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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.”

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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.

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.

Review: The Lost World of the Prophets

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Cover image for "The Lost World of the Prophets" by John H. Walton

The Lost World of the Prophets (Lost World Series), John H. Walton. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514004890) 2024.

Summary: How understanding the ancient Near East context of the prophets can shed light on their message for us.

There is good reason to take prophecy seriously and seek to understand it. Prophets often prefaced their words with “thus saith the Lord” or “this is the word of the Lord.” We wonder, is there a message for us to heed, trust, and obey? Unfortunately, this instinct can go awry when we fail to understand the primary role of the prophet, the nature of prophetic literature, and its theological significance then and now. In The Lost World of the Prophets, John H. Walton, as he has done with other “Lost World” books, takes us back to the ancient Near East backgrounds of prophetic and apocalyptic literature. Building on this background, he helps us understand the message of the prophets and its relevance to us.

As in other works in this series, Walton unpacks the lost world of the prophets through a series of propositions. Perhaps the simplest way to summarize the content of this work is to list these propositions as Walton outlines them in the book:

Part 1: Ancient Near East
1: Prophecy Is a Subset of Divination
2: Prophets and Prophecy in the ANE Manifest Similarities and Differences When Compared to Israel

Part 2: Institution
3: A Prophet Is a Spokesperson for God, Not a Predictor of the Future
4: Prophecy in the OT Is Not Monolithic but Developing
5: The Classical Prophets Are Champions of the Covenant in Times of Crisis
6: Prophecy Takes a Variety of Different Shapes After the Old Testament

Part 3: Literature
7: Recognition of the Categories of Prophetic Message Help Us Be More Informed Readers
8: Prophets Were Typically Not Authors
9: The Implied Audience of the Prophetic Books Is Not Necessarily the Audience of the Prophet

Part 4: Methodological and Interpretive Issues
10: Distinction Between Message and Fulfillment Provides Clear Understanding of Prophetic Literature
11: Fulfillment Follows Oblique Trajectories
12: The NT Use of OT Prophecy Focuses on Fulfillment, Not Message
13: Prophecy Carries Important Implications for Understanding God and the Future, but Our Ability to Forge a Detailed Eschatology with Confidence Is Limited

Part 5: Apocalyptic
14: Apocalyptic Prophecy Should Be Differentiated from Classical Prophecy
15: In Apocalyptic Literature, Visions Are Not the Message but the Occasion for the Message
16: New Testament Apocalyptic Operates by the Same Principles as Old Testament Apocalyptic

There were several aspects of Walton’s treatment that I felt were of great importance. Firstly, he focuses on prophets as spokespersons for God rather than predictors of the future. When we focus on the latter, we miss the strong focus on the warnings the prophets brought as God’s people violated his commands.

Secondly, the focus of their condemnations was how they breached God’s covenant relationship with them. The primary message of the prophets was to warn of God’s impending judgment because the people had not kept faith with God.

Thirdly, Walton emphasizes that the prophetic books as we have them reflect a process from initial message to transcription to compilation that may have involved more than one person over a period of time. Likewise, the original audience of the prophet may not be the audience of the prophetic book.

Fourthly, Walton’s distinction between message and fulfillment is so valuable when considering New Testament “fulfillments” that seem at variance with the plain meaning of the original message. Specifically, he pleads the authority of the New Testament interpreters and the fact that the fulfillments are things that have occurred. On the same basis, he argues against attempts to predict particular fulfillments of eschatological passages that have not occurred. We, unlike the apostolic witnesses, are not inspired. Instead, we should focus on the broad message of God’s purposes and promises to those who persevere through suffering.

Fifthly, I will just note the very helpful distinction Walton draws between prophetic and apocalyptic writings, summarized in the table on p. 130. I found particularly intriguing the distinction of prophecy originating as spoken word whereas apocalyptic is literature-based.

Finally, and perhaps most significant for our reading, Walton provides a rubric of four types of messages we will encounter in prophecy: indictment, judgement, instruction, and aftermath. In his conclusion, he offers guidance about how we might appropriate each in our present day.

As in other contributions to this series, Walton offers clear and concise explanations that summarizes a vast amount of recent scholarship for the serious lay student of scripture. in notes and recommended further reading, he points the interested reader to more in-depth scholarship. Finally, he gently corrects our misreading of prophetic and apocalyptic literature, encouraging us to keep the main thing the main thing, and not to lose ourselves in speculative schemes.

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

Review: Word Made Fresh

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Cover image for "Word Made Fresh" by Abram Van Engen

Word Made Fresh, Abram Van Engen, foreword by Shane McCrae. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802883605) 2024.

