Summary: A young couple falls in love until she disappears to a mysterious city of people without shadows.
A teenage boy meets a girl at a writing competition. They write and are drawn to each other, visiting and cuddling and longing for more. He loses his heart to her but she asks him to be patient, saying she wants to give herself wholly to him. And then she just disappears. But before this happened, she told him that her real self lived in a city with walls, unicorns, a clock tower without hands, and that in that city, she was the librarian. The girl he knew was a mere shadow of that girl.
Understandably, he longs to follow her to that city, but does not know how. He never marries and works in publishing. Then, one day when he is forty-five, he falls into a hole and finds himself outside the city with a wall. To enter, the Gatekeeper must remove his shadow, which will live separately. Then he must go through a painful eye treatment to fit him for his job. He will work with the girl at the library reading everything in its collection. Not books, but the dreams of past inhabitants of the city.
So, each day, he arrives, the girl makes a tea to help his eyes, and gives him egg-shaped dreams to hold and “read.” Then he walks her home along the river to the housing where she lives. But she doesn’t recognize him from their relationship outside the wall. However, his shadow interrupts this companionable routine. The shadow is dying and must return to the outside world. Finally, he is convinced, but turns back at the last minute while the shadow departs.
Yet we meet him next, not in the city but back at home. He has a shadow again. But he is dissatisfied with his life. He asks a friend to help him find a different job in a small town. He applies for a job as a director of a small library. After an interview with the founder and retiring director, Mr. Koyasu, he is hired despite his scant qualifications. Mr. Koyasu is unusual. He wears a distinctive beret and a skirt. But he drops by and mentors the man, including taking him to a secret room that is warmer in winter. Only later do we learn that Mr. Koyasu is dead. A shade if not a shadow!
He finds Koyasu’s grave and talks to him on his days off. And he meets a woman who owns a nearby coffee shop. It appears that, if not first love, then some kind of love might be possible. Except a boy turns up who reads at the library every day, and knowing your birthday, can tell you the day on which you were born. Apart from that, he doesn’t communicate. Yet he connects with the director. And one day he overhears him talking to Mr. Koyasu at the grave about the city…
Shadow and substance. What is real? Murakami gives us his own version of Socrates’ Cave. And do we not sometimes feel alien to our own world, and think there might be another where we are more at home? And yet the nameless narrator doesn’t find his real love in the city without shadows–nor in this one. We wonder if he will accept the possibility of love in front of him from the coffee shop owner. Apart from that relationship, one feels he is living a shadow existence, unconnected with others in the town.
This is the second Murakami novel I’ve read, and I find myself drawn to his narrative voice. It is both quiet and evocative without becoming overpowering. He draws the reader into the mental and emotional landscape of his main character. Then he throws enough surprises and twist in to keep it interesting and make you wonder where this is going.
Murakami adds a fascinating postscript. He first wrote this story as a novella forty years ago but never was satisfied with the ending. This work is a re-working as he finally found a way to complete the story. We learn he added parts two and three. I’ve not read the earlier work. I’d like to hear from Murakami fans who have read both this and the earlier novella. Do you think he succeeded?
Summary: A study of the parables asserting that the message of all the parables is that compassionate love is all that matters.
One of the distinctives of the teaching of Jesus is his use of parables. One of my discoveries in seminary was the diverging conclusions different scholars reached in interpreting the parables. My own conclusion was that this may be a function of the idea that we not so much interpret the parables as that they interpret us as we give heed to them. M.D. Hayden, a teacher and minister out of the Quaker tradition reaches a simpler conclusion. Specifically, Jesus had one message running through all the parables. All that he taught “was about love in the infinite, here-and-now Kingdom of God.”
She argues that this idea is central in the teaching of the Old Testament as well as the good news of the kingdom preached by Jesus. She observes that the parables are truth taught obliquely. They avoid direct confrontation with the hostile powers as well as to avoid the allusion that we can pin down their meaning that results in failing to have “ears to hear.” From here, she explores what it means to hear and the use of love as a key to interpretation. In taking this approach she contrasts Quaker with traditional interpretation of the parables.
