On Books

Review: Paul and Time

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Cover image of "Paul and Time" by L. Ann Jervis

Paul and Time, L Ann Jervis. Baker Academic (iSBN: 9781540960788), 2023.

Summary: A proposal that believers live, not at the intersection and the age to come, but that we have been delivered from the present evil age to live in Christ, including living in his time.

We understand time in the light of Christ’s saving work. We understand that Christ’s coming inaugurated “the age to come” That age will reach its telos when Christ returns. Some explain it in terms of already and not yet. Others use the analogy of living between D-Day, the decisive battle of World War II and V-Day, the final victory. Those who believe live in an overlap of the ages.

L. Ann Jervis argues that this is not Paul’s view of time. For her, there is no overlap. Either we live in this present evil age, what she calls “death-time” or we live in Christ, in the time of the crucified, risen and exalted Son. She calls this “life-time.”

She begins with the two most popular approaches to Paul, the salvation historical or the more recent apocalyptic. While they differ in whether Christ represents fulfillment or he represents an in-breaking, both have in common the two age idea. She challenges this, arguing that believers live exclusively in Christ. They live in a time or temporality distinct from the present evil age, the temporality of Christ.

Christ’s time is different in at least two ways. As risen Lord, it is a time of life without end, that begins for the believer when they believe. Death is only a transition in that life. Hence, she calls this “life-time.” It is also different because it is in God, for whom past, present, and future are not discrete or sequential. Hence we experience both his past sufferings and anticipate resurrection in our present. The future only reveals the present of Christ’s life, already present to us. Jervis demonstrates this in studies of 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 8, showing that what is chronologically future for us is in the present in Christ’s victory and glory.

Finally, she addresses the implications of this idea for how we understand sin, suffering, and death. She argues that for believers, these are not symptoms of a yet to be vanquished evil age, but are transformed by those who are in Christ. She writes:

“This knowledge has an existential power–believers can live in the embrace of transformative hope. Hope for Paul is the capacity through faith to be aware of what is. Believers’ knowledge that God through Christ shares God’s time and life with them means life now is transfused with the God-given capacity to hope and so to see the glory that is and will be forever….Lives lived without fear of physical death, in awareness that sinning is not obligatory and that suffering is in company with Christ, promise to be lives of creative and healing love for all” (p. 163).

Jervis challenges us to not reframe Paul’s “in Christ” language that so dominates his thought into a two age framework. She offers an approach that seems truer to Paul’s language. She denies we are in a battle with Satan or the powers who have been defeated in Christ, a point at which I would differ. I contend that even in her framework, we participate in Christ’s victory through battle, just as we do through suffering.

Jervis offers a fresh paradigm worth consideration and development. She proclaims a liberty and victory for believers in this present life instead of making concessions to the enemy. Jervis reminds us of what a powerful truth it is to say we are “in Christ.” She does this with concision and clarity in writing that is a pleasure to read. I look forward to reading more of this theologian!

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

Review: The Fashion in Shrouds

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Cover image of "The Fashion in Shrouds" by Margery Allingham.

The Fashion in Shrouds (Albert Campion #10), Margery Allingham. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504088367), 2023 (originally published in 1938).

Summary: Albert Campion investigates three deaths connected to a fashionable actress, Georgia Wells, whose fashion designer is Campion’s sister Val.

I’ll admit it straight out. This was perhaps my least favorite Campion so far. Allingham always has complicated plots. This seemed just confusing. I only liked one character. I’ll get to her later.

In the course of the story, Campion investigates three deaths. All are connected to the alluring and fashionable actress Georgia Wells who seems to attract men as honey attracts bees. Campion’s sister Val, who works for a famous couturier, designs her dresses.

The first death occurred after Georgia’s former fiancé, a barrister, goes off hiking and never returns. This was three years earlier. Campion has been hired to find him. Until now, he has failed. Finally he explores an old haunt, finding his remains, his death apparently suicide.

Campion wants to know more about Georgia, and arranges through Val to meet her at a showing of the dresses for her new play. It’s a disaster all around. Alan Dell, an aircraft builder who has been seeing Val, is drawn to Georgia, even though she has married Raymond Ramillies, a governor of an African colony, who is also present. Then it comes out that the model, who closely resembles Georgia, Caroline Adamson, has leaked one of the designs, which has been copied. And when Georgia hears of her former fiancé’s suicide, she is overcome and asks Dell, to take her home.

