The Emotions of God, David T. Lamb. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. 2022.
Summary: A study of the emotional language used of God in scripture, considering seven emotions spoken of both in Old and New Testaments.
The title of this book caught my attention. God has emotions? Readings in systematic theology taught me that God was impassible, that God does not experience passions or emotions, pain or pleasure, in ways that would change the unchanging God. Part of the reason for this is that emotions, at least as humans experience them do reflect real changes in our state of being, vacillating between highs and lows, sometimes unpredictably. Yet as this work amply demonstrates, scripture in many places attributes emotion to God. And the author freely admits that he does not believe in an impassible God, but rather one who is “affected emotionally by the behavior of humans” (p. 6). He chooses not to engage the theological discussion but rather to examine the biblical material supporting the idea of God having “emotions.”
It should be noted that in making this assertion that Lamb considers emotions not only to be strong feelings, but they may involve actions, can be rational, may be controlled, and may be understood. He then proceeds to introduce the scope of his study, seven emotions, all of which are evident in connection with God in the Psalms: hate (5:5; 11:5 45:7;), anger (6:1; 30:5; 78:21), jealousy (78:58; 79:5), grief (78:40), delight or joy (18:20; 22:8; 35:27), mercy (25:6; 28:6; 103:4), love (5:7; 25:6; 136).
In each of the following chapters Lamb takes one of the seven, defines the term, identifies the different Hebrew and Greek words used in Old and New Testaments respectively associated with the emotion, and then considers a number of key texts and what they reveal about these emotions in reference to God. With hate for example, he discusses what it may have meant to say “Esau I hated” or Jesus reference to “hating mother and brother and sister,” the latter which he would propose meaning “loving less.” In scripture, much of God’s “hatred” is directed against evil, and reflects the obverse of his intense love for his good creation, deeply hating anything that mars it and his good purposes for it. God hates injustice and falsehood. He discusses ways in which we do not hate like God (for example, being inconvenienced), and that we ought hate the things God hates, that sometimes, these should make us furious. He recommends that we take this to prayer but that this will also mean resisting evil and injustice.
In similar ways, Lamb moves from definition and word study to key texts to application with each of the seven. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of what God takes joy or delight in, from the creatures of the deep to his people, each and all of us! His chapter on sorrow centers on the reality that God may be grieved, and that Jesus wept deeply for Lazarus. He distinguishes compassion, which is more episodic and empathic with love that is faithful and enduring. In the process, Lamb invites us into the redemption of these emotions in our lives: to hate what God hates, to be angry but not sin, to be jealous for God and the things of God, to grieve and lament with God the world’s deep brokenness, to revel in and join in God’s delight in his world and people, to show mercy and compassion, and to love steadily and faithfully and selflessly.
My only wish would be that Lamb had said something more about emotions and how God may be both responsive and unchanging. We believe God is both transcendent and immanent, infinite and yet personal, is spirit, and yet in the second person of the Trinity, for eternity to come the Incarnate Son. As we hold other truths in tension, is there a way in which we are also called to hold God’s unchanging nature and evident emotional response to his creatures in tension? To deny a belief in impassibility does not seem enough, nor is a denial of the emotional language attributed to God. Often, we cannot fully explain these truths in tension, yet it seems we must hold them in tension in mystery, wonder, and faith, hoping that one day we will know more fully, even as we are known.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
Photo Finish(Roderick Alleyn #31), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2016 (originally published in 1980).
Summary: A New Zealand trip for Alleyn and Troy goes sideways when Isabella Sommita, a soprano and diva is murdered after she debuts a badly written opera composed by her latest love interest.
Troy has been invited to paint the portrait of famed soprano Isabella Sommita by her Aristotle Onassis-like friend, Montague Reece. It appears to have all the trappings of a romantic getaway for her and Alleyn. She has been invited to Reece’s Waihoe Lodge on a remote lake in New Zealand. Alleyn has been invited separately to “consult” on dealing with a particularly annoying member of the paparazzi, calling himself “Strix” who has managed to insinuate himself into a variety of situations where he has taken the most unflattering pictures of The Sommita. Alleyn is reluctant to go, given the penchant they have for getting mixed up in murder cases together. The deal is sealed however by his superior, who thinks he ought to go because of a vague international drug connection that The Sommita is rumored to have some association with.
The setting and the Lodge are as stunningly beautiful as Troy and Alleyn imagine. Marsh, a native New Zealander, describes the scene so vividly I could see it in my mind’s eye, and a storm section later in the book so palpably that I felt I was hearing the wind and rain pelt the Lodge. Reece has set up a well-appointed studio for Troy to use for the portrait and they are treated as guests of honor. But she will never make more than preliminary sketches.
