Author: rtrube54

Review: The Year of Magical Thinking

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Cover image of "The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion. Vintage (ISBN: 9781400078431) 2007.

Summary: A memoir of grief and remembrance for Joan Didion’s husband, John Gregory Dunne.

They had just arrived home after visiting their daughter Quintana, in intensive care fighting pneumonia and septic shock. Joan Didion and her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, were talking while he was enjoying a drink and she was preparing dinner. And then he wasn’t talking. She turned to find him slumped over the table, victim to a massive coronary called “the widow maker.” It was December 30, 2003.

In this memoir, begun in October of 2004, Didion recounts her grief journey over that first year beginning with the efforts of the paramedics, the trip to the hospital, the pronouncement of death, and receiving his effects, and returning to an empty apartment. Didion turns her gifts to describing one of the most difficult of human experiences:

“Grief is different. Grief has no distance. Grief comes in waves, paroxysms, sudden apprehensions that weaken the knees and blind the eyes and obliterate the dailiness of life.”

She titles the memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, reflecting a belief that somehow he could come back. She refrains from giving away his shoes because he will need them when he comes back. Obituaries disturb her because she fears she buried him alive. She replays the events of the night as if something different might have saved his life, yet he was likely gone from the moment he slumped over, as she eventually learns.

Drawing upon grief research, she chronicles her own descent into the kind of temporary insanity of grief. She struggles to finish a piece of writing because the two of them had always discussed each other’s writing and she’s waiting for that conversation that will not come. Later, when her daughter suffers a stroke in Los Angeles, she describes returning to the city in which she and John had once lived. and avoiding all the places that would awaken memories (“the vortex effect”) of him. She describes the look of “extreme vulnerability, nakedness, openness” in the eyes of the bereaved and the memories that visit unannounced and her response:

“I wanted more than a night of memories and sighs.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted him back.”

Quintana’s serious condition offers a kind of diversion as she immerses herself in clinical materials and becomes her daughter’s advocate. Was this just a desperate effort to stave off further grief? To keep at bay the grief at the door? A mother’s love? Probably all three.

Yet she cannot help remembering. The birthday gift twenty-five days before he died. The trip to Paris John thought he must take or never go. Did he have a presentiment of his death? That is another theme, unresolved in the memoir.

Then there is the unending character of grief. It is not for a few days or weeks. Yet as the year ebbs to an end, she comes to some resolution to her “magical thinking.”

“I know why we try to keep the dead alive; we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us.

“I also know that if we are to live ourselves there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead.”

Most of all, Didion explores the special kind of grief of that comes of two people sharing many years together. Is this the price exacted for many years of shared love, shared memories, of lives intertwined? I’ve known the widower beside himself with grief, losing the partner of over sixty years. It’s most likely that one of us will bear this grief in my own marriage. Reading Didion’s unvarnished and quietly eloquent account alerts us to that. But it doesn’t prepare us. What can?

But for those who grieve, and who go through all the changes Didion experiences, she helps us understand that this is just what it is like. Sometimes it helps to know we are not alone when we find ourselves alone.

The Weekly Wrap: November 17-23

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Listening to Versus Believing the Science

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve geeked out on science. I used to hang out at my local newsstand when the new issue of Popular Science came out. As a psych major in college, one of my favorite classes was the physiological psych class. I spent hours fascinated with the chemistry of nerve synapses and the structures of the brain. I never found this in conflict with my faith but rather delighted that God gave us minds and means to understand his world and the cosmos beyond so that we could take better care of it and ourselves.,

There is quite a conflict these days between science skeptics and those who “believe the science.” As in so many of the binaries created in our divisive discourse, I find myself in neither camp. The very act of writing this piece depends heavily on numerous scientific breakthroughs and the applied technologies that result. On the other hand, “I believe in science” is not part of the creed I profess. I have encountered reductionistic scientism that makes science the be-all and end-all, sometimes as rigidly dogmatic as the most rigid fundamentalist.

My own posture is one of listening to science. Particularly, I am listening to see if the conclusions of scientists are the best explanation of their data. And if it is, I consider the implications of what they propound–for my health and for the welfare of my fellow creatures. My listening leads to prayers for discerning wisdom in the application of scientific findings–which can help or harm.

So I will continue to read, review, and recommend science writing. Contrary to the portrayals of some, I know too many dedicated scientists who have devoted their lives and energies to understand creation, and to turn that knowledge to benefit the common good. They have earned a hearing, at least from me. So I will listen and learn to better understand the real world in which we live.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Speaking of science, I’ve mentioned Nature’s Andrew Robinson who reviews the latest science writing. “DNA need not apply: Books in brief” is his latest installment and offered some interesting recommendations, including a book on AI.

