Those of you who regularly follow my blog will note that there was no post this morning. That’s the first time that happened since 2016 when I had foot surgery that required a hospital stay. This time it was because my body forced me to take a sick day yesterday. I had woken early for a routine doctor appointment (with my foot doc!). I felt more tired than usual but chalked it up to an early start. I made it through the morning fine. But at midday, I felt like someone had dropped a ton of bricks on me. All I could do was sleep. I was running a fever. Some acetaminophen, a good night’s rest and I was feeling drained, but better.
But sometimes health in your seventies feels like whack-a-mole. This morning, I discovered my right hand was red, swollen, and warm to the touch. I’ve had cellulitis before and recognize the signs, which the doc confirmed. He said I did good to get in so quickly. So now it’s two weeks on an antibiotic. Probably got it doing yardwork on Tuesday. The doc wanted to give me a pass on yardwork for the rest of the season!
Ah well… At any rate, the book I would have reviewed today, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, will appear tomorrow morning.
Old Testament Wisdom & Poetry (Scripture Connections), Norah Whipple Caudill. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781087746449) 2025
Summary: Introduces the six books: outlines, author, date, message, biblical connections and application.
B & H Academic has launched a new series of introductory texts for the Bible that serve well as either a main or supplemental text in college courses but also are accessible enough for an adult education course. This volume covers six wisdom and poetry books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Lamentations.
First, the author sets the books in the context of the whole Old Testament in both Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Then she discusses some basics of Hebrew poetry, focusing on parallelism and the use of acrostics and a discussion of what is meant by “Wisdom” literature. One striking observation is of the “terse” lines in much of this poetry.
Caudill follows this rubric for each of the six books:
Outline
Author, Date, and Message. Include key background information.
Interpretive overview. By sections or genres, how interpreters have approached the book and key passages.
Biblical connections. This focuses on how these books either allude to or are alluded to in other parts of the Bible. For example, parallels between Job and the suffering servant in Isaiah are considered.
Gospel connections. Quotes or illusions in the New testament are noted. For instance, Caudill includes a chart listing all the Psalms used in the New Testament.
Ancient connections. These appear as occasional sidebars, offering examples of similar literature in other ancient Near East cultures. For example, Caudill sets Egyptian Harper songs alongside passages on life and death in Ecclesiastes. These parallels underscore not only similarities but distinctives.
Life connections. Here, the focus is on how each book is relevant for life and faith today. Lamentations models expressing grief and anger in honest prayer as well as coming along others in their suffering.
Interactive questions help review chapter content as well as interaction with that content with others.
Where to find more. Offers resources for further reading and research.
Here are a few of the interesting things I noted. Caudill proposes an exilic or post exilic date for Job, even though the setting is in the time of the patriarchs. She notes terms and grammatical features present in late biblical Hebrew to support this. As do many, she takes a genre approach to Psalms. She also calls attention to the numerous acrostic psalms.. Caudill highlights how the idea of lessons from a father to a son in Proverbs concerning wisdom is a feature in literature from several cultures. She also calls attention to the various types of sayings in Proverbs.
She argues against Solomonic authorship for both Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes. One of the sidebars for Ecclesiastes considers all the questions Qohelet asks — some of the most profound questions philosophers ask. For Song of Songs, Caudill lays out different interpretive approaches to the song. She also includes a sketch of a goddess statue which explains Song 4:4. Finally, she highlights the interesting acrostic structure used in Lamentations.
The text is highly accessible for lay audiences but reflects contemporary scholarship. Hebrew is transliterated, except in instances where the writer is calling attention to acrostic patterns. The interactive questions help with both mastery and application of content. The biblical and gospel connections raise student awareness of the intertextual character of scripture. The concise format and reasonable price are also plusses. In sum, this is a marvelous introduction to these six books that will help every student of scripture better understand what they are reading.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
The Idol House of Astarte(Miss Marple short stories), Agatha Christie. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504082297) 2024 (originally published in 1928, 1932).
Summary: Miss Marple solves a murder occurring before witnesses with no obvious assailant and no weapon found.
The Tuesday Night Club was Miss Marple’s idea of entertaining hospitality. Invite a group of guest over to share mysterious occurrences which Miss Marple would attempt to resolve. None were as unusual as the one related by Dr. Pender, the local clergy.
