Je Suis Ida

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"Ida M Tarbell crop" by On recto: J.E. Purdy & Co. Copyright by J.E. Purdy, Boston. - Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ida_M_Tarbell_crop.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Ida_M_Tarbell_crop.jpg

“Ida M Tarbell crop” by On recto: J.E. Purdy & Co. Copyright by J.E. Purdy, Boston. – Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ida_M_Tarbell_crop.jpg

There has been a lot of media attention on the “Je suis Charlie” movement after the execrable terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo editorial staff. I’m not going to enter into the discussion of freedom of the press vs. respecting religious sensitivities. I am not familiar with Charlie Hebdo except from the news coverage. Broadly speaking, I defend press freedoms to the hilt while at the same time wanting to hold the press to standards of responsible journalism that recognize the power of images and rhetoric either to inflame or promote deeper understanding. I will leave the discussion of Charlie Hebdo to others.

What I would like to do is hold up an ideal of responsible journalism that I came across in reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s wonderful The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. One of the delightful surprises in her book is her account of some of the journalists that covered Roosevelt, Taft, and their age, particularly the group of journalists Sam McClure gathered to write for his monthly publication, McClure’s Magazine.

One of the figures who stands out, along with Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, and William Allen White is Ida M. Tarbell. For my Youngstown friends, she began her career as a teacher at Poland Seminary (now Poland Seminary High School in Poland, Ohio). She later went to France to pursue post graduate studies on the life of Madame Roland. It was here that McClure recruited her to write a series of articles on Napolean Bonaparte. Subsequently she researched and wrote a 20-part series on Abraham Lincoln that stood out particularly for the meticulous research into Lincoln’s childhood and youth.

Meticulous research marked everything Tarbell wrote, and nothing more than the 12 part series she wrote on John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil that led to the breakup of Standard Oil’s monopoly on the oil business. She spent nearly three years doing careful research of depositions, company and government documents, interviews with oil producers forced out of business by Rockefeller, and even a partner of Standard Oil, Henry H. Rogers, who provided the company’s side on all that she was uncovering. She set a new standard for investigative journalism that indeed warrants Goodwin’s assertion of “golden age” for the journalism of her day.

This didn’t mean that she was “neutral” in her assessment of Standard Oil. Her meticulous research marshaled an incontrovertible case for illegal and monopolistic activity that provided the basis for the government’s efforts to break up the Standard Oil trust. Her measured consideration and refutation of corporate arguments made the case far more persuasive than a “hatchet job.”

If I were to identify with anyone journalistically, I would like to identify with people like Ida M. Tarbell, who were both careful and courageous in their writing. In an article titled “Muckraker or Historian,” cited in the Wikipedia article on Tarbell, she wrote:

“All the radical element, and I numbered many friends among them, were begging me to join their movements. I soon found that most of them wanted attacks. They had little interest in balanced findings. Now I was convinced that in the long run the public they were trying to stir would weary of vituperation, that if you were to secure permanent results the mind must be convinced.”

My question with our own age is whether this is the journalism we want, and are willing to pay for. To give a writer three years to research a story is probably more or less unheard of today. Yet the same internet that stresses news organizations’ viability also makes possible fact-checking that doesn’t always require physically crisscrossing the country as Tarbell did.

Maybe what this means is identifying the publications that are still striving for this ideal and supporting them with our subscriptions, or more. And maybe with my payment, I’ll send a note: “Je suis Ida.”

Double Vision

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IMG_2270Double vision. We usually do not consider this a good thing. A friend of ours suffering from MS could not drive for a period of time because of problems with double vision. Double vision resulting from crossed eyes (strabismus) in children is treated surgically as early as possible so the brain does not become accustomed to seeing double.

At the conclusion of our pastor’s message this week, our pastor spoke of the importance of a certain kind of double vision that not only appraises and celebrates where God has brought us thus far, but also looks to the future and the good that God might do among us. His message was a kind of “review” for our congregation that explored both where we are, and where, under God’s grace, we might go.