Haruki Murakami’s long-awaited new novel is out. Junot Diaz thinks that dedicated readers of Murakami may have a sense of deja vu, which he elaborates in his review: “Haruki Murakami’s New Novel Doesn’t Feel All That New.”

It has become increasingly common for people who were raised Christian to look beyond the bounds of their traditional religion to find spiritual life. “In Search of a Faith Beyond Religion,” a review of a new book, helped me understand some of the reasons people turn away from institutional Christianity.

Open Culture posted a fascinating clip, “The Final Days of Leo Tolstoy Captured in Rare Footage from 1910.”

Vanity Fair broke a story this week (behind a paywall) that during his forties, Cormac McCarthy engaged in an intimate relationship (statutory rape) with a seventeen year old who served as something of a muse in several of his works. O. Alan Noble, an English professor who uses McCarthy’s work, discusses “When Your Literary Heroes (Inevitably) Fail You” and how he is thinking about McCarthy’s moral failures and using McCarthy in his classes.

Quote of the Week

South African novelist Nadine Gordimer was born on November 20, 1923. This statement defined for me the difference between formal, positional power and moral authority:

“There is no moral authority like that of sacrifice.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I’ve started a new feature at my Bob on Books Facebook page, a weekly “reel”, Bob on Poetry. This past week, I recited William Butler Yeats “The Second Coming.” The poem seems quite prescient for our current day. You may listen here and read the text of the poem here. By the way, if you haven’t discovered it, Poetry Foundation is a wonderful online poetry resource.

I’ve been reading Adam Higgenbotham’s Challenger and came today to the part where Challenger blows up. It was hard to relive that day and the images from 1986. I kept hoping that, this time, the story would be different. What was more sobering was to imagine the engineers who argued vigorously against the launch only to be overridden by senior executives, watching the launch.

It was fun to receive the mail Tuesday and Wednesday. Between those two days, nine books arrived, kind of like Christmas coming early. Among them was Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest, and a graphic biography of the life of Jakob Hutter, an early Anabaptist.

Next Week’s Reviews

Here’s what I expect to be reviewing next week:

Challenger, Adam Higgenbotham

The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion

The Integration Journey: A Student’s Guide to Faith, Culture, and Psychology, by William B. Whitney and Carissa Dwiwardani

Remarriage in Early Christianity, A. Andrew Das

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 17-23, 2024!

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

Review: Turning Points in American Church History

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Cover image of "Turning Points in American Church History" by Elesha J. Coffman

Turning Points in American Church History, Elesha J. Coffman, foreword by Mark A. Noll. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9780801097492) 2024.

Summary: Shows ways the church contributed to American history through 13 key events over four centuries.

If we have taken a history course in college, we may have read a text that tried to cover every significant event and date within its scope. While comprehensive, at least in a superficial sense, it was usually a bore. Elesha J. Coffman, following an example of Mark Noll (who contributes the foreword) takes a different approach to the subject of American church history. Specifically, she chooses thirteen key events that may be considered turning points in American church history. By doing so, she can both zoom in on the real human history, while setting the turning points in a broader context and showing subsequent developments and impacts in American history.

From the table of contents, here are the thirteen events covered:

1. The Old World Order Upended
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588
2. The Limits of Religious Freedom
Roger Williams Banished from Massachusetts, 1635
3. A Collision of Cultures
King Philip’s War, 1675-76
4. Evangelicalism Sweeps America
George Whitefield Sparks the First Great Awakening, 1740
5. A Faith for Enslaved and Free
First African American Church Founded at Silver Bluff, South Carolina, 1773
6. Far from Rome
John Carroll Elected First Roman Catholic Bishop in the United States, 1789
7. The Benevolent Empire
American Bible Society Founded, 1816
8. Houses Divided
Methodist Church Splits over Slavery, 1844
9. Muscular Missions
Student Volunteer Movement Launched, 1886
10. Los Angeles Fire
Azusa Street Revival Catalyzes Pentecostalism, 1906
11. Science versus Religion?
The Scopes “Monkey” Trial, 1925
12. Civil Rights and Uncivil Religion
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, Birmingham, 1963
13. Religion Moves Right
Ronald Reagan Elected President, 1980

To illustrate her approach, I will take the chapter on the first African American church. Each chapter opens with a representative piece of hymn or song lyrics. This chapter opens with “There is a Balm in Gilead.” She traces the first church to Silver Bluff, North Carolina, the preaching of white revivalist, Wait Palmer on George Galphin’s estate, although George Liele, from a slave background, had previously preached to the slaves. Liele served as presiding elder after the initial sacraments, administered by Palmer.