Years before, he was the guest at a weekend party held at the estate of an old college friend, Sir Richard Haydon. The estate is named Silent Grove for a grove of trees leading to a clearing with a summer house Sir Richard has named the Idol House of Astarte. The guests, in addition to Dr. Pender, are Sir Richard’s cousin Elliot, the beautiful Diana Ashley, to whom Sir Richard is attracted, and a Dr. Symonds.
The Idol House intrigues Diana, and she proposes, in effect, an orgy. Dr. Pender, understandably helps nix this idea and instead, they hold a much tamer costume party. During the party, Diana disappears. The guests search for her, passing through the ominous Silent Grove. They find her at the Idol House. She is wearing the dress of a priestess of Astarte. She dances before the house. A spirit seemingly has taken possession of her! She warns others away but Sir Richard approaches, then falls to the ground. Elliot rushes over, finding him dead, stabbed in the heart. But a search yield’s no weapon. And no one was around Sir Richard when he fell.
Then the police investigate, but the death proves a mystery to them. Dr. Pender even believed it may have been supernatural forces at work. But not Miss Marple! She identifies the murderer who, in fact Dr. Pender knew. The murderer subsequently confessed to Dr. Pender shortly before dying.
Christie does all this in a 25 page short story. Christie first published the story in a mystery magazine in 1928. Later, it was part of a collection, The Thirteen Problems, stories told by different members of the Tuesday Night Club. It makes a great standalone as well as a teaser to get one to buy the whole collection!
The Memoirs of Andre’ Trocme’, André Trocmé, Edited by Patrick Cabanel, translated by Patrick Henry and Mary Anne O’Neil. Plough Publishing (ISBN: 9781636081595) 2025 (published in French 2020).
Summary: His childhood, formative years, pacifism, and leadership in sheltering of Jews during the Holocaust.
“On January 5, 1971, Yad Vashem recognized the Reverend André Trocmé and on May 14, 1984 his wife, Magda, as Righteous Among the Nations. 32 other residents of Le Chambon sur Lignon were awarded the title, and in 1990 Yad Vashem presented the village with a special diploma of honor in tribute of their humane conduct during the war” (Yad Vashem | André and Magda Trocmé, Daniel Trocmé)
In 1994 Philip P. Hallie chronicled, in Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, the story of the village of Le Chambon and their efforts under pastor André Trocmé, to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. They saved 5,000 by some estimates. It is a marvelous account, and thankfully, still in print. André Trocmé, in the 1950’s, penned a memoir of his life up to that time for his children. In 2020, it was published, in French. Now, we have an English edition for the first time.
As noted, the account covers the period from his childhood up to the 1950’s, when he was active in promoting the work of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). If I had one criticism of the book, it provided a much longer account of his childhood than many memoirs or biographies. But it does recount the tragic death of his mother in an auto accident while his father was driving, and the impact on the family.
We learn of the family’s struggles as refugees in Belgium during World War 1, and the roots of André Trocmé’s pacifism. Theological studies after the war were interrupted by required military service at a time when France did not recognize conscientious objector status. Refusal to serve meant imprisonment. He offers a fascinating account of how he avoided carrying a gun!
Afterwards, he took advantage of an opportunity for studies in the United States. While in New York, he earned additional funds as a tutor for the Rockefeller children. It became an important connection later. He also met Magda in New York, returning to France to be married. After several pastoral assignments in depressed areas of France, he accepted a position in the small village of Le Chambon.
He recounts how he won the affection of the village and his educational efforts with the College Cévenol, a kind of college preparatory school. All the while, he pursued his pacifist efforts, both with his own congregation and in wider circles, even as France prepared to meet the Nazi threat. When France fell, Le Chambon came under Vichy rule. Vichy, led by Marshal Petain, cooperated in Germany in the areas not directly occupied by Germany.
As Jews seek refuge, he describes the delicate balancing act of complying with Vichy officials while breaking the law.. Then, at one point, they arrest him and fellow pastor Edouard Theis and intern him for several weeks. They could secure their release if they signed an agreement to comply with all Vichy officials. They refused but miraculously were released. His nephew Daniel, also sheltering Jews in a school over which he was principal, was not so lucky. He died under incarceration.