Summary: An invitation to delight in poetry while discovering how form and language help make meaning that may enrich our lives.

A recent survey found only twelve percent of Americans had read poetry in the past year. I wonder if many are like friends of my who are put off by one or both of two things. Firstly, they find poetry confusing or obscure. Secondly, they don’t know where to start. By contrast, Abram Van Engen believes poetry is for all of us, an invitation to pay attention, to delight, and reflect. For Christians, he goes further. Poetry may be found in much of scripture, most notably in the Psalms. They both disclose God to us and give us language to disclose ourselves to God at all the turns of life. Van Engen believes poetry is for you and he sets out in this book to show how you may enjoy it and find your life enriched by it.

He keeps it uncomplicated. He invites us to just pick up a book of poetry and begin reading until something catches us. Don’t worry about meaning to start with, just notice what caught our attention, and why, in our lives, that might be. Initially, he invites us to read for pleasure, and at the beginning of the book, shares a number of poems. If we like them, he invites us to pay more attention, and if not, to move on.

For example, in one chapter, he considers poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins (sonnet), William Carlos Williams (three four line verses), Gwendolyn Brooks, Denise Levertov (free verse), Lucille Clifton, Luci Shaw, Scott Cairns, Mary Karr, Richard Wilbur, James Weldon Johnson, John Donne (sonnet), Countee Cullen (also sonnet), and Robert Hadyn. By doing so, Van Engen offers us his own curated anthology, offering us the change to discover what we like, while offering very introductory comments.

While he discourages starting by asking what a poem means, he does encourage us to ask questions of the poems that catch our attention, For example, “Why was I struck by this poem?” What about this poem made us stop? “What gave us pause or pleasure? Was it the sound of the poem? Was it a certain memory the poem invoked or revived?” He then takes us through a very short poem (“This Is Just to Say”) by William Carlos Williams, considered previously and notices how each stanza is a literal room, adding to what has come before about eating plums another has set aside in the icebox. He asks questions about the structure, the line breaks, and the repeated “so.”

Before going further into technical matters, he invites us to think of poetry like a friendship. Like a friendship, poems travel with us through life. Along they way, they show us different things as we change and grow. Then Van Engen turns to form. He considers different forms and how form, rhyme schemes, and content interact. Another practice he encourages is erasing. For example, we erase all but the verbs. Or we isolate the requests in a prayer.

Then Van Engen explores how poets use words to name, the oblique ways they express truth. And he devotes two chapters on how poetry helps us rejoice with the rejoicing, and weep with the weeping. Poetry offers us language to express how glorious our life in the world can be, and how wretched. Finally, returning to Hopkins, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” he shows how poems enact life. Van Engen contends that as “the just man justices” so poems poem as we read and experience them.

In recent years, I’ve been on a journey of discovery poetry. Van Engen makes this so approachable, so enjoyable. He introduces us to forms and uses of words and more. Mostly, he invites us to read a lot of poetry, guiding us lightly, asking us questions to help us discover for ourselves the wonder of poetry. And for Christians, he tips us off to a rich vein of devotional material many of us may have neglected. He show us how poetry and the poetry of scripture may enhance and enlarge one another. Read this book if you are in the place of feeling both drawn and daunted by the call of poetry. Read this book with a group, using the group guide provided. I believe you will find that which pleases and enriches you and your friends for the journey.

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

Review: Cultural Sanctification

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Cover image for "Cultural Sanctification" by Stephen O. Presley

Cultural Sanctification, Stephen O. Presley. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802878540) 2024.

Summary: How the early church pursued cultural engagement through holy discernment rather than fight or flight.

How ought Christians engage a post-Christian, secular culture? Some opt for a strategy of flight, a retreat into communal Christian life exemplified by Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option. But others opt to fight to recover what they believe is a lost Christian cultural hegemony, as described in James Davison Hunter’s Culture Wars. Stephen O. Presley argues for a third way, which he calls “cultural sanctification.” Instead of turning to Benedict or Constantine, he turns to the early church of the first centuries, making its way amid the Roman empire, and many competing religious options.

Presley argues first of all that Christians exhibited a distinctive identity that began with baptismal catechesis, formed through distinctive liturgy in worship. There were doctrinal distinctives to be embraced in a rule of faith. And there were moral distinctives to be practiced in everyday life. Conversion marked a turning point between two ways–one of death and one of life. Baptism dramatically marked that turn, a dying to the way of death and a rising to the way of life.

Christians had to define what it meant to be citizens within the Roman empire. God’s transcendent sovereignty and providence framed all. Specifically, this included their belief that God bestowed political power for the purpose of promoting peace and security, enacting just laws that curbed sin, and to protect free exercise of religion. Christians walked a tension between appropriately honoring and obeying Caesar while worshiping God. This included praying for rulers, paying taxes, promoting virtue, while defending religious liberty.

