On Books

Bob on Books Readers Choice Books of 2023

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Goodreads has its massive Readers Choice Awards every year. Here were the winners for 2023. I keep things simpler at Bob on Books. “Readers’ Choice” is determined by the numbers of views books reviewed in 2023 received. Here are the most viewed reviews of books in 2023. The link in the title takes you to the publisher’s page for the book. “Review” hyperlinked takes you to my full review.

10. Four (and a half) Dialogues on Homosexuality and the Bible, Donald J Zeyl. Cascasde Books: Eugene, OR: 2022. A fictional dialogue between four students representing four different interpretive approaches to the Bible regarding homosexuality and same sex marriage. Review

9. A Christian Theology of Science, Paul Tyson. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022. Rather than simply another treatment of the way science and religion ought relate, begins with creedal Christianity, develops a theology of science, and argues that Christians treat theology as their “first truth discourse.” Review

8. The Priesthood of All Students, Timothée Joset. Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Langham Global Library, 2023 (Also available in French and Spanish editions). Contends from historical, ecclesiological, theological, and missiological perspectives that the idea of the priesthood of all believers has been essential to the student-led, non-clerical character of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, and helps account for it global spread to 180 countries. Review

7. The Deluge, Stephen Markley. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2023. A novel imagining the interaction of accelerating impacts of climate change and the unraveling of societies. Review

6. Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament, Sandra L. Glahn. IVP Academic, 2023. Through a study of literature, epigraphic, art, and architectural evidence, proposes that Artemis, far from being a fertility goddess, was a virgin, who aided women in childbirth, and considers the implications for our reading of 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Review

5. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver. New York: Harper Collins, 2022. An adaptation of the David Copperfield story set in rural western Virginia, centering on a child, Demon Copperfield, raised by a single mom until she dies, the abuses of foster care he suffers, and after a football injury, the black hole of opioid addiction. Review

4. Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human, John Mark Comer. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015. An argument that our work is an important aspect of what it means for us to be human, setting our work in the context of the arc of God’s work taking humanity from the garden to the new garden city in the new creation. Review

3. The Cookie Table: A Steel Valley Tradition, Alice Crosetto. Charleston, SC: American Palate, 2023. The story of this northeast Ohio/western Pennsylvania wedding tradition, its beginnings and a description of the ins and outs of cookie-baking, table set-up, types of cookies, and etiquette, and some of the uses of cookie tables beyond weddings. Review

2. The Wager, David Grann. New York: Doubleday, 2023. An account of the shipwreck of the Wager, part of a naval squadron in one of England’s wars against Spain, and the effort of her captain to maintain order as the survivors struggled just to eat, and the divisions and mutiny of those who wanted to sail back to Brazil. Review

1. Ordinary Grace, William Kent Krueger. New York: Atria Books, 2013. Two boys in a rural Minnesota town encounter a series of deaths, including one within their family, and discover something of the “awful grace of God.” Review

A few concluding observations. Demon Copperhead and The Wager were also on my “Best of 2023” list. Ordinary Grace represents my “author find” of the year, William Kent Krueger. I really like his works. I can see why he was your favorite. I was delighted to see that my classmate Alice Crosetto’s book on The Cookie Table came in third. Youngstowners love their cookie tables! Garden City was kind of a sleeper, garnering views throughout the year. I was pleased that Sandra Glahn’s Nobody’s Mother, a fine piece of biblical scholarship, caught the interest of so many. And as someone partial to Ohio authors, I was pleased that two Ohioans (Alice Crosetto and Stephen Markley) made the top ten.

As I conclude, I’m reminded that you are the reason for these books being listed here. It’s nice to not just be writing for oneself! Thank you for following and engaging this blog–many of you for more than ten years!

Review: Even If He Doesn’t

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Even If He Doesn’t, Kristen LaValley. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, (Forthcoming February) 2024.

Summary: A memoir of facing suffering and all the questions of why and where is God and does God hear.