Then, she proceeds to discuss a number of parables, applying her hermeneutic of love. This works with many of the parables. For example consider the good Samaritan, the lost coins, sheep, and sons, the workers in the vineyard. However, this is difficult with other parables. For example, what do we make of the parable of the talents where God calls the one talent servant “wicked and lazy”? What about the judgment of the unmerciful servant? Or what about those who refuse the invitation to the banquet?
This brings me to several difficulties I had with the book despite my appreciation for some of her insights. First of all, her approach was one of eisegesis. She starts with an idea, the principle of love, and reads it into every parable. In some places, that fits, but not others.
Second, she adopts a Thomas Jefferson approach to scripture. She proposes that much of the New Testament is a later accretion, and where it focuses on something other than love, it may be discarded. Often, I find truth is held in tension. But there is no tension here. All is love.
Except that it isn’t. I found the author uncharitable in her regard of the rest of the church through history, except in the instances where individuals agreed with her. What I thought would be a study of the parables was a polemic against most Christians. And the book came across as advocating the superiority of Quakerism.
In sum, I cannot commend this book.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program.
Towards Zero, (Superintendent Battle Number 5), Agatha Christie. William Morrow (ISBN: 9780062073549) 2010 (first published in 1944).
Summary: A house party at Lady Tressilian’s is decidedly awkward when her ward invites both his former and current wives.
Agatha Christie only wrote five mysteries featuring Superintendent Battle, and this was the last. That’s regrettable for me, because this stood out among her best, even though Battle doesn’t really come into the plot until the latter half of the book.
Talk about awkward situations. Lady Tressilian’s ward, Neville Strange, a middling tennis pro, wants to come for a visit at a time when Audrey, his former wife had already planned a visit. Not only that, he wants to come with his new wife, Kay, a stunning beauty. Sensibly, Lady Tressilian is reluctant to accede, especially when it isn’t clear whose idea this was. Audrey says she doesn’t have a problem. No one seems to be thinking about Lady Tressilian, whose health confines her to her bed. In the end, she agrees.
A few other houseguests add to the awkwardness. Thomas Royde, a friend of (and quietly still enamored with) Audrey, has just returned from an overseas assignment. Ted Latimer, who had been interested in Kay, but was also a friend of Neville’s is staying at a resort across the bay as is Mr. Treves, a solicitor and friend of Lady Tressilian.
Awkward is an understatement. It feels like a powderkeg, and were it not for the offices of Mary Aldin, a spinster who runs the household, it might come completely unglued. And then there are two deaths.
The first comes after Treves tells a story of a child murderer with a distinctive physical mark. That night, when he returns to his hotel, the lift is out of service, and he must walk up several flights of steps. He is found dead the next morning. The ruling was that he died of natural causes, due to his weak heart. Except, the hotel confirms that the lift was in good working order. Someone seems to have put a sign up just for Treves.
Then Neville and Lady Tressilian have a row and he storms off to purportedly visit Latimer. Later on, Lady Tressilian is found dead, brutally battered about the head. The evidence points both toward Neville, who has a good alibi, and Audrey, who doesn’t. Battle, who has been on holiday, comes in at this point to solve the murder. Ultimately a man who had attempted suicide and prevents another offers a critical piece of help enabling Battle to confront the real murderer.
The title reflects a conviction of Battle’s. Murder is the “zero hour.” Battle observes that often plots begin with a murder when, in fact, they come at the end of events counting down “towards zero.” As he investigates, he wants to get inside that process. And Christie offers just the right amount of red herrings to make you suspect most of the surviving characters at some point. A well-plotted and conceived mystery, indeed!
Summary: An overview of the book of Acts in four chapter sections, developing the major themes of the book.
The book of Acts is a long book. A commentary on such a book is no mean undertaking as Craig Keener’s four-volume work on Acts shows. Now N.T. Wright has shown himself capable of massive projects but takes a different approach in this study of Acts. Instead of verse-by-verse commentary, he offers an overview of the narrative that develops what he sees as major themes of the book. The plan of the book is to take the book in four chapter blocks, apart from a chapter on the opening of Acts, and a chapter devoted to Paul’s Mars Hill address.
