Author: rtrube54

Review: Free Agents

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Cover image of "Free Agents" by Kevin J. Mitchell

Free Agents, Kevin J. Mitchell. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691226231) 2023.

Summary: An argument based on the evidence of the development of nervous systems, for the evolution of individual agency–free will.

Philosophers have long debated whether human beings have free will or are creatures determined by the various forces that impinge upon us. Then enter the neurobiologists who have been able to increasingly map the fine structures and neural networks of the brain. They have accounted for a vast array of animal and human behaviors For many in the field, they have concluded that ultimately, we only have the illusion of free will. We only think we are thinking and deciding.

Kevin J. Mitchell, while accepting the evidence of evolutionary neurobiology, argues otherwise. He believes there is evidence that human beings, and perhaps other species, have agency that is not an illusion but an evolved quality. There are at least two strands to his argument. First, he traces evolutionary history from single-celled organisms to human beings. The simplest organisms have sensory abilities oriented toward sustaining life (seeking nutrients) and avoiding harm (from poison to predators). Over several chapters he shows how, as multicellular organisms developed, giving way to more complex species, that sensory apparatus developed. Neural inputs fed into ganglia, and eventually a cerebral cortex. Increasingly complicated responses developed to the variety of inputs involving layered and connected neural networks. In human beings, this resulted in a large pre-frontal cortex with semantic capabilities carrying the possibilities of thought and meaning within the recursive and layered neural processes.

The other part of Mitchell’s argument is based on quantum effects and neural “noise” factors that introduce indeterminacy into the system. He argues that this creates room for choice in what might otherwise be a determined system. Combined with human evolution, this allows space for higher level thinking, consciousness of self, and real agency.

He also argues against an approach to freedom as a lack of prior influences on choice. He argues that we have greater freedom when we have access to these factors and can draw upon them. This means we enjoy degrees of free agency rather than some impossible “absolute freedom.”

Until reading Mitchell’s book, I thought there were only two major options. One is dualism which posits a non-material mind, consciousness, or soul interacting with the brain. The other is reductive materialism where we are our brains and agency is illusion. What Mitchell posits is a third option, cognitive realism, in which neural patterns comprising “thoughts” may have causal power based on what they “mean.”

As interesting as this is, I still can see this collapsing into reductive materialism. All of what he posits is rooted in material processes. All material is subject to quantum indeterminacy. Random probability is different from free agency.

Mitchell is still making a materialistic argument. While I recognize that philosophic dualism has its own challenges, not least that it is incapable of scientific proof, I found that Mitchell was dismissive of this long tradition of thought that has its own explanatory power in terms of what it means to be human. Mitchell relegates this to “the ghost in the machine” language, and in doing so thinks he has satisfactorily dismissed it. Yet I wonder if he has substituted material for non-material “ghosts.”

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

Review: Beren and Lúthien

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Cover image of "Beren and Lúthien" by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

Beren and Lúthien, J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien, with illustrations by Allen Lee. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9781328915337) 2018.

Summary: An edited collection of different versions and extracts of one of the most celebrated love stories of Middle-earth.

The tale of the love story of Beren and Lúthien was considered by J.R.R. Tolkien one of the chief stories of The Silmarillion, published posthumously with the editorial work of his son Christopher. Beren and Lúthien is one of the last edited works by Christopher Tolkien before his death in 2020, along with The Fall of Gondolin, which followed it. It reflects Christopher’s work in collecting, ordering, and editing his father’s various writings in creating the world of Middle-earth. As in other works, Tolkien’s telling of the story evolved over time and this work shows that development.

The story in brief, is of Beren, a refugee of wars with Morgoth that wiped out his people. He wanders into the elvish realm of king Thingol. There, he sees Lúthien (or Tinuviel) dancing in a glade and falls in love, which Lúthien reciprocates. But her father sets a high price for her hand, a Simaril (a precious and powerful jewel) in the crown of Morgoth. After many perils Beren is imprisoned. There are various versions, one involving imprisonment by a great cat. Sauron holds him captive in another. Lúthien, whose dances have the power to enthrall to sleep, comes to his rescue, aided by the great hound, Huan. They succeed in liberating Beren. Subsequently, she uses her powers to enter Morgoth’s fortress, subduing to sleep Morgoth long enough for Beren to cut the Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown.