If we pray and devote ourselves to God and God’s mission and do what is right, God will protect and bless our lives. Right? And if we suffer, we have gone astray from that formula. Right? Kristen LeValley grew up with those kind of ideas until devastating traumas forced her to go deeper and question these verities, the same ones Job endured from his friends. She and her husband were forced to leave a church where they ministered. She miscarried, witnessed a murder, and faced a high risk pregnancy with twins and a resulting two month stay in a NICU.

This book, while discussing the other traumas, focuses on her high risk pregnancy. After a miscarriage she learned that her and Zach would have twins. Then came the ultrasound that changed everything. One of the babies was not getting enough blood through the umbilical cord. The baby could die and her death would send a rush of blood through the cord of the other baby, possibly killing her as well and endangering Kristen’s life. The recommendation was to cut the cord of the baby not getting enough blood to save the other.

She wrestled with trying to come up with an explanation. Was it her fault or God’s? Was there some purpose in all this? She couldn’t find answers to any of these questions and the book recounts her dawning understanding that God nevertheless was present. Suffering, in revealing her inadequate theology, was an invitation to know God better. Facing a terrible decision, she discovers wisdom in the form of simply continuing the pregnancy, despite questions at every appointment about terminating the life of one child. Still, she had to face the question of “what if He doesn’t?” which brought her to the question of will I trust him if one or both of my babies die?

In a series of short chapters, combining personal narrative, sometimes heart-breaking, she takes us through her process, how God met her amid the messiness of her trauma. Along the way she notes how unhelpful the constant questions about terminating the pregnancy were on one hand and, equally, the valorizing by pro-life Christians of her decision to carry the twins to term. Neither comprehended the valley she was going through.

At the conclusion of each chapter, she summarizes the “shift” in her beliefs through her painful journey. I liked this at the end of a chapter titled “The Sacredness of Shared Pain”:

THE DISTORTION:

The reason someone is suffering and
their response to that suffering determines
the level of compassion they deserve.

THE SHIFT

Compassion, given freely and without restriction,
reflects the heart of the Father to those who are
hurting, regardless of how that pain happened.

This is a valuable book to read both for the suffering and those who walk alongside the suffering. No cliches. Just an unvarnished account of pain and the ways the author came to understand God anew.

I love this statement toward the end about God being glorified in our suffering:

“We don’t have to tie things up with a pretty bow to make sure we’re presenting God in the best light. We don’t have to justify our heartbreak to prove that God is still good. We don’t have to find a target so it will make sense. We don’t have to defend God’s goodness by dismissing the pain of our experiences” (p. 187).

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

Review: Paul, Narrative or Apocalyptic

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Paul, Narrative or Apocalyptic, Christiaan Beker and N.T. Wright. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2023.

Summary: Essays by two leading N.T. scholars representing the main distinctive views of Paul, either focusing on the age to come and the return of Christ to inaugurate new creation or the narrative continuity with the covenant fulfilled in Christ opening into the inclusion of the Gentiles.

Just to set expectations up front. If you were expecting a real dialogue between J. Christiaan Beker and N.T. Wright in this book, it’s not here. What you have instead is the juxtaposition of essays representative of the thought of Beker and Wright. In fact, Wright’s essay is excerpted from The New Testament and the People of God, from 1982. No real dialogue or responses to each other’s ideas.

That said, the essay by Beker, to my mind is the clearest articulation of the “apocalyptic Paul” that I have read. He offers a clear articulation of the apocalyptic centered around historical dualism (this age and the age to come), universal cosmic expectation, and the imminent end of the world. Contra the Bultmannian denigration of the apocalyptic he traces the renewed appreciation for the apocalyptic in Paul in recent scholarship. He traces the apocalyptic through Paul’s letters. He argues for the distinctive of Christian apocalypticism in Paul is the decisive new thing in Christ through whom the new creation comes. For Beker, nowhere is this more evident than in the resurrection of Christ, pre-saging the resurrection of the dead. Beker then focuses in on 1 Corinthians 15, noting the circular argument of Paul–the resurrection of Christ implies the final resurrection of the dead and if there is no final resurrection, then Christ was not raised, with the conclusion that no resurrection, no gospel. Beker explores why Paul sacrifices dialogue for dogmatism on this point, namely that this apocalyptic hope of the bodily resurrection is crucuially central and not to be compromised by immaterial views of immortality. As others have noted, we cannot have V-Day without D-Day, but likewise the resurrection signalled by the D-Day of Christ’s resurrection must be fulfilled in the V-Day of the resurrection of all believers.

