Summary: A walk through the changing seasons and a reminder that the unchanging God is always present, always near and may be seen wherever we look in his creation.
During the pandemic, it seemed that all of our worlds shrank to our homes and neighborhoods. And many of us discovered that we didn’t have to go any further to be reminded that amid all the hardships and tragedy of the pandemic, beauty remained, and if we had eyes to see, the handiwork and wonders of the Creator’s world. The beauty of dogwood blooms, the lush lawns and budding trees, glorious sunsets, tree frogs in summer, the glorious fall colors and the crispness of the air, the quiet of walking amid the falling snow.
Kara Lawler describes a similar experience in the birth of this book for families to share. Even around her own home, she says “we found comfort in God all around–holy everywhere. We practiced the art of observing nature as a spiritual discipline–and it offered us solace and peace even in the midst of uncertainty around us.” She takes us through the seasons of the years, reminding us of “God right here. God right there. God’s handiwork is everywhere” and “God is ever near.”
Through simple text and Jennie Poh’s vibrant illustrations, we see the brilliant flowering of spring, from April showers to May flowers. We feel the hot summer sun, the delights of the beach and discoveries of seashells, sand, and water to cool us off, while listening to the laughter of the gulls. She evokes memories of red, orange, and yellow leaves of fall, piled just so that we can jump in! She reminds us of harvests–hay in bales, apples to make cider, pumpkins to make pie–God’s bounties. Then comes winter, catching snowflakes on our tongues as we make snow angels, seeing God decorate with icicles, and listening to the quiet. Short days, long nights, snug under blankets, gazing at decorated trees, reminded of the God who came near, who is ever near. The book concludes with a beautiful scene on a country lane saying, “Through spring, summer, fall, and winter, we watch, and wait, and wonder. The earth is so full of God’s glory.”
The book reminds me of so many wonders of childhood–and to be honest, beauty and goodness pointing to God’s handiwork that I treasure to this day. The book is inclusive, with children of color as well as a child in a wheel chair. My only quibble is that all the illustrations are set in rural landscapes. Must we escape the city to get close to nature–and close to God? Can we not catch glimpses of God and sense God’s nearness in our urban landscapes, the ones in which many of us were confined in the pandemic? Perhaps a sequel!
This looks like a wonderful book to read together with detailed illustrations with so much to notice. And all of this comes with a message we all need–that in the wonders of creation, we are reminded that whatever our situation in life–God is near!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
Officer Clemmons, Dr. François S. Clemmons. New York: Catapult, 2020.
Summary: An autobiographical memoir of Dr. François S. Clemmons, from his earliest years in Alabama, his youth in Youngstown, Ohiothrough his college years when he accepted that he was gay, his relationship with Fred Rogers, and subsequent performing and teaching career.
Recently in connection with my “Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown” series, I wrote about François Clemmons after discovering that he also grew up in Youngstown. I also learned that he had recently published a memoir, and intrigued as I was, I picked up a copy to learn about this man who worked on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for twenty-five years, breaking down racial barriers through his very presence.
My article viewed Clemmons as an outside observer. The memoir gave me a sense of what it was like to be François Clemmons from those early childhood years, the years of awakening to his homosexuality, the extraordinary relationship he had with Fred Rogers, and his later career. He begins with his troubled childhood with a violent father. His Great Grandmama Laura Mae protected him, forcibly removing him when his father kidnapped him at gunpoint, shooting the father in the shoulder! It was his Great Grandmama who led the effort to gather enough money to send a group of men, his mother Inez, and himself to the industrial north, to begin a new life away from his violent father. He also writes of his Granddaddy Saul, from whom he learned to sing.
Youngstown was not any better family-wise. Inez, his mother, took up with Warren, who she adored, but who became an abusive step-father to Clemmons. Singing, especially in the city’s churches became an escape and he rapidly gained status, learning to read music, eventually becoming choir director at his church. Even then, he was beginning to realize that he had feelings for his own sex, “tamping” these down, discouraged by both friends and his church’s, and especially his mother’s, beliefs. He also discovers the racism that would put him on a vocational rather than a college track and excluded him from music venues, except for special Blacks-only nights. His ticket out of Youngstown came in the form of a social worker who paid for music lessons from a well-trained choral director and encouraged his application to Oberlin College. He describes the day a high school principal who was part of the Oberlin Alumni Association called him to his office to share the news that he was going to ask the alumni to provide a scholarship to attend Oberlin, which had a very fine conservatory. That support was crucial because, by then, he was living with friends to escape his step-father’s violent temper.
The next part of the memoir recounts Clemmons musical training under the tutelage of Ellen Repp and his acceptance of his homosexuality. Ironically, an effort of his mother and stepfather to “fix” him by taking him to a prostitute led to his taking refuge with the Beechwoods, whose son was gay and who fully accepted both him and François. They would be his home in Youngstown until his graduation. He became involved in civil rights advocacy, meeting Dr. King and learning about Bayard Rustin, a key organizer who was also a gay man. When he met Nick, he experienced deep fulfillment in a relationship with another man.