Isabella Sommita, like many of the stage figures in Marsh’s books is full of herself, in this case the definition of diva. She is barely tolerated by her entourage, the maid Maria, her manager Ben Ruby, and the rest of the household staff including the very proper housekeeper Mrs. Bacon and the officious secretary of Mr. Reece, Ned Hanley. She has taken under her wing (and into her bed) Rupert Bartholomew, a young composer who has written a mediocre work just for her, The Alien Corn, with The Sommita playing the title role of the biblical role, complete with a climactic song that allows her to hit her famous high notes. They will debut the piece at the Waihoe Lodge with a cast of supporting singers, a music critic and Signor Beppo Lattienzo, with whom The Sommita had trained.
It’s thought that the remote location was safe from the increasingly hostile photographic intrusions of “Strix” but an incident during rehearsals, another photograph taken, suggests “Strix” is in their midst, yet he cannot be found. As the performance approaches, Rupert Bartholomew, who will conduct, begins to realize what a mess he is. He is awakening both to the poor quality of his composition and how he is in thrall to The Sommita. He tries to back out but neither Reece nor The Sommita will hear of it.
The guests arrive as a storm is setting in. The production comes off, with The Sommita giving her all to a very poor piece. As everyone is applauded, Bartholomew summons the courage to apologize for his shoddy work. The Sommita is infuriated and storms off to her bedroom while Rupert faints. When The Sommita doesn’t appear, Reece covers for her and asks Maria to take her a warm drink. A scream follows. The Sommita is lying spread-eagle on her bed–dead. A stiletto has been driven into her heart (post-mortem as it turns out) with a photograph taken earlier in the day pinned to her.
The storm has risen and most of the guests, save the performers and a few special guests have just gotten out in time. The rest are stuck there and the lake is so turbulent that the police cannot come. So Alleyn reluctantly takes charge and does his best to secure the crime scene and to collect evidence while it is fresh with the assistance of Dr Carmichael, even though he has no authority other than Mr. Reece’s permission.
Was it “Strix”? Or Rupert, who had a key to the bedroom as her lover? Or someone else in the household? And does a book Alleyn found in the Lodge library describing a vendetta between two New York crime families in which a young woman dies under similar circumstances have anything to do with the case? By the time the authorities arrive, Alleyn has figured out who “Strix” is and is ready, with Inspector Hazelmere to resolve the case.
I have to admit that having read a number of Marsh’s works, this felt a bit formulaic to me–a stage personality, a remote house party, a performance with the death of a lead, an extreme weather event leaving Alleyn in charge. Even so, the final denouement had some twists that caught me by surprise. And I have to admit that I have always enjoyed the New Zealand settings the best. This work was the next to last published in her life, two years before she died, showing her still quite competent in re-mixing the standard devices into an engaging story.
The Trinity in the Book of Revelation(Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), Brandon D. Smith (Foreword by Lewis Ayers). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2022.
Summary: A Trinitarian reading of Revelation, drawing upon the insights of the pro-Nicene fathers to elucidate John’s vision both of the One God and the working of the Father, Son, and Spirit.
Discussions of Revelation often focus on the vivid imagery of the book trying to make some sense of its significance. Yet at the heart of John’s vision is the triune God acting as Father, Son, and Spirit in concert to bring about the final victory of the Lamb, the eradication of all forces of evil, and the heavenly city come down. It is this on which Brandon D. Smith focuses in this study of Revelation’s portrayal of the triune God.
His approach is to draw upon patristic resources and the pro-Nicene formulations articulating the doctrine of the Trinity to elucidate the theology of the Godhead revealed in John’s vision. Smith defends against the charge of eisegesis in arguing that the Trinitarian formulations best make sense of the unarticulated theology of the biblical text of Revelation, that they offer the best explanation of what we find in Revelation. One patristic approach that particularly frames Smith’s study is that of redoublement, the idea that we must speak of God “twice over,” first considering what the persons have in common (the divine nature) and what distinguishes them (processions or missions).
After establishing this approach, the following three chapters consider Father, Son, and Spirit. The first part of each chapter considers the pro-Nicene material and then the latter part the key texts pertaining to the member of the Godhead. Smith highlights the Father as fountainhead of the divine nature who gives revelation to Jesus, shares the throne with Jesus, and the Spirit, and receives their mediatorial work. We see the Son receiving worship, carrying out divine prerogatives, and claiming divine titles. Perhaps most interesting is the material on the Holy Spirit, focusing on the “seven spirits.” who he makes the case for being a reference not to angels but to the Holy Spirit, noting the facing of the spirits outward from the throne and joined with Father and Son in receiving worship. Drawing on patristics, we see emerging in John the triune God, one in nature, sharing in the worship of all those in the heavenly throne room, both acting singularly and indivisibly as one being and yet distinctively as three persons.
The writer concludes by arguing that this patristic-biblical reading of Revelation centered on the triune God challenges our modern readings of Revelation often devoid of a high Christology or binatarian in nature. Furthermore, he gestures toward the ways in which such a reading is of benefit to the church in reinforcing our confession of faith, in undergirding our existence as the church gathered in Christ, pardoned by the Father and united by the Spirit, by how it points us toward the one who “was, is, and is coming” and by recognizing the Trinity at the center of our reading of all of scripture.