Coffman then backs out, discussing the early history of slavery, Richard Allen and the formation of the African Methodist Episcopal churches as well as the informal revivalist experiences, including the unique form of the “ring shout.” She discusses the fears of uprising and how much Christian activity was covert. And she includes a sidebar from Frederick Douglass on false and true Christianity. Each chapter concludes with a prayer, in this case, from a message of the Rev. Absalom Jones. Finally, each chapter also includes a bibliography for further reading.

I personally found several chapters particularly interesting. I had not thought about the significance of the defeat of the Spanish Armada for the English settlement of the colonies. And I appreciated the history of Bishop John Carroll, having lived near the university that bore his name. Growing up in a heavily Catholic neighborhood, I did not always appreciate what it was like for Catholics as a minority in a heavily protestant country. Working in collegiate ministry, I appreciated the inclusion of the chapter on the Student Volunteer Movement, a predecessor to the organization I worked with. And I reflected as I read the final chapter on the rise and decline of evangelicalism, of how I had lived in that history from the “year of the evangelical” as a college student down to the present. Sobering.

The author admits that one weakness is that some important developments get overlooked. In the American context, one element that I wish had been included was the importance of ethnic church communities, including Asian ethnicities, Latino ethnicities, and African churches in our contemporary context. On the other hand, I was impressed with how these thirteen key events covered so much ground. And they were interesting!

This book could serve as a good text, or supplemental text, in American church history. It will also work well for an adult Christian education course. And the breadth of stories helps us realize the amazing mosaic that is the American church.

____________________

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

Review: The Good News of Church Politics

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Cover image of "The Good News of Church Politics" by Ross Kane

The Good News of Church Politics, Ross Kane. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802883834) 2024.

Summary: Proposes politics as a spiritual practice by which we love each other within and beyond the church walls.

When we hear the term “politics,” our minds often go to national politics. We center a lot of our focus on a single day every four years. But what about the rest of life? And particularly for Christians, what about our life together within local congregations.

Now I realize that for many of us the idea of church politics is hardly good news. We’ve been through power struggles, often over what seem small things like music in worship, or even carpet colors. However, Ross Kane believes that the church is a place where we can learn a redemptive form of politics. Specifically, we may learn politics as a spiritual practice of interdependence in our common life. And how we engage with each other can shape our engagement with the wider world. As Kane puts it, “organizing the church’s yard sale should be a model for how we engage politics in our cities and nations.”

Kane invites us to see our ordinary activities as political. Running our weekly food pantry is not mere service but an example of ordering our lives to love God and neighbor in the warp and woof of life. How we address competing interests can be exercises of ruthless power or gospel-centered service and a yielding to one another. How we welcome those who come through the door can communicate hierarchy or radical inclusiveness and worth. Loving God and neighbor in this way calls us into interdependence both within and between churches.

But is this idea rooted in the scriptures? Kane takes us through the terminology of scripture, observing how words for salvation and faithfulness have political overtones. Then there is language like kingdom, reign, people of God, community. Political imagery infuses our sacraments and hymns. All this reflects God’s good news for the politics of the church. Throughout, we witness a vision of interdependent, serving and sacrificial love. For God, politics is how we live in love with Him and each other.

Then Kane turns to politics as spiritual practice. Prayer is the starting place. He proposes that what prayer and politics have in common is “persistence, listening, and a commitment to mundane experience.” The realities of prayer open us up and sustain us in the realities of ordinary politics. The good news calls us to love our enemies. Learning to pray for and love those with whom we conflict moves us to a place of recognizing our interdependence even with those with whom we disagree. It also takes us into the place of forgiveness. Kane discusses forgiveness both as real reconciliation, rather than a forced papering over of wrongs, and as an act of self care, when reconciliation isn’t possible. He strongly emphasizes that truth-telling must precede reconciliation.

Kane believes the good news of church politics renews leadership. This includes the practices in our meetings that ensure that all are heard and that what they contribute is valued and weighed in the church’s deliberations. He explores how leaders exercise love as political power, considering the principles of Dr. King in non-violent action. He discusses how the church faces corporate sin with recognition, repentance, and restitution. In concluding this section, he elaborates the unusual authority of Christian leaders as that of serving and empowering others.