I was also struck that there is another kind of “double vision” that was evident to me in this message. It is the double vision that looks both at our congregation and our community. I was grateful for the reflection upon each and the model of “watchful brooding” over both, the kind of watchfulness shepherds exercise that watches both the flock and the surroundings, both for good pastures and possible threats. Here are some of my own responses to each:

Congregation (Who We Are): One important insight that Rich shared was our “highly-leveraged” character. For the most part, it is not a challenge to get us to “do more” and I am grateful that this is reflected in a recognition that we don’t need to add more things to our programming or congregational calendar. Most of us see our “ministry” as something that happens outside the church walls and our impact isn’t necessarily reflected in church growth so much as in the various workplaces, organizations, and informal networks we work in. There is a kind of hiddenness in this that seems attractive and is contrary to the ABC of “attendance, budget, and campus” that serves as the metric of success in American Christianity.

Two reflections in this regard: 1) It might be fun to “map” our involvements and explore the question, “if this is how God is gifting and calling each of us, how might he be calling ALL of us?” 2) It seems that what happens in our gatherings on Sundays, in Life groups and other gatherings in some way sustains and equips us for a good deal of ministry on the outside.  What was shared about having a “contextually appropriate strategy for deepening the spiritual transformation, the growth of discipleship” for our congregation really makes sense!

Community (Where We Are): I so appreciate the continued dreaming our pastor and so many are doing about serving the community that is northwest Columbus now. We have a Governance Team that really serves us well! One interesting insight for me, though, from the message, is that our building and property really is a key interface between our congregation and the wider community.

What is real for the community that encounters us is a place located at 7260 Smoky Row Road. It is a place where food is stored and distributed by caring people. It is a place where students, who traditional schools have been unable to help, have another alternative. It is a place where people grow fresh food while children play on our ark. It is a place where singers rehearse in our worship space, using our chairs and piano and lighting, while glimpsing the tangible signs of our life together as they come in and out. It is a place where people vote, and experience welcome as they do so.

So, while it doesn’t seem glamorous and seems “institutional” to pay attention to buildings, what struck me from what Rich shared is how many “flesh-and-blood” human beings interface with our congregation through the building and grounds at Smoky Row. As was noted, we’ve made lots of headway over the last years in improvements. But this realization also helps me see how urgent it is to pray for someone with the skills and passion needed to lead our stewardship of this place God has given us that is such a crucial interface with our community.

I’m moved by this message that as I pray for our church, I need to pray with “double vision” not only with regard to our past and future, but also with regard to praying both for our congregation, and for the community in the midst of which we gather and who we are called to serve. Our pastor gave us a great model of paying close attention both to what is going on inside our church and in our community. I hope I can imitate that as I pray for our life and mission.

These are the things that particularly encouraged and challenged me. How about you?

Going Deeper Questions: If you are from Smoky Row, what most encouraged you and what most challenged you from Rich’s message?

If you are someone else following the blog, what would it mean to have “double-vision” for your church and your community? What do you see as you look at each in your context?

This post also appears on our church’s Going Deeper blog.

Are E-books Dying?

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My e-reader with a "Vicky Bliss" mystery loaded. (c) 2015, Robert C Trube

My e-reader with a “Vicky Bliss” mystery loaded. (c) 2015, Robert C Trube

There has been a spate of articles (for example this one on Publisher’s Weekly) recently resulting from a dip in sales of e-books, and possibly e-readers. This one on Bustle sounds the most alarmist but in fact is not, as you get down into the article. In the end they suggest that both formats will continue to co-exist, which is my own take.

What is more interesting to me is to see in which categories e-books sales are the strongest. It turns out that mystery and romance are the two leading categories. It appears that much of the dip in e-book sales was in the young adult category, where there was no blockbuster, like the Divergent series, to drive sales.

What I wonder is whether we are seeing a “leveling out” and “sorting out” after a “boom” in this new technology (the Bustle article points out that the Kindle only came out in 2007).  Here are some of the ways I think this may all be sorting out:

1. It is interesting to me that genres that are doing best in sales are those that lend themselves to e-reading. I wonder if we are figuring out that e-readers are great for casual reading when we are on the fly (in airports or places with distractions) but that print works best when we are doing serious reading that requires concentration. Also, books don’t have other apps on them that interrupt us–a problem when you are trying to concentrate on a more serious piece.

2. I also wonder if some part of the sorting out just has to do with market saturation. For the past seven years, many of us have been acquiring e-readers, smart phones, and tablet computers. Most who want to use this technology for reading now have it. I’d be curious about how many “new users” vendors like Amazon or Apple are gaining.

3. Another factor in the sorting out is what I might call the “backlog” or “TBR” effect. Many of us who acquired e-readers or apps in the past few years have found how seductive and easy it is to download things we think are interesting and may be realizing we have virtual “to be read” stacks and are limiting new purchases.

