On Books

Review: Vivid Rhetoric and Visual Persuasion

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "Visual Rhetoric and Visual Persuasion" edited by Meghan Henning and Nils Neumann

Vivid Rhetoric and Visual Persuasion, Meghan Henning and Nils Neumann, editors. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883575) 2024.

Summary: Fourteen scholars on vivid, ekphrastic language in early Christian literature, used to engage and persuade.

I learned a new word as I read this book: ekphrasis. It literally means “tell out” and carries the idea of vivid description. Ekphrastic rhetoric is designed to move a passive audience to a kind of immersed engagement in a story, in which they literally “see it before their eyes,” and sometimes engage other senses as well. Furthermore, these rhetorical devices are often used not only to engage but to persuade the engaged reader toward (or away) from some action. Ekphrastic rhetoric is hardly unique to biblical and early Christian literature. Indeed, one of the strengths of this volume is that a number scholars compare the use of these devices by early Christian writers with their cultural contemporaries.

Vivid Rhetoric and Visual Persuasion brings together fourteen scholars who contribute chapters on the use of vivid rhetoric in the New Testament and other early Christian literature. After an introductory essay that surveys the use of rhetorical analysis in biblical interpretation:

  • Nils Neumann analyzes Matt. 14-22-33. This is the story of Jesus walking on water and Neumann compares the story with rhetorical handbooks of the day.
  • Meghan Henning considers the eschatological judgment and hell in Matthew 25, including “the sheep and the goats.”
  • Gudrun Nassauer contends that the writer of Luke-Acts presents women in a way that portrays discipleship in relationship with Jesus.
  • A comparison of vivid and non-vivid language in John’s Prologue is the focus for Vernon Robbins study. He sees this as a way to create “cognitive space.”
  • Sunny Wang studies vivid description in John’s account of the raising of Lazarus, contending John engages four senses and three “body zones.”
  • Dramatic reversals may be portrayed through ekphrasis, as Bart Bruehler contends in his study of Luke-Acts.
  • Annette Weissenreider and Martina Kepper draw upon both archaeological and textual evidence as the consider the “dividing wall” rhetoric in Acts and Ephesians.
  • Gary Selby also studies visual imagery in Ephesians, focusing on the phrase “enlighten the eyes of your heart.”
  • Revelation 19 includes vivid imagery of hell. Robyn Whitaker analyzes the persuasion of Christians to resist Rome and remain faithful to Christ.
  • Susanne Luther also looks at Revelation and the imagery of the heavenly city in narrative, spatial, and aesthetic aspects and their ethical import.
  • The latter chapters focus on early Christian content. Both Harry Maier and Aldo Tagliabue look at martyrdom literature. Diana Feuchtman looks at the cinematic features of the miraculous on Paulinus of Nola’s Natalicium.

One of the beneficial elements of this book for students of the scriptures is the identification of different rhetorical devices. Nassauer’s “Images of Women” chapter, for example, includes nine different devices, with examples of passages for each. The literary art of scripture, and our awareness of how writers make meaning and move readers through various devices can enrich our reading and our personal and corporate response to scripture. While the title to this collection may seem daunting, the material here is a goldmine for any interpreter of scripture.

_____________

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

Review: The Log College

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "The Log College" by Archibald Alexander

The Log College, Archibald Alexander. Banner of Truth Trust

Summary: Biographical sketches of William Tennant and his students, with accounts of the revivals under their ministries.

Until 1727, ministers in the Presbyterian Church in the American colonies could only obtain theological training at Harvard or Yale, or back in England. And because of a divide among Presbyterians occasioned by the revivals of which George Whitefield was a leading figure, those were not preferred schools for those on the “New Light” side of the divide. In 1727, William Tennant, Sr. established a seminary on the banks of the Neshaminy, where Warminster, Pennsylvania is now located. The facilities were plain, a twenty by twenty foot cabin, located a mile from the church Tennant served as pastor. Aspiring ministers, awakened in the revivals came to study there until Tennant died in 1746.