Finally, Kane shows how this “good politics” bears fruit beyond the congregation. He argues for an approach that is both locally focused and non-partisan. He uses the example of investigating and advocating the need for affordable housing (a challenge in my community). Kane also addresses the limits of hyperlocal politics. In particular, problems (and sins) in my neighborhood are often connected to wider problems and sins. Also, focus on one’s own community may deprive others. This leads him into consideration of seeking the welfare of our cities and of our national citizenship.

Ross Kane offer a convincing case for the good news of church politics. The church can indeed be the training ground for wider Christian political engagement. On the other hand, if we cannot practice the good news in and through our local congregations, we are not ready to do so more widely. This pithy little book is a great place for church leaders to begin. Each section offers questions for discussion and further resources. Kane roots his principles in congregational and community examples that will resonate with most readers. And he makes an argument that for most of us, our most important political work is the daily life of interdependent service with our own congregation and in our own community. This offers an attractive alternative to the often toxic character of our national politics. And this may be where the healing begins.

____________________

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

Review: The Holy Thief

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Cover image of "The Holy Thief" by Ellis Peters

The Holy Thief (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael number 19), Ellis Peters. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781497671614) 2014 (first published in 1992).

Summary: During a flood in Shrewsbury, the relics of St. Winifrid are stolen; a dispute over their disposition and a murder follow.

On a hot summer afternoon, Geoffrey de Mandeville, who set up his control of the Fens at the Abbey of Ramsey goes out to survey his lines without helmet or mail. An arrow grazes him, infection sets in, and he dies. Consequently, his leaderless forces disperse and the monks can return to Ramsey. Alas, it has been ransacked and requires major restoration. The Abbot sends for help to other abbeys. So Sub-Prior Herluin and young Brother Tutilo arrive at Shrewsbury seeking to collect aid. Meanwhile, a traveling musician, a woman enslaved to him, Renata, and a servant, Benezet also arrive. Renata and Tutilo know each other.

Sent to Longner Manor, Tutilo plays and sings for the dying Lady Donata. She gives him jewelry and Longner donates lumber. The town and abbey also contribute generously. But to the zealous young Tutilo, this isn’t enough. If only Ramsey had relics like those of Saint Winifrid. As Herluin and Tutilo prepare to leave, a flooding Severn endangers the Abbey. Everything movable is moved to higher quarters, including the relics. Meanwhile a wagon is loaded with the lumber and a secured box with the money and jewels to be sent back to Ramsey while Herluin and Tutilo visit other abbeys. As they finish, a brother comes out and asks Aldhelm, a shepherd, to help move one more item to go at Ramsey, a long, wrapped box.

After the flood recedes, the brothers discover St. Winifrid’s relics are missing. The only ones to leave were the wagon to Ramsey. But before they can follow the wagon, two of the wagon drivers return, badly beaten. They were ambushed, and the wagon and horses taken. The hope is that the thieves dumped the wagon’s contents. A party from the Abbey, Hugh Beringar, the sheriff, along with Herluin and Tutilo return to the spot. The lumber is there. The box with the jewels and money is empty, and the relics are intact. The Earl of Leicester, on whose land they are, also shows up. When Herluin argues to claim Winifrid for Ramsey because she prompted the “mistake” in loading the relics, the Earl plays along, and lays claim as well, saying she stopped on his lands. The party returns to Shrewsbury to resolve the dispute.

A key is to figure out whether the relics were taken by mistake or deliberately stolen. They seek out Aldhelm. Through overheard whispered conversation between Prior Robert and Brother Jerome, the word gets out to Benezet, who tips off Renata, having noticed her interest in Tutilo. She gets him off the Abbey premises so Aldhelm can’t identify him. But Aldhelm never comes. When Tutilo returns, it is to report that he has stumbled on a dead man. When morning light comes, they see that the man is Aldhelm, killed with a blow to his head.

The question is who murdered him and why? Tutilo, the leading suspect, is held. While Cadfael and Hugh search for evidence to convict or absolve Tutilo, Abbot Radulfus proposes an unusual test to resolve the question of the relics disposition. Meanwhile, Renata is not done.

One of the fun things in this story is the contrast between the rigid Herluin and the Earl, who forges a friendship with Hugh that may come into play later. As always, Cadfael plays a role of both devotion to his rule and discerning the spirit versus the letter of the law.

Review: The Way of Belonging

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Cover image of "The Way of Belonging" by Sarah E.] Westfall

The Way of Belonging, Sarah E. Westfall (foreword Lore Ferguson Wilbert). InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514008539) 2024.