Alas, they cannot escape without encountering the great wolf who guards the gate of Morgoth, now wide awake. All Beren can do is ram his hand down the wolf’s throat, which bites it off, holding the Silmaril, which drives the wolf mad, allowing their escape. How they recover the Silmaril and the further lore around Beren and Lúthien, in several versions, are all here.

As I’ve mentioned. Christopher Tolkien provides various versions of the story and extracts of parts of it from an early rendering with the cat, later replaced by Sauron, various passages with variations on the story, a lengthy verse rendering of much of the story in The Lay of Leithian, and various versions of the return and afterlife of Beren and Lúthien, as well as the subsequent history of the Silmaril.

In addition, Alan Lee provides nine full-color plates of incidents in the tale. Also, Christopher Tolkien adds an annotated list of names and glossary. This is helpful to keep straight so many names of persons and places.

In conclusion, Christopher Tolkien gives Middle-earth fans a trove of background surrounding this great story. In doing so, he helps us understand afresh the monumental world-building effort of J.R.R. Tolkien. It was so great that it took two generations (at least) to bring it all into published form.

Review: Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute

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Cover image of "Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute" by Frances M. Young

Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute (Doctrine and Scripture in Early Christianity, Volume 2), Frances M. Young. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802882998) 2024.

Summary: A study of how scripture was used in the doctrinal controversies concerning the Trinity and Christology.

One of the challenge early teachers in the church faced was how to articulate the evidence of the biblical text when discussing the nature of God as well as the nature of Christ as the Incarnate Son of God. These questions came to a head in the fourth and fifth centuries. The Council of Nicea in 325 AD and Constantinople in 381 AD articulated the church’s doctrine of the Trinity, of God’s singular nature subsisting in three persons. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD addressed the nature of the Incarnate Christ as the person of the divine Son, who subsisted in two natures, divine and human.

What Frances M. Young does in this second volume of her study of doctrine and scripture in early Christianity is show how the scriptures were used by the different parties to these controversies. The book begins in setting the stage with the discussions on the nature of God in the earliest centuries where the Oneness of God was affirmed but also the three persons of the Godhead. The ambiguities that remained led to further controversy.

Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the discussions of the Trinity. Chapter 2 addresses the challenge of Arius and his use of scripture and the response of Athanasius and Basil of Caesarea. Chapter 3 focuses on the Cappadocians and the decisive work of Gregory of Nyssa leading up to Constantinople. Chapters 4 and 5 turn to the unresolved questions about Christology. Chapter 4 contrasts the exegesis of Hebrews by Chrysostom and the interpretation of the Gospel of John by Cyril of Alexander. Chapter 5 centers on the polemic between Cyril and Nestorius over whether Mary was theotokos (Cyril) or christotokos (Nestorius).

Then Chapter 6 summarizes Young’s findings of the use of scripture. One was the importance of the Rule of Faith and baptismal creeds as summaries of scripture. These didn’t resolve controversy but pushed the church to articulate clearly the nature of the Godhead, Father, Son and Spirit, in whose name new converts were baptized and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who they confessed. Young also observes how the process of “prooftexting” and the effort to express the overall teaching called for extrabiblical terms to express the mind of scripture, terms like ousia (substance) and hypostases (persons). Citing Augustine, Young notes both how doctrine informs right reading of scripture and the wrestling with the body of scripture leads to refined doctrinal understanding. She concludes that it is in worship where scripture and doctrine coinhere.

I would say in reading Young, one has to work to keep the forest in view with all the “trees” in the discussion. In addition to keeping a thumb in the detailed table of contents, it might have helped to have some summaries in tabular form. Absent these, the studious reader may want to take their own notes and outline.

Young describes a process far “messier” than many of us might like. Even after the councils, not all agree, as is the case with the Nestorians. Her discussion also underscores that everyone here treated scripture as authoritative and appealed to the Rule of Faith. As I personally consider the outcomes of the Councils, I see not a power struggle with winners and losers but a process superintended by God that led to wise formulations that guide us well to this day in articulating the sense of scripture.

_____________

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

Review: Communicating for Life

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Cover image of "Communicating for Life" by Quentin J. Schultze

Communicating for Life, Quentin J. Schultze, foreword by Martin E. Marty. Integratio Press (ISBN: 9781959685098) 2024.

Summary: An introductory text in communication grounded in a theology of communication and a vision of faithful stewardship.