Log College Building
Log College Building, By Engraved by Snyder – Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa., Public Domain, via Wikipedia

This reprint of a work by Princeton seminary professor Archibald Alexander offers biographical sketches of a number of the graduates. Alexander incorporates into these sketches first hand accounts of revivals under the ministries of these graduates. In addition to information about the founding of the Log College, Alexander profiles William Tennant, Sr, his sons Gilbert (over four chapters), John, William, Jr., and Charles. Samuel and John Blair, Samuel Finley, William Robinson, John Rowland, and Charles Beatty.

Two institutions succeeded the Log College. The more significant of these was the College of New Jersey, which became Princeton University and Seminary The other was the New London School, located near Philadelphia. Alexander provides chapters on the beginnings of both of these.

Even before the elder Tennant died, a controversy contributed to the founding of both of these institutions. The Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia did not consider the Log College to offer a sufficient education, despite the vital ministries of many and in 1739 refused to recognize the credentials of Log Cabin graduates. Many had been ordained in the Presbytery of New Brunswick, in New Jersey, which separated for a period of time over this issue. Their response was to start the College of New Jersey to address the educational deficiencies. A number of Log College graduates were on the board and Samuel Finley later served as President. Meanwhile, The Synod started its own school at New London, near Philadelphia.

One of the things this account does is give accounts of a number of revivals in the mid-Atlantic states. The first-person extracts give an immediacy to the account. As in the ministry of Edwards, it is not the rhetorical skills of ministers. Rather, we note a Spirit-given concern over the state of one’s soul, leading to repentance and the granting of an assured faith in the work of Christ.

Another striking observation. Most of those profiled died young. In their 20’s, 30’s, or 40’s. Consumption (tuberculosis) took many of them. However, the hard work of these people who burned brightly for a short time hastened the deaths of many.

Finally, it is fascinating to reflect on the fruit of William Tennant’s little Log College. Not only were the students he taught and mentored instrumental in the Awakenings of the 1700’s. They also laid the groundwork for Princeton Seminary as a bastion of Reformed education during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The Log College had a far greater impact in pre-revolutionary American history than it’s modest physical footprint.

_____________

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

Review: The Story of America

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "The Story of America" by Jill Lepore

The Story of America, Jill Lepore. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691153995) 2012.

Summary: Essays on American origins from Jamestown and the Constitution to the IOU and Webster’s dictionary.

Nations as well, as individuals strive for self-understanding. Much of this comes through the stories we tell of ourselves, particularly the stories of our origins. That is, we try to understand how we got here as a way of understanding who we are. This is what Jill Lepore strives to do in this collection of essays on the story of America. Rather than a comprehensive, beginning to the present account, she offers a variety or origin stories, arranged roughly in chronological order.

Most of these essays first appeared in The New Yorker. Lepore says, “I wrote them because I wanted to learn how to tell stories better. But mostly, I wrote them because I wanted to explain how history works, and how it’s different than politics.” She adds to this her definition of doing history: “History is the art of making an argument about the past by telling a story accountable to evidence.”

She begins with the primal origin story, the settlement of Jamestown through the lens of Captain John Smith, who gave us our first account of the settlement, concluding that while he was an “Elizabethan gallant,” he was not a fraud. The colony was a mixture of success and catastrophe, American dream and American nightmare.

Subsequent essays consider the Puritans and the succession of historians who have tried to tell their story, Franklin’s The Way to Wealth, and the career of Thomas Paine, hailed for Common Sense and excoriated for The Age of Reason. She writes on the 4,400 words of the Constitution, often not read and even less understood, and the meanings that have accrued, including originalism as one form of interpretation.

From key events and ideas, Lepore moves to origins less noticed but also significant, for example, the origins of the I.O.U. and the development of bankruptcy law. Particularly fascinating is Lepores avvount of Noah Webster and his dictionary, begun in 1800 and ended in 1828. She reflects on his singular effort in defining 70,000 words compared to Johnson’s 43,000. He defined American words using American examples in his definitions and dug into the etymology of words. And Webster, a religious man whose faith was implicit in the work, reaped the benefit of the religious revivals coinciding with the dictionary’s publication.