Not only does Smith offer an interesting approach to reading Revelation, he centers our focus where I think it should be, not on the signs, but rather the triune God who gave John this vision, and who is at work through all that John sees to accomplish God’s purposes. Smith doesn’t offer a prophetic scheme or a timeline, but calls our attention to the glory of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the glorious kingdom that is the destiny of the multitudes surrounding the throne, worshipping with the help of the Spirit the Lamb who is seated with the Father on the throne.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
The Apostle and the Empire, Christoph Heilig (foreword by John M. G. Barclay). Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2022.
Summary: Focusing on 2 Corinthians 2:14, Heilig argues for an alternative to either hidden or unexpressed criticism of the empire in Paul’s writings, proposing that we might also consider texts that have been overlooked.
Until N. T. Wright, most commentators on the Pauline works considered Paul to be silent on or even supportive of the Roman empire. Wright changed that with an article in 2000, “Paul’s Gospel and Caesar’s Empire,” proposing that subtexts could be found in Paul’s writing of an anti-imperial nature, referred to as hidden subtexts. John M. G. Barclay responded with a critique outlining five necessary conditions that would need to be met to accept Wright’s hypothesis that Wright answered in a chapter of Paul and the Faithfulness of God in 2013. A more recent paper by Laura Robinson questions the “hidden subtext” idea proposing that they are not hidden but just are not there, and that the concerns evoked by Wright about surveillance by the empire were unwarranted.
In this work, Heilig seeks to move the discussion to a new place. In addition to challenging Robinson’s assessment of the dangers Christians faced, invoking for example, the Pliny-Trajan correspondence, and the troubles Paul actually found himself in, he proposes the idea that Paul’s criticism is not so much hidden as perhaps, at least in some passages, overlooked. After mentioning passages like 1 Corinthians 2:6 and 1 Thessalonians 3:3, he focuses much of this monograph on 2 Corinthians 2:14:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.
2 Corinthians 2:14, NIV.
A significant part of Heilig’s argument, overlooked in most commentaries, is the contemporary context of the victory procession of Claudius in 44 AD, celebrating his victory over Britannia. The Corinthians actually had an emperor cult that celebrated this victory. References to a triumphal procession would readily evoke this event in the minds of the Corinthians, not simply a general military practice. He explores the challenge to empire implicit in the reference God leading this procession, spreading the knowledge of the victory of Christ. Heilig argues that this, at very least expresses a sense of “unease” with the empire. He also suggests that this may be found even in the “clearest” of the passages on the empire, Romans 13:1-7, although I am surprised the author does not explore the standards for the just exercise of power implied in these passages, that is an implicit judgment against the much more arbitrary exercise of “the sword” in actuality.
In the last chapter before the conclusion, he decries the woeful state of access to the most current scholarship on context for biblical commentators, illustrated by the “overlooked” material on Claudius. I felt that, while this may be valid, I would have been more greatly helped by a discussion of further research along the lines of this work, and at least a preliminary overview of other passages where he thought criticism may have been overlooked rather than hidden.
That said, I do think this proposal offers new ground for work on Paul’s unease with empire and the realities faced by early Christians navigating Roman society, one that recognizes both Paul’s courage and discretion.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
This month’s reads stretched as far back as Augustine and to a review of a book posted on the date of the book’s publication. I reviewed mysteries by two of the Queens of Crime, a biography of the person once named the “most trusted man in America” and a memoir of stories by one of our most prolific authors. I enjoyed a devotional book of “reflections” on the Psalms, a work by Frederick Buechner on becoming attentive to God in the ordinary, and Os Guinness’s latest, on the signals we encounter in life that point us to “something more.” There are two novels her with pandemics in the backdrop–one imagined and one very real. Along the way were books reconsidering the social status of women, a book re-casting our vision of masculinity post-“Purity culture,” a book on the significance of the resurrection, and an inspiring book on intercessory prayer groups. As always, the link in the title takes you to the publisher’s website and the link marked “Review” takes you to the full review of the book.