Summary: How our longing to belong is an invitation to embrace and extend the deep love of God.

Have you ever been in a group and felt you had done all the right things to be a good member of the group and still felt you didn’t belong? Sarah Westfall was leading a conference with women at her church and Jolene asked her this question. She really didn’t have a good answer. She knew belonging cannot be manufactured. But what do we make of our longing for belonging? It was something with which she struggled.

Then she experienced a shift while reading Henri Nouwen. Instead of asking “what does it look like to belong?” Nouwen reframed the question. It became “How can I be a place of welcome?”, even as the Father welcomed his two lost sons in the parable of the prodigal. From struggling with acceptance, she learned she was of infinite and unique worth to God. Amid grieving the death of a newborn, she discovered a God who sees and finds us. God welcomes us and we belong. Period. And out of this, we can become a place of welcome for others.

The second part of the book explores how we live out of that shift in perspective. It is a shift from lack, of not being “enough” to the opening up of ourselves to God and others of longing. I thought this one of the most important insights in the book. When we are able to discern out of which stance, lack or longing, we are operating, and make the shift to the openness of longing, we take a crucial step. Then, the next step is to name our longing to God and others. Likewise, we move toward belonging when we shift from seeing others as “them” to recognizing them as “us.” And stories help that process as we move from judgment to empathy toward each other.

We may find ourselves removed from another when we maintain the illusion that we must be the “sage on the stage.” We welcome others to share our humanity when we can say “I don’t know” and share our questions. By this, we move from certainty to settled. When we allow others to share their uncertainties without judgment and with empathy, we move into deeper relationship. Depth also develops gradually and it is important to recognize the “circles of belonging” and how deep it is appropriate to go in each.

Finally, when we know we are welcome and live this truth with others, we are released from consuming to creating. We find ways to make and give rather than grasping. And we celebrate those in our lives and enjoy celebrations with them.

Westfall walks us through the way of belonging step by step, with brief “moving closer” exercises at the end of each chapter in the second part. She speaks as a thoughtful introvert who has been on this journey herself and is still living with the questions. Yet she also invites us into the wonder beyond us of a God who sees, who seeks us, who values us and welcomes us. And in the language found on the back cover, that welcome “changes everything.”

____________________

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

Review: The Grey Wolf

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Cover image of "The Grey Wolf" by Louise Penny

The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Number 19), Louise Penny. Minotaur Books (ISBN: 9781250328144) 2024.

Summary: Gamache, Jean-Guy, and Isabelle seek to avert a plotted catastrophe, trusting no one but each other.

It was worth the wait. It’s been two years since the last in the Gamache series, Penny taking a year off. The result was a riveting, edge-of-the seat work involving a scary plot in which tens of thousands could die.

It all begins on a quiet August Sunday, interrupted by a series of phone calls to Gamache’s private line. Finally, he picks it up, listens, says “Go to hell,” and hangs up. Not a wrong number but a wrong person, Jeanne Caron, responsible for adding to the suffering of Gamache’s son Daniel as a payback for Gamache’s refusing to bend the law for a political favor. She wanted to meet and called on a number known only to family and friends.

Then more strange things occur. While at the bistro, the alarm goes off to a flat they owned in Montreal. It appeared to be a faulty sensor. Leaving the bistro, Gamache sees a man who is vaguely familiar. At the Montreal flat, nothing was amiss. Except for a jacket, mailed back to Gamache with a cryptic list of herbs in the pocket and a request to meet at a cafe.

A man shows up for the meeting, a freelance biologist with a drug-abusing past. He hints at a terrible plot but leaves it to Gamache to figure out. As they leave the cafe, a driver heads toward them. Gamache leaps to save a grandfather and grandchild. The biologist is killed.

All this sets Gamache and his team in pursuit of the killers, one of whom they find executed, and what Langlois, the biologist, was trying to tell him. But it quickly becomes apparent that Gamache can only trust Jean-Guy and Isabelle. Thus, who is friend and who is enemy is not clear. For example, even his superior, the woman Gamache recommended when he stepped down from the position, is suspect. And Jeanne Caron? Why did she call?

And that familiar man at the bistro? It was none other than the abbot of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, Dom Phillippe (see book eight). But this was no random visit. He leaves a message for Gamache at the village church, a piece of paper connected to the paper in his jacket pocket. And a bottle of Chartreuse at the bistro.

This leads a hair-raising flight to the remote location of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups. No Dom Phillippe but they find a map from Langlois. Meanwhile Isabelle travels to DC, the Vatican and an abbey in France. And Gamache continues to search for notebooks Langlois left behind, increasingly convinced that what Langlois died trying to warn him about was a plot to poison Montreal’s water supply.