4. Finally, I wonder, and some articles (for example, this one in the Washington Post) seem to indicate this, whether there is a renewed appreciation for the aesthetics of a book, both as we read and on our shelves. Naturally, this means that some types of books will be more “disposable” and we may prefer to acquire them in the generally cheaper electronic versions (as opposed to cheaply made paperback versions that we also don’t want to save). I wonder if this might eventually lead to greater attention to the aesthetics of the books that publishers think people will want to savor and keep. It actually makes sense to not manufacture books that are most likely to wear out and be trashed, ending up in a local landfill.

So, just as many of us thought the purported death of physical books to be greatly exaggerated, I also think e-books are with us to stay. What I hope is that we are learning to use this technology more wisely and appropriately. That would be a good thing.

So Where Do You Find Those Books You Review?

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Someone asked this question on a recent post, and I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this directly.  Finding books that interest me has never been a problem, in one sense. Finding time to read all the books I’m interested in is probably the challenge–and keeping up with other important things in life. But learning about my sources might be interesting for others, so here goes:

1. My most tried and true way of finding books is simply the local second hand bookstore (in our case, Half Price Books, of which there are several outlets in my home town). Often I do not go there looking for a particular book. My usual practice is that I have several sections (science, fiction, history, and religion) in which I particularly look. I also check out the bargain section–I’ve made some great finds of books I was interested in that I picked up for a song.

2. Of course, these trips are supplemented from time to time with library book sales and visits to other book stores.

3. I also attend some conferences related to my work. There is often a book table with books related to the conference theme and our broader work. Many of the academically oriented books, and those on higher education come from these book tables.

4. The organization I work with has a publishing house, InterVarsity Press. You may notice that a fair number of the books reviewed here come from them. We have the option to purchase new releases at a steep discount, and receive complimentary copies of some books related to collegiate ministry. I read these books because they deal with issues I’m interested in, often quite well. When that’s not the case, I feel free to say so. I am paying for most of those books, even if they are at discount!

5. Some of my books are e-books and I learn of these through three sources: Amazon via their Kindle Daily Deal emails, BookBub, which also emails about daily deals, and NetGalley, which is a website where bona fide book reviewers (in print or on blogs) can request e-galleys of new releases in exchange for posting reviews not only on their own sites but on NetGalley’s site, which provides feedback to publishers. Big danger here is that in the ease of downloading to a reader, you will acquire far more than you can read.

6. I follow reviews of others on Goodreads, in Books and Culture, the New York Times Book Review, First Things, and other periodicals that include reviews. Hearts and Minds Books “Booknotes” is another great source. I often look more at reviews than articles in some journals. Then I keep an eye out for a good deal on the books I’m interested in.

7. One of the things I’ve begun doing is requesting review copies of books I’m interested in reading and reviewing. Review copies are furnished at no cost but involve the commitment to read and review the book often within a 30 to 60 day period, send a copy of the review to the publisher that they can re-post, and to post a review on commercial media like Amazon. So you need to be a legit reviewer with a review platform like a blog. I suggest being sparing in your requests so that you can honor your commitment to review the book in a timely fashion.

8. Occasionally a book will be an “assigned” reading for work purposes. My usual reaction is, “Oh boy–I can even justify reading as a work-related activity!

9. Every so often, I stop by our local library. They have a section with their new acquisitions and this is one more way to learn about recent publications in areas of interest.

10. Finally, there are those books friends suggest or even give you and tell you you “HAVE” to read. I will if I’m interested. My son is a source of a number of these, and thankfully, he knows enough about my propensities to buy stuff that I actually AM interested in!

So there it is. Those are some of the ways I find out about books, and find the books I review. As I said, this has never been a problem in my “bookish” world. But maybe some of these ideas will connect you with new sources of learning about good books. Hopefully, it doesn’t open up new avenues of temptation!

 

Author Interview: Ben Lowe

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Ben LoweBen Lowe is the author of the newly published Doing Good without Giving Up, reviewed on this blog earlier this month. He is on staff with the Evangelical Environmental Network and serves as national spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. He is also the author of Green Revolution. He spoke last month for the ministry with which I work, and recently connected with me over Skype for an interview concerning his new book.

Bob on Books: Tell me how you came to write Doing Good without Giving Up?