She turns to the art of presidential biographies, particularly those on Washington to Jackson. And then there is that inferior item, the campaign biography! She weighs in on Jefferson and the Hemings family. She chronicles Charles Dickens’ journeys in America and his decided dislike for the country. Paired with Dickens in the following essay is Edgar Allan Poe. No love lost between the two men. She charts Poe’s struggle with poverty, his drinking and the question of whether Poe was a genius or mad. Then there are our heroes and the accounts that make them bigger than life, from the dime novels on Kit Carson to Longfellow’s Paul Revere. Added to these is Earl Derr Biggars’ Charlie Chan based on Hawaiian Chang Apana. Chan was hailed as great crime fiction in the day and for invidious racial stereotyping today.

Along the way are essays on the development of voting ballots and Clarence Darrow on a major labor case. One essay discusses the Great Migration. the subject of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, another on homicide and the death penalty. She concludes with the daunting task of writing inaugural addresses. Certainly, James Garfield was daunted, reading his predecessors. Only Lincoln really excelled. Most were mediocre to awful. Most address some version of history as they look to the future. But even the best speakers are rarely at their best here.

One of Lepore’s observations is the role of literacy in these stories. The story of our democracy is a story of reading and writing. She believes “Americans wrote and read their way into a political culture….” This, for me begs the question of the future of our democracy in our post-literate culture that wallows in an epistemic crisis. Instead of “stories accountable to evidence” we resort to fake news memes created with increasing visual sophistication. And it seems we are recreating our origin stories, engaging in both erasure and fable, attacking the history that is accountable to evidence. If nothing else, what Lepore does is remind us, in engaging story, of our real origins. And she reminds us of what we may easily lose.

Review: Hunger for Righteousness

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image for "Hunger for Righteousness" by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

Hunger for Righteousness, Phoebe Faraq Mikhail. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609341) 2025.

Summary: Drawing upon Coptic and other church tradition, explores how Lent may be personally and communally transforming.

I grew up in a Protestant tradition that did not observe Lent. But I lived in a Catholic neighborhood where the conversation before Ash Wednesday was a discussion of “what are you giving up for Lent?” For most, it was something like candy, or perhaps more narrowly, chocolate. I was never quite clear why God needed people to give up chocolate, or other things during this time. For many of us as adults, that is the extent of our knowledge of Lent. Phoebe Farag Mikhail, who has been shaped by the Coptic Orthodox tradition, fasting, and what one fasted from wasn’t a choice. But what her community abstained from reflected a deeper longing, a corporate hunger for righteousness. She writes of this in her introduction.

If we pay closer attention to the earliest Christian Lenten traditions, we’ll discover how Lent was a period during which individuals who wanted to become Christian prepared themselves not for personal transformation, but to join the body of believers, the communion of saints, through baptism. By examining our liturgical prayers and Scripture readings developed over centuries, we’ll discover the ways Lent has always been a time for individual repentance, yes, but first for giving and forgiving, for mending relationships and building new ones, for fighting injustice, and for growing in intimacy with God communally, not just individually (pp. 13-14).

This book is designed to be read and meditated upon and applied during the weeks before and during Lent. One chapter covers each week, as well as a final chapter on Easter. The first week “trains us for the climb” in preparation for Lent by considering Jonah and the Ninevites through practice of the three day Jonah fast. Subsequent chapters consider:

  • Abraham, reckoned righteous by God, who negotiated with God for Sodom.
  • St. Abraam of Fayoom, a nineteenth century ascetic who gave generously to the poor.
  • The faith that moves mountains, including the mountain of forgiveness.
  • Abba Serapion and the challenge to grow as repentant readers of Scripture.
  • St. Paesia, a trafficked woman, her turning from despair, and the ways we wrongly judge others.
  • The righteousness of Tamar, more determined to perpetuate her husband’s family than Judah.
  • The righteous faith of Abraham again, in the sacrifice of Isaac.

We conclude on the note of Resurrection. Mikhail considers the pilgrimage accounts of Egeria enroute to Jerusalem during Roman times. Egeria walks the way of Jesus passion, and we read of her joy in God and rest in the risen Christ.