The final part of the memoir covers the years in Pittsburgh and the development of his singing career in New York. Much focuses on his extraordinary relationship with Fred Rogers, who he first met during his MFA studies at Carnegie Mellon, while singing in the choir at the church Fred and Joanne attended. From the first lunch he had with Fred, he discovered someone who loved him unconditionally. He describes on particular episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood where Rogers ended as he always did, saying, “You make every day a special day by being you, and I like you just the way you are.” Clemmons felt like Fred was looking at him, and asked him, after the show, “Fred, were you talking to me.” Rogers replied, “Yes I was. I have been talking to you for years. You finally heard me today.” While Rogers personally accepted Clemmons homosexuality, he would not permit Clemmons to be publicly out and remain on the show. That just would not have been possible in the 1960’s. Clemmons describes the tension he struggled with between his homosexuality and his recognition of the work he was able to do on the show to change perceptions of Blacks. He admired Rogers support of civil rights, typified by a time when they were on tour in Cincinnati and a music director refused to let Clemmons rehearse. Rogers asked the man to apologize or they would not work with him.
Rogers supported his singing career, including standing with him, supporting him financially, and mentoring him through further racist treatment with the Metropolitan Opera. Eventually Clemmons retired from the show, going on to research and perform the great spirituals in the Black American music tradition, first with the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble, and later, at Middlebury College, where he now makes his home. One of the heartwarming episodes he describes is the opportunity to invite Rogers to Middlebury to receive an honorary degree.
The memoir concludes with a man who seems to be at peace, having finally found the way to forgiving his two fathers, accepting his own sexuality, championing the distinctive music of his people, and reveling in the love of this most unusual figure in television history, Fred Rogers. The memoir helps us to see how hardwon this peace was, given the racism, the opposition from family and society to his sexuality, and the challenges of making it as a Black in the classical and operatic world. It’s a story of both persevering in a gifted calling, and the difference that a few people who did the right thing–a great grandmother, a social worker, a choral director, a principal, a music professor, and finally, Fred Rogers. In the end, through teaching and through this memoir, Clemmons has turned around to give to others the best of what was entrusted to him.
William J Hitchcock and his sons William J. and Frank
Previously, I have written of Chauncey H. Andrews, one half of the Andrews & Hitchcock Iron Company and Youngstown’s first millionaire. The other half of this combination was William J. Hitchcock. The two complemented each other’s strengths. Andrews, from reading of the two seemed the more entrepreneurial of the two, while Hitchcock seemed the more savvy when it came to running the business, serving as its president for the remainder of his life.
William James Hitchcock was born in Granville, New York on May 16, 1829. Growing up on an uncle’s farm, he moved around, visiting Cleveland, working one winter in Buffalo, and training as a machinist in Detroit. He worked for a period as a bookkeeper in Pittsburgh, then served as a receivers agent for an iron mill in New Castle. From there, it was short jump to become associated with Andrews in the start up of a coal mining operation at Thorn Hill Bank, near the Lansdowne Airport. In 1858, they formed a partnership, Andrews & Hitchcock. To use the coal they were producing, they built two blast furnaces, Number 1 in 1869 and Number 2 in 1873, located in Hubbard. In 1892, they incorporated these into the Andrews & Hitchcock Iron Company.
On November 9, 1858, he married Mary Johnson Peebles. Two of their sons, Frank, who was born May 24, 1862, and William J., born July 19, 1864, both played key roles at Andrews & Hitchcock. One daughter, Almira, became the wife of Myron Arms. The other Mary (“Mollie”) Peebles Hitchcock became the wife of George Dennick Wick, a founder of Youngstown Sheet & Tube. She lost her husband on the Titanic, surviving along with Caroline Bonnell.
William J. Hitchcock came president of the newly formed company. He also had interests in the Foster Coal Company, on Youngstown’s South Side, McKelvey’s, and served as a director of the Commercial National Bank. He was a charter member and vestryman at St. John’s Episcopal Church. When he died in 1899, the presidency of Andrews & Hitchcock passed to Frank Hitchcock (Andrews had died in 1893). William J, the son, served as operating manager for the operation. They both continued in this capacity until the plant was sold to Youngstown Sheet & Tube in 1916. They had never made the conversion from iron to steel production and so were absorbed into the larger orbit of the growing steel industry in Youngstown.
The impact of the Hitchcock family was felt long after the end of Andrews & Hitchcock. The family provided major funding for the Hitchcock Operating Pavilion at Northside Hospital, which later became Hitchcock Auditorium. Frank Hitchcock gave heavily to the Community Fund, which became the Youngstown Foundation, along other Youngstown industrial pioneers: John Stambaugh, Philip Wick, Henry Butler, and L.A. Manchester. It now has assets of over $120 million that continue to be invested in philanthropic causes benefiting the Youngstown community, including more recently, the Youngstown Amphitheatre.