The sections develop themes that will run through Acts. Beginning with chapter 1 on Acts 1, we see the command to take the gospel of the kingdom from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth, forming the plan of Acts. And then the resurrected King and Lord ascends into heaven, to rule at God’s right hand, present in his full authority as the church advances and faces adversity in its witness. Chapters 2-4 build on this news that in the risen Lord, God has raised up a new temple, a message the authorities immediately oppose. The Spirit empowered apostles persist in witness, determining to obey God when his command overrides that of human authorities. In chapters 5-8, believers are imprisoned, experiencing both deliverance and martyrdom. And the gospel spreads to Samaria (and Ethiopia).
Then chapters 9-12 serve as a bridge to the rest of Acts. On the Damascus road Saul encounters Jesus and finds his zeal redirected. Subsequently, with the church at peace, Peter accepts an invitation from a Roman centurion. And lo and behold, the Spirit of God falls upon the household, and the Jews conclude that god has granted the Gentiles ‘repentance that leads to life.’ Finally, after other persecution refugees testify in Antioch, with many Gentiles believing, brother Barnabas goes, affirms the grace of God and fetches Saul to help him.
The stage set, Antioch sends Barnabas and Saul out. And quickly, two things happen. People believe. And opposition arises. It becomes a pattern throughout Paul’s ministry. However, we also see authorities repeatedly acquit Paul. In Philippi, they receive a public apology for the beating off Paul, the Roman citizen. Then in Corinth the proconsul dismisses charges as a dispute about words, names, and laws, giving Paul legal cover for ministry. In Athens, the religious council at the Areopagus laugh at his ideas but do not charge him. And in Ephesus, the town clerk dismisses a rioting crowd. This will be important for what follows.
Chapters 21-24 cover Paul’s troubles in Jerusalem. Wright’s account struck me with the odd response to the offering and reports of the kingdom’s advance among Gentiles. Instead of jubilation, Paul is asked to pay for a cleansing rite to verify he is a true blue Jew. Then despite his diligence, a mob falsely accuses him. His defense is a proclamation of the risen Jesus. Then, in 25-28, we see his speech in Caesarea before Agrippa, once again speaking of the resurrection, that Festus and Agrippa can find nothing with which to charge him. But off to Caesar he will go, and after shipwreck will proclaim Jesus as Lord in Rome.
Two major themes come through. One is the proclamation of Christ as risen Messiah and King, the new temple and fulfillment of of the broadest hopes of Israel, that the nations would come to Yahweh. The other is the vindication of those who witness to the risen Christ, from Gamaliel in the Sanhedrin to Festus and Agrippa. Wright proposes that Acts may even have been a kind of “legal brief” for Paul’s defense before Caesar. In one respect, at least, the challenge of Acts is whether this movement is overturning the established order. Wright makes the case in his treatment of the defense on the Areopagus, that it was rather a setting of things to rights.
Wright offers a number of interesting insights. Sometimes, I wished for more evidence for some of his assertions. That is also the challenge of an overview of Acts. But Wright offers a resource for both personal study and for pastors and others who will teach this. He makes it clear that those engaged in gospel witness will face opposition from both human and spiritual powers. But in life and death, the risen Christ is with his people.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
I began reading David Greenberg’s John Lewis: A Life this week. It’s my main Black History month read. You might ask why a White guy is reading Black history. To answer that, I will talk about why I wrote on my local home town for ten years. First of all, it helped me understand so much about my background of which I was not aware growing up. I also became aware of how rich the culture of my home town was. And I discovered a number of people I greatly admired who helped build the city. Finally, I learned lessons from that history, such as the folly of a town building its economy around one industry.
It’s like that with Black history. Although I’m not Black, Black history is a fundamental part of my national history. My understanding of where we’ve come from is immeasurably poorer without that history. Likewise, it is such a rich history of spirituality, music art, food, accomplishments, resilience, and the effort to call us to our collective best. There are people (including Lewis) whose lives have inspired me. And, just as Germans aware of the Holocaust remember that history with a resolve to say “never again,” there are sad lessons to learn from Black history to which I want to say “never again.”
None of this is about White guilt or fostering racial divisions. Rather it is learning all I can to foster the “beloved community” Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned. I’m not sure why some want to suppress this history. It seems to me that when you try to suppress or erase the history of someone, it is the first step toward suppressing or erasing them. That is how it would come across to me if someone wanted to erase my family history or the history of my home town.