Each chapter offers questions for reflection and application. Two appendices offer further resources including the Great Lent Lectionary of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

Mikhail helps us see the fast of Lent as a hunger for righteousness, glimpsed in the lives of biblical figures and saints we may not have heard of before. Whether we adopt the practices of Coptic Christians or not, her reflections help us deepen our own practice of Lent. She helps us move beyond the “give up” to the promise for those who hunger for righteousness. They shall be filled.

_____________

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

Review: The Pursuit of Safety

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "The Pursuit of Safety" by Jeremy Lundgren

The Pursuit of Safety (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), Jeremy Lundgren. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514008010) 2024.

Summary: A theology of safety as creational good, tempered by what living by faith means in a world never free of risk.

If you’ve been a parent, it is an instinct to care for your child’s safety. You look out for physical danger, illnesses, and stranger danger. However, any honest parent will also admit that despite one’s best and most diligent efforts, our kids get cuts, bruises, break bones, get sick, and sometimes encounter harm from others. And what’s true for our kids is true for ourselves. In fact, the pursuit of safety is often a reflection of our sense of the precarity of life.

Jeremy Lundgren explores that tension and then does something not often done. He thinks theologically about the creational good of safety and the realities of risk and danger in our lives. Lundgren begins by noting the signposts or tokens of safety-consciousness in our modern culture and the tension in parenting between protecting children and helping them develop resilience and independence. He distinguishes between absolute safety, an ideal often striven for but found only in Christ, and ordinary safety.

Part Two considers the sources of risk throughout history. In the pre-modern era, the danger was posed by the various gods believed to inhabit the world, and life involved negotiating one’s way to stay on their right side. In early modernity, the risk was from nature, particularly as we moved from an enchanted to disenchanted world. Everything from micro-organisms to the laws of physics posed danger to be reckoned with. Finally, in late modernity, humanity becomes the risk. Examples include environmental, lifestyle, medical, interpersonal, economic, criminal, and political risks.

Part Three, then, turns to the avoidance of harm. These include probabilistic tools reflecting our ability to anticipate the future. Yet our faith calls us to live in light of God’s promises as we prepare, but without anxiety. In addition, we resort to technological tools (consider seat belts and air bags). Yet such means may also be idolatrous and can end up controlling us. In contrast, Lundgren explores the right ordering of technology under Christ rather than under autonomous humans (or even artificial Intelligence!). Third, he considers the rise of proceduralism in accident prevention, especially in workplaces. The problem is that proceduralism, while reducing the number of accidents, cannot eliminate them. We cannot always foresee what will cause an accident until it occurs. In contrast, Lundgren commends the wisdom of both Mosaic law and Ecclesiastes, along with means for forgiveness and reparation, when accidents occur.

In the final part of the book, Lundgren turns to reflecting on what safety means for disciples of Jesus. Fundamental to discipleship is the way of the cross. Jesus speaks of losing our lives to save them. Thus, safety can only be truly understood on the other side of the cross. The way of the cross means risk and danger–and the promise of life! So for Lundgren, we can only understand safety within the wider context of following Jesus. Safety is only a proximate and not an ultimate good. We live both prudently and by faith. We keep safety in its place.

I appreciate the tension Lundgren maintains throughout between the creational good of safety and the impossibility of absolute safety apart from Christ. Ultimately, following Jesus is more important than being safe. Christian faith offers a basis for prudent care for both our and others’ well-being out of love rather than anxiety or mere economic calculations.

As a former leader in a Christian ministry, we were trained to assess and mitigate risk in mission-related activities. A case study applying his theological analysis to a risk management scenario might have been helpful to many readers in similar real life situations.

That said, I appreciated this thoughtful exploration of our culture of safety and how we engage with this as disciples walking in the way of the cross,

_____________

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

Review: Conceived by the Holy Spirit

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "Conceived by the Holy Spirit" by Rhyne R. Putman

Conceived by the Holy Spirit, Rhyne R. Putnam. B&H Academic (ISBN: 9781087766317) 2024.