Both brothers passed away in 1936, both in New York State. William J. died March 3, 1936 in New York City of complications from a sinus ailment for which he left Youngstown to seek treatment the evening after the previous Christmas. His brother followed him in death later that summer. Frank had been living for many years in the Boardman area, suggesting to me the possibility that Hitchcock Road is named after him or the family. In the years preceding, he’d given up, for health reasons, many of the causes and interests in which he’d been engaged. Like many families of some means, he spent summers in upstate New York, at a summer home in Alder Creek, New York. It was here that he died on August 29, 1936, having been reasonably well until his last week.
So ended the last connection with one of the early iron companies in Youngstown. But their civic investment in the city lasts to this day, whether seen in the beautiful St. John’s church or the Youngstown Foundation and its work throughout the community.
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.”Enjoy!
Elaine’s Circle, Bob Katz. Madison, NJ: Munn Avenue Press, 2022.
Summary: Elaine views Circle Time as key to building a learning community with her students. When one of them is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Elaine and her circle of students, including the one dying find ways to make that fourth grade a most extraordinary year.
There was more to Elaine Moore than met the eye. She spoke with a soft voice, hardly the take-charge-in-the-classroom voice. She spent Circle Time every day at the beginning of classes, just talking, and listening to children talk about their lives in small town Alaska. Yet her fourth graders listened, and learned more than just the subjects she taught. They learned about each other and to care for each other as well as how to enlarge the circle by caring for others. Kids were encouraged to find ways to turn each day into a celebration.
This is the story of one year in the life of this gifted, caring teacher, and one class of fourth graders, including one of them, Seamus Farrell, with terminal cancer of the brain. Not the best student, he always worked hard, Quiet but spirited, and always caring about his classmates. It was Seamus, who on a field trip, faced with a fork in the trail at which it wasn’t clear which way to go said, “That way, Mrs. Moore!” He’d been absent a lot as Christmas approached with what was thought the flu going around, with headaches and vomiting–and a funny limp that didn’t quite fit the picture. When his mother, training to be a nurse, saw his response to a neurological test, she knew there was trouble. Surgery revealed an inoperable tumor deep inside his brain. Radiation could knock it back and steroids could control the swelling. They gave him six weeks.
Elaine had faced death before, when faced with breast cancer, and had talked with her students honestly at that time. Now she gathered them again and told them the truth, sensitively but honestly, that Seamus was facing a very serious illness and might not return to class. They talked about the possibility of death, which Elaine deferred to discussions with parents. But the Circle cared and wanted to see Seamus. Working with the principal and parents, arrangements were made for three to four students to visit during lunch several times a week, to go over homework assignments, and to do the one thing Seamus needed most, just to be with him and assure him he was still a part of the class. Later, the class makes a quilt with a square representing each child to present to Seamus. One of the most remarkable instances of Elaine’s bond with Seamus comes in the circumstances in which she presents the quilt to Seamus, an interaction which was literally life-giving.
This is not merely the story of a caring teacher who walks her class through one of the toughest situations they could face. It is the story of Seamus, his courage in the face of death, his honest conversations with a thoughtful pastor, his love for his class, and determination to finish fourth grade and enter fifth grade. It’s the story of a family and community who do their best by one another, faced with such a devastating diagnosis. No platitudes or stupid remarks. No denial of death. No one using the situation for personal advantage. Simply people doing the best they can while their hearts are breaking. Including children, who when treated with honesty and respect, show themselves incredibly creative and caring and responsible.
I reviewed another Bob Katz book, Third and Long, earlier this year. That was a fictional account of an Ohio town facing a factory closure when a drifter comes through, raising hopes for the high school football team and even for the factory. This was a true story. Both gesture toward what communities can be at their best, a message much needed in our divisive times. This also celebrates the significant role of teachers, who, at their best, teach far more than a state-approved curriculum. Here is a story of students, teachers, administrators, and parents, not at odds with each other, but together to care for one courageous child facing death.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author.
Summary: An exploration of reading as a spiritual practice, including the reading practices of Augustine, Julian of Norwich, Frederick Douglass, and Dorothy Sayers.
Jessica Hooten Wilson believes how and why we read to be as important as what we read. She invites us to imagine the message of the angel to John on Patmos to “eat this book” and what that means for reading the Bible and for reading other books. For those of us who read for amusement or information, she invites us to consider what it means to read as a spiritual practice. For many of us lost in screens, this means the recovery of a lost art. Along the way, she will introduce us to guides from whose reading practices we may learn.