In my work within the creation care community I was traveling to lots of Christian college campuses and speaking before audiences about why we should care for God’s creation and as the years went by I found that more and more people were affirming this message and less and less people were questioning it. The questions I was getting more and more had to do with “we believe we should care for the world and we believe we should stand for justice but do we really have to engage in advocacy and activism? Why can’t we make changes in our own lifestyles? Why do we have to work together on a broader scale? It is so messy and so hard. We rarely see any progress there.” So that’s why I decided to write Doing Good without Giving Up. In many ways it was a follow-up to Green Revolution but also addresses many different questions and challenges that are facing us today.

Bob on Books: You think personal simplicity and faithfulness are not enough in addressing pressing social issues, that social action and advocacy are also important. Say more about that.

I think personal faithfulness and simplicity are very important but they are not enough. That’s because we are called to be the body of Christ. We are called to community. We are called to live in faithfulness at every level of life which includes in our own lifestyles and in our families but also how we live together with the time God has given us on the world he has placed us on. And when it comes to some of the great challenges we are facing today, whether it is climate change, on which I work a lot,  or human trafficking or the immigration crisis; these are problems that we cannot fix if we are just focused on making changes in our own lives. These are problems that were caused by us together in our society and in communities working together. They are problems that will only be solved when we come together.

Bob on Books: You write in the book about moving beyond the dichotomy between evangelism and social concern and polarities of the culture wars. How do you think it is possible to do this?

I think our motivation is very important in engaging in evangelism and in social action and justice. They are the same. That is, we are motivated by love. If we truly love God and truly love our neighbor we will want to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them. He has transformed my life and saved me from things and delivered me from the brokenness I knew I was powerless to overcome on my own. In the same way he empowers us and calls us to join him in changing the world, and so I believe that to follow Jesus and to love each other means to engage in evangelism and social justice. Our motivation is important in helping us to be on the right path towards integrating these two.

And then when it comes to the culture wars, I think that a lot of our motivation there was fear. The most commonly repeated commandment in the scriptures was “have no fear” or “do not fear” yet that’s often our first posture when we engage with people in the broader society outside of the church. So what would it look like to not be so afraid but to be willing to vulnerably love our neighbors even when our neighbors are very different from us and when we don’t always agree with them?

Bob on Books: What have you learned about not giving up, about sustaining yourself as you’re engaged in social action?

These are all lessons I’m learning. Every day I find new reasons to give up and yet more reasons to keep going. And so in the book I talk about our motivation being love and the importance of prophecy and remembering Sabbath and contemplation and there are a number of different disciplines and practices that I share that have been meaningful in my life. But I think there is a scripture passage that I have written in the front of my notebook that I carry around everywhere that helps to keep me on track in life. It is 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and it’s a passage that has become more and more meaningful over the years and it’s “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize. Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly. I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I’ve preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Bob on Books: What new projects or goals are you looking forward to in 2015?

That’s a great and somewhat tricky question. I’m looking down the “to do” list and wondering how is this all going to get done this year? On a personal level, I’m in the ordination process with the Christian and Missionary Alliance church. This has been a life-giving and faith deepening process and l look forward to continuing that and, hopefully, completing that by the end of this year. I’m also finishing up the last chapter in a book that Ron Sider and I are writing together, which will be an intergenerational dialogue about some of the key issues facing American Christianity moving forward. I’m excited about that!

In my work we have a number of projects going but one of them in particular that we started in 2014 is a Climate Leadership Fellows Program which has a vision of training up new leaders in the climate movement, new faithful leaders, and empowering them to go out and engage their communities and train up new leaders on their own. We’re looking at this as a new discipleship model and are excited to pull together the next cohort of leaders for the coming year.

Bob on Books: I’ll look forward to the next book when it comes out. Ron Sider has been a hero and I’ve appreciated your writing. I’ve appreciated your time today as well as your recent visit to our campus. Let us know when you are back in town!

Ben Lowe may be contacted via his website: http://benlowe.net/

A New Enhancement to Bob on Books

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Book reviews are still the core of this blog, as much fun as the other posts have been. A new category has been added to make access to all the past reviews easier. On the homepage of Bob on Books, you will now find a category link on the left hand side of the page titled “The Month in Reviews” which will take you to the archived “The Month in Review Posts” This will allow you to skim through the books reviewed since February 2014 (eventually I may index those prior to then) and follow links to any of those reviews. This will serve as kind of a “cumulative index of reviews” for the blog.