Soon, Georgia has stolen Dell from Val, who is so furious she admits she could kill her. Meanwhile Dell’s company builds a gold-plated plane that Ramillies will take back to the colony for a local ruler. The night before, there is a party. Georgia brings Alan Dell. Then Ramillies appears with Caroline Adamson. Campion watches from a distance. Amanda Fitton accompanies him. She had invited him out of concern that Dell was neglecting the business. Georgia infatuates him. Amid a big scene, Amanda announces her engagement to Campion–the first he has heard of it.

Ramillies storms off and only appears the next morning, hung over. Georgia, asks Val for a cachet, likely a pain reliever, which she gives her. When it is time for the flight, delayed for an hour, Ramillies fails to appear. It turns out he is on the plane–dead. A local doctor at the resort at which they are staying finds in a post mortem that he died of natural causes, a heart attack most likely.

Campion is in a tight spot. Georgia reveals she had given Val’s cachet to Ramillies. Even though the post mortem found nothing, there is a cloud over Val. Given what she’d said about killing Georgia, had she tried and killed Ramillies instead? Campion refuses to believe it but steps back for a time.

Then Caroline Adamson calls Campion, wanting to meet. She never shows up. Locals find her dead in a nearby wood. The plot takes a key turn at a party Amanda throws to announce the breaking off of her “engagement” with Campion.

Amanda Fitton is the one interesting person in the story. Campion is erratic. Georgia is a self-absorbed creature who measures herself by her allure to men. Val is capable but too swayed by others. The entourage around Georgia were all on the take. And amid them all, a killer lurked, involved in all three deaths.

I “soldiered on” to the end. I didn’t care that much who the killer was. But I thought Campion should hang on to Amanda. They’d make a great team!

Review: A Secular Age

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Cover image of "A Secular Age" by Charles Taylor

A Secular Age, Charles Taylor. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (ISBN: 9780674026766), 2007.

Summary: How Western society moved from a shared belief in God to a secular age in which belief was one option of many.

Charles Taylor’s book, A Secular Age, has become a primary source of sorts for anyone trying to understand our present time. On a regular basis, I come across writers invoking “disenchantment, “social imaginaries,” “the buffered self,” and “the immanent frame.” All of these concepts come out of Taylor.

Like many primary sources, reading Charles Taylor is daunting for most of us. There are 776 pages of dense text that introduce us not only to a breadth of intellectual and cultural history spanning 500 years. We also encounter a truly erudite mind, who quotes literature in several European languages (usually offering translations and weaves a number of people, events and schools of thought in an analysis that seeks to answer one question: how did we move from a world, indeed a cosmos, of shared belief in God to a secular age where belief in God was merely one option of many?

I’ll be honest. I don’t have the learning to offer a detailed analysis of this book. What I will try to do is offer a summary of the major contours of his argument. Following this, I will comment on what I thought the most significant contributions of the book. I’ll note a few questions I have. And I’ll make several suggestions for intrepid souls who want to tackle this book.

Summary

Charles Taylor makes the case that secularization is not a matter of subtracting religion from society. Rather, he traces the beginnings to the Reformation that removed hierarchy, elevating the individual. With this comes the disciplinary society, using practices to elevate the spiritual and moral life of all. In time, discipline was separated from devotion to God to stand on its own as a form of incipient humanism. Belief in God wasn’t jettisoned but relegated to a providential Deism. In turn, enlightenment science reduced a cosmos filled with God’s grandeur to an impersonal mechanism and this way of thinking spread to different aspects of society. A shift occurred from the “porous self” exposed to the workings of God and the cosmos to the “buffered self” insulated from such supernatural forces.

These developments created the conditions for what Taylor calls “the nova effect,” an explosion of different ways of believing (or not believing). They range from a theistic or deistic humanism, to a humanism without God, embracing moral virtues. Nietzsche and his followers rejected the quest for truth and morality as camouflages for the will to power. For others, the disconnect of the material world from the supernatural led to the embrace of materialist and atheist belief.