She begins by asking why read anything but the Bible, acknowledging the Bible’s unique place in the life of the Christian. She proposes that we are not self-contained knowers of all and that other books often cast light on scripture, filling out what is lacking in our own knowledge of the world scripture discloses to us. She leads us into the distinction between “use” and “enjoyment” and the “uselessness” of much in life, including God. To “use” God is to turn him into an idol–we are meant to enjoy God and use things. In the case of books, she proposes that if we just use them, we denigrate their value in promoting our enjoyment of God and God’s world. She notes how many see poetry as “useless” and yet how poetry points us to the good, the true and the beautiful, toward what is of great value.
She asks whether reading good books can make us good people. Not necessarily, and there are vicious as well as virtuous readers. Among other things, virtuous readers are slow, attentive readers, receptive to what gifts they might receive in a book. There is a trinity in the ART of reading–author, reader, and text. We seek to discern clues to the author’s intent. We receive the text almost sacramentally, looking for the image of God and the presence of Christ, even in fallible and fallen works. And we approach humbly, charitably and generously. Reading that weaves these together is a kind of perichoretic dance.
She explores the different senses we employ in the reading of a work. She proposes a recovery of the four senses employed by the church fathers in sacred reading: the literal, the allegorical, the tropological, or moral, and the anagogical, or spiritual. The last two seem very important to reading as a spiritual practice. In moral reading, we internalize truth so that we may live and pray it, and in spiritual reading, we so contemplate upon a work that it shapes our imagination. Memory is part of this. The author goes on to consider how works are remembered and that memorizing is also a spiritual practice. We also remember through repeated readings of important works such that they become part of our mental furniture.
I mentioned that Jessica Hooten Wilson also introduces us to guides at different points in the text. They are four: Augustine, who read humbly and in silence, contemplatively and spiritually; Julian, who shows us a woman reading in a world of men, seeing multiple sense of scripture, and particularly the tropological; Frederick Douglass, who discovered liberation in reading and used it to empower others through his speaking and writing; and Dorothy L. Sayers, whose reading of fiction, particularly of Chesterton, illumined her translation of the gospel in radio plays and of Dante.
The book concludes with an invitation to recover our character as people of the book, whose reality begins with the Word and ends in the book of life. She rounds out this treatment with an example of a “twofold” reading of a story of Flannery O’Connor. This is followed by an FAQ about how we determine whether a book is “good,” how to decide what to read next, on marking up books (she encourages this), on finding time to read more, and intriguingly, why Catholics have all the good literature! The final appendix includes reading lists by age and time period.
This is far more than just a book about books or an apologetic for reading. Jessica Hooten Wilson conveys how, for the Christian, reading is an important spiritual practice. Nor is this just reading of scripture. Other great works often illumine the human condition to which scripture addresses itself and the matters of ultimate reality and our destiny. How and why we read, both in terms of virtues and practices is vitally important to the discovery of the riches on offer in literary works. She also casts a vision of the sheer enjoyment that awaits families and communities who engage in reading of good literature for the love of God. It has been my observation that those who have discovered this have a richer and deeper hope in God, as well as a shared language of illusions to stories, to characters, and places, and the memories of sharing these stories with one another. Through Jessica Hooten Wilson’s book, I hope their tribe will increase!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
Summary: A collection of essays of social criticism, considering our communications media and rhetoric, education and its purpose, and technology and how it shapes society.
It has been some time since I’ve read Neil Postman. Twenty years ago, I appreciated his trenchant critique of television and how it was making us dumb, long before critiques of the internet, and of his concerns about how technology was shaping modern society. This collection of essays, which I’ve finally gotten around to reading, revisits some of the same themes, but what I found different (or perhaps didn’t remember) is the biting wit of these essays–these feels like Neil Postman unfiltered–or at least less filtered. Many were originally spoken presentations, which perhaps accounts for some of the difference.
He opens with a critique of the idea of “social science” and would place himself in the camp of those who deny that this is a science at all, calling it “moral theology.” He includes himself in his critique and argues that “social scientists” are story tellers, reminding us in fresh ways of the nature of the human condition and the character of human society. He then considers the purpose of education. Is it to inculcate our culture or to defend us against it? He would argue for the latter and particularly the importance of teaching an awareness of the nature, uses, and power of language.
At times, he can be tongue-in-cheek, as in his essays “The Naming of Missiles” and “The Parable of the Ring Around the Collar” (some of us remember this and other commercials, to which he alludes). He treats these as modern redemption tales. “Megatons for Anthromegs,” “Future Schlock,” “Safe-Fail,” and “My Graduation Speech” are additional examples.
As in Amusing Ourselves to Death, there are several essays on the influence of television on our habits of discourse. “A Muted Celebration,” on the two hundredth anniversary of The Columbian, discussing the decline of literary magazines with the rise of other media. “The News” explores the problems inherent in trying to cover the news of the day on television in 22 minutes or less (I wonder what he would have thought of 24/7 news outlets). “Remembering the Golden Age” considers the period of 52 minute plays written for television by the likes of Paddy Chayevsky, Rod Serling and Gore Vidal for series such as The Kraft Television Theatre.