This is a minor “tweak” but I hope one those of you who have discovered the blog as a resource for good reviews will find useful.

P.S. Fun sidenote: WordPress just informed me that this is my 500th post to this blog! Cool!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Sledding

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We had snow most everywhere in Ohio this past week so my mind has turned to memories of winter sports growing up. Most of us growing up in working class neighborhoods did not have the luxury of going away to ski resorts. Winter thrills in the snow consisted of jumping on a sled (or an inner tube) and barreling down one of the local sledding hills around Youngstown. That is, of course, after you dressed up in snowsuit (remember snowsuits!) or bundled up in layers of clothes to stay warm.

"Boy on snow sled, 1945" by Father of JGKlein, used with permission - Father of JGKlein, used with permission. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boy_on_snow_sled,_1945.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Boy_on_snow_sled,_1945.jpg

“Boy on snow sled, 1945” by Father of JGKlein, used with permission – Father of JGKlein, used with permission. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boy_on_snow_sled,_1945.jpg

The sled I grew up with was much like the one in the picture, where you would lie face down and steer the sled with a yoke that turned the runners to the left or right. When my dad would take us sledding, he would put wax or paraffin on the runners so snow wouldn’t stick to them and we’d get an even faster ride. I think the first time we did this, I clung to my dad’s back out of sheer terror and delight–and immediately asked, can we do it again?

Growing up on the West Side there were two main places I went sledding. One was on the sledding hill right below the play area at the Wick Recreation Area (a.k.a Rocky Ridge, which is what we called it growing up). I seem to recall that sometimes, when the snow was real icy, we could actually make it down that hill, across the baseball field to the next hill. That was a run. The only thing was walking back!

Sled Hill in the Wick Recreation Area, Courtesy of Mill Creek MetroParks. Used by permission.

Sled Hill in the Wick Recreation Area, Courtesy of Mill Creek MetroParks. Used with permission.

The other place we would go was the hill off South Lakeview that went into the park. There is also a drive (Calvary Run Drive) from South Belle Vista opposite the entrance to Calvary Cemetery that intersected with the road coming off South Lakeview. I seem to recall both being closed during snowy conditions. The hill off Lakeview was really steep and I think they had bales opposite it because their were trees and a creek on the other side of the road it intersected with. I know we used to sled down that hill and I’m trying to remember whether we ever took the road down from Belle Vista, which was a long hill.

One of the best parts of sledding was coming home afterward, getting all those wet clothes off and warming up with a cup of hot chocolate. preferably with marshmellows! Usually, we didn’t feel cold until it was time to go home and it felt so good to get warm again. Maybe it wasn’t a ski lodge but the coziness and warmth of home still felt just as good!

Youngstown has many hills and I have to admit that I am not aware of the places people from other parts of town liked to sled. I’d enjoy hearing about that and your sledding memories.

In Defense of Reading Slowly

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It has often been said that “there is no such thing as bad publicity.”

How to read slowlyThe other night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Fallon did a piece he called his “Do Not Read” list, probably parodying all the reading lists circulating this time of year. True confessions, we caught this, although I was dozing when Fallon included on his list How to Read Slowly by James W. Sire. My wife succeeded in waking me up just in time to see a close in shot of the book. Fallon’s comment was, “It’s actually a pretty good book. I’ve been reading it for years. I’m only on page 4 but so far, so good.” You can catch the video here and the part on Sire’s book is at the 2:02 mark.

James Sire is actually a good friend whose book Apologetics Beyond Reason I reviewed recently. So I got a laugh out of this for different reasons than most of the audience. I’m also hoping How to Read Slowly saw a spike in sales because of Fallon, that his publicity actually helped. It has been many years since I read this book and it is actually one of the best books on reading I’ve read, better, and more accessible, in my opinion, than Mortimer Adler’s more famous How to Read a Book. I’m relying on memory as well as the Amazon “table of comments” preview (I lent the book out to someone who knows when and it has not found its way back to my library) but here are some reasons this should be on your “To Be Read” list:

1. This is a book about reading better, not faster or more. Sire introduces to the process of engaging books with our minds and entering into the world of the author. He has been one of the leading exponents of thinking “worldviewishly” and one of the things he does is help us look for cues to the underlying premises in whatever we read–what is the view of ultimate reality, the really real, what are the author’s assumptions about human beings and the human condition, what’s wrong with the world and is there any remedy, where is history going, if anywhere, and so forth.