So, I will keep reading about John Lewis and review the book. And I’ll recommend other books about Blacks, other people of color, women and other marginalized groups. It’s not about politics for me. It’s about being human. And it’s about believing the children’s song I learned in Sunday school: “Jesus loves the little children/All the children of the world/Red and yellow; black and white/Jesus loves the little children/All the children of the world.”
Five Articles Worth Reading
Speaking of Black History Month, JSTOR posted a cornucopia of articles on Black history under the heading, “Celebrating Black History Month.” It was like a crash course in Black history, much of it new to me.
Feel like you have too many choices? You are not alone. The New York Times posted a review this week of Sophia Rosenfeld’s The Age of Choice, asking “Does Having Options Really Make Us Free?“
It’s hard to imagine how those of us who love books might come to fear them. “In Search of the Book That Would Save Her Life” reviews Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya, a memoir of how a mental health crisis precipitated a fear of books in a woman whose life was reading.
“There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.“
Charles Dickens, born on February 7, 1812, made this observation. It seems so important in this time of fake news and the normalization of lying that we refuse to accept deception and keep telling the truth ourselves.
Miscellaneous Musings
When I finished Haruki Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Wall I discovered that Murakami has been trying to finish this story for a long time in his postscript to the novel. I have to admit that the story feels like one in search of a resolution. Still pondering whether Murakami landed it.
I’ve found Jill Lepore’s The Story of America a delight. The book is a collection of essays on historiography, following the chronology of American history. Her essay on Noah Webster was absolutely fascinating, and a tribute in a way to this pioneer in creating a dictionary of American English.
Went to my optometrist this week. All in all, the eyes are doing OK. I do have cataract surgery in my future, explaining why I need more light than ever. There is a tendency toward macular degeneration in my family and I’ve pondered what I would do if I could not, or read easily. I guess I’ve read enough that I can savor them in memory…and as long as the hearing holds up, there are audiobooks!
Next Week’s Reviews
Monday: N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Acts
Tuesday: Agatha Christie, Towards Zero
Wednesday: M.D. Hayden, Opening the Parables
Thursday: Haruki Murakami, The city and Its Uncertain Walls
Friday: Rhyne R. Putnam, Conceived by the Holy Spirit
So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for February 2-8, 2025!
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page
Hebrews (Commentaries for Christian Formation), Amy Peeler. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802877383) 2024.
Summary: A commentary for Christian formation focused on the greatness of Christ, Christian faithfulness, and Christian community.
The Epistle to the Hebrews alternately inspires, puzzles, and sometimes alarms. It’s portrayal of Christ’s greatness ands great saving work leaves us in awe and wonder. Yet we don’t know who wrote it and the discussions of sacrifices and covenant takes some background understanding. Meanwhile, the warnings for those who drift away are alarming, especially to those of tender conscience. Amy Peeler, in this contribution to the Commentaries for Christian Formation, addresses all these aspects and more.
The series focuses on Christian formation, the fostering of growth in faith, holiness, and Christian discipleship that ought to be the aspiration of every believer. Peeler does this, albeit at a level of scholarship that is accessible, but will probably stretch many lay readers. The commentary takes sections of the text and first gives a brief overview and then walks through the text verse by verse, using Peeler’s translation. What is striking is her readable prose, which is not simply notes elaborating the biblical text. In addition, she offers an introduction to the book, thoroughly covering the ground, but not excessively. Finally, there is a concluding section, framed in the form of ten questions that both offer a thematic summary of the commentary and address pastoral concerns in Christian formation. The final question focuses on how one might prepare to teach Hebrews.
There were three great themes I noted running through her commentary. First, was her development of the superior character of the person and work of Christ, greater than angels, greater than the levitical priesthood, ushering in a new and greater covenant through the greater sacrifice of himself as high priest of the order of Melchizedek. Yet his greatness embraced humility and learning obedience.