Communication. It may be argued that we spend the greater parts of our day in some form of communication. Conversation with family. Scrolling through our newsfeeds, posting and commenting. Listening to podcasts. Sending texts and emails. Writing a proposal or report. Teaching a class or giving a presentation. I could go on. Our unique human capacity to convey meaning, however imperfectly is constantly employed.

Followers of Christ are people who want to please him in all we say and do. Matthew 12:36 is sobering: “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken” (NIV). That strikes me as a lot of accounting. And it motivates me to want to do this well, in ways that honor the one I follow.

Quentin Schultze has given a great deal of thought to this matter as a professor of communication. Communicating for Life is a product of a life of reflection and teaching. While meant to serve as an introductory text for communication courses in a Christian setting, it offers great insight to any of us engaged extensively in communication. Which is all of us. While he discusses various theories and media, the focus of his work is to help us think about communication in light of our faith, with thought of how then we should live.

He begins with creation and understands communication as a way we “co-create” culture in our relationships with God, our neighbors, our world, and ourselves. Our ability to name makes us symbolic stewards in defining what things are. Done under God’s grace, communication fosters the shalom of flourishing in community in all the relationships just mentioned. One of the most powerful aspects of our symbolic stewardship is the ability to identify with other communicators through listening well and conveying our sense of connection–that we understand something of each other’s world.

Hence, Schultze thinks our theories ought to reflect our call to servant stewardship with symbols. Thus, he takes issue with transmission models of communication, which reduce communication to sending and receiving messages. Not only does this miss the creative aspects of communication but it may foster manipulation and control. In contrast, he proposes a cultural view of communication, emphasizing co-creating culture.

But theory alone does not account for what goes on in our communication. Instead, human rebellion through the Fall results in misunderstanding, arrogance, and presumption. Consequently, there is confusion and hurt. However, there is hope in Christ’s incarnated loving work. He both exemplifies to us and empowers in us the use of communication to serve and love others and to advocate for the marginalized.

Then Schultze turns to an analysis of the role of mass media. He notes how much is shaped by love for earthly wealth and power and functions as a form of religious storytelling, occasionally challenging the status quo but more often supporting it. He also deals with how powerfully it may be used to demonize those who don’t fit in.

From here, Schultze turns to ethics. He affirms our responsibility before God. We are to tell the truth, and live authentic lives. Most of all, he challenges us to think of our communication as part of Christian discipleship, seeing all our communication in terms of both service and worship to God.

My sense is that the chapters closely reflect the 2000 edition of this book. That means he wrote prior to social media and the new forms of online-based media that arose since that time. For all that, I found him remarkably prescient in his analysis of mass media and spot on in his ethics. However because of the changes in both media and his discipline, he invited a team of scholars to respond, one for each chapter, to his work.

On one hand these essays often complemented his content well. For example, in response to Schultze’s shalom focus as a goal for our communication, Bill Strom proposes covenantal communication as a means to that end. Others enhanced his ideas with their own research. But I felt that the book lost some sense of continuity as a result. This may be remedied by reading all the chapters first, then the responses. One nice addition are reflection questions at the end of each response.

In conclusion, I’m glad to see Schultze’s work updated. The theology of communication he elaborates is timeless, and the communication virtues he advocates are, if anything, even more timely. And he models co-creating in community with a new generation of communication scholars to carry forward his work. And the relevance of this work isn’t just communication in the classroom. It is, indeed, communicating for life.

_____________

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

Review: Remembering Laughter

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Cover image of "Remembering Laughter" by Wallace Stegner

Remembering Laughter. Wallace Stegner, afterword by Mary Stegner. Penguin Books (ISBN: 9780140252408) 1996, (first published 1937).

Summary: An early Wallace Stegner novella. What happens when Margaret Stuart’s sister comes to live with her and her husband.

In 1936, Wallace Stegner was an English instructor at the University of Utah. An announcement of a novelette prize offered by Little, Brown, and Company caught his eye. But what to write? In the afterword, Mary Stegner shares her role in relating the story of two gaunt aunts living on a farm with a young man who was the son of one of them, though which was unclear. From that family vignette, Stegner wrote Remembering Laughter. To their surprise, they learned he was the prizewinner. He won $2500, very handy when one had an eight month pregnant wife at home.

Turning to the story, Margaret and Alec Stuart owned a prospering farm in west Iowa. Margaret was religious and ran her household with a quiet rectitude. Meanwhile, her husband worked hard but also enjoyed a good laugh, made up stories, and a shared drink with his fellows. Margaret disapproved of the latter and endured the rest.