2. Sire wants us to read both sympathetically and critically. He wants us to really understand authors on their own terms, and yet also critically engage their “worldview” in light of our own (and perhaps in the process clarify our worldview as well).

3. As a former English professor, he gives us cues on reading different genres of literature from non-fiction to poetry, as well as how we might read “contextually” to better understand the world of the author, or the world the author is creating in the work.

4. Throughout this, as well as in other works, Jim illustrates his points from a variety of written works. More than once, his use of these has intrigued me enough to seek out those books for myself. I would likely not have come across Stanislaus Lem otherwise, for example.

5. Somehow, Adler’s book seemed to make reading a chore, as helpful as many of his suggestions were. Sire’s book stoked my love of reading and enriched it. His concluding chapter gets at the essence of “better reading” in talking about what to read and when.

Sire inspired me in my own reading life, particularly to engage books more deeply and thoughtfully, and to savor the richness of good books and to allow myself to be changed and enlarged by those encounters. So I hope the publicity, whether through Fallon, or this blog might acquaint an new generation with slow reading. I even hope Jimmy Fallon might get beyond page 4!

 

Review: The God of Nature: Incarnation and Contemporary Science

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The God of Nature: Incarnation and Contemporary Science
The God of Nature: Incarnation and Contemporary Science by Christopher C. Knight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of the challenges for anyone who is a theist is how to explain God’s interaction with the physical world. Of particular concern is explaining the “miraculous” or the “supernatural.” Classically, God’s interaction with the world has been described in terms of “general” and “special” providence. General providence is his work in and through the “laws of nature” established in his creative work. Special providence refers to his “interventions” in the miraculous, and perhaps also to God’s work through intercessory prayer.

These kinds of “breaking in” events are problematic to scientists committed to the regularity of the natural order. For some who retain a belief in God, the response has been to maintain some sort of theistic naturalism, which often seems to incorporate miracles into God’s creation instructions. The difficulty is that this is hard to distinguish from deism, the idea of a clockwork universe that God has wound up and set running.

Christopher C. Knight explores this landscape and seeks to provide a different framework that would see the miraculous as a “breaking out” or “breaking through” a fallen creation where God is working within to restore and fulfill his purposes. Key to his thinking is the Incarnation and an understanding of that which draws heavily on Eastern Orthodox theology, particularly its understanding of the logos, in and through whom creation came to exist and is sustained. God is a continuing “primary cause” of all that occurs in nature even if scientists may only have access to “secondary” causes. Because of the fall, sometimes God’s activity consists in breaking out or through the grime of the fall to restore and fulfill his purposes, supremely in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus.

This seems to me to be an intriguing proposal but one about which I have some questions. In taking this stance, Knight identifies his position of “incarnational naturalism” with panentheism, the idea that all that exists is in God (rather than pantheism, which says that all is God). While panentheism seems an attractive alternative to classical theism which emphasizes the distinction or transcendence of God vis a vis the creation, I think it means giving up some essential and distinctively Christian truths. If all the creation is in God, then in some sense evil is as well. And if God is identified with this then salvation is not a Holy God acting on behalf of a fallen world in redemption but rather God and the world striving together to attain God’s creation purposes. Furthermore, I am concerned with the reality that panentheism may collapse into eastern pantheism or into some form of universalism, which I do detect at points in Knight’s writing, particularly in his pyschological-referential account of revelatory events which seems to put other revelatory experiences on a par with Christian revelation. [I will note that for me this account was the most difficult to understand part of the book.]

What I found of value was that, classically we have spoken of God being both transcendent and immanent, but often seem to be at a loss to reconcile how God is immanent with the laws of nature. I would argue that one needn’t resort to panentheism to argue for the incarnational naturalism Knight contends for. The presence of the Logos in his creation that reaches fulfillment in Jesus, the God-man is fully consonant with the biblical narrative and an understanding of God who is both transcendent and immanent.

The book is closely written and assumes a certain familiarity with historical theology both Eastern and Western. Chapter 15, titled “A New Understanding” serves as a good recapitulation and summary of his argument that was helpful to me in pulling it all together. Before his “Afterword” he includes a chapter on intercessory prayer within the model he proposes.

While I take issue with the panentheism this author proposes, I believe his efforts to draw upon Eastern Orthodox thought, his thinking about the incarnation, and his effort to propose a “non-interventionist” explanation for miracles needs to be considered in the ongoing dialogue about faith and science and is a worthy addition to Fortress Press’s “Faith and the Sciences” series.