Second is the theme of Christian faithfulness and the warnings to “sluggish” Christians not to drift, not to harden their hearts, and especially not to apostatize. In this regard, Peeler addresses both the tender conscience wrestling with sin, and the complacent, who need to be concerned lest they presume upon God. Rather, Hebrews offers this vision of the race of faith, inspired by the cloud of witnesses who have run ahead of us, foremost being the Lord Jesus himself.
Finally, Peeler emphasizes that this is a sermon to a community. Already we have our solidarity with those who ran before us. But in addition, there are those who run with us and the call to instruct and encourage one another. We are to continue in love, and to imitate the way of life of our leaders.
Peeler, in her concluding summary, addresses the “liminality” of Hebrews. She notes the parallel between the audience of Hebrews and being a Christian in the present time. What does it mean to live faithfully in this “in between” space? How do we neither retreat from nor accommodate the culture? What does it mean to keep confessing Jesus and our great salvation in him alone? These are questions that arise because of the portrait of the person and work of Christ in Hebrews, and its call to Christian faithfulness. These are questions I will continue to ponder….
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Family Unfriendly, Timothy P. Carney. Harper Collins (ISBN: 9780063236462) 2024.
Summary: We have a culture that devalues children and makes raising them more difficult, contributing to declining birthrates.
Timothy Carney and his wife are anomalies. They are the parents of six children, and part of a community of people with large families. No, I’m not writing about families from the 1950’s. Carney is aware of how he stands out in a society with a birthrate significantly below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per couple. In Family Unfriendly he argues that the big reason is that we have made raising kids much harder than it once was, and consequently are having fewer of them. Paradoxically, mothers and parents are spending more time than ever on parenting activities, even with fewer children. How can this be?
Carney explores a variety of habits of modern helicopter parenting that contribute to this. One is the high ambitions we have for our children in sports and other activities, typified by the travel team. Instead of time to just play, everything is structured. And both parents and kids burn out. We also have created a culture of fear around our children never being out of sight. Remember when kids were told to be home when the streetlights came on? Now such a practice could result in Child Protective Services at your door. Of course, part of the trouble is that many of our neighborhoods are no longer walkable. We have to drive our children everywhere. And our neighborhoods are no longer a village, where all the adults looked out for each others’ kids, and kept them in line if need be. Parents have had to take this on themselves.
Around the time of the Recession of 2008, our birthrates tanked and really haven’t recovered. Personal autonomy as a value contributes as well as the perception that having children is anti-environment. The actual reality is that we can’t afford a baby bust. We have too few people of working age. and our Social Security system faces a crisis of sustainability. Meanwhile, we are in the midst of a sex recession driven by online porn and appified dating. These fail to produce the durable relationships of good marriages.
Carney considers ways government can most profitably help but concludes that culture, more than government programs, is critical. Based on demographics, he took a close look at Israel, where the birthrate hovers around 3 children per couple. The ultra-orthodox have as many as 6 per couple and his conclusion from interviews is, whether religious or secular, child-bearing was mitzvah, a righteous or good thing. He found this equally in the Jewish community in Kemp Mill and a Mormon community in Idaho. It seems that part of it comes down to the idea that you have kids when it is a community norm to have kids, and more kids in communities valuing large families.
Carney faces the reality that any parenting is hard and brings challenges that beginning with cleaning up lots of pee and poop and spit up, and progresses from there. Communities that support parenting without imposing the unreal expectations of helicopter parenting and safetyism makes a difference. Then, parents are not alone. Without proselytizing for a particular faith (he invokes examples of Muslim, Jewish, Mormon, and Catholic communities) he quietly points to the value of children and families and the community forming power religious communities at their best are good at.
While the book is a bit of a ramble at times and Carney loops back to topics he raised earlier, he raises important questions. I think he correctly diagnoses the malady that we are family unfriendly and some of the reasons for that. I think he is also spot on that while government can support a family and child friendly culture, it cannot create one. There are dangers of the Handmaids Tale type in that direction. What I think he offers instead is a kind of “mustard seed conspiracy,” something that starts small but spreads because of its vibrant life. And he makes a quiet and compelling case that this is something healthy religious communities are good at.
Lieberman’s Choice (Abe Lieberman Number 2), Stuart M. Kaminsky. Open Road Media (ASIN: B00AYRI5HY) 2013 (first published 1993).
