthur and the myth of Camelot have fascinated generations and continues to capture the imagination of Britons as their once and future king. Hibbert’s book both narrates the fiction and delineates what may be known of the historical Arthur.

Lost WorldThe Lost World of Adam and Eve, John H. Walton. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015.  Building on his earlier The Lost World of Genesis One, Walton contends that Adam and Eve are both archetypes of humanity and also historical figures, though not necessarily our biological progenitors, that their disobedience brought disorder into the sacred space of the creation affecting all people, and that Christ’s work has to do with restoring that order.

EruptionEruption, Steve Olson. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2016 (forthcoming March 2016). This narrative weaves together the science, history, and economic interests surrounding the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, and its subsequent history.

The Last DaysThe Last Days According to Jesus, R. C. Sproul. Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2015 (originally published in 1998).  R.C. Sproul takes on the time-frame issues of the New Testament that seem to reflect an expectation of an imminent return of Christ and gives serious consideration to the preterist position that all or most of the predictions concerning the Last Days were fulfilled by the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

Battered LeadersHandbook for Battered Leaders, Janis Bragan Balda and Wesley D. Balda. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013. Using 2 Corinthians as a case study of battered leadership, the authors explore the factors that contribute to organizational conflict, and how battered leaders may respond to toxic organizational cultures.

Joe HillJoe Hill, Wallace Stegner. New York: Penguin Books, 1990 (Originally published under the title The Preacher and the Slave, 1950). Wallace Stegner describes this as a “biographical novel” and in it, he fills out the enigmatic life and death of labor organizer and songwriter, Joe Hill, who was executed for murder before a Utah firing squad in November 1915.

Reengineering the UniversityReengineering the University, William F. Massy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016 (expected publication date February 11, 2016). Massy develops a data-driven model that allows universities to engage in planning that optimizes both mission and money considerations in institutional planning and budgeting in the changing marketing landscape of twenty-first century higher education.

Change of HeartA Change of Heart, Thomas C. Oden. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. Thomas Oden narrates his personal and theological journey through social leftist thought, neo-orthodox and process theology, and trends of ecumenism, feminism, and small group psychotherapy until a personal conversation led to repentance and an embrace of classical, patristic Christianity (paleo-orthodoxy) and landmark works in patristic scholarship and the North African origins of Christianity.

Tower of GlassTower of Glass, Robert Silverberg. New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2014 (initially print publication, 1970). Mega-wealthy Simeon Krug, creator of the process that produces androids, learns of signals from a distant star and uses his androids to build a tower of glass to communicate. Obsessed with distant life, he is woefully ignorant of the hopes and faith the life he has created place in him.

I Beg to DifferI Beg to Differ, Tim Muehlhoff. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. Building on an understanding of the dynamics of communication, this book develops a strategy for navigating difficult conversations through asking four key questions of those with whom we differ.

Best book of the month: I would give the nod to Thomas Oden’s A Change of Heart. I wrote in my blog:

“I found this to be a powerful narrative of Oden’s life but also the follies of many of the successive theologies of the twentieth century, theologies that distanced Oden from the centrality of the crucified and risen Lord for an empty and unsatisfying activism. His turning makes me examine how deeply I am listening to Christians across the centuries, and not just the “latest thing.” I found myself warned of the danger of being the “know-it-all pundit”. And it left me with a profound sense of thankfulness for Oden’s Jewish friend who risked affection to tell the truth. What a gift this resulted in not only for Oden but for the church.”

Best quote of the month: In this case, the description from the air of the first moments of the cataclysmic eruption of Mount St. Helens in Eruption riveted my attention:

“Look,” he said, “the crater.” Judson tipped the Cessna’s right wing so they could get a better view. Some of the snow on the south facing side of the crater had started to move. Then, as they looked out the plane’s windows, an incredible thing happened. A gigantic, east-west crack appeared across the top of the mountain, splitting the volcano in two. The ground on the northern half of the crack began to ripple and churn, like a pan of milk just beginning to boil. Suddenly, without a sound, the northern portion of the mountain began to slide downward…

Reviewing Soon: Tomorrow, I will be reviewing Jon Meacham’s Destiny and Power on the life of George H. W. Bush. I am near to finishing N. T. Wright’s Paul and His Recent Interpreters, which gives an extensive account of recent Pauline scholarship and the engagement between Wright and other contemporary scholars concerning Wright’s “new perspective” take on Paul. I just started The Man Who Loved Books Too Much (not an autobiography, but an account of a notorious book thief who stole not to make money but because of his “out of bounds” love for books. I’m also finishing up Eugene Merrill’s fine commentary on 1 and 2 Chronicles and just started reading a presidential biography of Herbert Hoover that will be published in May!