View all my reviews

Reading Better in 2015

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"Mark Zuckerberg at the 37th G8 Summit in Deauville 018 v1" by Guillaume Paumier - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Zuckerberg_at_the_37th_G8_Summit_in_Deauville_018_v1.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Mark_Zuckerberg_at_the_37th_G8_Summit_in_Deauville_018_v1.jpg

“Mark Zuckerberg at the 37th G8 Summit in Deauville 018 v1” by Guillaume Paumier – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Zuckerberg_at_the_37th_G8_Summit_in_Deauville_018_v1.jpg

“Reading more” seems to be one of those resolutions people are making right now. Perhaps the most famous to do so is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who wants to read 26 books “with an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies” (according to this article on Mashable). Mark would like us to read along with him. He’s set up a Facebook page where he is posting the books he is reading and hosting moderated discussions of the book. Based on the first title he has selected, it appears he won’t be reading fluff! (I understand that the book he chose, The End of Power, by Moses Naim, has spiked in sales since Zuckerberg chose it.)

I think this is great! I love the idea of high profile people encouraging reading, sharing what they read, and encouraging the rest of us to join them.   Zuckerberg is joining tech leader Bill Gates, who  has long been know for reading good stuff and sharing it with us. You can find reviews of what he has been reading on his blog. I discovered in checking out his blog that there are two of us on the planet who have actually read Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century!

One thing I’m afraid of is that “reading more” will go the way of “exercising more” and “eating less”. That is, we look back at wistfully at the end of the year and say, “maybe next year.” What I want to recommend instead is “reading better”. I’m convinced that when we read better, we may read more. But the numbers of books matter less than having your life enriched and world enlarged by the books you read. Here are my ideas for “reading better.”

1. Read as you can, not as you can’t. It may be that you are an active person who can’t sit still and read for more than 15 minutes at a time. If you read 15 minutes a day, you can read 15 average size books in a year. Trying to read when you really want to be doing something else is miserable and isn’t going to encourage you to read at all, let alone more or better.

2. Read when you can give your attention to what you are reading and enter into the world of the book. Different books need different levels of attention. “Beach reads” take less attention than a serious book on climate change or a Tolstoy novel. Attempting to read a book when you can’t give it the attention it requires is just an exercise in frustration.

3. On a related note, I don’t recommend reading on a phone or tablet that has other applications running besides your reader. If we see we have mail or a text, we are already distracted. If we read them, our reading becomes disconnected.

4. Read what interests you, not what you think you “should” read. I know nothing that will put you off of reading more quickly that trying to trudge through a book that you really don’t like because someone thinks that all the cool people should read that book! One way to find books you might like is to read is to follow reviewers who seem to have similar takes on books you’ve liked.

5. If you find people with similar interests, forming a book group can not only help you read more but the discussions will take you more deeply into the book as you hear others “take” on the book. One book group I’m in has wrestled through some good but challenging books and helped each other make sense of books I’d probably have given up reading alone.

6. Reflect on what you read. Maybe it means keeping a “commonplace book” to jot down quotes you like. I started writing reviews to reflect on and remember what I read. Goodreads is a great place to do this and has the added benefits of discovering what your friends are reading and think of what they’ve read.

reading challenge7. While I’m talking about Goodreads, they have this thing called the “Reading Challenge”. Set goals that are realistic. Zuckerberg’s is a book every two weeks. More is not better. Better is better. Compulsively reading to reach a goal is not better. Choosing short, easy to read books just so you can “catch up” seems beside the point.

8. Read at least one book that differs from what you usually read. If you are a die-hard liberal, read a thoughtful conservative writer, and vice versa. If all your books are written by Americans, read something by an author from a different country, preferably a non-Western country. If you are religious (or not!), read something outside your tradition, or even something from another religion. I’ve found this both strengthens my own beliefs and enlarges my understanding of the world.

9. Read one intellectually challenging book on a topic you care about deeply . I’m not suggesting you read intellectually challenging books that hold no interest for you. I love singing and sing in a choral group but never had any formal training. Reading about music theory has helped me begin to appreciate more deeply what is going on in the music I sing which feeds my love for it.

10. Read something just for fun. I read a baseball book in the summer of each year. No profound reason except that I like baseball–and there are some great baseball writers out there and some great writers who are baseball fans.

I’d love to hear your ideas about reading better!