Christian apologists and theologians actively engaged Roman intellectual life. Theophilus of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Origen are important examples. They had to meet the likes of Celsus, who wrote On True Doctrine, an early example of the ridiculing of Christian belief. Apologists brought together Greek education and biblical training that “plundered the Egyptians,” offering an indigenized defense and proclamation of the faith. They argued for the uniqueness, antiquity, and public good of Christianity.

In addition, the early Christians faced discernment decisions concerning their participation in everyday, public life. For example, what occupations could they pursue and how did they deal with the religious rituals associated with many of them? Likewise, were there leisure and entertainment activities in which they could partake? Also, could the growing number of converts among soldiers partake in military service? In response, Presley argues that the Christians brought a response involving contingency, sanctification, and improvisation. By this, they sought not only to preserve their own purity but to have a redemptive influence through acts of love and pursuing justice.

The faithful presence of cultural sanctification did not always transform society or even result in a peaceful life. During various periods, it meant martyrdom. Rather than losing heart, most Christians persevered because of their hope in God’s coming kingdom and the resurrection. Neither did they lodge hope in the political structures and personalities of the day. As a result, Christianity subverted the established order rather than becoming captive to it.

In concluding, Presley argues that our current, post-Christian culture is not unlike that confronting the early Christians. He argues that their example of engaging the culture, while not perfect, is worth consideration. They fostered robust catechesis and formative liturgy that shape a distinctive identity with society. They engaged intellectually, as citizens, and in public life. And they sought to live holy lives in society, honoring and obeying the authorities while giving ultimate allegiance and worship to God. Thus, Presley makes what I think a persuasive case that we may learn from the early fathers as we seek an approach to culture that is neither fight, flight, or assimilation. Rather, the way of Jesus offers a distinctive path, reflecting our distinctive identity in Christ.

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

Review: Hide My Eyes

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Cover image of "Hide My Eyes" by Margery Allingham

Hide My Eyes (Albert Campion Number 16), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087384) 2023 (first published in 1958).

Summary: Campion closes in on a serial killer unknowingly supported by a widow with an odd museum and a young niece visiting.

There is a serial killer at work in London. In one of the supposed murders, of a moneylender gone missing, the only clues are a witness who saw an old fashioned bus near the scene with an older couple visible as passengers, and a bloody glove. As Campion is consulting with his friend Charlie Luke, events are unfolding in a quiet suburb that will culminate in an edge-of-your seat ending.

A widow, Aunt Polly has invited a niece to come and visit. The invited niece, is married, so she sends her younger sister Annabelle, who is excited to visit the big city. She contacts an old friend in the city, Richard, to go with her to the house–someone to keep tabs. A neighborhood policeman directs them. Attached to Aunt Polly’s house is a museum of oddities, collected by her husband Freddie. While waiting for Aunt Polly, she looks around and spots an exhibit from which two figures are missing. She also activates a switch for a noisy mechanism. A suave gentleman, Gerry, helps shut it off. He is almost like a favorite son to Polly. In fact, Annabelle’s visit is Polly’s attempt to find Gerry a wife, but Annabelle is too young.

Gerry leaves while Richard is waiting. Whether from jealousy or suspicion he follows Gerry to a barbershop, calling off work and pawning a watch to have some ready cash. Gerry, noticing the absence of a watch, befriends Richard and insists he accompany him for the rest of the day to various bars and restaurants. When Gerry leaves to make a phone call and doesn’t return, and a waiter tips him off to a time discrepancy, Richard begins to suspect he’s being used for an alibi.

He’s right. Matt Phillipson is Polly’s attorney and has caught Gerry committing check fraud with a check Polly gave him. So Phillipson set up a meeting with Gerry to recover the funds. But Gerry, disguised as worker, kills him and lifts his wallet. When he looks at the contents, he finds letters from Aunt Polly. They reveal she knows of his criminal activity. And when she learns of Phillipson’s death, she will know who killed him. In shock, he leaves the wallet behind at a restaurant.

Meanwhile, Richard tracks down Gerry’s hideout at Rolf’s Dump and finds the missing wax figures, the two old people on the bus that the witness saw. While he is at the hideout, Luke and Campion are at the other end of the junkyard, where they find the old bus and further evidence. Then they find Richard at Gerry’s hideaway.

First Richard, then Campion realize that Gerry will return to Polly’s house, where Annabelle is staying. The question is, will they be able to prevent additional murders or become additional victims?