This hardly led to the eradication of belief in God. Taylor describes the era from 1800 to 1960 as “The Age of Mobilization” where movements like Catholic Action in France and Methodists and revivalists in England and North America succeeded in recruiting large numbers of people. Taylor believes that the cultural revolution of the 1960’s introduced an “Age of Authenticity” introducing a variety of religious experiences, designer belief, and the celebration of bodily pleasure.

Having lost connection with the transcendent, we live in the immanent frame, and yet we struggle to find a basis in it for some of our deepest longings, and to deal with the ultimate reality of death. We live amid cross pressures and dilemmas, including the troubling presence of human violence. He concludes the work with narratives of those who believe, often out of some sense of the transcendent. He has strong words to say about the church’s rediscovery of an incarnational life and connects this to an re-consideration of the erotic and its connection to divine love.

Significant Insights

Perhaps the most significant insight is that secularization does not mean the subtraction of religion from our view of the world. Instead, belief in God and Christianity, once shared by all, becomes one of many options.

Second, science isn’t the enemy, according to Taylor. The Reformation created the milieu leading to the eclipse of the transcendent. It’s fascinating that Taylor doesn’t think much of the atheist scientists who challenge belief.

He helps us see how radically our world has shifted, including the eclipse of the supernatural and the rise of the autonomous self.

He shows the inadequacy of humanism to address many of our deepest questions and the challenge of Nietzsche as an alternative that seems to be attractive to many embracing authoritarian leaders in our day.

Questions

While we cannot return to pre-modern times, can believing people find a way to live in a supernatural, transcendent frame? It seems that the church, pre-Christendom, and perhaps in parts of the world outside the West, faced or faces the same conditions.

This raises the question of the nearly exclusive focus on the West. What might be learned from other societies and cultures? By the same token, it could be argued that secularization has become a global phenomenon.

His comments on incarnation versus excarnation and sexuality come at the very end. I would love to know if he has developed these further.

Reading Taylor

For most of us, Taylor is a tough read. I read most books in about a week. It took me nearly three months to read A Secular Age. At the suggestion of my reading buddy, I reduced my pace to 10 pages of a day, which is about all I felt I could absorb. I wish I had kept some notes along the way, which would have made tracking Taylor’s thought easier.

Read this with a reading buddy or group. It helped me keep going and we helped each other understand Taylor’s dense prose. I had this book for years, collecting dust. I wouldn’t have finished it without my friend.

It also helps to read this along with a commentary. Several, including my reading buddy recommended, James K. A. Smith’s How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor.

This seems to be one of those books where one reading isn’t enough. Yet, I find myself wondering if I want to set aside that much time. Ah…time will tell.

Review: Surviving the Islamic State

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Cover image of "Surviving the Islamic State" by Austin J. Knuppe

Surviving the Islamic State, Austin J. Knuppe. Columbia University Press (ISBN: 9780231213875), 2024.

Summary: A comprehensive study of how civilians survived Islamic State occupation in various communities throughout Iraq.

The current conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have foregrounded the experience of civilians under enemy occupation. We tend to hear more about war-time deaths, injuries, and atrocities. But how do the rest of the population survive? For current conflicts, the answers are still emerging. But a case study of the recent Islamic State (IS) occupation in Iraq offers a wealth of data on the repertoire of survival strategies used by civilians during the time the insurgents were in control. This work represents a comprehensive attempt to study civilian responses both in areas under insurgent control and others, like Baghdad, under insurgent attack but government control.

The work begins with an overview of survival repertoires. Community membership and the degree of shared identity is a crucial factor in assessing threat. This determines whether one flees or stays. For those who stay, many will try to stay under the radar. When this is not possible, they must choose between neutrality, cooperation, and contention, sometimes blending approaches such as complying with religious rules while informing to the government or otherwise covertly, and sometimes overtly, resisting. Knuppe then traces the rise and fall of the Islamic State beginning with the US withdrawal in 2011, the rise and spread of IS control from 2012 to 2014, and the anti-IS offensive by a coalition of forces leading to their defeat from 2014 to 2017.