Summary: A cop kills his wife and the cop who is sleeping with her, and threatens to blow up a city block unless one demand is met.
Abe Lieberman can’t get to sleep. And then the phone rings. A fellow policeman walked into his apartment with a loaded shotgun and blew away his wife and the cop she was sleeping with. When his partner, recently “on the wagon” arrives, the scene is so awful he needs a drink. The officer, Bernie Shepard, has barricaded himself on the roof with his dog. He’s armed to the teeth. And he’s rigged up enough explosives to blow away not only the building but a city block.
Abe is the first one who talks to him and size up the situation. Shepard wants a TV reporter to interview him. Eventually, he gets his wish. He has one demand. Specifically, he wants to talk to Captain Alan Kearney at midnight, after a day-long siege. In his mind, Kearney is the one who had corrupted his wife.
There are lots of people who want to make this go away as quickly as possible, from a mayor facing re-election to the chief of police. And there are the civilians. First, a couple of hard-up bounty seekers living in the building attempt an assault on the rooftop nest only to end up splattered on the street below. Then a gang leader who Shepard had arrested wants to take a crack. Incredibly, they let him and he manages to wound Shepard. But Shepard has positioned himself so well that no chopper, no sniper, can take him out.
If Lieberman had his choice, he’d just hang out with the Alter Cockers at his brother Maish’s deli. Or he would be home with his family. Instead, he is on point negotiating with a man who has already killed four–one who has nothing left to lose. And if that is not enough, he has to deal with a religious crazy, Frankie Kraylaw. who is abusing his wife.
As the hours tick down and the pressure increases, will they find a way to avoid a confrontation with Kearney or a catastrophic explosion? Amid it all, Lieberman, the veteran of Chicago’s streets seems the wisest and sanest. But will it be enough?
To Gaze Upon God, Samuel G. Parkison. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007662) 2024.
Summary: An exploration of the importance of the beatific vision in scripture and church history and its contemporary significance.
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure”(I John 3:1-3, New International Version).
As a young Christian reading through scripture, this passage stopped me in my tracks. It told me that a day was coming where I would see Christ as he is, in all his glory. What’s more, it assured me I would be like him and that this was a great motive for cleaning up my act in this life. What I caught a glimpse of in that day is the beatific vision that is the telos or end toward which our lives as followers of Jesus is directed. As a result, it gave me an intense motivation to grow in Christ-likeness. I’ve likened it to preparations for my wedding day. I wanted to look my best and be my best for the woman I was marrying! And so it is with Jesus.
In To Gaze Upon God, Samuel G. Parkison retrieves for the contemporary church a doctrine that has given comfort and joy to Christians through the ages. He begins by asking what is the beatific vision. Parkison observes that as creatures in the image of God, we exist from, through, and to him. He is our source, our life, and our end. And this end is nothing less than to “dwell in the house of the Lord” and to “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. It is this one thing for which the Psalmist asks in Psalm 27:4.
Parkison then devotes a chapter to elaborating that vision. First he considers the Old Testament theophanies and promises of the beatific vision. Then he considers a number of New Testament passages including the Transfiguration and the passage cited above. In conclusion, he argues that the desire for the beatific vision is good and godly. Not only this, it is seeing “the invisible,” connects with our faith in this life, and walks hand in hand with our transformation. Finally, we fully realize the beatific vision in the resurrection.
Then Parkison turns in two chapters to consider the “cloud of witnesses: through church history, dividing between those pre-Reformation, and those who were Reformation or post-Reformation. Gregory of Nyssa wrestles with the incomprehensibility of God and for him we ever thirst, find satiation that only feeds our thirst. Many wrestle with in what sense we “see” God, culminating in the ideas of Aquinas of not merely physical, but spiritual sight. Among the reformers, he considers Calvin, the Lutheran Gerhard, Turretin, Owen, and Edwards. While each of those considered offer rich nuances and some critical differences on the doctrine of the beatific vision, Parkison traces a continuity throughout church history in this doctrine.