The essay by Wright will be very familiar to readers of Wright. Without defining the apocalyptic, he considers it as a linguistic convention for the ways God would fulfill his covenant for a people emerging from exile. He offers an extended discussion on Daniel’s King who would come and the hope for the renewal of both the nation of Israel and the world and the development of a resurrection hope for the righteous. He then turns to the ideas of salvation and justification that would be held by first century Jews, namely inclusion in the covenant community. What Wright does here is not so much treat Paul’s reading of these ideas as the first century Jewish worldview in which Paul was immersed. Paul is scarcely mentioned beyond the essay title. If Wright’s assignment was to talk about Paul’s treatment of the resurrection as covenant fulfillment of the narrative arc of the covenant, Wright’s essay gestures toward but does not answer the assignment, something he does in his works on Paul.

All this makes me wonder how this book was put together. No explanation is given, just the two essays with notes and bibliography. The presumption is that the publisher saw value in putting this material side by side for readers but could not arrange a real dialogue between the authors. That would have been a fascinating interchange. What we have here are two essays on roughly the same subject matter where the reader is left to supply the dialogue. While that is a worthwhile intellectual exercise, I doubt most of us would do this as well as Wright and Beker.

[Note: A theologically astute reader observed that it would be impossible in 2023 to arrange a dialogue between these authors. J. Christiaan Beker died in 1999. This was not apparent on the cover or in promotional material for the book, but I assume responsibility for checking such things.]

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

Review: John Through Old Testament Eyes

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John Through Old Testament Eyes, Karen H. Jobes, series editor Andrew T. LePeau. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2023.

Summary: A commentary focused on the Old Testament backgrounds of “history, images, metaphors, and symbols” found in John’s gospel, along with applicatory reflections.

This is the third commentary published in this series from Kregel and I have found them uniformly to be of exceptional quality. Each book in the series provides a running commentary on the New Testament texts providing relevant Old Testament background and specific O.T. references. Three types of insets are also offered: “Through Old Testament Eyes” offering chapter or section overviews noting Old Testament themes and motifs; “What the Structure Means” which notes the structure of passages and how the authors convey meaning through the passage structure; and “Going Deeper” which explores both implications of the text for early readers but also contemporary applications. One overall observation: using a lighter shade of grayscale for these insets would enhance readability.

Jobes breaks John into four parts: Prologue (1:1-18), Book of Signs (1:19-12:50). Book of Glory (13-20), and Epilogue (21). She affirms the purpose of the gospel stated in John 20:30-31 and shows how this gospel reveals him as the long awaited Messiah and the Son of God Incarnate. She provides a helpful discussion of authorship and the relation of John to :the beloved disciple.

Jobes highlights the echoes of the creation account, the theme of light, and the backgrounds of the rejection of Jesus in the Prologue. She offers helpful background on John’s use of “signs” and the seven signs that make up the Book of Signs. In John 3, Jobes proposes on the basis of OT backgrounds that “water and Spirit” together refer to God’s restoration of right relation as a single concept, not two separate things, Her treatment of Jesus sheliach or “sent one” emphasizes his plenipotentiary power of speaking for God.

Throughout she shows the importance of the Feasts as signifiers of his ministry, particularly the Passover, which he would fulfill on the cross. She shows how the extended debates of John 5-10 laid the groundwork for his execution. In John 9 she develops the theme of Jesus as both the light by which men see and the division between those receiving light and life versus spiritual blindness and death. John 10 reveals Jesus as the good shepherd king of Messianic expectation. She helps us see how the resuscitation of Lazarus and the anointing of Jesus are a pivot into the passion narrative of John.