When Elspeth MacLeod, Margaret’s younger sister by seven years emigrates from Scotland to live on the farm (and hopefully marry a promising young man from the area), everything changes. At first, all is well with welcomes from everyone, including the insipid bachelor minister who Margaret wants to match with Elspeth. And Elspeth embraces her new life joyfully, throwing herself into household chores while describing her surroundings in language reminiscent of Willa Cather. It’s also clear she has too much spirit to for the minister.

Then everything changes with the surprise party Margaret meticulously plans for Elspeth. To get her out of the house, she asks Alec to take her for a long walk by the stream. Bad idea, as the interest each had in the other turns into something more. The rest of the novel plays this out. Key to it all are the choices made (or not made) by each character under the control of Margaret who keeps up the appearances (even with a child who doesn’t know who his parents are) at the cost of laughter in the home. The years pass until we come to the scene of two gaunt women preparing for a funeral that opens the novella.

This book was out of print for many years until re-published in 1996. None of my friends who like Stegner knew of it and I only found it by chance. I thought it so adept at exploring fraught relationships, actions, silences, and their consequences. It previews all the great writing to come from the pen of Wallace Stegner.

The Weekly Wrap: March 9-15

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woman in white crew neck t shirt in a bookstore wrapping books
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

The Dangerous Power of Books

I’ve been thinking a good deal about an article published in Aeon this week, “Dark Books.” Tara Isabella Burton argues that books can unmake or make us. They can disturb or uplift, oppress or liberate.

But how do they do this? It comes down to what happens in the act of reading. When we read, we open our minds, our psyches, ourselves to another. We “drop our guard” to some degree to enter the world of another, and permit them to enter ours.

By and large, we bibliophiles argue for the good of books. The article observes this was not always so. There was a time when commentators warned against novel reading. And sometimes books are freighted with messages oppressive to women, minorities, or others.

I do make choices of what I will and won’t read because of the power of books. It’s not that I cannot think critically about books. It’s just that I realize that, sometimes, the mental images formed by a book can persist. I left off reading one science fiction series because of the graphic descriptions of gruesome violence. I do not read highly sexualized or pornographic material because I want to honor my marriage.

I am not one to say what others should or should not read. I think adults should make their own decisions in this regard and parents with their own children (but not for others). But I believe we may be naive at times about the books (and other media) we let into our lives and how these influence us. Words are powerful things, for good or ill.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Here’s the article I’ve been discussing, “Dark Books.” I was challenged by Burton’s concluding words: “Only by respecting the potential of books to destroy us – terrifying as it might be – can we have an authentic faith in their ability to put us back together again.”

Marilynne Robinson believes Max Weber mischaracterized John Calvin. She has written about Calvin in essays and he comes up in her novels. “The Sum of Our Wisdom” reflects her efforts to recover Calvin for our age.

Some of us are trying to forget the pandemic and others of us are trying to make sense of how it changed us, and our lives. Lily Myers, an Atlantic contributing writer, reviews a number of pandemic novels in “The Novel I’m Searching For.” She previews the article with this statement: “Five years after the pandemic, I’m holding out for a story that doesn’t just describe our experience, but transforms it.”

The New York Times released its non-fiction and fiction spring previews this week. I thought the “21 Nonfiction Books to Read This Spring” had some interesting books, including Ron Chernow’s new biography of Mark Twain!

Finally, “Who is better, Dickens or Shakespeare?” The Guardian asked nine writers. To me it seems an apple and oranges comparison.

Quote of the Week

I post many quotes. This one gave me pause:

“People will assign irrational importance to almost anything in quotes on top of a pleasant image”

This comes from Colin Fletcher, a backpacker and travel writer born March 14, 1922.

Miscellaneous Musings

I’m debating whether to buy a copy of Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Meta exec. She has been enjoined by a court to not promote the book due to her severance agreement with Meta. So far, they have not stopped sales of the book. Although I’m not sure what the book could tell me to cause me to have a lower opinion of Mark Zuckerberg and Meta.

In the grand scheme of things this is a blip, but I’m a Louise Penny fan and was deeply saddened to hear the Canadian author has cancelled her US book tour, including an appearance at the Kennedy Center. She discusses her decision in this CBC story.