Many of the tongue-in-cheek essays discuss the language games we play to deceive or cover despicable things in sanitary language. In one essay, he highlights a thinker, Alfred Korzybski, who he believes deserves more attention, because he “helped to heighten our awareness of the role of language in making us what we are and in preventing us from becoming what we ought to be but are not yet.”
Perhaps worth the price of admission is his essay on “The Disappearance of Childhood.” If you have not read Amusing Ourselves to Death, this essay argues how our new media are contributing to the destruction of the idea of childhood, treating children as little adults, or indiscriminately exposing them to the adult.
This collection is a good introduction to Postman’s longer works, covering in brief many of the themes he develops in greater length in them. Reading him thirty years down the road, I’m struck with how prescient he was in many respects, anticipating how media shapes us (even before social media) and how technology is not neutral but value-laden. He anticipates the decline of print media, and warns us of the dangers of the manipulation of language, so much the greater in our “post truth” generation. While the book is dated, it is a valuable piece of social history, indeed of “moral theology,” that indicates that we had been warned of what was coming.
A Morbid Taste for Bones(Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #1), Ellis Peters. New York: Mysterious Press/Open Road, 2014 (originally published in 1977).
Summary: Cadfael is part of a group commissioned to retrieve the bones of a Welsh saint. When the one leading landowner who opposes the removal is murdered, Cadfael helps his daughter find the murder, avenging his death.
There was a time in the 1980’s and 1990’s when a number of friends went on about the Brother Cadfael stories and television adaptations. Somehow, I missed all that. Perhaps I was reading other things at the time (I was pursuing graduate studies). So I apologize if all this is old news to you. I’m just now discovering these wonderful stories. But for those who are like me….
Ellis Peters (Edith Mary Pargeter) wrote twenty stories (and one collection of short stories) in this series between 1977 and 1994, the last published shortly before her death in 1995. The central character is Brother Cadfael, as you might have suspected, a Welsh Benedictine monk who is a gardener, herbalist and sometime doctor, as well as translator and medical examiner. He came to the Abbey at Shrewsbury later in life after service as a crusader and sea captain. His wide experience made him a shrewd observer of human nature, a skill he draws on to solve deaths by mysterious means in this series.
In this first in the series, Cadfael is part of a delegation sent to Gwytherin to retrieve the remains of St. Winifred, after a vision by Brother Columbanus, who has “fits” and sees visions, speaking of her grave being neglected. This is important to the standing of the Abbey at Shrewsbury, which has no relics. The bishop and the prince of Gwynedd (who later comes off as a very sensible chap as do all the Welsh), consent. Prior Robert, ambitious for the abbey, leads the delegation with Cadfael along to translate. They are also accompanied by Brother Columbanus, Brother John, whose fitness for the celibate life is quesionable, as well as Sub-Prior Richard and Prior Roberts clerk Jerome.
The delegation is received warmly but Father Huw, the local priest, advises a meeting with the free men of the parish to gain there consent. One of the most influential, Risiart, is resistant. In a private meeting Prior Robert attempts to bribe him and discovers he has run up against a man of true integrity. Risiart breaks off all talks and the others follow his lead. Father Huw attempts to patch things up and Risiart agrees to another meeting with Prior Robert the next day–but he never shows up–unusual for this man. A search finds him lying dead on a forest path along the way, apparently from an arrow through the heart.
The leading suspect is Engelard, an Englishman who works for Risiart and who has fallen in love with Risiart’s daughter, Sioned. So far, although they get along, Risiart has refused to give her hand in marriage. The hope is that she will marry Peredur, the son of a neighboring landowner and friend of Sioned since childhood. He loves her but she has only the affection of a friend.
Cadfael investigates. The arrow bears Engelard’s mark, but the angle is all wrong. The pattern of dampness is all wrong. Closer examination of the body shows his assailant stabbed him in the back with a downward blow, and then after death, the arrow was inserted angling upward from the front, following the wound pathway.
In Welsh tradition, it falls to the family to see that a murder is avenged. Risiart’s family is Sioned. Some of the best passages in the book are those in which Cadfael communicates understanding of this need and then works withi Sioned to find the killer, all the while walking a delicate balance with Prior Robert’s ambitions, the amorous feelings of Brother John and the further commanding visions of Brother Columbanus.
I see what people like about Cadfael. While a monk, he is no prude, nor is he naive. He understands both sexuality and ambition, acknowledging that were he a younger man, he would have been one of Sioned’s suitors! He works quietly toward resolution while Prior Robert gains the fame, though we discover that he might not have gained what he thought! Cadfael shows a marvelous degree of self-possession that enables him to care for others and to pursue justice, to act with shrewdness that mends both personal wounds and the social fabric.