Finding Phoebe, Susan E. Hylen. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2023. A careful examination of the social status of women in the New Testament world, challenging many of our preconceptions of women in the early church. Review
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel. New York: Knopf, 2014. An account of the end of civilization as we know it after a catastrophic pandemic, and how survivors sought to keep beauty and the memory of what was alive as they struggled against destructive forces to rebuild human society. Review
The Hope of Life After Death(Essential Studies in Biblical Theology), M. Jeff Brannon. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2022. A study of the hope for life after death throughout scripture and the significance of the resurrection for the believer. Review
Endless Grace: Prayers Inspired By The Psalms, Ryan Whitaker Smith & Dan Wilt. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023. Prayers in free verse inspired, psalm by psalm, from Psalm 76 to Psalm 150, responding with ideas from the whole of scripture as well as literature. Review
Non-Toxic Masculinity, Zachary Wagner. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. Focusing on the distortions of male sexuality coming out of the purity culture movement, charts what a healthy male sexuality might look like that is responsible, selfless, and loving. Review
False Scent (Roderick Alleyn #21), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2015 (originally published in 1959). The fiftieth birthday celebration of famed stage actress Mary Bellamy is interrupted when she is found dead in her bedroom, poisoned by her own insecticide. Review
The Remarkable Ordinary, Frederick Buechner. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017. A collection of essays drawn from two lecture series, focusing on our attention to the ordinary around us, and in so doing becoming attentive to our own lives and the working of God in them. Review
Signals of Transcendence, Os Guinness. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. The stories of people who have experienced signs or promptings that there is more to life awakening them to pursue the unseen realities beyond the signal. Review
Cronkite, Douglas Brinkley. New York: Harper, 2012. The biography of Walter Cronkite, from his early reporting days, his United Press work during World War 2, and his years at CBS, including his nineteen years on the CBS Evening News, and his “retirement years,” where he came out as a liberal. Review
Epic Science, Ancient Faith, D. E. Gunther. Ellensburg, WA: Truth in Creation, 2022. A discussion of essential attitudes in making sense of both God’s Word and God’s world with two case studies and a discussion of how we resolve differences between these two “books” of God. Review
A Caribbean Mystery(Miss Marple #9), Agatha Christie. New York, Morrow, 2022 (originally published in 1964). A Caribbean holiday after an illness is just what the doctor ordered for Miss Marple, who helps solve a string of murders at a resort. Review
The Power of Group Prayer, Carolyn Carney. Downers Grove: IVP/Formatio, 2022. A practical guide for intercessory prayer groups, casting vision for how these may transform both the intercessors and their world. Review
Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout. New York: Random House, 2022. Lucy Barton goes with her ex-husband William to a house on the coast of Maine during the COVID lockdown of 2020. Review
Humble Confidence, Benno van den Toren and Kang-San Tan. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2022. A model of dialogical apologetics for a multi-faith world committed to accountable and embodied witness that is culturally sensitive, holistic, and yet centered in Christ. Review
Christianity and Critical Race Theory, Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023. A critical and constructive engagement with Critical Race Theory in light of the Christian faith. Review
James Patterson by James Patterson, James Patterson. New York: Little, Brown, and Company. 2022. The life of this storyteller in a series of stories, arranged roughly in chronological order. Review
The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa of Avila, Foreword by Paula Huston, Translated by Henry L Carrigan, Jr. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2009. St Theresa’s reflections on growing in love, humility, and the life of prayer. Review
The Art of the Commonplace, Wendell Berry, edited and introduced by Norman Wirzba. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2002. Twenty essays articulating an agrarian vision for society that offers health to land, food, and the wider society. Review
Best Book of the Month: Robert Chao Romero and Jeff Liou have given us what I think is the most balanced discussion I’ve encountered of Critical Race Theory from a Christian perspective in Christianity and Critical Race Theory. Both are evangelicals who are persons of color and their book also offers a perspective of how the increasingly politicized discussion of CRT is perceived among Christians who are people of color. The book actually uses the Reformed rubric of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation in its consideration of Critical Race Theory and helpfully distinguishes at a number of points what CRT is and isn’t.
Quote of the Month: Theresa of Avila offers uncommon wisdom in The Way of Perfection in responding to what we consider unjust criticism:
“No one can ever blame us unjustly, since we are always full of faults, and a just person falls seven times a day. It would be a falsehood to say that we have no sin. Even if we are not guilty of the thing we are accused of, then, we are never entirely without blame in the way that our good Jesus was” (p. 57).
What I’m Reading: I have two books awaiting review that I’ve finished reading. One is Christoph Heilig’s The Apostle and Empire. There is a whole discussion on whether there is a hidden subtext in the Pauline epistles critical of the Roman empire. His proposal, focusing on one passage, is that at least in this instance, it may not be so much hidden as overlooked. The Trinity in the Book of Revelation studies the Trinitarian theology in Revelation, using the lens of the Nicene formulations to look at these texts, which the author argues helps elucidate rather than read into the emerging Trinitarian theology of Revelation. As far as current reads, I’m enjoying David Lamb’s The Emotions of God, which studies seven emotions of God in the Bible and what these mean for our idea of God. I just began Matthew Bates Why the Gospel? He observes that we often begin with forgiveness when he would content that the good news begins with King Jesus. Christopher de Vinck’s Things That Matter Most: Essays on Home, Friendship, and Love is just that and includes a wonderful essay on his friendship with Fred Rogers. I’ve heard good things about Carlos Ruiz Zafon and am immersed in his The Shadow of the Wind in which a young man acquires a book by this title that he falls in love with but in trying to learn the story of its author learns he has one of the last copies, which are being relentlessly pursued and burned by a sinister character. Finally, I continue to work my way somewhat haphazardly through Ngaio Marsh’s mysteries, currently reading a later work, Photo Finish, in which he and Troy once again are caught up in a murder investigation set on a lavish island getaway.