However, the Vichy and the Nazis were not his only problem. Resistance movements sought support, which would go against his pacifist principles. But perhaps the greatest strains were within his own family. Magda wore herself out as she supported this work. Then one of his teenage sons died by suicide, possibly accidental. Trocmé describes the lasting impact of this tragedy with painful honesty. (Another son later committed suicide).
The memoirs reveal the mix of noble and base actions of those around Trocmé. After the war, as he became more engaged in IFOR work, ambitious individuals nudged him out of his pastoral work in Le Chambon. Nor were things entirely agreeable in IFOR. He is unsparing in his criticism of English officials. However, he was able to set up the House of Reconciliation as a base for his international efforts.
The memoirs also reveal a man of firm conviction and a love for people. Out of that love, he refused administrative positions by which he would gain greater influence. Above all the memoirs reveal a man knowing his strengths and weaknesses, humble and honest about both. A great complement to Hallie’s book!
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
BookRiot ran a story this week arguing “We’re in a Book Affordability Crisis.” One of the key pieces in this affordability crisis is the phasing out of mass market paperbacks, hitting the romance segment of the market most heavily (although many mysteries, thrillers, and science fiction/fantasy have been published in this format as well). Remember when you could buy one of these for $.50 to $.95? Even in recent years, prices were under $10, many even under $7.
The next step up is the trade paperback with price points in the $16-20 range. That represents a doubling in cost. Of course, hardbacks are just out of reach for many. So what do people do? Some dedicated readers just cut back in other areas as they can. But the book trade cannot depend on that. Retail sellers will probably lean into loyalty programs and periodic sales, and pre-release discounts.
But many dedicated readers will probably move away from retail purchasing. Second hand sales, ranging from online sellers like Thriftbooks to physical stores and library sales may benefit. But their prices are rising as well, and eventually, their supply of mass market books will decrease. Others will just hit the library, which means longer waitlists. And libraries will feel the pinch of higher acquisition costs in all formats.
And like the folks at BookRiot, I don’t see more e-book buying. Digital Rights Management limits re-selling options for books you only license, not own. And often, the cost is not that different from physical books, unless you spot a discount.
Dedicated readers are resourceful, and most already have an ample stock laid up so that they can “shop their shelves.” One way or another, they will find a way to feed their habit. I’m less sure about “budding readers.” But this also poses challenges for retail sellers, especially indie booksellers, whose ability to buy at discount are less. I wonder, as does BookRiot, whether, in the end, publishers will come up with some kind of under $10 option. Maybe they will realize that the mass market is a market.
Five Articles Worth Reading
But is all this a sign we are entering a post-literate society? I first read many classics — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, C.S. Lewis, Dickens, and Dostoevsky — in mass market paperbacks (and still have some of them!). James Marriott believes we are on the other side of a three century reading revolution and are witnessing “The dawn of the post-literate society.” I wonder if we serious readers are becoming dinosaurs. At least I will keep doing my part to “light a candle rather than curse the darkness.”
Nevertheless, Thomas Pynchon keeps writing. Gus Mitchell reviews The Shadow Ticket in “The American Dream-Master.” The novel explores fascism in 1930’s America. Hmm.
She’s written “about animals, about orchids, about a female bullfighter in Spain, about the Los Angeles Central Library, about the life and death of a 346-year-old tree, about subjects you didn’t think you cared about but actually do.” “She” is Susan Orlean and her new memoir’s title Joyride gives us a glimpse of what it has been like. So Sarah Lyell sat down with her to talk about that life and the new book and discovered “How Writing Helped Susan Orlean Find a ‘Bigger Place in the World’“
Then another reason for not giving up on the possibility of a return to literacy is that great books continue to be written. This week, Publisher’s Weekly released its “Best books of 2025.” The list covers 150 fiction, non-fiction, teen, and youth books. But it does seem a tad early for “best book” lists. Isn’t there anything good coming out in the next two months?
As I write, baseball’s World Series is underway. College and pro football and soccer are in full swing. The hockey season just began and basketball is not far off. All that is to make the point that literacy need not preclude reading books about sports. There has been and is some great sports writing. David Halberstam, Roger Angell and George Will all wrote great baseball books. Will Leitch introduces us to some great books in “Seven Books That Will Change How You Watch Sports.”