Sometimes my books come in pairs. This month I read novels by Haruki Murakami and William Kent Krueger, two very different writers. I liked both enough that I want to read more of them. I reviewed two books by Carmen Joy Imes in preparation for an interview with her. What a fine and personable scholar, something coming through both in books and in person. I read two luminous books on the Christian life–Daniel Denk’s An Invitation to Joy and Jeff Crosby’s The Language of the Soul–rich in insights for the journey. Two monographs on key figures in church history, Augustine and Cranmer, offered insight into Augustine’s understanding of friendship and Cranmer’s influence on Anglican liturgy, emphasizing the idea of sola fide. Then there were theological works on the Holy Spirit and on theories of the atonement. A couple books dealt with life’s dark times–one on spiritual disillusionment, the other, a fictional portrayal of bipolar disorder. I read two edited collections of essays, one on spiritual formation in a global context, the other on the digital public square. Two works of history round out my “pairs” collection, one that explored American history through a particular clan, the Busters, and the other, David Grann’s latest, The Wager. Finally, I had a few that didn’t pair up but were worthwhile reads on their own: the classic Lies My Teacher Told Me, one of the better Ngaio Marsh Roderick Alleyn novels (in my opinion), and a collection of Umberto Eco essays on literature. Perhaps in one of these you’ll find something for your summer reading.
Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen. New York: Touchstone, 1995 (Link is to 2018 edition with a different publisher). Based on an examination of twelve American history high school textbooks, looks at how these oversimplify, omit, distort, and sometimes perpetuate false myths of American history, and make the teaching of history boring in the process. Review
The Night is Normal, Alicia Britt Chole. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2023. A study of spiritual disillusionment, proposing that this “night faith” in times of pain may root us more deeply in God and ground us more firmly in reality. Review
A Bond Between Souls: Friendship in the Letters of Augustine(Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology), Coleman M. Ford. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2022. A study of the correspondence of Augustine revealing the qualities of his friendships and a vision of friendship rooted in God, encouraging one another in Christian virtue and the love of God. Review
The Language of the Soul, Jeff Crosby (foreword by Suzanne Stabile, afterword by James Bryan Smith). Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2023. A survey of the deepest longings of the human soul, within ourselves, for our world, and for the eternal. Review
The Spirit, Ethics, and Eternal Life, Jarvis L. Williams. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. The saving work of Christ in its vertical, horizontal, and cosmic dimensions is the reason for why the Galatians are able and commanded to walk in the Spirit, living lives of Spirit-empowered obedience, participating both now and into the age to come in eternal life. Review
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami. New York: Vintage International, 2002. In two parallel plots Kafka tries to escape a curse and find his mother and sister (and himself) and Nakata tries to recover the part of him lost during a strange school outing incident in his youth. Review
The Book of Susan, Melanie K. Hutsell. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2022. A woman who seems to have it all, a successful husband, beautiful son, and tenure-track position begins to struggle with apprehensions about another woman who has come into her circle, visions apparently from God, anger and the inability to focus. As life unravels, she is diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and begins a long journey of discovery. Review
The Buster Clan: An American Saga, K.P. Kollenborn. Kindle Direct Publishing, 2023. What began as genealogical research into the Buster family turns into an account of the American story from the Revolutionary War to the present. Review
Being God’s Image, Carmen Joy Imes (foreword by J. Richard Middleton). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A study of what it means to be God’s images as representative rulers in God’s good creation, what was lost in the fall, how we might live well in a good but fallen world, and how we see in Christ’s coming the fulfillment of God’s image in humans and of God’s purposes for the creation. Review
Black as He’s Painted (Roderick Alleyn #28), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2015 (originally published in 1974). The President of Ng’ombwana is coming to England. A man with known enemies, his old school friend Alleyn attempts to persuade him to accept Special Branch protection but fails to prevent a murder at an embassy reception. Review
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
The Digital Public Square, Jason Thacker, editor. Brentwood, TN: B & H Academic, 2022. A collection of essays exploring the contours and complexities of the digital public square, specific issues that have arisen, and the call of disciples as they engage the digital public square. Review
Spiritual Formation for the Global Church, Ryan A Brandt and John Frederick, editors. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2021. A collection of contributions reflecting the global and catholic conversation around spiritual formation including theological study, elements of worship, and mission in contemporary cultures as formation. Review
On Literature, Umberto Eco. New York: Harper Via, 2005. A collection of occasional writings on literature and literary criticism, many adapted from conference presentations given over several decades. Review
An Invitation to Joy, Daniel J. Denk, foreword by Christopher J.H. Wright. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2023. Reflections on the source of joy and how we may rediscover it. Review
This Tender Land, William Kent Krueger. New York: Atria, 2019. Four orphans fleeing the Lincoln Indian Training School due to a crime of self-defense embark on a journey to and on the Mississippi to find a relative they hope will provide a home and shelter. Review
Worship By Faith Alone (Dynamics of Worship). Zac Hicks, foreword by Ashley Null. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. Addressing the contemporary concern for “gospel-centered” worship, looks at how Thomas Cranmer, deeply committed to justification by faith alone in Christ alone, reformed the worship, liturgy, preaching and devotion of the Church of England. Review
Best of the Month: Murakami’s Kafka By the Shore was a wonderful introduction to this author. I appreciated the way he wove the stories of Kafka and Nakata together, both seeking something lost. This is a book I keep thinking about long after having finished it.
