Review: How to Survive the Apocalypse

October 10, 2016October 9, 2016 / rtrube54 / 1 Comment

How to Survive the Apocalypse, Robert Joustra & Alissa Wilkinson. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2016.

Summary: Explores the fascination of the apocalyptic in contemporary film, television, and gaming through the lens of Charles Taylor’s work on secularism and the self.

“The world is going to hell.

Just turn on the television–no, not the news. Flip over to the prestige dramas and sci-fi epics and political dramas. Look at how we entertain ourselves. Undead hordes are stalking and devouring, alien invasions are crippling and enslaving, politicians ignore governance in favor of sex and power, and sentient robots wreak terrible revenge upon us” (p. 1).

With these words, the authors explore the contemporary fascination with apocalyptic that runs through dystopian fiction, film, television, and gaming. Like Andy Crouch, who wrote the Foreward to this book, I have spent far less time than these writers (almost none at all, truthfully) with the media they explore in this work, although I am aware of the contemporary fascination with this. I picked it up because I was interested in why the fascination.

For the authors, the work of Charles Taylor, and particularly The Secular Age shape their analysis of contemporary apocalyptic. They note that there has always been apocalyptic literature, but that the character of that literature exposes the character of the age and the concerns that age arouses in us. For them, Taylor’s understanding of how secularity has shaped the self makes sense of the themes of the apocalyptic in our own age. We see it in our quest as “buffered selves” for authenticity; how we are shaped, in the midst of of an impersonal order, through relations with others; and how any kind of hope for survival of the apocalypse involves addressing the “malaises of modernity”: radical individualism, instrumentalism, in which our lives are incorporated into the efficient functioning of society, and the infinity of personal choices that leads to a paralysis that can end up in the surrender of freedom to tyranny.

These themes are surveyed through a tour of apocalyptic film and television. Beginning with Battlestar Galactica, the authors explore the efforts of characters (and Cylons) to self-define and self-actualize. We discover in works as disparate as The Hunger Games and Her (a series involving romantic relationship with an operating system) how authenticity and self-definition can occur only in relational and social contexts.

We consider the dark side of the quest for authenticity when the “horizon of choice” turns to power in series like House of Cards, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men. In each, we see that the anti-hero’s quest for significance through power is a delusion that ends up rendering the anti-hero powerless. We see these themes writ large in the political order of Westeros in Game of Thrones. Joustra and Wilkinson conclude, “It is the pathological forms of authenticity, anthropocentrism, and instrumentalism that will feel winter’s coldest chill. That an apocalypse is coming is proof that hidden meaning remains to be unveiled…” (p. 135).

To survive “the apocalypse” we must confront the realities behind The Night of the Living Dead” and World War Z, that exposes the reality that there is no such think as “naked self-interest.” Given the pluralism of our society, there are a multitude of a “self-interests” for people and institutions, some pathological, and some because they are rooted in an understanding of who we are, what people are for, and where we are going, are better.

Apocalypses are about “the end.” But they also point us to “ends” beyond the end, to ways of living that anticipate what is beyond apocalypse, whether in the end we avoid it or not. The danger is nostalgia, an attempt to turn back the clock. Yet the secular age, with its radical pluralism is upon us. Better than retreats into nostalgia or personal “sheltering in place” is a posture of seeking to be architects who seek contribute to social institutions for better, seeking to shape rather than merely being shaped. The writers propose that this is always a “proximate” effort. Seeking the prosperity of Babylon will not bring in the New Jerusalem. It is always at best pursuing common cause with constructive disagreement.

It was this last that I especially appreciated. Instead of naive idealism, stark, power-hungry realism, or a disaffected retreat, the authors point us, and particularly Christians who care about society, toward a posture of being salt in society, preserving and perhaps enhancing, and in the process, enabling us to survive with our souls should apocalypse come. The authors, unpacking Taylor’s massive work and connecting it to popular media, serve us well in helping us understand our present times, the end that apocalypse represents, and the ends we might pursue as we allow the possible future to shape our present.

Review: Paul and His Recent Interpreters

February 5, 2016February 4, 2016 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Paul and His Recent Interpreters, N. T. Wright. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015.