Summary: A study of the nativity narratives offering a defense of the virgin birth and considering its significance.

“Conceived by the Holy Spirit.” Some of us speak this phrase every week, or even every day. It is part of the Apostles Creed, one of the early creeds of the church. It is a confession to the supernatural conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary apart from sexual relations with a man. There has always been skepticism surrounding this idea. Babies just don’t happen that way. Yet Christians regularly confess that it did happen this way on one occasion.

Rhyne R. Putnam has given a wonderful gift to pastors preaching the nativity passages and to all of us who wonder about these things. This book explores the nativity passages in Matthew and Luke, defending the doctrine of the virgin birth, conceived by the Holy Spirit and considers the importance and significance of this doctrine. In the book, he takes small portions of the narratives and draws out the significance of the textual material.

He begins with Luke’s introduction and notes the Marian perspective of the early narratives evident in the following:

  • Only Mary would know whether she had never been sexually involved with a man.
  • Only Mary would have knowledge of a private visitation from Gabriel.
  • If Mary spent three months with her cousin Elizabeth, she would have been very familiar with the circumstances surrounding John’s birth.
  • Although Mary was not present with the shepherds when the angels visited them, Luke explicitly tells us that the shepherds “reported the message they were told about this child” to Mary and Joseph (Luke 2:17).
  • She was present when Simeon and Anna blessed the child in the temple.
  • Like any other parent, Mary would remember the time when her son went missing in a large city (p. 22)).

While these don’t “prove” the virgin birth, the likelihood that Luke’s account was based on the witness of the one in the best position to know about these things is not to be lightly disregarded. Along the way, Putnam also offers sidebar discussions of objections posed such as the origins of the virgin birth in pagan theology. He shows how the miraculous conceptions in the Old Testament (and that of Elizabeth) anticipate this event.

Not only does he defend the virgin birth, he unpacks the theological significance of this event. God keeps his covenant promises. We listen to Mary’s glorious Magnificat and realize we are even more blessed. The accounts reveal the babe as Savior, King, God with us, God’s Anointed One. He was born under the law, and from his circumcision and dedication onward, met all its requirements for all of us who don’t. And he is the King manifested to the nations in the visit of the Magi. For example, Putnam writes:

“In the case of the magi, something wonderful and unusual was happening. These men of a higher station–potentially emissaries from an eastern king–were lying prostrate in a humble Jewish home before a small child, revering him as a king unlike any other. More remarkable still, God had called these pagan men from a faraway land to worship at the feet of his Son. What Matthew depicts in this humble, earthly scene mimics the future heavenly scene where ‘a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number’ stand around the throne and sing praises to God and to the Lamb (Rev 7:9) (p.181).

Putnam’s writing is at once theologically and devotionally rich. This extends to the second part of the work which considers “The Virgin-Born King in Christian Theology and Practice.” Putnam discusses briefly and concisely the Christological debates of the early church. In concluding, he argues that they “saved Christmas.” Then he discusses how Jesus is both God and Man in One Person, and how it is fitting to call Mary theotokos (the God bearer). Appendices offer a harmonization of the accounts and an irenic discussion of the author’s differences with Marian dogma in the Catholic Church.

I especially liked the chapter on the “fittingness” of the virgin birth. Firstly, it is a sign we are saved by God’s grace alone. Secondly, it demonstrates that divine revelation is solely God’s initiative. Thirdly, it is a sign of Jesus uniqueness as the natural, only begotten Son of God. Fourthly, it is a sign of Christ’s supremacy. Finally, it is a fitting sign of Christ’s pre-existence. Rich stuff!

I wish I could have read this during Advent! As I’ve noted, Putnam does more then defend and expound the virgin birth. He leads us into the blessedness of these truths. Thus, our response becomes “O Come Let Us Adore Him!” I’d encourage you to pick up a copy to have it on hand for Advent reading next year. And pastors, get a copy to enrich your thought and preparation for next Advent and Christmastide. Apologists will benefit from the defense of the virgin birth. I’m glad to add this to my library!