Quote of the Week
Novelist Michael Crichton was born October 23, 1942. He made this pithy observation:
“I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.”
Nowhere does this seem more true than on social media where it seems we need a daily dose of epistemic humility!
Miscellaneous Musings
I’m reading What We Can Know by Ian McEwan. The story revolves around the quest for a lost poem in a post-apocalyptic world, a century from now. Many coastal cities have been inundated. Regional wars, some using “limited” nuclear options, paradoxically have helped cool the climate. But the title reflects the effort to reconstruct a dinner party from 2014 and a poem read in honor of the poet’s wife’s birthday. The poet was famous in his time, the poem thought to be a masterwork. However, in his scenario, the period beginning in 2030 is called “The Derangement.’ That seems plausible.
I was gratified to write the publicist at a small publisher for a review copy of a new book. She remembered my reviews of a couple of their books from several years back and was glad to send the book. That personal touch is increasingly rare. More often, you just submit a form. Who knows, maybe there is an AI bot in the future, who may seem personal. But the human connection is one of the things about reviewing that I’ve most valued.
I really need to do something for our mail carrier this Christmas. The daily USPS Informed Delivery email from the post office revealed I had four books coming from different publishers. I knew those wouldn’t fit in our mailbox so I raced to meet her when I heard the truck. But she was already on my doorstep, scanning the packages when I got there. She’s really terrific. Any ideas of a good and appropriate gift?
Next Week’s Reviews
Monday: Andre Trocme’, The Memoirs of Andre Trocme’
Tuesday: Agatha Christie, The Idol House of Astarte
Wednesday: Norah Whipple Caudill, Old Testament Wisdom & Poetry
Thursday: John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
Friday, Ian Mc Ewan, What We Can Know
So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for October 19-25.
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page
Summary: Explores elements of healthy relationships. the complexities of intimacy, and how the gospel relates to intimacy.
“I can live without sex, but I can’t live without intimacy.”
This statement from Erin F. Moniz’s new book on intimacy comes like a splash of fresh, cold water on the face. A wake up. Provocative. Surprising. And after all that, refreshing. Moniz proposes that intimacy is not confined to sex but has to do with relationships with friends, family, and ultimately, God. But she contends that the intimacy narrative has been co-opted by secular culture. While many young Christians think Christianity ought to enrich one’s understanding of intimacy, few have any idea of how this is so. Cultural narratives, and sexual essentialism reign. In this book, Moniz explores how secularism took over the intimacy narrative, how healthy relationships form and flourish, and how the gospel offers hope for intimacy.
The first part of the book lays groundwork in several ways. Moniz offers a framework for intimate relationships, noting that not all intimate relationships are sexual. Nor are all sexual relationships intimate. Healthy relationships, she contends, are marked by self-giving love, attention and curiosity, and commitment. Two other components undergird these: communication and trust-building behaviors. She then takes a deep dive into cultural analysis, showing how secular culture has coopted our understanding of intimacy. She calls out hook-up culture, romance idolatry, and hypersexualization that threatens to make all relationships sexual. Sadly, Christianity bought into this, confining sexual essentialism to marriage and creating a sexually-charged purity culture. In so doing, we hand youth broken compasses rather than a distinctive relationship ethic centered in the gospel.
The second part of the book addresses the idea of a gospel-centered theology of intimacy. She roots our longing for intimacy in God’s good creation and the loving intimacy within the Trinity. She traces intimacy problems to shame, absent before the fall. We fear vulnerability, an essential to intimacy. Yet God hasn’t given up on us but pursues restorative relationships while preserving our agency and consent. Then Moniz explores the experience of loneliness, which we can assuage in unhealthy ways. Or we can choose to see loneliness as an invitation from God to show us both ourselves and Himself. Finally, the gospel involves a re-membering, both of who we are as the beloved of God and members with others in one body.