Quote of the Month. I liked this definition of “joy” in Daniel J. Denk’s An Invitation to Joy:
“Feelings tend to be fleeting. They are fickle. Joy, on the contrary, is a steady disposition about life, very much connected to peace and hope. We might say that joy is a hopeful and peaceful outlook on life, a deep-seated sense of well-being.”
What I’m Reading. I’ve just finished the first of Ellis Peters “Cadfael” books. Now I understand why so many friends like them. I also just completed a set of essays by Neil Postman, Conscientious Objections, filled with sharp humor and his cogent critique of modern media, education, and technology. I’ve finally sunk my teeth into Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory, which is an attempt to make a comprehensive and thoroughly Christian cultural critique from the whole arc of biblical narrative. It’s an ambitious project! I always love books on books and Jessica Hooten Wilson’s Reading for the Love of God is an extra treat as she looks at reading as a spiritually edifying practice. Bob Katz is a fine author I was introduced to in the last year. Elaine’s Circle is the true story of a skilled and caring teacher faced with the terminal diagnosis of one of her students, and how she and her class come together around him. I recently discovered that Dr. François Clemmons, an accomplished singer, who played Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, grew up in my hometown of Youngstown, and so I picked up his memoir, Officer Clemmons. Finally, I’m just beginning #3 in the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, Mattimeo. I start vacation today and this is a fun read to begin it on.
Whatever your summer plans, I hope some good books are a part of them. Drop me a line in the comments if you are still looking for ideas.
The Month in Reviews is my monthly review summary going back to 2014!It’s a great way to browse what I’ve reviewed. The search box on this blog also works well if you are looking for a review of a particular book.
Bales M. Campbell, Photo courtesy of Christine Leddon, used with permission.
I never heard of him until a descendent of his, Christine Leddon, brought him to my attention. Yet he played a major role in civic affairs throughout Youngstown, and especially in the development of the South Side. His obituary in the January 7, 1937 Youngstown Vindicator opens with these words, summing up his contribution to the city:
“Bales M. Campbell, banker, lawyer, politician, developer of the South Side, a man with a warm heart under a plain jacket, a blunt-spoken man who never learned diplomacy, and whose honest opinions were valued more than many persons’ tact, is dead”
What a story is wrapped up in those few words! They suggest a civic leader of Youngstown whose story ought be remembered among other leaders of the city. It should be mentioned that he is no relation to James Anson Campbell, of Youngstown Sheet & Tube, after whom Campbell, Ohio is named.
He was born April 21, 1854 in Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania to Matthew Campbell and Caroline McColley Campbell, his full name being Matthew Bales McColly Campbell, but he was always known as “Bales.” At age 11 he move to Pittsburgh with his older brother David, working various jobs selling gas mantles, women’s dress patterns, and serving as a boot black on a train. He was proud of always having worked for himself. He attended St. Vincent’s Academy in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and then went on to Mt. Union College. He moved to the Youngstown area in 1878, working in Berlin Center and other communities as a teacher, “boarding around.” Meanwhile, he studied law with a fellow teacher, Edward Moore, passing the bar in 1884, joining the law practice Charles Maurer in the old Howell Block, later the site of the Union Bank Building.
He quickly became active, running for mayor in 1886 on the Democratic ticket, and losing, although he was popular and garnered a significant part of the vote. Apart from voting against FDR in 1936, he was a lifelong Democrat, serving as an Internal revenue collector during the Grover Cleveland administration. He organized one of the greatest political rallies ever held in Youngstown for William Jennings Bryan, packing Central Square with people who took trains from both Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Mrs. Bryan had to be carried in on the shoulders of some “husky men.”
He was one of the first people to realize the development possibilities of the South Side when most of the city still lived north of the Mahoning River. He formed a real estate company with Warren P. Williamson, Sr., and was responsible for platting and developing many of the residential districts of the South Side, at a time when industrial growth was leading to a population explosion in the city.
He was a leader in banking affairs, starting the South Side Bank in 1914, the South Side Savings and Loan in 1921, serving as its president, as chairman of the First Federal Savings and Loan, and as a director City Trust and Savings Bank. He was also a director of the Commercial National Bank before its merger with First National Bank. In addition to his banking interests, he was involved in the lumber business as president of Jacobs Lumber Company and later organized the Union Wholesale Lumber Company
When the growth of the South Side made it evident that a school south of the Mahoning would be needed, he sold his property, an 8 acre tract at Market and Warren Avenue for $48,000 in 1909. It became the site of South High School. He also led the movement to donate South Side Park to the city. He provided storage space for the Youngstown Playground Association’s equipment and led campaigns to build the South Side Library and various hospital building projects.