Simone Weil in Waiting for God has a wonderful essay on “attention” which she believes is central to the life of prayer. She argues in the essay that practice of all forms of attention, including geometry proofs (!) train us in spiritual attention. Her choice of geometry is interesting, given her inferiority about her geometry skills in comparison to her mathematician brother Andre!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Wallace Stegner, Remembering Laughter

Tuesday: Quentin J. Schultze, Communicating for Life

Wednesday: Frances M. Young, Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute

Thursday: J.R.R. Tolkien, Beren and Luthien

Friday: Kevin J. Mitchell, Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for March 9-15, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Review: The Thursday Murder Club

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Cover image of "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, 1), Richard Osman. Penguin Books (ISBN: 9781984880987) 2021.

Summary: Four seniors meet on Thursdays to solve cold cases until a present day murder leads to something more.

Police Constable Donna De Freitas finds the residents of Coopers Chase unusually sharp and interested in far more than keeping their doors locked. They are interested in murder, at least four of them. First there is Elizabeth Best, who possibly worked in intelligence and seems to have a lot of contacts. Joyce Meadowcroft is a retired nurse and diarist for the group. Ibrahim Arif is a psychiatrist who still reviews his patient files and occasionally sees an old patient. Rounding out the group is Ron Ritchie, a former political firebrand who has mellowed only just slightly.

They call themselves the Thursday Murder Club because they meet on Thursdays in the Jigsaw Room at Coopers Chase to try to solve unsolved murders. The cases come from founding member Penny Gray, a former police officer, now in a coma. PC De Freitas hits it off with the group, although they wonder why such a capable woman left the force in London for the rural setting of Cooper’s Chase.

Ian Ventham, a shrewd and ambitious developer owns Coopers Chase. Tony Curran handles construction and maintenance and has a quarter stake in Cooper’s Chase. Ventham has his eyes on expansion, the next phase of which involves the graveyard of the convent which occupied the grounds of what is now Coopers Chase. But he wants to cut Tony out and replace him with Bogdan Jankowski, who, let’s say, is “resourceful.” Ventham and Curran have a meeting at Coopers Chase, where some residents witness a heated conversation between the two. The next day, the Thursday Murder Club learn Curran was murdered by bludgeoning in his home. The murderer left one clue, a picture of three men with a pile of money in front of them. One is Curran. One of the others is Ron’s son Jason, a famous ex-boxer, involved in a few shady dealings.

DCI Chris Hudson leads the investigation. But PC De Freitas, due to her lack of seniority is not on the team. However, Elizabeth finds a way to remedy that in exchange for information. Now, the Thursday Murder Club has their ‘in” with the police. But before anything happens, Ventham has a confrontation with residents, preventing him from starting his next phase. Except that Jankowski quietly does start exhuming bodies. At the first grave, he encounters a skeleton buried on top of a casket containing another. That can’t be good.

And then Ventham, resigned to fight again another day, collapses and dies by his car. An investigation determines that someone murdered him by a drug overdose. There are a lot of suspects. A crowd had surrounded him, including some Thursday Murder Club members and a “pretend” priest. There is a lot of murder to investigate! And it turns out that the Thursday Murder Club is very resourceful, often getting information the police lack, and sometimes even sharing it!

I won’t say more so that you can join the investigation. What I particularly like is that Osman’s characters don’t play a role. He develops each one, including De Freitas and Hudson. We like these people and enjoy their interactions. Each has hidden depths, some exposed here, and some left for the future. While we delight in the characters and their interactions, Osman captures another characteristic of senior communities. Dementia, decline, and death are ever present. Perhaps the joie de vivre of the four central characters is that they still have their wits and health and life experience. And they intend to use them!

Review: Shock Values

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Cover image of "Shock Values" by Carola Binder

Shock Values, Carola Binder. University of Chicago Press (ISBN: 9780226833095) 2024

Summary: An economic history of the United States, considering the various means used to stabilize prices and control inflation.

Price fluctuations not only upset an economy. They drastically affect many lives. Rampant inflation hurts consumers and savers alike, as they find their money is worth less. It is good news to debtors paying off loans in inflated currency but terrible for creditors. Less discussed is deflation, but those with underwater mortgages due to falling housing prices recognize how deadly falling prices can be. Ultimately, the best situation is price stability with low inflation.

In Shock Values, Haverford College economics professor traces the history of efforts in the United States to control prices and the interplay of politics and monetary policy. She takes each period from the Revolutionary War to the present, discusses the price stabilization challenges and the means used to bring price fluctuations under control. We go from discussions of paper currency versus specie and a central bank versus many banks to debates about the gold standard and the creation of the Federal Reserve system.