The final part of the book works out the implications of gospel centered intimacy in the church. She works out what this looks like for marriages, families, and friendships within the larger community. She envisions a place where everyone belongs to the family–eating together, sharing resources, and even fighting for each other in the face of injustice. Church becomes a place of forming healthy relationships rooted in the serving love of the gospel. In her epilogue, she gets real, describing a community that was so there for her family when thieves broke into their home. Yet that same community fell apart a few years later. Our hope is a messy hope because we are messy. Yet the hope of those seasons of gospel intimacy bids us to not give up.
The two strengths of this book for me are Moniz’s description of how the secular narrative of intimacy co-opted Christian communities and how she roots intimacy theologically in the gospel. Stories from both personal and campus ministry experience complement the sound theological framework she offers. She is someone who has walked the talk. For those longing for intimacy, she offers a much larger vision than just sex. Above all, she affirms the longing for intimacy as a good gift of God.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Runs in the Family, Sarah Spain and Deland McCullough. Simon Element (ISBN: 9781668036280) 2025.
Summary: An adopted child in difficult circumstances rises to coach in the NFL before finding his biological parents.
The couple had just lost a child. The father was a popular DJ in the town’s rock and roll station, the first Black DJ. The mother, Adelle, was a strong woman with an accounting background. They were popular and their house was a favorite party location on the East side of Youngstown. In March of 1973, they found a Black child in an orphanage in Pittsburgh. The adoption was easily approved and he was named Deland Scott McCullough.
Sadly the marriage did not last long. Adelle, Deland and his older brother Damon were on their own. The next years were harrowing as Adelle sometimes resorted to drug dealing to keep the family afloat and got involved in a string of abusive relationships with men. Growing up in those circumstances with the high crime rates of early 1980’s Youngstown, it did not look promising for Deland. But Adelle was determined to raise them right. Eventually, she cleans up her life. Damon sticks close to him as does an uncle. And Deland discovers a talent for football, working harder than other teammates at Campbell Memorial. Never a good student, he works hard to pass college entrance exams.
He led his team to winning seasons. Then Sherman Smith came into his life. Smith was the running backs coach for Miami University. He formerly played in the NFL. And he got his start at Youngstown’s North High School. He saw past the family’s impoverished circumstances and McCullough’s potential to the kind of young man he was coming, someone he hoped to mentor. McCullough accepted the scholarship offer, going on to have an outstanding four years, setting rushing records. He was frequently at the Smiths, watching their family and soaking up life advice.
He went on to a brief professional career, ended by injuries, worked at a juvenile center where he met Darnell, who he would marry, and at a charter school. Then the opportunity to coach at his alma mater came along. He sought Sherman Smith’s advice. By then, Smith was an NFL coach. Eventually, he took a position at Indiana, and had the opportunity to do a coaching internship under Smith. Others remarked how alike they were in coaching philosophies, and even mannerisms and the way they walked. Clearly, Smith met a need for a father as well as a mentor for Deland. Ultimately, Deland made it to the NFL as a running backs coach.
But not knowing his parentage troubled him. The book explores the reasons why adoption records were sealed and the struggle many adoptees had with not knowing their birth parents. Furthermore, both Deland’s birth and adoptive father abandoned him. He struggled to understand things about himself, why he reacted as he did at times. But slowly things changed. Eventually, Pennsylvania opened up birth records for adoptees. The day came when he received his birth certificate. His mother was a sixteen year old girl, Carol Briggs. He had been born Jon Kenneth Briggs. But no father name was on the birth certificate.
I will not say more about how the story unfolded except that it was amazing and transformative not only for Deland but for his birth parents. It was also difficult for Adelle and it meant both redefining the relationship on adult terms and reassuring her that no one had more influence in Deland’s life. She was always his only “Ma.”
The book is powerful at several levels. One is Deland’s success in life, in sports and marriage. He became the father he didn’t have. A second is the powerful exploration in this book of the longing for belonging and identity of adoptees. Finally, the resolution was one of those “beyond your wildest dreams” endings. Finding one’s biological parents doesn’t always work like this. But it warms your heart when it does.
Summary: Challenges misconceptions of Reformation readings of Paul and proposes constructive approaches.
At times, one gets the impression in Pauline studies that there is either the perspective of the Reformers, and particularly Luther, or the New Perspective on Paul in its covenant and apocalyptic forms. And one gets the impression that we miss the meaning of Paul if we read him through Luther’s personal crisis and his liberating grasp of justification as God’s imputation of Christ’s righteousness through faith in Christ. We miss Paul’s concerns for covenantal boundaries and the inclusion of the Gentiles.