Not able to trust insiders in the Surete, Gamache goes outside. For example, he offers dirt on himself to a blogger hostile to him for her investigative efforts. He gains the trust of the crusty Mission director, where Langlois sought refuge for a time. The pattern of reaching out to those on the margins, those discounted by others, continues.

But will their fevered efforts be in time and enough? And who is behind this plot? And why? Penny keeps us turning the pages to find out.

The residents of Three Pines play a supporting role to Gamache’s family, sheltering in Three Pines, but little more. Given the focus of the plot, there is little room for development of these characters. That said, Ruth acts totally in character. There are indications of a deepening rapprochement between Daniel and Armand.

And the title? Wolves turn up at several places but key is a story Armand tell Jean-Guy about Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, which means Saint Gilbert Between the Wolves. It comes from a story a Cree chief told the first abbot about two wolves inside us, a grey and black one, the first strong, compassionate, and wise. the second, cruel and cunning. The question is, which wolf will win? The answer: the one we feed. In this book, we learn of a grey wolf. And in the after matter, we learn that Penny’s next book, in 2025, is titled The Black Wolf. So, strap in folks, for more good reading ahead!

For Gamache readers, if you want to refresh your memory of the preceding books (and especially book 8, The Beautiful Mystery), you might find my blog post, The Reviews: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, helpful.

The Weekly Wrap: November 10-16

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When Our Kids Like Different Books

An unusual event happened yesterday. I posted about a book I’m reading (Challenger by Adam Higgenbotham). My son commented that he wanted to read it when I finished it. This doesn’t happen very often. We generally read very different stuff, despite all the stories we read together when he was young.

This brings to mind Dave Kim’s story of all the books he gave his son. And what did he want? Heidi! “I Gave My Son the Books I Loved. He Chose ‘Heidi’ Instead” is a touching account of bonds between father and son when reading tastes differed.

That’s the opportunity when tastes differ. If nothing else, my son has introduced me to graphic novels and reminded me of how much I enjoyed math puzzle books when I was young. He reads science fiction published after the 1970’s! I have given him some Octavia E. Butler books as well as my Bradbury and Asimov collections.

Nearly always, he chooses great gifts of books–often things off my beaten paths that usually turn out to be pretty good reads. Because much of what he reads is technical math stuff, he gives me reading lists for gifts suggestions.

The one corollary of our differing tastes is that he has no interest in inheriting nearly any of my books! So an interesting task of these years is finding them a good home through donations and re-selling. And I wondered what I’d be doing in retirement?

Five Articles Worth Reading

I don’t know a single bibliophile who gets enough time to read. “So many books; so little time” is our mantra. In “Maximizing Time for Reading,” Blake Butler offers some great reading hacks for making the most of our time, and for reading widely.

Butler mentions reading Thomas Pynchon several times in his article. I came across this profile from 2013 of Pynchon, “On the Thomas Pynchon Trail: From the Long Island of His Boyhood to the ‘Yupper West Side’ of His New Novel.” He’s a recluse and something of an enigma. I’ve never tackled him and I wonder if I will. Should I?

Antigone, a website dedicated the Greek and Latin classics, reproduced “Machines or Mind? The Essay that Launched the Loebs,” written by W.H.D. Rouse, editor of the Loeb Classical Library series, in 1911. The series is well-known among classicists for 9its volumes in green cloth (Greek) or red cloth (Latin). In it, he enthusiastically answers the question, “What is the use of Greek and Latin literature?”

A particular use of literature through the ages has been to explore why human beings live in a tension of vice and virtue. Ed Simon explores this in the LitHub article “Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues: On the Timeless Duality of Being Human.”

This week, Samantha Harvey won the prestigious Booker Prize for Orbital, beating out the likes of Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner. The novel’s focus is on astronauts and cosmonauts orbiting the earth and what they experience. The New York Times profiles her and the book in “Samantha Harvey’s ‘Orbital’ Wins 2024 Booker Prize.” The book was new to me, but I just ordered it.

Quote of the Week

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850. He anticipates our modern day “thankfulness journals” when he writes:

“Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I finished Bob Woodward’s War the other day. What most struck me in this week of cabinet appointments was the experienced, highly competent, and dedicated people who are advising President Biden through the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel. There is far more than a political agenda at stake.