The following chapters offer empirical analysis of the responses to IS threats in different regions. The author begins (chapter 4) with Baghdad, drawing on his own data gathering from a representative sample of Baghdad residents, many who were Shia. He shows shifts from government support to neutrality or even collaboration with US forces as the threat shifted from IS attacks to neighborhood militias.

Chapter 5 covers the Sunnis in the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, and Tikrit in Anbar province. These people had been politically excluded by the Shia government. As a result, many sought to remain neutral or acquiesce to IS control to survive. Chapter 6 turns to the Ninewa Governate of the north. Here, ethnoreligious minorities of Assyrians, Kurds, and Yazidis faced brutal suppression or genocide, necessitating flight by many. Knuppe traces the internal displacement and return of these people. He examines the strategies of neutrality and cooperation of those who remained.

The final chapter considers the argument of this book. It is that civilians survival strategies reflect their evaluation of the threat. They consider whether they share an identity with the insurgent. People evaluate the insurgents reputation to determine how they will be treated. Finally, the level of coercive behavior and indiscriminate violence helps people decide when to leave. Threat evaluation determines whether they try to remain neutral, cooperate, or contend if they stay.

One distinction of this book is the resourceful and ethical research methods used by the author both in the study of Baghdad’s population and the informant-based work that complemented the use of data sets in Anbar. He offers a far more nuanced and pragmatic array of threat responses that involves fine-grained analysis of the diverse peoples of Iraq. And he sets these responses within the context of Iraq’s complex politics since the fall of Hussein. This makes the work a valuable resource for not only Iraq and Middle East scholars but for others studying the impact on civilian populations of wartime occupation.

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

Review: Say Good

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Cover image of "Say Good" by Ashlee Eiland

Say Good, Ashlee Eiland. NavPress (ISBN: 9781641587006), 2024.

Summary: Offers a four-part process for finding one’s voice to navigate the tightrope of challenging public discussions, using one’s voice to “say good.”

Engaging in public discussions, online or in-person, often feels like walking a tightrope. Ashlee Eiland says it begins with balance, finding one’s center in Christ. In walking a tight rope, it means fine-tuning that starts low and short and goes slow. Don’t try to walk over Niagara Falls without a lot of training. Likewise, with public engagement.

Eiland outlines a four part, four pillar process of finding one’s voice, using the acronym PAIR:

Passion

It begins with discerning our passion. It is figuring out what we love enough to suffer for it. What is something you are willing to devote enough time to gain the experience you need to accomplish your goal? Our passion is that for which we’ve wept at its absence. Are we willing to identify with the Savior who wept?

Accountability

Accountability is the discipline of consistently showing up with others. It means character and integrity, boundaries we will not cross, having others to hold us to our commitments. It means learning to take initiative, with all its risks–and discerning when not to take initiative. Facing hard truth is another aspect of accountability. Who will we trust to tell us the truth? Will we take the posture of a learner and listener? Eilund recounts the parting advice of dean in graduate school.

Influence

We all have influence. the question is, how will we leverage it? But we can’t influence everything. We need to know our place and space and stay in it. It is learning to use our voice with authenticity, I liked this description of authenticity:

“Authenticity is about discerning the intersection of what’s real and true, both in what we are speaking into and in what we’re speaking out of, for the health and wholeness of the entire body”

You can’t talk about influence without talking about power. She talks about sources of power, power dynamics, and how we use power well. Eilund describes how Steve, a white, dynamic leader, empowered her, a Black woman, in public speaking.

Relationship.

Relationship reminds us that we use our voice with people. Confession is an important part of the use of our voice, sharing with trusted others who we truly are. The author describes confessing to her friends her deep struggle, as a pastor, with depression. Eilund challenges us to know people by name–the pharmacist, the clerk, the wait staff–and not just close acquaintances, or the ‘important.” It’s all about affording dignity to every person. In turn, she asks us to reflect on what we would hope they would say of us in our eulogy. By asking this, she invites us to consider who will see our work and how we will steward our voice to “say good” in light of that. And how we use our voice with people will determine whether we leave chasms or build bridges.