Two big themes in the book are price controls and monetary policy by the Fed that contracts the money supply and raises interest rates in inflationary periods and expands the money supply and lowers interest rates during economic contractions. Apart from wartime situations, price controls haven’t seemed to work well, as those of us who lived through the Seventies remember. Whip Inflation Now buttons, which Binder discusses, just didn’t cut it.

That leads to the other theme, the use of monetary policies and the appointment of Fed chairs whose terms are not concurrent with presidential terms. The Volcker years marked a decisive shift. Instead of a Fed that compromised fiscal policy to maintain high employment but with high inflation, Volcker focused on inflation. Consequently, for a period, interest rates were sky high. So, for a period was unemployment. But inflation came down, slowly jobs came back. Monetary policy could work, if it was not compromised by politics.

Subsequent Fed Chairs developed inflation targets, with an implicit and later explicit goal of keeping inflation under 2 percent. And this worked pretty well until the pandemic and the years that followed, when oil prices, and world food prices spiked, due in part to global disruptions. At this writing, the Fed has responded with tightening the money supply.

Binder doesn’t spend a lot of time on tariffs but her comments don’t offer hope. Tariffs tend to pit sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture and industry, against each other. They usually result in retaliatory tariffs. And they impose a hidden (and inflationary) tax on consumers.

Binder offers an informative history of monetary policy. She helped me realize no system is impervious to external shocks. One example is the shaky lending practices leading to the 2008 recession. The Fed actually played a crucial role in stabilizing lenders, preventing a worse debacle. The intrusion of short-term political expedients will always be a challenge to monetary discipline, often with inflationary consequences.

All of this underscored the radically new chapter being written by political interventions in the present. I suspect this will write a new chapter rather than just a continuation of the last. What is clear from Binder’s book is that if price stability is not a theme, it will be an economically tumultuous chapter.

_____________

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

Review: Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

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Cover image of "Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson" edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Gramercy Books (ISBN: 0517362422) 1982 (originally published 1890, 1891, 1896).

Summary: A republication of Dickinson’s poems as first published in three series shortly after her death.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary scholar, received four poems from a women in Amherst in 1862. He returned them but kept in touch with Emily Dickinson. She continued to correspond and write poetry but never published during her lifetime. After her death in 1886, Dickinson’s sister found a box containing hundreds of her poems and thought them worthy of publication. She sought out Mabel Loomis Todd, the wife of a local professor who sought the help of Higginson. He edited her work, dealing with issues of rhyme, metre, line arrangements, and dialect. The two published a first series in 1890 and a second in 1891. Mabel Loomis Todd published a third series on her own in 1896.

This collection is based on those works but is not exhaustive. It follows four categories from the original editions: Life, Love, Nature, and Time and Eternity. It includes prefaces from each of the three series and a facsimile of “Renunciation” in Dickinson’s script from the first series. And it also includes artwork from the original publications. However it does not give indications of which poems were included in each series.

I don’t feel adept enough in poetry to offer a critical review of someone of Dickinson’s stature. So I will highlight poems from each section I particularly noticed. Under “Life,” the poems are focused on Dickinson’s observations of life, which are broad despite her secluded existence. Poem VI could be a motto with its lines “If I can stop one heart from breaking,/I shall not live in vain;.” “Hope, 1” has the memorable image of “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Finally, in an age where faith was highly prized, her “Lost Faith” observes that “To lose one’s faith surpasses/The loss of an estate.”

The poems on “Love” cover the various forms of love. “Proof” speaks of the love of God proven on Calvary. “The Lovers” captures her observations of “rosey” cheeks of two young people and staggering speech as they notice each other. Meanwhile, “The Wife” reflects the gendered expectations of the day of dropping life’s “playthings” for the “honorable work/of woman and of wife. There are poems of longing and contentment, and those attesting the loyalty of a loving friend.

“Nature” reveals her keen attention to the world about her. She writes of summer showers, sunsets, bees and bobolinks, butterflies and purple clover. Dickenson captures the deception of “Indian Summer”: “These are the days when skies put on/The old, old sophistries of June–/A blue and gold mistake.” She notices bats, rats, spiders, and their webs.