I’ve read two books recently that have touched on the friendship between revivalist George Whitefield and Ben Franklin, a theist at best. Each immeasurably helped the other in a friendship that had an incalculable impact on our history. Whitefield never succeeded in converting Franklin. Franklin failed to persuade Whitefield to ease up on his relentless pace. But the two men profoundly respected each other. Would that there were more such friendships.

There has been a significant exodus from X, formerly known as Twitter, since the election. I haven’t left (yet), but my follower counts have dropped noticeably. Many have migrated to Bluesky, which mirrors the look and vibe of early Twitter. One of those migrants yesterday was Stephen King, who wrote, “I quit Twitter. Eleven years, man. It really changed. Grew dark.” If Stephen King thinks it is dark…

I created an account this week and you can find me @bobonbooks.bsky.social. One cool feature is “starter packs” which connect you to others with similar interests.

Next Week’s Reviews

A new feature at The Weekly Wrap is simply a list of the books I’ll be reviewing next week. This is subject to some change due to reading time and life events. Here’s next week’s lineup:

Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf (her latest)

Sarah E. Westfall, The Way of Belonging

Ellis Peters, The Holy Thief (the nineteenth in the Cadfael series)

Elesha J. Coffman, Turning Points in American Church History

I may have one other–stay tuned!

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 10-16, 2024!

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

Review: War

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Cover image of "War" by Bob Woodward.

War, Bob Woodward. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781668052273) 2024.

Summary: A behind-the-scenes account of three wars during the Biden administration–Ukraine, the Middle East, and for the American presidency.

I have not read a single Bob Woodward book since All The President’s Men during the Watergate years. In all, he has written or co-written twenty two of them covering every presidency beginning with Richard Nixon up to the present. War covers the Biden presidency and draws its title from three wars that have defined the administration–in Ukraine, in the Middle East, and with Donald Trump for the American presidency.

Woodward begins by recollecting a party with Donald Trump to which he had been invited in 1989. Even then Trump, though not thinking about political office defined his life by fighting, rolling with the punches, and winning. He then fast forwards to January 6, 2021 and the President’s reluctant exit from office. Once Joe Biden is in office, there was an impression that President Trump would fade into the background. The Republicans and the nation would move on. As we all know, and the book records, it was the Trump of 1989 that prevailed. What the book illuminates is the key role of Lindsay Graham in encouraging another run. Woodward traces the coalescence of a campaign around grievance–immigration, inflation, foreign involvements including the badly handled exit in Afghanistan, set up by Trump’s own agreement with the Taliban.

However, much of the book concerns two other conflicts. One is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What is striking in Woodward’s recounting, first, is the amount of intelligence the U.S, had. We clearly knew more than Zelensky and had a hard time convincing him of what he was facing. What is also striking are the wise and intricate moves to both support Ukraine without escalating the conflict into a global war, or even a nuclear war. Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, and Lloyd Austin played crucial roles. Austin, in particular, may have averted the use of tactical nuclear weapons in a confrontation with his Russian counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu who told Austin he didn’t like being threatened. Austin replied, “Mr. Minister, I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don’t make threats.”

The book also pointed up the critical importance of artillery to the ground war. Our highly advanced technology often features jets and missile defense. But the lowly 155 mm artillery shell is of critical importance and the US alone did not have enough to send Ukraine. This led to the substitution of more lethal cluster munitions, which the Russians were already using.

The other conflict was the war of Israel against Hamas in Gaza after the brutal October 7, 2023 attack. We learn that the public support for Israel was tempered with private entreaties for more humanitarian aid, as well as tempered approaches to attacks on Gaza. Meanwhile, we learn that outside Iran, few Middle East leaders had anything good to say about Hamas. Their concerns were the Palestinian people. Again, Woodward traces U.S. efforts to both stand with and temper Israeli efforts. Netanyahu felt he had to strike hard in response to Israel’s failure to protect its people. But the U.S. saw the danger of a widening conflict with Hezbollah to the north and Iran. An all-out war would involve the U.S as Israel’s staunchest ally. Again, the combination of deft diplomacy and parrying attacks has stopped this so far.

All this underscored to me how important are the top advisors to the president. This includes those in National Security, the Secretaries of State and Defense, and Intelligence Directors. Given our dangerous world, these appointments are critically important. At this juncture, U.S. troops are not at war anywhere in the world.

The book concludes with the political tumult of the early summer of 2024. Woodward recounts Joe Bidens signs of decline and poor debate performance, the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and the nomination of Kamala Harris. It also concludes with his appraisals of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. On Trump, he writes that he “is not only the wrong man for the presidency, he is unfit to lead the country.” On Biden, he writes, “I believe president Biden and this team will be largely studied in history as an example of steady and purposeful leadership.”