Many people use their voices in ways that widen the chasms that separate us. Sometimes this is intentional. But for others, the question is learning to use one’s voice for good. It means discerning what we truly care about. It means being accountable rather than a loose cannon. We need to learn how to use influence well. And all of this occurs in the context of relationships. Ashlee Eilund charts a clear path toward the better use of our voice. By using her voice and her journey, she shows us how her four pillars integrate into a life of “saying good.”

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

Review: The Servant Lawyer

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Cover image of "The Servant Lawyer: Facing the Challenges of Christian Faith in Everyday Law Practice" by Robert F. Cochran Jr.

The Servant Lawyer: Facing the Challenges of Christian Faith in Everyday Law Practice, Robert F. Cochran Jr. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007228), 2024.

Summary: An exploration of the real work lawyers do and the challenges and opportunities for Christians who practice law.

Did you have the same reaction I did to the title The Servant Lawyer? I thought many would think the phrase an oxymoron. Robert F. Cochran Jr, a practitioner and law professor thinks otherwise. In this book he considers the everyday work of most attorneys and explores the servant opportunities for Christian lawyers. While doing so, he also discusses the challenges and pitfalls attorneys face in this work.

He begins with the client and the importance of seeing him or her as someone God has brought into one’s life. This is important because the cases studied in law school and legal practice tend to depersonalize the client. He addresses affording clients with dignity, respect, love, and dispassionate advice, helping clients weigh their options. He discusses choosing clients, encouraging obedience to the law, and refusing to be complicit in injustice.

Cochran describes lawyers as builders and trustees. In drafting good contracts and helping with compliance issues, they help clients produce good products and flourish while conducting their business lawfully. They offer practical wisdom that help clients determine what is in their best interests in a conflict. This also relates to their role as advocates and peacemakers. He discusses the virtue of the adversary system and why it can be good to make arguments you don’t believe, especially when ensuring a client receives a good defense. Peacemaking, the negotiating of good and fair settlements is also part of this work.

This brings up the work of prosecution and defense. He argues the importance of prosecution for the good of society and the good of the defendant while warning of the dangers of the misuse of prosecutorial power. Likewise, defense attorneys make the state prove its case and observe procedural justice. They can have a role of counseling clients at a crucial juncture in their lives.

Much of the work of the lawyer is outside the courtroom, counseling clients, whether in business practice, estate planning, or civil litigation. Even this is subject to pitfalls. The lawyer can be godfather, hired gun, or guru, rather than approaching clients as one would a friend. He addresses the issue of disputes between Christians and with churches. While conciliation can be helpful in many cases, he notes that where the potential for harm exists or where abuse has occurred, legal recourse may be the only remedy.

Perhaps one of the most powerful chapters is on lawyers as prophets and advocates for the least of these. Cochran draws on the historical example of the Clapham sect, including Granville Sharp, in effecting many reforms including the abolition of slavery. He also cites the importance of legal aid work, highlighting John Robb’s work in this area. He challenges lawyers to tithe their time in legal aid, if possible.

Cochran summarizes the challenges of law practice he has touched on throughout. These include cynicism, pride, insecurity, and the danger of a divided life. He concludes by focusing on the societal importance of lawyers in upholding the rule of law and the personal influence attorneys have. Cochran tells the “rest of the story” of Sidney, a criminal defendant he represented early in his career who is now one of his great encouragers.

What so impressed me about this book is its focus on the everyday work of the vast majority of lawyers I know. He gives practical examples of their opportunities to serve and fleshes out biblical principle. I love to give away books and this is one I’d be excited to give to every attorney I know.

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

Review: Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth

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Cover image of "Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth" by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. William Morrow (ASIN: B00796E7CA), 2012 (originally published by Houghton Mifflin, 1980).

Summary: A collection of stories, many in unfinished state, by J.R.R. Tolkien providing background information on the three ages of Numenor and Middle Earth, edited by his son.

The creation of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) is perhaps one of the most astounding instances of worldbuilding in fantasy fiction. Tolkien not only creates Middle-Earth but a whole history surrounding the events in his stories. He invented the languages spoken by the different races. He wrote backstories of many key figures appearing in these works or mentioned. Tolkien intended to publish at least some of this material but it was left unfinished at the time of his death in 1973.