Stephen J. Chester, in this work, demonstrates the over-simplifications and misconceptions in such views. For one thing, Reformed and New Perspectives share in a much larger interpretive history. Chester traces the exegesis of Augustine, of the medieval scholars and their nominalism and the rise of humanism that preceded the Reformation. He also acquaints us with the parallel to New Perspective scholarship in the rise of Lutheran scholarship, including Bultmann.
Chester examines the careful exegetical work of Luther and his peers that led to a radical departure from Augustinian interpretation. He contends that New Perspective scholars need to reckon with that exegesis and recognize that there is far more than Luther’s guilty conscience involved in Luther’s elucidation of sin, law, the work of Christ, and grace. Chester develops an engagement that recognizes ways the New Perspective depends on the Reformers, ways it intensifies some aspects, ways it makes false assumptions, and ways it is truly in conflict.
Chester also argues that while the Reformers shared a commitment to justifying faith that looks to Christ to receive an alien righteousness, they had varied understanding how this was experienced by believers. In Part Three of the work, he offers an extended study of Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin. Both Luther and Calvin stressed the idea of our union with Christ by faith. Melanchthon, by contrast, focuses more on justification being on account of Christ. In addition, Calvin, in contrast with Luther stressed union with Christ in both justification and sanctification without confusing the two.
Chester focuses in the concluding part of the work on how the idea of union with Christ may be fruitful in contemporary studies. This proposal typifies Chester’s approach throughout. Rather than oppose interpreters, Chester looks for the places of engagement. He affirms advances in New Perspective scholarship while inviting a better reading of the Reformers. I found this a far more constructive engagement than, for example, the polemical exchange between John Piper and N.T. Wright. His history of Pauline exegesis sets both the Reformers and the New Perspective within a larger context. And through it all, he points us to Paul’s marvelous apprehension of the grace of God.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Summary: A forester buys a piece of Vermont forest that had been mismanaged and implements restorative practices.
Ethan Tapper is a consulting forester and service forester in Vermont. He’s worked with both public and privately owned land, consulting with landowners on the best management practices. He’s had to navigate the space between commercial loggers who will log all but the diseased trees and environmentalists who want nothing to be done. The reality is that forests have been mismanaged and won’t recover on their own.
In 2017, Tapper put his money where his mouth was and bought a piece of mismanaged forest on what he named Bear Island. In much of the book, he recounts his walks through the forest and his actions to care for it. Surprisingly, he has a chainsaw in hand much of the time. He writes, “I truly understand how the cutting of a tree could be an expression of compassion and humility an act of healing, an act of love.” So, we walk with him as he cuts down diseased beech trees and sprays invasive plants. Opening up the forest to new growth. Planting oaks and maples. And hunting does to reduce the deer population that ravages the forest.
He traces the history of the land from indigenous peoples to early settlers, farmers and herders, loggers, and the coming of the construction of subdivisions. Then he goes below ground and acquaints us with the Wood Wide Web, the network of roots and microorganisms underground, working as a communicative and life-restoring system. Along the way, we observe a fallen tree and the processes of decay that bring about new life. But not all is new. We encounter wolf trees, ancient survivors of the centuries. Finally, we walk with him as he plants acorn into a patch cut.
One of the most moving chapters is his visit to a landowner after a big windstorm. The wind blew down whole stand of pines. A favorite old maple–a wolf tree–has split in two. The owner can see only devastation of forest she loved. But Tepper tries to help her envision the new life that will run riot in this place, the resilience of the forest.
Resilience and responsibility. We learn that these two go hand in hand. On one hand, forests are marvelous ecosystems. Yet human mismanagement and disease invite Tapper to exercise responsible care. Cutting, killing, pruning, and planting intelligently, working with the ways of the forest. All of these are part of Tepper’s work as a member of perhaps the ultimate keystone species. Tepper does not write from a Christian perspective. Yet he exercises the responsible dominion and care of tending and guarding this forest garden (Genesis 2:15). Instead of leaving it alone, his care enables it to flourish. Tepper expresses it in this way:
“Someday I will teach my children that this world is not ours to hold but that we hold it anyway, that each of us is a steward for one brief and precious moment in time. In our short lives, we must learn to pair power and freedom with humility, to embody responsibility and relationship, even when it breaks our heart.”