Gerry is a truly evil character–a cold-blooded and over-confident killer willing even to kill the woman, Polly, who has helped him and loved him as a son. Meanwhile, Polly has taken a “hide my eyes” approach to his crimes, which could be a fatal oversight. Personally, I thought this one of Allingham’s best.

Review: River of the Gods

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Cover image of "River of the Gods" by Candace Millard

River of the Gods, Candice Millard. Doubleday. (ISBN: 9780385543101) 2022.

Summary: The story of the explorers who sought the Nile’s source, the clash between them, and their unsung African guide.

OK. I will admit that I am a fan of Candice Millard’s writing. I was hooked reading Destiny of the Republic, and with River of the Gods I have read all of her subsequent books. She has a capacity to help us encounter the personalities of historical figures while rendering a fascinating historical narrative. (I also have a friend, who as a history student, worked at the James A. Garfield National Historic site. She spoke glowingly of her interactions with Millard when she was researching Destiny of the Republic, on the assassination of James A. Garfield.)

With that tribute, what can be said of River of the Gods? Millard’s subject is the expeditions of two explorers and their African guide in search of the source of the Nile. Richard Burton conceived the idea. He was already a seasoned soldier and adventurer who spoke twenty-nine languages. Among his adventures, he managed to enter incognito into the Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam. He made a fateful choice of an assistant, John Hanning Speke was also an accomplished soldier, an aristocrat, and ambitious.

Having secured Royal Geographic Society support (though not enough) and the support of the head of the mission on Zanzibar, they set off in 1856 with their company. Their differences quickly emerged and it became apparent that Speke thought he should lead. The tale is one of porters who abandoned them, struggles to secure adequate supplies, and debilitating tropical illnesses that laid up both men, and left Burton paralyzed below the waist for a time. But they made it to Lake Tanganyika and learned of a river at its northern end, which seemed a good candidate for the Nile. They could not reach it however (later explorations confirmed that the river flowed into, not out of, the lake).

It was time to turn back. When they reached Kazeh, Speke argued for making a brief side exploration to Nyanza, which he suspected to be the true source of the Nile. He was able to reach the Lake and gather reports of a river flowing from its north end. He was convinced the lake was the Nile’s source. When the explorers returned, they published rival and differing accounts of the journey, with Speke writing critically of Burton.

Despite his great accomplishments, Burton was overshadowed by Speke, sowing enmity. Speke, at the zenith of his fame, secured permission for a second mission in 1860, assisted by James Augustus Grant. Grant was content to be second in command. They found the outflow from Nyanza, which they renamed Lake Victoria in honor of the Queen. They were not able to follow the river the whole way, but rendezvoused with John Petherick, who had been delayed. Speke, in his anger, found other help and denounced Petherick, hampering his subsequent career.

But Speke and his expedition made it to the mouth of the Nile and back to England, to great acclaim. At the same time, Burton continued to argue for Lake Tanganyika. Finally, they agreed to a debate. But when Speke encountered Burton the day before, he fled the scene and went hunting at the family estate, dying when his gun discharged when he was attempting to climb over a crumbling wall.

Millard also recounts a third man on both expeditions, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, a former slave. Bombay turned out to be a tireless guide and a rarity–an honest man with the supplies. He managed the other helpers on the expedition, cared for Speke and Burton when they were sick, and negotiated with the various tribal leaders enroute. It’s very likely the expeditions would have failed without him. He as much as any deserved credit for the “discoveries.” Subsequently, he guided Henry Morton Stanley in his search for missionary David Livingstone and another explorer, Vernon Lovett Cameron on an east to west crossing of Africa. Stanley would later confirm that Speke had indeed found the Nile’s source.

Isabel Arundell’s love affair with and marriage to Burton makes for an interesting side story. It was love at first sight for her and she dreamed of joining in his adventures. They later met and fell in love, but her family would not approve the marriage. She was an aristocrat, Burton relatively poor. She was religious; he was an atheist. Finally they married. And she got to join him on diplomatic postings while seeking all his life to save his soul. A fascinating side story!

But the story’s center is the great ambitions and tragic conflict between Burton and Speke that overshadowed their accomplishments and ended in Speke’s death. Marginalized in life, Burton’s accomplishments, not only as an explorer, but as an anthropologist, scholar, translator, and poet came to light only after his death. Speke, despite his overweening ambition, was properly credited with the discovery of the Nile’s source. In 2009, the Royal Geographic Society finally recognized Bombay’s crucial role in the expeditions. Candace Millard, in River of the Gods, further adds luster to the careers of these three great men.

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Reviews of Candice Millard’s other books:

Destiny of the Republic

The River of Doubt

Hero of the Empire