Her coverage of the upper room discourses focus on the call of the disciples to love, serve, and abide, and what the hope of a “place prepared for them” means. I appreciated the very helpful material on the gift of the Spirit as well as the concise explanation of the filioque controversy as it relates to these verses. Finally, she shows Jesus consciousness of how he would reveal God’s glory in the cross and how the disciples would glorify him as they believe and obey. Her Going Deeper on The Resurrection as New Creation is a must read! Finally, in the Epilogue she deals with both the restoration of Peter and speculates on possible tensions between Peter and John reflected in Peter’s “what about him?”

I hope this sampling of insights demonstrates the usefulness of this commentary for both personal study and for teaching and preaching. Jobes offers both granular detail in the running commentary and larger perspective on how particular sections fit into the overall book and its themes. I’m delighted to add John to the volumes on Mark (review) and Revelation (review) already in my library!

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

Review: Iron Lake

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Iron Lake (Cork O’Connor #1), William Kent Krueger. New York: Atria Paperbacks, 2019 (20th Anniversary edition, originally published in 1998).

Summary: A murdered judge and a missing paperboy sets former sheriff Cork O’Connor onto the trail of a conspiracy, a trail on which this won’t be the last death.

One of my delightful discoveries of 2023 was the the work of William Kent Krueger, through the recommendation of a fellow reader. Earlier this year I read This Tender Land (review) and Ordinary Grace (review). Both of these are standalone works. Iron Lake is the first book in Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series which has now reached nineteen books.

O’Connor, as we encounter him in this first book is a former sheriff, voted out of office in the small town of Aurora, Minnesota, after a conflict between the Anishinaabe and the townspeople that ended tragically with his mentor from childhood, Sam Winter Moon, lying dead. He is separated from his wife, Jo, and their children, living in Sam’s old quonset hut, which he has inherited, a broken man with a marriage falling apart. O’Connor also lives between two cultures, part Anishinaabe and part Irish, both and neither, entirely..

A call from Darla LeBeau changes everything. Her son Paul, a reliable Eagle Scout, hasn’t come home from delivering papers in a snow storm. He agrees to help and starts at the last house on the route, that of retired Judge Parrant. No Paul, but he gets no further. He find’s Judge Parrant’s body seated at his desk, his brains blown out from a gun held to his mouth and fired. An apparent suicide, but the pooling of blood indicates he was on his back when he died. This was murder.

That sets O’Connor on a trail of a conspiracy, one that mutes people with fear, one that leaves more bodies along the way, and one that will endanger the people Cork loves. It’s a story that involves graft, a casino, and an ambitious newly-elected Senator. The story is full of twists and surprises along the way including what becomes of Paul the paperboy.

It also involves the windigo, a mythical creature that stalks humans. He learned of the windigo when out hunting a great bear with Sam Winter Moon as a boy. Amid all else that is going on, Henry Meloux, an old medicine man says he’d seen the windigo. Then Cork hears the windigo call his name as do others. To hear the windigo call your name is to know it is after you to kill and consume you. Others also hear the windigo call their names. And they all end up dead. The only way to escape this fate is to become a windigo and kill the windigo. And what then…?

Amid all this, Cork awakens to his longing to save his family, even his marriage to Jo. Tender scenes at Christmas give us hope until pictures of each in compromising situations unravel everything, part of a trove of incriminating evidence used to control the town. But who is doing the controlling?

Krueger gives us a page-turning novel with a protagonist both flawed and of great depth. It is a great introduction that left this reader wanting to read more of Cork O’Connor. Aak! Another great series! At least I don’t have to wonder what to read after all the Gamache books!

Review: The Sanctuary Sparrow

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The Sanctuary Sparrow, Ellis Peters. New York: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road, 2014 (Originally published in 1983).

Summary: A young traveling entertainer at a wedding seeks sanctuary in the abbey, pursued by a mob accusing him of murdering and robbing the groom’s father while Cadfael and Hugh explore the possibility of other suspects closer to home.