Tolkien’s son, Christopher, has made a life’s work of marshalling this literary inheritance into print, beginning with The Silmarillion, in 1977. Here, Christopher Tolkien wove the extant fragments his father had written into a cohesive narrative of the three ages of Middle Earth. In Lost Tales, we see some of the raw materials with which he worked. Sometimes Tolkien changed names, or events. What Christopher Tolkien does is give us these stories, with some editing on his part, along with an extensive set of notes, annotations as it were on the text, changes made, and so forth.

The stories offer helpful background for any dedicated reader of Tolkien. The book follows the three ages of Middle Earth.

Part One: The First Age

This includes the story of Tuor, son of Huor, his captivity in and escape from Morgoth. Tolkien renders Tuor’s journey with the elf, Voronwe, and his coming to Gondolin, carrying the message of Ulmo, and being revealed in all his greatness. Also included is the tragic story of Hurin, son of Turin, involving his marriage to Nienor, not knowing she was his sister.

Part Two: The Second Age

This part opens with a description of the geography, people, and some history of Numenor, often referred to in LOTR. “Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife” tells the story of a prince who loves the sea, and voyaging to Middle Earth more than his wife. Perhaps most moving is the step his father the king takes in resigning his throne to this son. Tolkien follows with an account of the lineage of the kings of Numenor. The part ends with the marriage of Celeborn and Galadriel and we learn of the sadness that marked her life as well as her distinctive greatness.

Part Three: The Third Age

This section begins with the death of Isildur and the loss of the Great Ring in the battle of Gladden Fields. “Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan” traces the beginnings and long alliance between Rohan and Gondor, so crucial in the final war of the Ring. One of the delights of this collection is the story Gandalf tells Frodo of why he chose Bilbo as the thief to help the dwarves retake the Lonely Mountain. In “The Hunt for the Ring” we learn of the Nine Riders search for The Ring from when Gollum was questioned until Frodo leaves the Shire–as if we didn’t think the Nine sinister enough! In LOTR, we know Theoden lost his son in the battle of Isen. The final story is the account of this battle.

Part Four

The final part of the book includes three background essays. The first gives the background of the Druedain, wild men who inhabited the forests. The second and third were of greater interest. In “The Ishtari,” we learn the history of the wizards, sent by the Valar. We learn there were five, two who passed into the east and out of history. Tolkien traces the long and hidden resentment of Saruman toward Gandalf and of his treachery. Tolkien gives us all the names by which each were known. The last essay describes the nature and number of the Palantiri, including how they were used for seeing and communicating.

Christopher Tolkien appends an Index giving all the names used in the stories and a brief description of each–incredibly useful.

Comments

The success of this work encouraged Christopher Tolkien to embark on his twelve volume History of Middle Earth. This revealed to me the power of Tolkien’s worldmaking. We re-read his major works and want to read more of this world. That’s why an edited collection of unfinished works holds such a fascination. We will wade through pages of notes and even revel in indexes. We want to fix in our minds the contours of this world.

This is not for Tolkien newbies. Rather, it is for dedicated readers who aren’t contented with mere references to Numenor. This is for the afficionado, the one who wants to read everything connected with Tolkien. I would read it after The Silmarillion, which it followed, and after reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The stories vary in quality. The account of Turin and that of Aldarion and Erendis are great tragedies. The story of the choosing of Bilbo is just great fun. The lineage of Numenor’s kings and the essay on the Druedain fell into the category of “for your information.”

Review: Reversing Entropy

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Cover image of "Reversing Empathy" by Luci Shaw

Reversing Entropy, Luci Shaw. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640608702), 2024.

Summary: Poems that address the decay in the physical world and how human creativity and transcendent hope reverses entropy.

The second law of thermodynamics observes that the amount of disorder in any physical system will increase over time. Only the introduction of energy can counter the increase of disorder and decay. Luci Shaw, at 95, is a keen observer of the physical world as well as the changes we experience in our own bodies and much of this shows up in the poetry in this collection.

One of the delights is that Shaw observes what we often see only in passing. She celebrates the first star at night visible through her skylight. She notices the dance of the lichens. Many of her poems chronicle the drives she and her husband take. She observes the entropy of the autumn, the fall of gingko leaves, the single leaf pinned to the windshield.