Finally, “Time and Eternity” deals with ultimate issues of death and the life ever after. Dickinson writes extensively about death, yet rarely is this morbid or maudlin. Much is informed by her own faith, that in the opening words of the first poem in this section believes “This world is not conclusion…” She observes the signs of the death of someone across the street–of neighbors in and out, of ministers and milliners and mattresses thrown out. The poet describes observing “the dying eye” “In search of something.”

She speaks of the remembrances of the dead when alive, so real, yet irrevocably confined to the sepulchre. Dickinson faces death honestly. She recourses to her heavenly hope. And in her final poem, “Farewell,” she accepts her own death. It begins, “tie the strings to my life, my Lord,/Then I’m ready to go.” A few verses later, she concludes: “Good-by to the life I used to live,/And the world I used to know;/And kiss the hills for me, just once;/now I am ready to go!”

I think part of the fascination of Dickinson’s poetry is how deeply she sees into all that really matters in life, while rarely leaving her home. She pays attention to both her human and creaturely neighbors. The poet names both the movements of her heart and the contours of her faith. and often she does all this in just a few lines. I’ll leave you with this example, number “VIII” in the section on “Time and Eternity.”

Each that we lose takes part of us ;
   A crescent still abides,
Which like the moon, some turbid night,
   Is summoned by the tides.

Review: Leading Well in Times of Disruption

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Cover image of "Leading Well in Times of Disruption: by Joseph W. Handley, Jr. Gideon Para-Mallam, and Asia Williamson, eds.

Leading Well in Times of Disruption, Joseph W. Handley, Jr., Gideon Para-Mallam, and Asia Williamson, editors. Langham Global Library (ISBN: 9781839739859) 2024.

Summary: Amid global disruptions, focuses on the qualities needed in those who lead the church’s global mission.

In the summer of 1974, I had finished my second year of college. I was a leader of my InterVarsity group. I had a growing vision of the reach of the gospel. Six months earlier I had attended Urbana ’73, InterVarsity’s triennial missions conference. That summer, I was at a month long leadership training camp. During that time, we heard exciting reports from Lausanne ’74, focused on bringing the message of Christ to every people on earth. We all had a part to play, whether through prayer, giving, or going.

Fast forward fifty years. In 1974, the focus was primarily “from the west to the rest.” Now it is “from every nation to every nation.” Formerly unreached peoples are sending people to reach others–some even to the west. In the early fall of 2024 the Fourth Lausanne Congress was held in Seoul-Incheon, South Korea. The organizers framed the following as a purpose statement for the gathering:

“The Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization aims to be catalytic in advancing the Movement’s fourfold vision—the gospel for every person, disciple-making churches for every people and place, Christ-like leaders for every church and sector, and kingdom impact in every sphere of society.“

Leading Well in Times of Disruption was written in preparation for this gathering. Critical to advancing this global mission are leaders of vision, character, and skill. But how are leaders to be developed for such an expansive vision. That is the focus of the contributions from a global array of mission leaders.

After the first section focusing on the history of Lausanne, including the critical “quiet years,” the remaining four sections focus on the four “everys” of the vision statement. “The Gospel for Every Person” includes a couple essays on leadership development and two important essays on learning from new believers and the use of digital technology. Then “Disciple-Making Churches for Every People and Place” discusses multiplication over growth, elevating women, breaking out of silos to partner, and mentoring next generation leaders.

Thirdly, “Christlike Leaders for Every Church and Sector” begins with theological training and concludes with Christlikeness in suffering, a reality of mission. Finally, Kingdom Impact in Every Sphere of Society” looks outwardly to peacebuilding and inwardly to the reality of leadership burnout. They emphasize incarnational leadership as well as the skills of expanding organizational capacity.

I observed several themes running through the sections. First, godly character is uppermost. Empowering mentorship is critical. Then, platforming important but lesser heard voices–women, Gen Z leaders, and those in “unknown movements”–follows as a matter of course.

I expected more about leading in times of disruption. For example, we are facing political, economic, and environmental disruptions with missional implications and leadership challenges. Other than addressing persecution and some general comments about public leadership, I missed discussion of the disruptive challenges leaders must meet.

Nevertheless, this collection is full of both vision and practicalities for leading mission in our time. Not only that, seeing the growth of the Lausanne Movement over the past fifty years offered a refreshing contrast to the politically captive, compromised, and xenophobic church of my country. While we have “checked out” to our great loss, God has not left himself without a witness. This book offers ample evidence of that truth.

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