It is the time for midnight matins at the abbey, usually peaceful. Instead, the monks hear the sound of an uproar growing louder. Then in bursts a lithe young man pursued by an angry and drunken mob. The young man, Liliwin, is a traveling juggler and singer, hired to entertain at Daniel Aurifaber’s wedding to Margery, daughter of a rich family. Daniel is at the head of the mob (rather than in bed with his bride) accusing Liliwin of murdering and robbing his father, a goldsmith. Liliwin claims that after he had been turned out without being paid because he broke a lamp, pushed into it by rowdy guests, he wandered off, finding outdoor shelter in a copse of trees until realizing he was being pursued. Abbot Radulfus grants sanctuary, a forty day reprieve from arrest, trial, and death, provided that Liliwin not leave the abbey.

Almost at once we see the trust between the shrewd abbot and Cadfael, who is sent to look after Daniel’s elderly grandmother, Juliana, suffering heart problems. He’s able to question members of the household. We also learn that the father, Walter, lives, although badly concussed. Cadfael retrieves Liliwin’s juggling balls and something more–news that the maid Rannilt to whom he was attracted in their brief encounter at the wedding party is concerned about him.

Neither Cadfael nor Hugh Beringar, the deputy sheriff, with whom Cadfael shares a rapport, believe Liliwin guilty. No stash of stolen goods has been found. And there is enough greed surrounding the Aurifaber household to make them want to learn more. Then Baldwin Peche, the locksmith living across from the Aurifabers as their tenant, turns up floating in the river–while Liliwin was supposed to be confined to the abbey. In fact, Liliwin had been about the night of the death, escorting Rannilt back to the Aurifaber’s after a visit (and tryst) encouraged by Susanna, Daniel’s sister, who managed the household.

Hugh and Cadfael have forty days to sort all this out. Liliwin’s presence draws out the character of some of the brothers. Prior Robert resents the disruption of the abbey’s life Liliwin represents. Brother Jerome, a strict sort keeps pressing Liliwin to examine his soul as a disciplinarian. And brother Anselm delights in a fellow musician, taking Liliwin under his wing, hoping to recruit him for the abbey choir. He restores the lad’s shatter rebec, a type of stringed instrument.

Finding the place where Peche was murdered, marked by some distinctive plants coinciding in one place becomes significant, as are marks on the murdered man’s back, and remarks Rannilt shared about the household with Liliwin as are the last words which Rannilt overhears Dame Juliana say before her fatal seizure. The slowly intensifying story culminates in a chase where Rannilt is held hostage while Liliwin, now freed of suspicion, attempts a risky rescue.

Peters gets all the elements for a good mystery just right in this story–an accused we are rooting for, an array of possible suspects around the fraught household of Aurifaber, a budding love story that we don’t want to see interrupted by a death sentence, or a death, and behind it all, the worldly wise spirituality of the abbey and the maturing friendship of Cadfael and Hugh.

Review: Lincoln’s Greatest Journey

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Lincoln’s Greatest Journey, Noah Andre Trudeau. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2016.

Summary: A day by day account of the final trip Abraham Lincoln took for sixteen days at City Point, Virginia, the headquarters of Ulysses S. Grant, and how this transformed Lincoln.

It was Lincoln’s longest stay away from the White House during his presidency.. It didn’t start out that way. Lincoln, accompanied by his wife Mary, had planned a two day visit to Grant’s headquarters, beginning on March 24, 1865. Lee’s forces defending Richmond were slowly weakening as Grant extended his lines. The hope was that the decisive breakthrough ending the war was near. Phil Sheridan was rejoining Grant from the Shenandoah valley. Sherman, further off, was marching from the south.

Lincoln arrived as a war-weary president wanting to encourage Grant to finish the job. He described himself saying, “I am very unwell” and he looked it to observers who knew him. He ended up extending his stay for sixteen days and left a different man both physically and in outlook. Noah Andre Trudeau traces Lincoln’s day by day itinerary against the backdrop of the final days of the Civil War, filling in gaps in the somewhat sketchy outlines of Lincoln’s stay at City Point.