Some contemporary commentators note a fault line between Aquinas and Owen. Aquinas focuses on knowing the essence of God, Owen on the vision of God in Christ. However, Parkison seeks to reconcile the two through the doctrine of inseparable operations. He writes,
“Therefore, it seems best to conceptualize the beatific vision as a vision of the divine essence in the person and work of Christ, the incarnate Son, by the illuminating and gracious operating principle of the Spirit as the eternal divine subsistence of the Father and Son’s love. The beatific vision, in other words, is made possible by the inseparable operations of the Trinity, and is therefore a truly trinitarian vision. We shall behold the glory of God in his essence, and we shall behold this glory in the face of Jesus Christ by the unveiling and illumining ministry of the Holy Spirit” (p. 156)
Parkison also offers his own take on a number of the questions explored in his historical survey.
All of this is toward an evangelical retrieval of the doctrine of the beatific vision. In a concluding chapter, Parkison considers the implication of the beatific vision for prayer, worship, missions, sin and sanctification, suffering, and our communion with one another. He longs to enliven Christians in all of life by this vision. In a postscript, he argues that the beatific vision tells a better story in the context of global Christianity.
I found this work both devotionally and theologically rich. For evangelicalism that is so earthly minded that it is no heavenly (or earthly) good, it offers a vital corrective. I do believe our fascination with political power reflects the paucity of our vision of Jesus. Likewise for our fascination with health and prosperity gospels. We exist to gaze upon God, and to reflect what we see in the world. Now we do so but dimly, but one day, face to face, in the new creation. We all live toward some vision. Is it toward the beatific vision? This book lifts our eyes toward our beautiful Lord.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
We’re a month into the new year, and already, I’ve read some great books. I finished the last of The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael (I wish this one could go on!). William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series just gets better. I delighted in Amy Tan’s Backyard Bird Chronicles. I savored the writing and story-telling art of Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake and the very different style and plotting of Gabrielle Levin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.Deep Reading included reading practices that I incorporated into my Reading Challenge for this year. Nadya Williams’ Mothers Children, and the Body Politic makes the contention that as a culture we de-value motherhood and children. Ed Uszynski, a fellow Buckeye, does a great job of explanation and critique in Untangling Critical Race Theory and Michael R. Licona offers what I think a helpful and clear discussion of the discrepancies in the gospel narratives in Jesus, Contradicted. And I haven’t even mentioned all the good books in the reviews (21 of them!).
The Concept of Woman, Sister Prudence Allen, RSM, edited by Sister Mary Cora Uryase, RSM, foreword by John C. Cavadini. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883889) 2024. Surveys philosophers and theologians from ancient Greece to today tracing the concept of woman. Review
The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan (text and illustrations). Alfred A. Knopf (ISBN: 9780593536131) 2024. Four years of journals on the birds visiting Amy Tan’s backyard, with sketches and detailed drawings. Review
Brother Cadfael’s Penance (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael Number 20), Ellis Peter. Open Road Media (ASIN: B00LUZNZB0) 2014 (first published in 1994). Olivier, Cadfael’s son from his crusading days, is held hostage without ransom. Cadfael forsakes his vows to save him. Review
Deep Reading, Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, and Rachel M. De Smith Roberts. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9781540966957) 2024. Practices to grow in attentive reading that subverts distraction, hostility, and consumerism. Review
The Love Habit, Rainie Howard. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9781506496740) 2024. Learning to manage emotions, expectations, and relationships through daily habits enabling becoming the love one desires. Review
Tom Lake, Ann Patchett. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780063327528) 2023. Lara, while cherry-picking with her daughters, recounts her love affair with actor Peter Duke, and how she met the girls’ father. Review
Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic, Nadya Williams. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009123) 2024. Parallels the Western disdain for mothers and children with ancient Rome, and what early Christians can teach us. Review
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin. Vintage Books (ISBN: 9780593466490) 2022. Childhood friends, Sam and Sadie collaborate as game developers, in a different kind of love story. Review
The Gospel of Jesus Green, Neil J. Whitehouse. Wipf & Stock (ISBN: 9798385200245) 2024. Weaving scripture, theology, systems thinking, and science, concludes that Jesus is Green and preached a home for all. Review