Happy reading!

 

Review: Eruption

/ rtrube54 / 3 Comments

EruptionEruption, Steve Olson. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2016 (forthcoming March 2016).

Summary: This narrative weaves together the science, history, and economic interests surrounding the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, and its subsequent history.

I’ve been a sucker for a volcano story ever since a volcano was a part of the plotline in a comic strip I followed as a kid. Years later, I devoured Simon Winchester’s Krakatoa.  Mount St. Helens occurred in my lifetime, one more disaster at the end of Jimmy Carter’s ill-fated presidency, one marked by darkened skies and spectacular sunsets, in our part of the country, but spectacular devastation and the loss of 57 lives in the area 15 to 20 miles out from the north face of the volcano.

Steve Olson’s account of this disaster describes not only the eruption but the history of the mountain, the region, and particularly the logging interests of the Weyerhaeuser Company that played such a big story in this narrative.

The narrative begins on March 20, 1980, when the volcano stirs to life. Soon we are introduced to Dave Johnston, a volcanologist whose life was to end on the fateful day of the eruption. And we are introduced to Weyerhaeuser, with 300 loggers working within miles of the volcano, pulled back after the initial eruption, but soon sent back in to continue logging old growth trees on Weyerhaeuser land near the volcano. Olson takes a detour at this point, giving us the back history of the Weyerhauser family, including the owner’s abduction as a child, and how they came to hold the lands around the mountain.

Part two turns to the warnings geologist were giving. Studies of the area around the mountain showed inches to feet thick areas of ash and pumice miles from the volcano including evidence of past lateral eruptions. Soon, geologists are noticing an ominous bulge on the north face that continues to grow. We are introduced to those living and working around the volcano, some like Harry Truman adamant about staying, others concerned with the dangers. And then there are the fateful red and blue zones, drawn around Weyerhaeuser lands that allow camper and others to get far closer than was truly safe, in collusion with the state’s conservative governor. Part three introduces us to the history of conservation efforts led by the likes of Gifford Pinchot and the continuing efforts of those like Kathy Saul leading a hike in the shadow of the mountain a week before the eruption. This part concludes with a list and map of those in the vicinity of the volcano the night before the eruption, including Dave Johnston, monitoring the volcano.

Part four is the eruption. The chapter begins with this description of geologist, Keith Stoffel, flying over the volcano the moment it erupted on Sunday May 18:

“Look,” he said, “the crater.” Judson tipped the Cessna’s right wing so they could get a better view. Some of the snow on the south facing side of the crater had started to move. Then, as they looked out the plane’s windows, an incredible thing happened. A gigantic, east-west crack appeared across the top of the mountain, splitting the volcano in two. The ground on the northern half of the crack began to ripple and churn, like a pan of milk just beginning to boil. Suddenly, without a sound, the northern portion of the mountain began to slide downward…

Olson goes on to describe the eruption, and the last moments of many of those around the mountain, and the stories of those who survived, along with, in Part five, the rescue efforts and the aftermath of flooding and devastation of the forests to the north and west of the volcano.

Parts six and seven concern the years after the eruption, beginning with efforts to set aside significant lands for a national monument, contested by logging interests who simply wanted to salvage, and replant the area. Evenually 110,000 acres are protected as the Mount St. Helens Volcanic Monument. What this has allowed is the study of how such an ecosystem recovers from the blast. This also spelled the end of logging in the area, but a growth of other tourism and recreation interests along with the diversified economic growth in the Pacific Northwest.

Olson tells us a tale in which public safety is held hostage to economic interest. It is perhaps providential that the eruption took place on a Sunday, when the numbers of those in the blast zone were at their lowest. On Monday, 300 loggers would have been in the area. Even on Saturday, lodge owners were given access to their property. We also see both the heroic in figures like Dave Johnston and the foolhardy in Harry Truman who refused to leave and was one of the first to die. Finally we are given a warning of the powerful forces we live alongside. Volcanoes actually give us the most tangible warnings, but fault lines, coastlines subject to surge and tsunami, hurricanes and tornadoes put many of us at some risk, as the author notes, risks of which we are often oblivious. Perhaps that’s why some of us like volcano stories–they are risks most of us do not face.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”