Human creativity in music, the arts, writing and other ways help reverse the entropy in our human communities. Some of her poems share her creative process “when the words begin to arrive.” She likens poetry to laundering and describes filling the “fresh, clean page.”

Part three of the collection includes several exquisite poems on Mary and the incarnation, including one poem on “Mary’s sword.” Part four include more poems on the title theme. She captures, in “Energy Entropy” the dance between these two in all of our existence: “Pair the antonyms/energy and entropy,/unusual partners/twinned in the making of love,/to join with all the unmaking/and remaking within/the fluid universe.”

The title poem of the fifth part is “Love in a Time of Plague,’ and captures the healing of what was lost when we could unmask, and behold, and converse with each other. The sixth part deals with the ultimate expression of entropy, death. Vulnerably, she recounts both her brother’s failings, and of speaking and listening over the phone as he breathes his last, and the unfolding of grief. And here, she leans into the ultimate reversing of entropy, the Great Dance of heaven, the dawn of Light, the renewal of all that is only dimly foreshadowed in the creation and our own efforts to forestall entropy.

Shaw reminds us of the wonder of our lives in our world amid entropy’s relentless incursion. Her daily celebration of the quotidian beauties around us rolls entropy back, at least a bit. And her hope in the “deeper magic,” as C.S. Lewis would express it, stakes out a claim to the final reversal of entropy for which we all long. And what a gift to us that she wrote these poems around her 95th year!

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

Review: The Women

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Cover image of "The Women" by Kristin Hannah

The Women, Kristin Hannah. St Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250178633), 2024.

Summary: A historical fiction account of the experiences of women nurses who served in Vietnam war combat areas and what it was like to come home.

Frankie McGrath grew up in a strict Catholic household where military service was honored on a “wall of heroes” in the family library. So when her brother Finley enlisted as a Navy helicopter pilot, she decided to follow him in one of the few ways women could, by becoming a nurse. After completing nurses training, she enlisted in the Army, where she could go to Vietnam right away, ill-prepared as she was, leaving her parents in shock. The only “heroes” were men.

But she wouldn’t follow her brother. She would take the place of one who died in a helicopter crash in which no remains could be recovered. And soon she would discover that this was only the tip of the iceberg. She arrives at mildewed quarters amid a mass casualty event. She sees mangled bodies of young men and blood thick on the floors. Nurses Barb and Ethel, who become steadfast friends, walk her through it. A skilled surgeon, Jamie, teaches her step by step how to close wounds and perform procedures to save lives nurses would not ordinarily perform. She not only becomes good, she discovers a calling. Some men live because of what she does. She comforts many in their dying moments.

She re-ups when her friends go home to help the younger nurses. But something is wrong. The war is escalating and young men rushed into service come in droves to her evac. One day, napalm victims come to the hospital and she holds a napalm burned child as it dies. She watches Jamie, wounded severely under attack take off in a helicopter and a medic stopping CPR.. She falls in love with a helicopter pilot, Rye, who she learns died just before he was due to come home.

The second part of the book is about what happened after her tour ended and she returned home. People curse and spit on her when she arrives at the airport. Her parents don’t want to hear about her experiences. They want life to go on as if she hadn’t been in Vietnam. She learns they had given out the story that she was studying abroad in Florence. She’s not a hero to them. Rather, they are ashamed of her.

Then the nightmares begin. She has flashbacks when she hears a loud noise at a party. She can’t keep nursing jobs. Drink and drugs help her self-anesthetize. Frankie seeks help at the VA and is told women didn’t serve or see combat in Vietnam. She cannot find help. Something is broken inside, but she doesn’t understand what. She tries to pull herself together, with the help of Barb and Ethel, only to lose it all when a triggering event sends her spiraling out of control

We watch her self-destruct, despite the people, including her parents, who try to care for her. We wonder as we read if she will get the help she needs to pull out of the death spiral she is in.

Kristen Hannah captures a story too-seldom told. It took nearly twenty years to unveil The Vietnam Women’s Memorial in 1993. It depicts a combat nurse caring for a wounded soldier.

Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Washington, D.C. Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

I have a friend, a former colleague, who was a nurse in Vietnam. She has never talked about her experiences in the war or coming home. I wonder if they were anything like this book. Kristin Hannah helps me understand why she may have remained quiet. She also helps me understand the debt we owe to all the women who served. I grieve the painful things they saw and the horrible ways many were treated when they returned. I grieve hearing “no women served in Vietnam” when 265,000 did in military and civilian roles. Thanks to Kristin Hannah’s fine account that affirms that “they were heroes, too.”

Review: Gospel Media

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Cover image of "Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Circulating Jesus Traditions" by Nicholas A. Elder

Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Circulating Jesus Traditions, Nicholas A. Elder. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802879219), 2024.

Summary: Addresses myths and generalizations about reading, writing, and publication in the Greco-Roman world shaping ideas of how the gospels were composed, used, and circulated.

Nicholas Elder writes to address the myths around how people read, wrote, and circulated written materials in the Greco-Roman world. It is assumed, for example, that no one read silently. Reading was a communal rather than solitary act. Likewise, it is assumed that texts were rarely composed in one’s own hand and that the gospels all reflect the same compositional practices. Circulation of written texts was believed to follow a “concentric circles model from intimate associates to a broader public. Elder’s study of Greco-Roman practices and the gospel texts reveal a much more complicated picture than has been generally assumed.

Reading

Elder observes that there are examples of both silent and vocal reading in the Greco-Roman world. He also notes at least one example in the gospels, when Jesus reads from Isaiah. Jesus would have read silently or at least scanned, to find the text he read. Reading also was not always a communal activity. For example, the Ethiopian eunuch was reading on his own when Philip came along. People read alone both silently and aloud. Also, reading aloud with others occurred in various settings, from large groups to intimate family settings, or even one person reading for another.

The gospels reflect these different reading practices. Mark reflects the oral recitations of the Jesus tradition converted to text whereas Matthew wrote a “book,” that best worked when read in sections communally. Luke reflects an account written for an individual, if we interpret Theophilus as such, that was also used communally. John is written as a document reflecting awareness of the other accounts, and complementing these. Elder notes the concluding colophons in John 20 and 21 in support of this idea.

Writing

Contrary to the idea that the same compositional practices, often in the form of dictation to an amanuensis, pertained in all instances, Elder proposes that the evidence supports a variety of practices. Both composing by mouth and by hand may be used, or some combination, whether in writing or revision. All of this may or may not be in connection with a prior oral event, with or without the approval of the speaker (such as unauthorized dissemination of lecture notes).

Elder notes evidence for very different compositional approaches with the gospels. He sees Mark as reducing oral preaching to text to be re-used in other oral readings. Matthew and Luke both reflect written compositions, working with Mark and other sources, removing the oral residues (for example, reducing the use of “and”). Matthew wrote for communal readings (its five-fold structure) whereas Luke wrote for individual and communal reading. John is more complicated, reflecting both oral and written aspects and the evidence, for Elder is less clear.

Circulation

How were written compositions circulated? One assumption is that many New Testament documents were circulated in codex, or book, form. Also, it was believed that compositions were circulated in successively larger concentric circles. This goes from initial text, to friends, a wider friend circle with feedback, a public release, and then further copying of texts by others.

Elder proposes that both the form in which they were circulated and the process varied with different documents, both in Graeco-Roman society and with the gospels. Things may be accidentally or intentionally published abroad with or without the author’s approval of the text. Or it may go through more limited circulation with authorial revision. It may even be suppressed.

Elder thinks that Mark was circulated in codex form to a select group, and presumably they circulated it to other churches. He believes Matthew and Luke to have been circulated in roll form in a public release. John, he believes, was read intramurally among friends, and then circulated more widely. This felt to me the most speculative part of his book.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought Elder raised interesting questions and proposed reading, writing, and circulation processes that are as complex as they are today. I found the section on reading fascinating as I relate to contemporary readers who also read in a variety of ways. The section on writing helped me reflect on the differences of the four gospels from a compositional point of view. I think the section on circulation the most speculative, but challenging the general adoption of codices seems to point to a direction for further research. What I most appreciated was Elder’s attention to textual detail in the gospels for clues to how they were written, form whom they were written and how they were intended to be used. All told, I thought this a fascinating account that challenged prevailing assumptions and asked interesting questions.

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