_____________

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

Review: The City and Its Uncertain Walls

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "The City and Its Uncertain Walls" by Haruki Murakami

The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Haruki Murakami (Translated by Philip Gabriel). Alfred A. Knopf (ISBN: 9780593801970) 2024.

Summary: A young couple falls in love until she disappears to a mysterious city of people without shadows.

A teenage boy meets a girl at a writing competition. They write and are drawn to each other, visiting and cuddling and longing for more. He loses his heart to her but she asks him to be patient, saying she wants to give herself wholly to him. And then she just disappears. But before this happened, she told him that her real self lived in a city with walls, unicorns, a clock tower without hands, and that in that city, she was the librarian. The girl he knew was a mere shadow of that girl.

Understandably, he longs to follow her to that city, but does not know how. He never marries and works in publishing. Then, one day when he is forty-five, he falls into a hole and finds himself outside the city with a wall. To enter, the Gatekeeper must remove his shadow, which will live separately. Then he must go through a painful eye treatment to fit him for his job. He will work with the girl at the library reading everything in its collection. Not books, but the dreams of past inhabitants of the city.

So, each day, he arrives, the girl makes a tea to help his eyes, and gives him egg-shaped dreams to hold and “read.” Then he walks her home along the river to the housing where she lives. But she doesn’t recognize him from their relationship outside the wall. However, his shadow interrupts this companionable routine. The shadow is dying and must return to the outside world. Finally, he is convinced, but turns back at the last minute while the shadow departs.

Yet we meet him next, not in the city but back at home. He has a shadow again. But he is dissatisfied with his life. He asks a friend to help him find a different job in a small town. He applies for a job as a director of a small library. After an interview with the founder and retiring director, Mr. Koyasu, he is hired despite his scant qualifications. Mr. Koyasu is unusual. He wears a distinctive beret and a skirt. But he drops by and mentors the man, including taking him to a secret room that is warmer in winter. Only later do we learn that Mr. Koyasu is dead. A shade if not a shadow!

He finds Koyasu’s grave and talks to him on his days off. And he meets a woman who owns a nearby coffee shop. It appears that, if not first love, then some kind of love might be possible. Except a boy turns up who reads at the library every day, and knowing your birthday, can tell you the day on which you were born. Apart from that, he doesn’t communicate. Yet he connects with the director. And one day he overhears him talking to Mr. Koyasu at the grave about the city…

Shadow and substance. What is real? Murakami gives us his own version of Socrates’ Cave. And do we not sometimes feel alien to our own world, and think there might be another where we are more at home? And yet the nameless narrator doesn’t find his real love in the city without shadows–nor in this one. We wonder if he will accept the possibility of love in front of him from the coffee shop owner. Apart from that relationship, one feels he is living a shadow existence, unconnected with others in the town.

This is the second Murakami novel I’ve read, and I find myself drawn to his narrative voice. It is both quiet and evocative without becoming overpowering. He draws the reader into the mental and emotional landscape of his main character. Then he throws enough surprises and twist in to keep it interesting and make you wonder where this is going.

Murakami adds a fascinating postscript. He first wrote this story as a novella forty years ago but never was satisfied with the ending. This work is a re-working as he finally found a way to complete the story. We learn he added parts two and three. I’ve not read the earlier work. I’d like to hear from Murakami fans who have read both this and the earlier novella. Do you think he succeeded?

Review: Opening the Parables

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "opening the Parables" by M.D. Hayden

Opening the Parables, M. D. Hayden. Wipf & Stock (ISBN: 9798385200306) 2024.

Summary: A study of the parables asserting that the message of all the parables is that compassionate love is all that matters.

One of the distinctives of the teaching of Jesus is his use of parables. One of my discoveries in seminary was the diverging conclusions different scholars reached in interpreting the parables. My own conclusion was that this may be a function of the idea that we not so much interpret the parables as that they interpret us as we give heed to them. M.D. Hayden, a teacher and minister out of the Quaker tradition reaches a simpler conclusion. Specifically, Jesus had one message running through all the parables. All that he taught “was about love in the infinite, here-and-now Kingdom of God.”