Seeking the City, Chad Brand and Tom Pratt. Kregel Academic (ISBN: 9780825443046) 2013. A biblical, historical, and political economic argument defending responsible free-market capitalism. Review
Cheaper, Faster, Better. Tom Steyer. Spiegel & Grau (ISBN: 9781954118645) 2024. A climate activist and investor argues we can win the climate war through clean tech and free market capitalism. Review
The Mind Readers(Albert Campion Number 18), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ASIN: B08CRRYGK7), 2020 (First published in 1965). When Amanda’s nephews, playing with telepathic devices, are nearly kidnapped, Campion gets involved in a deadly quest. Review
Defiant Hope, Active Love, Jeffrey F. Keuss, editor. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883919) 2024. What young adults seek in places of work, faith, and community and how churches may respond hospitably. Review
Between Two Sounds, Joonas Sildre (text and illustrations) Adam Cullen (translation). Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081342) 2024. A graphical biography of Arvo Pärt tracing his faith, musical journey and clash with Soviet artistic censorship. Review
Untangling Critical Race Theory, Ed Uszynski. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514004814) 2024. By explaining the central assertions of critical race theory, offers constructive and critical assessment. Review
An Essay on Christian Philosophy, Jacques Maritain. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504081245) 2022 (first published in 1955). Explores what is distinctive about Christian philosophy with notes on apologetics and moral philosophy. Review
Red Knife(Cork O’Connor Number 8), William Kent Krueger. Atria Books (ISBN: 9781416556749), 2008. Cork O’Connor is asked to help end a series of apparent revenge killings threatening a war between the Ojibwe and Tamarack County. Review
Jesus, Contradicted, Michael R. Licona. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310159599) 2024. Addresses the discrepancies in gospel accounts drawing upon the conventions of ancient biography. Review
A Rare Benedictine, Ellis Peters. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781497671676), 2014 (first published in 1988). Three short stories set prior to the Chronicles, explaining how Cadfael became a monk and his early adventures. Review
Best Book of the Month
There were so many good choices this month! Among these, Joonas Sildre’s Between Two Sounds stands out. This may be the first time I’ve picked a graphic work as a “Best Book.” I loved the portrayal he offers of Arvo Pärt’s artistic journey. The drawing and black and white palette capture something of Pärt’s compositional style. And the publisher’s website includes tracks of several of the most significant works mentioned in the account.
Quote of the Month
David Swanson is a pastor committed to a ministry of racial reconciliation on the south side of Chicago. In the course of his ministry, he has observed the ways racial and environmental injustices are entangled, which he explores in Plundered. Here he describes the patient work that is involved in unraveling these injustices:
“Caretaking in the ruins of industrialized extraction and exploitation is a generational commitment. Who can say how long it will take for a racialized people centered on Jesus and pursuing repair together to find that creation has re-exerted its formational power over them? How long will it take for a people who’ve been severed from the earth to learn to walk humbly and gently among their creaturely neighbors? There is no program for this, no curriculum or metrics. There is only the good and slow work of learning together how to exist as a blessing and a gift.”
What I’m Reading
I’m a bit more than half way through Haruki Murakami’s The City and It’s Uncertain Walls. It is something of a puzzle palace of a work but his narrative style, and the surprising turns he takes have kept me engaged. Conceived by the Holy Spirit is a rich study of the virgin birth of Christ and why that doctrine matters. It makes a great read for Advent and a wonderful resource for any pastor preaching the birth narratives of Jesus. The Pursuit of Safety considers the “safetyism” of our culture and how we might think biblically about safety and risk. Hunger for Righteousness is series of Lenten meditations tied to the fast of Lent, grounded in the Coptic Orthodox tradition–a different world for me. I’m grateful for these chances to learn from Christians outside my “sphere.” Lastly, I’ve just picked up Jill Lepore’s The Story of America, which explores the different ways we tell our national story, seen through the lens of particular figures and events.
It’s Black History Month and I hope to get to David Greenberg’s John Lewis. I deeply admire Lewis as a Black civil right’s leader and politician who sought to live out his faith and live with hope through all the adversity he faced. I’d love to hear if there are works of Black History that have inspired you.
The Month in Reviews is my monthly review summary going back to 2014!It’s a great way to browse what I’ve reviewed. The search box on this blog also works well if you are looking for a review of a particular book.