As you can see, my reading is pretty hard to pigeonhole. Hopefully that means that there might be something you can find that you will like in this month’s digest of my reviews. Also, I’m always interested in hearing what others who read books I’ve reviewed think, especially if you read it because of my review. Whether you agree or not, I’d love to hear from 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.
Hugh Frost was a prominent Black leader in Youngstown during the years I grew up there. He was a member, and eventually vice president of the Youngstown Board of Education during the years I was going through Youngstown Schools. At the time I was a student at Youngstown State, he was an assistant to the president at Youngstown State. Three times he ran for mayor of the City of Youngstown. He made history during his first run in 1967 as the first Black Republican candidate for mayor of a U.S. City. He also served in leadership roles in a number of community organizations.
He was born in Youngstown, September 29, 1926, the son of Anthony L. and Celie Jones Frost. He graduated from The Rayen School. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War Two and then attended Bluffton College, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in social sciences, lettering in football, basketball, and baseball, being invited to try out for several professional teams (Rams, Browns, Eagles, and Colts). He went on to earn a Masters Degree in Education and Psychology and pursued additional coursework at Western Reserve University, University of Dayton, and Youngstown State.
After a short stint in 1955 as membership secretary of the YMCA in Indianapolis, he returned to Youngstown in 1956 to serve as the Executive Director of the McGuffey Centre on Youngstown’s East Side, where he served until 1969, presiding over the construction of and move to its current facilities. He led a team of 17 staff and 200 volunteers engaged in a variety of community programs.
In 1963, he was the first Black member elected to the Youngstown Schools Board of Education, eventually serving as vice president. He took his position as assistant to the President of Youngstown State in 1969, serving under several presidents until 1984 to serve as an employment consultant. In 1987 Governor Richard Celeste appointed him to the regional Workers Compensation Review Board.
He served on a long list of local and national boards including the YMCA, the McGuffey Centre, and the Associated Neighborhood Centers. He was on the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He also served on a variety of community boards including the Red Cross, Youngstown Society for the Blind, Youngstown Playhouse, Mahoning County Drug Programs, Inc, and advisory boards of the Youngstown Speech and Hearing Center and the Salvation Army.
He received an equally long list of awards from the Youngstown Junior Chamber of Commerce (1961-1962), Rotary Club (1969) Bluffton College Outstand Alumnus (1970) and Hall of Fame (1975), Urban Family of the Year (1971), Buckeye Elks Lodge outstanding civic award (1973). He also received commendations from the Ohio Senate, Youngstown City Council, Youngstown City Schools, and Youngstown Area Urban League.
He married D. Lillian Benson on September 30, 1950. They had three sons and a daughter. Lillian was a school teacher at Lincoln Elementary, Madison Elementary and served as guidance counselor at East High School, South High School and Choffin Career Center. She was active as a member of the Mother’s Club at the McGuffey Centre, a Cub Scout Den Mother, the Northeast Ohio Homeowners Association and AKA Sorority. They were active members of Rising Star Baptist Church.
Hugh Frost died on July 23, 1998 in a one car accident on Route 616 in Coitsville Township. The reason for the accident was unknown, the car going off the road, hitting two trees. He was buried in the Tod Homestead Cemetery, where Lillian joined him in 2016.
He served as a community organizer, an educational leader, and political leader. He was widely sought out to serve on various boards, a recognition of his status in the community. Even though never elected as mayor, he made history in his 1967 candidacy. He chose community service over a possible sports career. His family life was recognized by the community. He not only served the Black community but all of Youngstown, including the Youngstown Schools and Youngstown State student. Thank you, Mr. Frost.
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.”Enjoy!
The Art of the Commonplace, Wendell Berry, edited and introduced by Norman Wirzba. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2002.
Summary: Twenty essays articulating an agrarian vision for society that offers health to land, food, and the wider society.
If you have followed Wendell Berry over the years, you probably have encountered most of the essays in this collection in other works. In this collection, edited by professor of theology and environmental writer, Norman Wirzba, we are given twenty essays that articulate Berry’s vision for the reform of agricultural practice and what that can mean for food, for the land, for local communities, and the health of the wider society. Wirzba’s fine introductory essay underscores key themes of Berry’s writing: that an agrarian vision focused on wholeness with the earth, each other, and God simply reflects a proper understanding of our place in the world and that is significant for all of society, both rural and urban.
The essays are grouped into five sections with a brief introduction to each. The first is “A Geobiography” and consists of a single essay, Berry’s early “A Native Hill.” and is Berry’s description of the history, topography of the upland on which his farm and community is situated. the evidence in pastures and old walls of those who farmed there before him, his many walks over it, through forests, hollows, the soil, and his own place in all of this.