He was known as a practical joker, a storyteller, and debater. It was said of him that “when he was sold on a proposition he could sell anybody else.” Even in his declining years in the mid-1930’s, he was called on to persuade a particularly tough customer of the plan to re-open City Trust and Savings.
For the last twenty years of his life, he suffered debilitating arthritis. But in his 80’s he did not let that stop him from buying his wife a new car for Christmas. Sadly, they were involved in an accident, skidding into a pole on W. Indianola. He suffered a broken knee cap. Then pneumonia set in, which he was not able to fight off, dying on January 7, 1937 at 82 years of age. He was buried in his birthplace of Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania.
Bales Campbell with the mother of Christine Leddon. Photo courtesy of Christine Leddon.
He lived long enough to see the South Side become a thriving community with schools, a library, parks, a hospital and a number of residential communities that he helped build. And through his great-granddaughter, I had the privilege to learn of his story.
Worship By Faith Alone (Dynamics of Worship). Zac Hicks, foreword by Ashley Null. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023.
Summary: Addressing the contemporary concern for “gospel-centered” worship, looks at how Thomas Cranmer, deeply committed to justification by faith alone in Christ alone, reformed the worship, liturgy, preaching and devotion of the Church of England.
For many of us outside Anglican circles, the name of Thomas Cranmer comes with few associations. We may remember his role in the editing of the Book of Common Prayer. Until reading this work, I did not realize how pervasive his role and work was in the English Reformation, touching on every aspect of the worship, liturgical materials, and preaching of the Church of England. I also did not realize what a profound influence Cranmer’s bedrock belief in justification by faith in Christ alone, had on all his efforts.
Zac Hicks seeks to do two things simultaneously in this study. One is to trace how Cranmer’s belief in sola fide informed all the revisions he made to the structure of worship, liturgy, the Book of Common Prayer, other works of devotion, and the character of preaching in the church. The other is to draw from Cranmer’s work principles for “gospel centered” worship in our own day. In so doing, he shows that Cranmer was far more than a skilled stylist or liturgical genius but that there was an order or shape to all of what he did and that was rooted in his deeply held belief in sola fide.
The first part of this work traces the evidence for the influence of Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith in the writings of Cranmer. He shows how this shapes his thinking on a wide range of issues from purgatory to the eucharist and transubstantiation, the priesthood. A most important concept for what follows is his discussion of the grammar of sola fide. In the language we use throughout worship, the focus is “not I, but Christ.” Humans are passive, respondent, whereas God in Christ is active, the actor in our salvation. Hicks traces this from Ambrose, Chrysostomm, and Augustine through the Reformer Luther and Melancthon. He stresses how Cranmer drew upon this in stressing both the promise of God and the comfort God gives.
The second part of the book shows how Cranmer applied his convictions to every aspect of worship. He begins with the structure of the liturgy. Cranmer not only simplified by elimination but re-ordered elements to remove the confusion, as he saw it, of faith and works. Hicks, here as throughout demonstrates this through side by side comparisons, here of the order of Morning Prayer and Holy Communion. He goes on to focus on how theology shaped liturgical language. through side by side examples of edits Cranmer makes to emphasize, “not I, but Christ.” He then turns to ceremonial, architecture, the arrangement of worship spaces, the move from an altar to a table reflecting the shift from what we offer God through Christ to what God gives us in Christ, nourishing us at his table. He looks at nomenclature and special ceremonies and in every area brings sola fide to bear. He shows how Cranmer shifts the focus of eucharist from consecration to reception. Finally, he discusses how Cranmers commitments were worked out in both homiletical and devotional instruction, particularly in the Book of Common Prayer.
Hick’s concluding chapter draws the implication of Cranmer’s work for “gospel centered” worship. He believes this involves:
Analyzing the structure of our services.
Analyzing our theological terminology.
Analyzing our rituals, actions, and architecture.
Analyzing our devotional piety.
Analyzing our preaching.
Hicks offers illustrative examples under theological terminology of how two common worship songs, “I Surrender All” and “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” might be written to reflect a “not I, but Christ” focus, “Christ Surrendered All” and “God has Decided.” The section on theological terminology includes seven subpoints, each worth careful attention. Language matters and we would do well to imitate Cranmer’s scrupulous care in these matters.
This book delightfully surprised me, in its study of the thorough-going revisions Cranmer made to Anglican worship, the theological center that informed that work, and the challenge for our worship today. I believe far too many languish in churches where the structures, whatever liturgy there is, music, and preaching, focus on us, our experience of God, our needs and our obedience and not what Christ has done, is doing, and will do for his people, and how by faith we might appropriate and live into that work. Zac Hicks has not given us a dry, dusty academic study of an English Reformer but a compelling model of what happens when the church’s worship life is ordered around sola fide, the idea of “not I, but Christ.” This book was a breath of fresh air!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