Tepper writes eloquently, expressing knowledge in the form of deep compassion for the forests of Bear Island. Not only that, we read the commitment that tends for a future he will not see. But is not this the kind of thinking we all must embrace? Thus, Tepper’s story serves as a kind of parable for us all, whether it is forest or farm or suburban lot that we love and care for.
Walking the Way of the Wise (Essential Studies in Biblical Theology), Mitchell L. Chase. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514010914) 2025.
Summary: Traces the idea of wisdom in scripture and how integral it is to walking well with God in covenant relationship.
For most of us, when we think of Wisdom in connection with the Bible, we think of the Wisdom literature. Three books stand out: Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. We might add some of the psalms, perhaps the Song of Songs. Then some might even add James. While these books are of the “genre” of Wisdom literature, Mitchell L. Chase proposes that wisdom runs through the whole storyline of the Bible. An adequate theology of wisdom must encompass the whole Bible.. In this book, Chase offers an outline of the contours of such a theology.
It is a story that begins in the Garden. God wanted Adam and Eve to be wise in knowing good and evil through trusting obedience. Instead, they chose the folly of moral autonomy in a quest for wisdom apart from God. Now the divine wisdom that created the world would be needed to save it. Before continuing the storyline of Genesis, Chase considers our need for wisdom amidst suffering in the ancient story of Job. Then we turn to Abraham and his descendants, including the children of Israel in the exodus. We observe the wisdom of trusting obedience that saves Egypt in famine, and the consequences of giving way to fear when Israel heeds the bad report of the spies rather than trust God’s power to give them the land.
Eventually, under Joshua, Israel enters the land. As he passes the torch to the next generation, Joshua exhorts them to live by God’s law. This was wisdom for enjoying the covenant relationship God had established with Israel to be their King and enjoy his protection. But they would have none of it and rebelled. Rejecting God, they had no king and pursued the folly of doing what was right in their own eyes, becoming prey to the nations. They believed only an earthly king could save them. In Saul, they learned that a king whose heart was not after God would also be a problem.
Then in David came a king who sang God’s wisdom from the heart, giving us many of the psalms. He sang of the wisdom of delighting in the law of the Lord and the folly of rejecting God. He sang of the holiness by which we may approach God, the presence of God in death’s shadow, and how God would guide all our ways in wisdom.
Following David, Solomon sought, received, and gathered wisdom to instruct both his children and his corporate son, Israel in living well with God. Then in the Song of Songs, Solomon, as tradition would have it, gave us wisdom for love in the covenant relationship of marriage, a parable for God’s covenant relationship with his people. Finally, Solomon offers us the wisdom that comes in knowing we will die. He paints our pretentious projects as futile against the transience of our lives, and commends the wisdom of receiving with joy the gifts of the day: good work and its fruits.
Israel’s history after Solomon is the sad story of pursuing Lady Folly rather than Lady Wisdom. Folly led to a kingdom torn asunder the fall of the north under a relentless string of kings who did evil in the lord’s eyes. In the south, a few respites of righteous rule were not enough to prevent Babylonian conquest and exile. Yet even in exile, God’s wisdom was manifest in Daniel, wisest of councilors and one who, along with other prophets to the one, the Son of Man, who would redeem God’s people.
At last, the one greater than Solomon comes. He is wisdom in the flesh, the way, the truth, the life. He renews us in his image, to live in covenant relationship with him as King over all our lives. And living wisely in Christ enables us to perceive the life that is ours beyond death. Thus, we live in the blessed hope of partaking of the tree of life in the heavenly city.
I love how Chase shows the wisdom of God for life that runs through the biblical storyline. Likewise, we see the folly of rejecting wisdom and the sad history of thinking we know better than God. By Genesis 3, we already know how that story plays out. Yet we keep falling for the same lies. Thanks be to God for Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Chase helps us see how all that treasure is ours in Christ. He helps us see how all of scripture can not only make us wise for salvation but to live well with God.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