I realize that this is a hotly contended assessment. All I will say is that his account convinced me of his verdict on Biden. And I hope time will prove him wrong on Trump for the sake of the country. Woodward has given us, in this, and his previous books, a first, journalist’s draft of the history of these times. There will be much more research, analysis, and assessment. But these “in the moment” accounts serve as a good basis for future accounts, captured while sources are alive to render the accounts. Add to this a crisp, engaging style and what you have is both a good and important read.

Review: Bonhoeffer for the Church

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Cover image for "Bonhoeffer for the Church" by Matthew D. Kirkpatrick.

Bonhoeffer for the Church, Matthew D. Kirkpatrick. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9781506497822) 2024.

Summary: A study of what Bonhoeffer wrote about the church’s identity, purpose, practices, and life together.

When the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer comes up, one might ask, “which Dietrich Bonhoeffer?” At present, their are different “camps” trying to claim Bonhoeffer for their own. While his widest readership has always been among those who identify with one or another church, his works do not offer a systematic theology of the church. What Matthew D. Kirkpatrick does, with the aid of the now-completed set of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, published by Fortress Press, is organize this material into an extended statement of Bonhoeffer’s message for the church. While reflecting extensive scholarship, Kirkpatrick writes for the church, making this a text for pastors, leaders, and lay people to explore together.

After a brief biographical sketch emphasizing Bonhoeffer’s pastoral work, Kirkpatrick begins by discussing foundations of the church’s identity. He begins with creation and fall, emphasizing the tragedy of wanting to be like God when we already were. Instead, the first couple turned in on themselves, and we re-enact this in our lives in a shared predicament. But God breaks in through Christ’s work on the cross, God’s living Word. God breaks in, often mediated through others, enabling us to have faith in Christ. Such faith calls us into community with love as faith’s expression. Christ makes our community possible through that love and we meet each other through Christ. Thus our own “visions” of and attempts to build community die. Instead we receive community as a gift through Christ.

Crucial to our community is Bonhoeffer’s idea of vicarious representation. Christ served and redeemed as a vicarious representative, and while the church cannot do what Christ did in redemption, it vicariously represents Christ in service to one another and the world. For Bonhoeffer, this is the basis of pastoral care. This further works itself out in intercessory prayer and the confession of and forgiveness of sin. Intercession is not just praying for others, but praying as the other in and through Christ and is a profound expression of community. In confession of sin, we take on the sins of others, recognizing our own sin, and pronouncing Christ’s forgiveness of the other. A concluding chapter in this section discusses ecumenism, the true and empirical church, and why we go to church as a counter to our individualism. Christ meets us in others.

Part Two turns from our identity to our inner life. Firstly, Bonhoeffer addresses authority, leadership and the priesthood of all believers. The focus is on the priority of the God’s word over human words and structures as the source of authority. This is followed by a chapter on preaching, theology, and the word of God. Preaching is central to the inner life of the church. For Bonhoeffer, this means submission to the word of God, by both those who preach and the congregation. The church comes together to be addressed not by a person but by the living God. Kirkpatrick follows this with a chapter on the reading of scripture, music, and sacraments.

For Bonhoeffer, evangelism is not winning people to Christ but rather a means by which God, mediated through Christ, calls people to faith. Evangelism meant listening before speaking, both to God and the person, seeking to discern God’s word in that situation. For this reason, he opposed programmatic approaches. for him, faith in Christ and his word was sufficient. Likewise, in his teaching on time alone, the focus is on listening to God, both in prayer and in scripture. Each nurtures the other.

Part Three engages the church in the world. Kirkpatrick emphasizes that Bonhoeffer did not focus on rules or laws. Rather, the focus was on God to discern what one must do to follow Christ. This may explain as well as anything Bonhoeffer’s decision to plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer on the state followed Luther’s two kingdoms. However, in the context of Nazism, he also believed the church must address the state with the Word of God. Thus he refused to incorporate the Aryan paragraph as a violation of the Word of God. The final chapter covers his letters and papers from prison. This includes Bonhoeffer’s idea of a “religionless Christianity.”

Few agree with Bonhoeffer at all points. But the delight of this book is in how it underscores the centrality of Christ. Salvation comes through him. Community is possible only in him. Our preaching is for hearing Christ’s word together. Our witness is predicated on Christ’s work of calling others to himself. Ethics is obedience to Christ. Amid the contentions around Bonhoeffer, Kirkpatrick has given us a book at once profound and useful for our life together.

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