Perhaps the event that changed Lincoln’s plans was Grants repulse of the surprise attack on Fort Stedman on the second day. Grant realized that Lee was fatally weakened and further extended his own lines to the southwest and called on Sheridan to attack on Lee’s right flank. Lincoln attended the command summit a few days later that included Sherman as they readied the attack, encouraging them that “Your success is my success.”

As Grant moved west to be at the crucial point of attack, Lincoln was left with little to do but ride and walk, receive visits and visit field hospitals. Unwittingly, he became a war correspondent, passing news from Grant along to Washington, where his reports were disseminated to the public. In so doing, Lincoln broke new ground in media communications, changing the expectations of a president as public communicator to the nation.

Meanwhile, Trudeau also introduces us to the instabilty and vanity of Mary Lincoln and her dustups with Julia Grant. In the end, she returned early while Lincoln stayed on. The portrait of the First Lady is unflattering, suggesting what Lincoln and others who were around her suffered.

Trudeau covers Lincoln’s visits to Peterburg and Richmond, including the scant provisions for security on the first of these trips. A sniper could easily have ended his presidency right there. Instead, we see a president deeply moved both by war’s devastation and the joyful reception he received from emancipated former slaves.

Lincoln finally departs on April 8. One of the most moving descriptions in the book is Lincoln’s visit to the hospitals for each division, literally speaking to every wounded soldier, some who would die within days while others would carry memories of Lincolns attention and encouragement. Throughout the narrative, we hear of Lincoln’s concern to end the bloodshed. His visit reflected his awareness of the precious sacrifice these and many others had made. This included Confederate soldiers who Lincoln would welcome back to the Union without retribution.

And here we glimpse the transformation that Trudeau so skillfully traces. Lincoln came a weary commander-in-chief. He left anticipating the end of hostilities which came the next day. He returned to Washington committed to the task of reunifying a nation and embarking on a new era in the treatment of former slaves. He was physically restored, filled with a sense of fulfilled purpose, and ready for the new challenge of restoring the Union as a peace president. But first an evening’s entertainment at Ford’s Theater…

Trudeau offers us a well-rounded account of the sixteen days at City Point and how they changed Lincoln. Trudeau also reveals to us the depth of character of Lincoln, battered but resilient, firm in resolve, enthusiastic in support for Grant, and tender with the wounded. We see a man capable of growth as he meets former slaves. And we see a man with a far-reaching, magnanimous vision, one that would die with him.

Review: The Wood Between the Worlds

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The Wood Between the Worlds, Brian Zahnd. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, (Forthcoming) 2024.

Summary: An approach to the kaleidoscopic theological meaning of the cross. the center of the biblical story through the lens of poetry.

The title to this work captures what Brian Zahnd is trying to do. The reference to “the wood between the worlds” is to the wood of the cross, which stands between the world that is and the world that is to come. The language is poetic, pointing to the author’s project of exploring the theological meaning of the cross. He resists the attempt to reduce that meaning to technical prose statements, contending for a “kaleidoscope” of the “infinite number of ways of viewing the cross of Christ as the beautiful form that saves the world” (p. 3). And why his focus on the cross? He believes it is the interpretive center of all scripture that offers a lens through which one may interpret the rest of scripture.

What Zahnd offers us is a series of theolgical meditations couched in poetic language. Each chapter begins with a poetic epigraph. One of the key ideas in this work appears in an early chapter, “The Singularity of Good Friday.” Zahnd proposes that on Good Friday “the sin of the world coalesced into a hideous singularity that upon the cross it might be forgiven en masse” (p. 17). The cross is not where God punishes sin or appeases his anger but where God in Christ endured sin and death inflicted by humanity, revealing God’s love in revealing God’s forgiveness. In another chapter, reflecting on Elie Wiesel’s Night, he speaks of a God, who is in the Christ, was on the gallows, the focal point of human suffering.