Part Two, “Understanding Our Cultural Crisis” connects our cultural crisis to agricultural practices. He speaks of the harm to land when we make food a “weapon” and pursue endless growth. He challenges “Big Thinking” suggesting we need to “Think Little,” planting our own gardens, and focusing our production within our communities rather than importing energy and exporting produce and waste. He observes the seemingly intractable problem of racism, aggravated when agricultural was industrialized and the “competent poor” able to subsist on the land were forced into our cities for which they were not prepared. In “Feminism, the Body, and the Machine” he explores how separating work from the household has changed marital relationships. Where once couples worked together, indeed families, in the work of a household, what is shared now in marriage is little more than the marriage bed. In this he also defends the way he and his wife work together as she edits his handwritten work, not as an act of subordination, but shared work in the body, believing they are better without computers.
Part Three offers the positive counter to the preceding negative critique in “The Agrarian Basis for American Culture.” This begins with a long essay on “The Body and the Earth.” Berry challenges the ways we divide up the body medically and the dualism of soul and body that downplays the vital importance of our embodied, material existence. He returns to how this plays out in sexual relations, households, and our changing ideals of fidelity which includes our fidelity to the place of our shared life. These ideas recur in “Men and Women in Search of Common Ground” considering how place, shared work, and community sustained the fabric of fidelity between couples. He asks questions about our health care system including why rest, food, and ecological health are not basic to our approaches to staying healthy and to healing. He maintains that key to restoring community is restoring local community and the respect of the differences of different communities. “People, Land, and Community” uses the example (again) of the hillside farm, and how the skillful, multi-generational work of a community is required to preserve that land.
Part Four focuses on “Agrarian Economics.” He writes of the problems of relentless competition for agriculture, and the destruction of pleasure in work, leading to our vapid pleasure industries. The first essay, “Economy and Pleasure” closes with Berry spending a day doing farm chores with his grand-daughter, letting her drive the team, unloading dirt on a barn floor, at the end of which she said, “Wendell, isn’t it fun.” In “The Two Economies” he contrast our industrial economy where we create value with the Great Economy, which recognizes the inherent value in things and what is lost when they are used–soil for example. “The Idea of a Local Economy” is perhaps Berry’s clearest articulation of how the Global Economy has been destructive of the local, and how his vision of what a local economy built on neighborhood and subsistence would look like. “Solving for Pattern” includes a list of farming and land use practices that preserve farm economies..
The book closes with “Agrarian Religion,” in which Berry makes more explicit the theological convictions that undergird his agrarian vision. Interestingly, the section begins with “The Use of Energy,” citing our sewage systems and the internal combustion engine as two prime examples of wastefulness. Good energy use recycles into the environment in a cycle of production, consumption, and return. He reads Genesis 1 as “The Gift of Good Land” to be stewarded with the care with which we’d handle the sacrament, not desecrating it. He affirms that the charges by conservationist against Christianity are, by and large, warranted. He criticizes the focus on the holiness of churches but not on the holiness of all of life and the dualism that denigrates the body rather than understanding our souls as dust plus the breath of life from God. This leads us to deny the goodness of physical work and to be indifferent to the physical creation. Like the economy we are concerned with relentless growth. He also articulates the political captivity of the church that has risen to extremes in our own day. It is a trenchant critique from a churchman.
In one sense, the final essay brings together all he has been saying as he discusses “The Pleasure of Eating.” He urges urban audiences to “eat responsibly.” This simple act, followed to its logical conclusions addresses all the concerns discussed here. As we can we grow our own food, prepare our own food, learn the origins of what we buy and buy food grown as close as possible, dealing with local growers where possible. We become aware and wary of what is added to food, learn about the best farming and keep learning by observation. Eating responsibly, we become reluctant to eat food, animal or vegetable, that has been grown under poor conditions.
These essays challenge us to think of agriculture not as a reality separate from the daily existence of most of us but rather the bedrock on which that existence rests. They challenge us to see that the health of our bodies and our culture cannot be separated from our agriculture, and our highly industrialized agriculture has put the fabric of our communities and our health at risk. Berry focuses so much on local community, but I wonder if these have been so decimated that it will take several generations to restore them. I wonder if a beginning is to think about seeing states or regions become as self-sufficient as possible in agriculture, reducing long distance logistics and diversifying local production and in the process, improving land use and crop rotation. In my own part of the country, studying how the Amish do (and prosper) might be helpful. But what will ultimately drive this is the idea of eating responsibly. That will require a different agricultural economy. And if Berry is right, it will change our culture.
The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa of Avila, Foreword by Paula Huston, Translated by Henry L Carrigan, Jr. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2009.
Summary: St Theresa’s reflections on growing in love, humility, and the life of prayer.
About a year ago, I reviewed a different, out of print, edition of this work from the same publisher. The folks at Paraclete were so generous that they sent me their “in print” edition of the same work, published for the 500th anniversary of the writing of this work. In addition to a foreword by Paula Huston reflecting on her own encounter with this work, the translation is one into contemporary English, with instances where the translator changed sentences in the passive voice to active. In reading this edition, I felt like Theresa was speaking directly to me.