She argues that this idea is central in the teaching of the Old Testament as well as the good news of the kingdom preached by Jesus. She observes that the parables are truth taught obliquely. They avoid direct confrontation with the hostile powers as well as to avoid the allusion that we can pin down their meaning that results in failing to have “ears to hear.” From here, she explores what it means to hear and the use of love as a key to interpretation. In taking this approach she contrasts Quaker with traditional interpretation of the parables.

Then, she proceeds to discuss a number of parables, applying her hermeneutic of love. This works with many of the parables. For example consider the good Samaritan, the lost coins, sheep, and sons, the workers in the vineyard. However, this is difficult with other parables. For example, what do we make of the parable of the talents where God calls the one talent servant “wicked and lazy”? What about the judgment of the unmerciful servant? Or what about those who refuse the invitation to the banquet?

This brings me to several difficulties I had with the book despite my appreciation for some of her insights. First of all, her approach was one of eisegesis. She starts with an idea, the principle of love, and reads it into every parable. In some places, that fits, but not others.

Second, she adopts a Thomas Jefferson approach to scripture. She proposes that much of the New Testament is a later accretion, and where it focuses on something other than love, it may be discarded. Often, I find truth is held in tension. But there is no tension here. All is love.

Except that it isn’t. I found the author uncharitable in her regard of the rest of the church through history, except in the instances where individuals agreed with her. What I thought would be a study of the parables was a polemic against most Christians. And the book came across as advocating the superiority of Quakerism.

In sum, I cannot commend this book.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program.

Review: Towards Zero

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "Towards Zero" by Agatha Christie

Towards Zero, (Superintendent Battle Number 5), Agatha Christie. William Morrow (ISBN: 9780062073549) 2010 (first published in 1944).

Summary: A house party at Lady Tressilian’s is decidedly awkward when her ward invites both his former and current wives.

Agatha Christie only wrote five mysteries featuring Superintendent Battle, and this was the last. That’s regrettable for me, because this stood out among her best, even though Battle doesn’t really come into the plot until the latter half of the book.

Talk about awkward situations. Lady Tressilian’s ward, Neville Strange, a middling tennis pro, wants to come for a visit at a time when Audrey, his former wife had already planned a visit. Not only that, he wants to come with his new wife, Kay, a stunning beauty. Sensibly, Lady Tressilian is reluctant to accede, especially when it isn’t clear whose idea this was. Audrey says she doesn’t have a problem. No one seems to be thinking about Lady Tressilian, whose health confines her to her bed. In the end, she agrees.

A few other houseguests add to the awkwardness. Thomas Royde, a friend of (and quietly still enamored with) Audrey, has just returned from an overseas assignment. Ted Latimer, who had been interested in Kay, but was also a friend of Neville’s is staying at a resort across the bay as is Mr. Treves, a solicitor and friend of Lady Tressilian.

Awkward is an understatement. It feels like a powderkeg, and were it not for the offices of Mary Aldin, a spinster who runs the household, it might come completely unglued. And then there are two deaths.

The first comes after Treves tells a story of a child murderer with a distinctive physical mark. That night, when he returns to his hotel, the lift is out of service, and he must walk up several flights of steps. He is found dead the next morning. The ruling was that he died of natural causes, due to his weak heart. Except, the hotel confirms that the lift was in good working order. Someone seems to have put a sign up just for Treves.

Then Neville and Lady Tressilian have a row and he storms off to purportedly visit Latimer. Later on, Lady Tressilian is found dead, brutally battered about the head. The evidence points both toward Neville, who has a good alibi, and Audrey, who doesn’t. Battle, who has been on holiday, comes in at this point to solve the murder. Ultimately a man who had attempted suicide and prevents another offers a critical piece of help enabling Battle to confront the real murderer.

The title reflects a conviction of Battle’s. Murder is the “zero hour.” Battle observes that often plots begin with a murder when, in fact, they come at the end of events counting down “towards zero.” As he investigates, he wants to get inside that process. And Christie offers just the right amount of red herrings to make you suspect most of the surviving characters at some point. A well-plotted and conceived mystery, indeed!