Another chapter centers on John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.” He speaks of all the Trinity as “co-crucified” in Christ rather than the idea of the Son as an object of the Father’s wrath. He contends that the cross reveals the supreme love of God. Zahnd portrays with great eloquence the beauty of God’s love revealed on the cross. I feel however that this is but a partial truth–that Zahnd (as many other contemporary writers) caricatures and then eviscerates the model of penal substitutionary atonement. He accepts the caricature of penal atonement as God punishing the Son and makes the only wrath that of human beings brought to focus on the cross. Gone is the idea of the cross as the place where God’s love and justice meet. I do not believe he does justice to the thoughtful proponents of theories of penal substitution that see this as a work of the Triune God working in harmony involving many of the elements the author dissociates in his portrayal of penal atonement and embraces for his own view. In his view, there is both identification with suffering and forgiveness, but no judgment, only love,

This criticism noted, I would also hasten to say that this work sparkles with insight. He challenges us to consider and live into the grotesque beauty of the outstretched arms on the cross, living lives of cruciform love. He offers a fascinating study of Pilate in literature, in contrast to Christ, and our likeness to Pilate in our embraces of violence. He offers a compelling treatment of the choice between the cross and power in a chapter on Tolkien’s One Ring and the illusions about wielding its power. He renders an interesting introduction to the work of Rene Girard on the scapegoat and, in a subsequent chapter, citing James Cone, on how the lynching tree became the cross for Blacks, and they became our scapegoats.

There is a beautiful reflection on Mary, neglected by Protestants, on the swords that pierced her life, culminating with the cross. He discusses Yeats “centre that does not hold” and how the cross is the place where the center does hold. He considers the slain Lamb on the Throne in the place of the Lion in Revelation and how he conquers, not by violence, but undoes death by dying.

Zahnd’s theopoetics certainly challenges tired theological formulations with theological imagination. The title image of the cross as the wood between the worlds is a compelling one. His focus on the cross as central to biblical interpretation challenges our “flat” approaches to the Bible. I think he gives the lie to caricatures of penal theories but I wonder if a reading of the best and not the caricatures might further enrich the kaleidoscope. What he does do is offer a rich collection of theological meditations, one that may make for nourishing Lenten reading.

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

Review: Istanbul

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Istanbul, Thomas F. Madden. New York: Viking, 2016.

Summary: The history of this great city at the meeting place of Europe and Asia from the Byantine Empire beginning in 667 BC through the modern Istanbul up to 2016.

Istanbul, located on the Bosporus Strait connecting Europe and Asia, and possessing in its Golden Horn a natural harbor, was a strategic city and crossroad of the world for centuries. Thomas F. Madden, a medieval and renaissance history professor captures in 360 pages the history of this great city (in fact, the name, Istanbul means “the city”).

He traces its beginnings in 667 BC when Greek settlers, including it founder, Byzas, from Megara recognized its natural advantages both for trade and defense and settled there, naming it Byzantium after its founder. He traces the transitions from Persian to Greek to Roman rule and the rise of the city under Constantine, where it became New Rome, the capitol of the Roman Empire. He follows the long history as, first barbarians from Europe, and then Muslims from the East erode the boundaries of empire. We see the city embroiled in the schism of the Christian East and West, with the Hagia Sophia the powerful symbol of the Eastern church.

While the city, now Constantinople, faces numerous attacks and is forced into alliances with Venice and Genoa, it does not fall for over a thousand yearsd due to its protected harbor and massive walls and natural barriers in approaching the city. Then finally, in 1453 it falls to the Ottomans becoming the centerpiece of the empire of Suleiman the Great. Madden chronicles the long decline under a succession of sultans until the end of the Ottoman empire following World War I and the rise of Turkish nationalism under Kamal in the 1920’s and the rise of the Erdogan regime and the transformation of Istanbul into a modern city, even as the seat of government moves to Ankara.