The Way of Perfection breaks down into two parts. The first focuses on the spiritual life and how one of those in the Carmelites might progress in becoming like Christ. She explains the benefits of poverty, the importance of unceasing prayer and the necessity that women love each other equally without favoritism, which can wreck the harmony of a house. She instructs on detachment from all earthly affections to focus on the love of God. This includes gifts from family. She addresses answering unjust accusations:
“No one can ever blame us unjustly, since we are always full of faults, and a just person falls seven times a day. It would be a falsehood to say that we have no sin. Even if we are not guilty of the thing we are accused of, then, we are never entirely without blame in the way that our good Jesus was” (p. 57).
She devotes several chapters to mental and vocal prayer and contemplation. She urges people to pray as they are able and that the Lord is as pleased with our vocal prayers as our silent mental praying. She stresses that the state of contemplation, resting in the Lord, is a gift that may come equally to those praying vocally or mentally.
The second part turns to the great vocal prayer of the church, the Our Father. Theresa takes us through the prayer phrase by phrase, mining its richness. She marvels how much Jesus gives us in the first words, “Our Father.” She reflects on the significance of “hallowed be thy name” and “thy kingdom come” side by side, that the presence of God’s good rule on earth reminds us of the holiness of his name. She acknowledges the challenge of yielding our will to God. She tends to spiritualize the idea of daily bread, focusing on the bread of Christ. Perhaps it is well that our need for daily physical bread be a reminder of the need to be daily nourished in Christ. She emphasizes the underlying love of each other behind the prayer to be forgiven as we forgive. “Lead us not into temptation” is not a shrinking from spiritual conflict but our awareness of our vulnerabilities to temptation and the protection of God.
I’ve but touched on the richness to be found in these pages. It certainly did not hurt me to read The Way of Perfection again. I suspect that multiple readings are warranted because, in each reading, we are different people and will hear different things.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
Summary: The life of this storyteller in a series of stories, arranged roughly in chronological order.
True confessions. This is the first James Patterson book I have read. I think I understand why he has sold so many books and is so popular. The guy can tell stories. In this case, he tells stories on himself, recounting his life in story after story. He’s hardly the first person to try to do this. You know the person you listen to for a while, and then look for an excuse, even nature’s call, to make a graceful exit. Not so with Patterson. Break out the Depends. I’m sticking around.
We learn about the period he worked in a mental ward, the same one in which James Taylor wrote “Fire and Rain.” It was the place where he began reading and writing like crazy.
He jumps back to his Catholic upbringing with stories of eating the unconsecrated communion host as an altar boy. He describes his first kiss from Veronica Tabasco, and later encountering her grave next to his grandfather’s. His dreams of being a star athlete when writing was nowhere on the radar. His college days ushering at the Fillmore East for some of the biggest rock acts of the time. His Woodstock experience. His grad school days at Vanderbilt, curtailed by the Vietnam war, although not because he served.
Perhaps one of the biggest revelations was that Patterson made it big…I mean really big in advertising as a “mad man.” He created the Toys ‘R’ Us jingle for J. Walter Thompson, one of the big Madison Avenue agencies that he helped turn around. We learn about the financial advice he successfully followed when offered three lucrative packages to choose from.
His encounter with Jimmy Breslin, who was cruel, taught him to be kind at book signings. He recounts his early efforts at trying to get published and how Francis Greenberger got him his first book contract, for which he won an Edgar and gave what was probably the shortest acceptance speech on record. He reveals his writing secret: outline, outline, outline. He also talks about all the co-authors he’s loved working with and how he works together with them.
We learn of his two great loves. There was Jane, who he was with for seven years until cancer took her. And there is his wife Sue, who he met at the ad agency and to whom he’s been married since 1997.
He’s golfed with three presidents. He thinks Trump the best golfer but he loved hanging around with Clinton. Perhaps that’s why they’ve written two books together. He even called him an [expletive deleted] when he missed a put. Who does that with a former president unless you have a special relationship? He wrote a book with Dolly Parton as well, who sang him happy birthday and called him J.J. He has nothing but good to say about her.
He’s passionate about getting kids to read and even launched a series of books for kids. He is thrilled when someone says they became a reader because of his books. I loved his reading list toward the end of the book. I think I’ve read about half. Maybe after I’ve read some of his, we could talk books. Probably not, but I loved his taste in reading. He shares his passion for helping bookstore owners and staff, and how it warms his heart when he hears that one of his grants allowed one to go to the dentist.
He tells a compelling story of the five balls we juggle in life, the four made of glass that can scratch or shatter, and the one made of rubber that bounces back, telling you which one you can afford to drop. He shares the time when he let one drop to be with a dying friend.
There’s lots more where this came from. He not only helps us understand his take on the writing life, but his take on life and what it means to be a (mostly) decent human being who has never forgotten his roots and remained “a hungry dog.” If you’ve never read one of his books, this one might get you started and make you want to read a second, and a third…. We’ll see.
Summary: A critical and constructive engagement with Critical Race Theory in light of the Christian faith.