Review: The Challenge of Acts

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Image of "The Challenge of Acts" by N.T. Wright

The Challenge of Acts, N.T, Wright. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310167990) 2024.

Summary: An overview of the book of Acts in four chapter sections, developing the major themes of the book.

The book of Acts is a long book. A commentary on such a book is no mean undertaking as Craig Keener’s four-volume work on Acts shows. Now N.T. Wright has shown himself capable of massive projects but takes a different approach in this study of Acts. Instead of verse-by-verse commentary, he offers an overview of the narrative that develops what he sees as major themes of the book. The plan of the book is to take the book in four chapter blocks, apart from a chapter on the opening of Acts, and a chapter devoted to Paul’s Mars Hill address.

The sections develop themes that will run through Acts. Beginning with chapter 1 on Acts 1, we see the command to take the gospel of the kingdom from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth, forming the plan of Acts. And then the resurrected King and Lord ascends into heaven, to rule at God’s right hand, present in his full authority as the church advances and faces adversity in its witness. Chapters 2-4 build on this news that in the risen Lord, God has raised up a new temple, a message the authorities immediately oppose. The Spirit empowered apostles persist in witness, determining to obey God when his command overrides that of human authorities. In chapters 5-8, believers are imprisoned, experiencing both deliverance and martyrdom. And the gospel spreads to Samaria (and Ethiopia).

Then chapters 9-12 serve as a bridge to the rest of Acts. On the Damascus road Saul encounters Jesus and finds his zeal redirected. Subsequently, with the church at peace, Peter accepts an invitation from a Roman centurion. And lo and behold, the Spirit of God falls upon the household, and the Jews conclude that god has granted the Gentiles ‘repentance that leads to life.’ Finally, after other persecution refugees testify in Antioch, with many Gentiles believing, brother Barnabas goes, affirms the grace of God and fetches Saul to help him.

The stage set, Antioch sends Barnabas and Saul out. And quickly, two things happen. People believe. And opposition arises. It becomes a pattern throughout Paul’s ministry. However, we also see authorities repeatedly acquit Paul. In Philippi, they receive a public apology for the beating off Paul, the Roman citizen. Then in Corinth the proconsul dismisses charges as a dispute about words, names, and laws, giving Paul legal cover for ministry. In Athens, the religious council at the Areopagus laugh at his ideas but do not charge him. And in Ephesus, the town clerk dismisses a rioting crowd. This will be important for what follows.

Chapters 21-24 cover Paul’s troubles in Jerusalem. Wright’s account struck me with the odd response to the offering and reports of the kingdom’s advance among Gentiles. Instead of jubilation, Paul is asked to pay for a cleansing rite to verify he is a true blue Jew. Then despite his diligence, a mob falsely accuses him. His defense is a proclamation of the risen Jesus. Then, in 25-28, we see his speech in Caesarea before Agrippa, once again speaking of the resurrection, that Festus and Agrippa can find nothing with which to charge him. But off to Caesar he will go, and after shipwreck will proclaim Jesus as Lord in Rome.

Two major themes come through. One is the proclamation of Christ as risen Messiah and King, the new temple and fulfillment of of the broadest hopes of Israel, that the nations would come to Yahweh. The other is the vindication of those who witness to the risen Christ, from Gamaliel in the Sanhedrin to Festus and Agrippa. Wright proposes that Acts may even have been a kind of “legal brief” for Paul’s defense before Caesar. In one respect, at least, the challenge of Acts is whether this movement is overturning the established order. Wright makes the case in his treatment of the defense on the Areopagus, that it was rather a setting of things to rights.

Wright offers a number of interesting insights. Sometimes, I wished for more evidence for some of his assertions. That is also the challenge of an overview of Acts. But Wright offers a resource for both personal study and for pastors and others who will teach this. He makes it clear that those engaged in gospel witness will face opposition from both human and spiritual powers. But in life and death, the risen Christ is with his people.

_____________

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