The history seemed to me one in which this great city struggled with complacency about its greatness. Despite encroaching powers, the city seemed invulnerable. Madden gives us a story where the internal weaknesses of the city aided its enemies. Yet Madden also portrays the magnificence of the city–its temples, mosques, palaces, hippodrome, and walls and harbor. In a compactly rendered history, he helps us understand why the city was both great and strategic for centuries, and even now, and what contributed to its defeats, and the transitions of power it has undergone.

Review: Christmas, The Season of Life and Light

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Christmas, The Season of Life and Light (Fullness of Time series), Emily Hunter McGowin. Downers Grove: IVP Formatio, 2023.

Summary: Spiritual and theological reflections to aid readers in their celebration and spiritual formation around the season of Christmas.

Through all my years as a Christ-follower I have sensed that something very singular occurred with the birth of Jesus, at once Lord of the universe and helpless babe, born in borrowed quarters, hunted by a ruthless king, and with his parents, a fugitive and refugee. At least, I try to ponder these things when not pre-occupied by shopping, decorating, and all the gatherings that surround this season.

One of the ways I carve out space to remember what we are celebrating is reading literature that reminds me of the wonder behind what can become familiar. For this year Emily Hunter McGowin’s little book, Christmas, has offered rich reflections on Christmas and the One we celebrate during this season. The book is one of the Fullness of Time series published by IVP Formatio, edited by New Testament theologian Esau McCaulley. The website for the series states: “The Fullness of Time series invites readers to explore the riches of the church year, guided by some of our finest church theologians. Each volume introduces the traditions, prayers, Scriptures, and rituals of a season of the church—not as an academic exercise, but as an reflections on the theological and spiritual treasures of the church calendar.”

This volume certainly accomplishes that purpose. McGowin begins by discussing the origins of Christmas. While McGowin admits that we do not know the date of Jesus’ birth, she also refutes the myth that Christmas originated as a pagan celebration. She contends that it arises from the church’s belief that the annunciation to Mary and crucifixion of Jesus, both occurred on 14 Nisan, or March 25. December 25 is nine months later! There is evidence for this date going back to the fourth and fifth centuries, unconnected with any pagan celebration. McGowin contends that Christmas, like other dates and seasons in the liturgical year can be times of attending to the Triune God.

Having established the roots of this tradition within Christian liturgical practice, she turns in the remaining four chapters to consider the theological significance of Christmastide. She explores the idea of the Great Exchange, that in the Incarnation, The Son of God partakes in our humanity that we might partake in his divinity, that we might be restored and united with God. Our gift-giving can be a celebration of this great gift.

She explores how the birth of this man born to be king occurs under such poor circumstances. He is God who identifies with the poor. And in this, his birth challenges us to choose, not wealth, but to use our resources in service of the poor.

McGowin considers the mission to redeem creation. This is evident even in his circumcision on the eighth day, faithful in all things to reconcile all through his blood, inaugurating the new creation, one day to be brought to fulfillment. Hence we set up trees and decorate, celebrating both creation and re-creation.

Christmas is a season of light…and life. But many suffer under oppression or bear griefs. The light shines amid darkness. McGowin explores how the Nine Lessons and Carols inb the Anglican tradition, how the remembrance of the holy innocents and the martyrdom of St. Stephen in this season hold “space for grief and lament while looking forward with hope.” And so we light candles and strings of lights. We believe Christ’s coming “brings light and life–even if we can’t see it yet.”

McGowin concludes the book with a reflection on Orthodox nativity icons and the intersection of creche and cross. We’re reminded to see Christmas in context with the whole church year and to set the birth in context with Christ’s Passion. In this conclusion, as throughout the book, ths story of Christmas also serves as a lens through which we see the stories in our news–the conflicts, the tragedies, the existential challenges that resist human solutions.

As you may discern, this isn’t a book of precious thoughts and saccharine sentimentality. These are reflections of theological substance and spiritual depth in language expressive of the lived experience of contemporary Western Christians within a larger global community. And they are reflections that bring deeper significance to our giving of gifts, charitable efforts, and all the decorating and lighting of the season. She shows how these all point to the One who is life and light for the world.

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