The fallacy of the excluded middle seems present in most conversations I’ve observed concerning Critical Race Theory (CRT). Either someone is utterly dismissive saying things like, “You’re a Marxist, divisive and if you don’t like the United States, you should leave.” Or there are those who are so wounded by their experience of racism that they have withdrawn, believing the United States as incorrigibly corrupt and that Critical Race Theory not only describes what was and is, but also will always be. Sadly each set of voices often feeds off the other, often without real understanding of what Critical Race Theory is and isn’t. There is no middle ground.
For Christians like the authors, who come out of a Reformed background fond of saying “all truth is God’s truth,” the question is whether there is truth in Critical Race Theory, even if, as in so much of scholarship, there is an admixture of error. Are there insights which ring true with scripture? Perhaps more tellingly, as is sometimes the case, are there truths that open our eyes to truth in scripture, that have been cultural blind spots? And are there insights from scripture that correct what is in error or supply what is missing? The subtitle of this book is “a faithful and constructive conversation.” And this is what I found the authors doing. Beginning with the Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation framework of a Reformed Christian faith, they assess key ideas of Critical Race Theory for where these resonate (or not) with scripture. Furthermore they bring their own racial background helpfully into this discussion as an Asian-Latino American (Robert) and an Asian-American (Jeff).
First of all, they offer a brief introduction to the history and basic tenets of CRT. It arose among legal scholars who asked why there was a failure of racial progress despite advances in civil rights. A key insight is the recognition of racism as ordinary, baked into the way we do business as a country, that it advances the interests of the white majority, that “race” is a social construction not based on biological realities, and the “voice of color thesis” that says that people of color may be able to communicate with white counterparts about realities not a part of white experience (if whites are willing to listen).
They begin with Creation and the CRT concept of “Community Cultural Wealth.” This idea contends that rather than some cultures having deficits vis a vis other cultures, that every culture has cultural capital. This recognizes the cultural mandate and blessing of Genesis 1 to fill all the earth, reflected in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 and God’s judgment against the mono-culture of Babel. This diverse wealth is reflected in the glory and honor of the nations brought into the new Jerusalem of Revelation 22. The writers also observe that Jesus as a Galilean was also part of a marginal community, not considered to have the cultural capital of Judean Jews, and as today’s Galileans, they bring a richness to our understanding of Jesus from their own experience.
The Fall is evident in the analysis of racism as the ordinary business of society. A true understanding of the doctrine of the fall understands that sin is more than our individual sins. Sin pervades the human order and how things are done. Even when we say we do not have hatred toward a person of another “race,” sin manifests itself in a system which is set up to benefit some over others, whether in real estate deed restrictions and redlining, differentials in property tax education funding, policing patterns and practices and more. The good news of the gospel in this is that the effects of the fall are remediable, contrary to the beliefs of many secularists. But we have to see it first, and CRT helps us with this.
Turning to Redemption, the “voices of color thesis” offers hope of understanding the realities to which those of us identifying as white may be blind to. More than that, this thesis reflects the idea of the body of Christ in which every part is needed for the health of the whole body. We dismiss voices of color to our own loss. A major part of this chapter focuses on how one of the authors was the lead candidate for a top diversity, equity, and inclusion position at a Christian university, which would have meant leaving a recognized role at a public university. Sadly, top leadership at the school subverted the search committee, choosing an internal candidate who was not a person of color. The author reflects on how his secular institution seemed to recognize the worth of his voice of color more than the Christian institution. He writes tellingly of the role “color blindness” played in this decision and the model Acts 6 of recognizing minority voices, with the resultant flourishing of the church.
Under Consummation, the authors argue for the one of the distinctive contributions Christians may make to CRT. They contend that CRT offers no grounds for an eschatological hope. And sometimes, the resistant response of dominant culture results in deepening alienation, a critique that only envisions divides with no hope of healing. Instead, the authors point to King’s idea of “the beloved community.” In contrast, the authors identify the “gloomy eschaton” of CRT. Christians with a biblically informed eschatological hope live toward a vision of a diverse multitude worshipping a common Lord in Revelation 7:9, sustained by the resurrection of Jesus as the foretaste of his final victory.
Sadly, “Critical Race Theory” has become a rallying cry of our political right. The phrase, unfortunately, lends itself to this, even though few who rail against the theory understand what they are railing against. And because of political alignments, many dominant culture Christians join them. The writers of this book occupy that neglected middle ground, appraising CRT fairly, recognizing both the way it reflects biblical insights into the human condition as well as its shortcomings. They denounce any association of CRT with Marxism, one of the author’s parents having fled the Marxist revolution in China and seeing the havoc it wrought. Perhaps their most original contribution is the recognition of the hope of the gospel rather than the counsels of gloom that prevail in some CRT circles. CRT exposes the insidious character of racism beyond our personal acts, the ways it has been woven into society. The scriptures understand that this, too, is sin. As God’s people, we know a remedy for sin. But we have to face it and repent and lament and confess and turn away, finding pardon and restoration in Christ. That’s painful, but that is often the way it is with healing, whether of our own lives or our nation’s soul.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