Summary: N.T. Wright surveys the scholarship in Pauline studies over the past fifty years engaging scholars developing the “new perspective”, “apocalyptic”, and “social history” approaches to Paul.

It is hard to believe but N.T. Wright has not been able to say all there is to say about Pauline scholarship in his two volume (1700 pages) Paul and The Faithfulness of God. Paul and His Recent Interpreters is a companion to that work in which Wright develops his own understanding of Paul’s life and thought. Here he engages other scholars who have been working in this field, particularly in the last fifty years, carefully summarizing their work and offering a critique in light of his own scholarship.

After a preface which outlines the program of the book, Wright begins with a review of the antecedents of the current scholarship, particularly the work of F. C. Baur and the history of religions school and the discussion of Christian origins as distinct from Judaism as Christianity moved into the Hellenistic context. The other major figure he considers here is Albert Schweitzer who first challenges the “forensic” understanding of justification as central to Paul’s thought with the proposal that “being in Christ” is central.

Most of the book considers three schools of thought in Pauline studies. The first is the “new perspective”. Here Wright deals with the work of E. P. Sanders and J. D. G. Dunn, who worked to understand the Jewish origins of Paul’s thought, working with the rich emerging material on first century AD Judaism. In many ways, Wright’s own work is closely associated with this school, although he particularly differentiates himself from Sanders in arguing that the central idea of Paul’s thought is not “participation in Christ” but rather the “covenant faithfulness of Christ” which has been extended to the Gentiles. More briefly, Wright engages his “old perspective” (Lutheran and Calvinist) critics.

The second school he discusses is the apocalyptic school arising from the work of Kasemann, whose proponents include J. C. Beker, M. C. DeBoer, and J Louis Martyn. Wright, while indeed acknowledging the place of apocalyptic, the inbreaking of a new age in Christ, he strongly differs with these thinkers, and particularly Martyn, who make this a centerpiece of Paul’s thought, and especially with Martyn’s treatment of Galatians, where he strongly questions Martyn’s exegesis.

The third school is that of social history, whose leading figure is Wayne Meeks, author of The First Urban Christians. Here Wright is genuinely appreciative of the insights into the kind of communities Paul formed in the Mediterranean cities where he planted churches. What he wishes for is more exegetical work linking this historical work with the Pauline corpus. He concludes this section by briefly considering the more recent political readings of Paul.

One senses that in his critique, Wright is trying to do two things. One is to plead for the integration of these three schools, which he has tried to do in his own work. The other is to plead the case for careful exegesis in conjunction with the historical and theological work of these perspectives. He notes that of the figures he studies, only Martyn has actually written a commentary on a Pauline work, Galatians.

I found myself at a disadvantage on two scores in reading this work. While familiar with some of Wright’s basic ideas about Paul, and the New Perspective, I haven’t read Paul and the Faithfulness of God (yet). I also have not read any of the scholars with whom he interacts except for Wayne Meeks, so I have to take Wright at his word. That said, his review of the field serves as a helpful introduction to the last fifty years of scholarship and points the way for the New Testament and Pauline scholar who wants to pursue these matters more deeply. And Wright sets a high standard for scholarship that is both critical and generous in the pursuit of truth. It is a delight to observe virtuosity in any discipline. This was clearly in evidence in Wright’s engagement with these scholars.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Jesus, The Temple and the Coming Son of Man

September 7, 2015September 7, 2015 / rtrube54 / 4 Comments

Jesus, The Temple, and the Coming Son of Man, Robert H. Stein. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: This commentary on Mark 13 sorts through the complex interpretive issues concerning the fall of the temple, apocalyptic events, and the return of the Son of Man.

Perhaps the greatest interpretive challenge in the gospel of Mark concerns the predictions of chapter 13, beginning with the questions the disciples ask in response to Jesus’ statement, “Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (v. 2). The disciples ask, “When will these things be and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” (v. 4).

Robert H. Stein provides one of the best explanations that takes seriously the question of Mark’s readers as well as the original context of Jesus’ words. He deals with one of the thorniest parts of the passage, who “this generation” is in verse 30 and whether this applies to the fall of the temple, or the return of the Son of Man. If it is the latter, it is hard to explain how this could be true.

First of all, Stein surveys the various ways the different “quests” for the historical Jesus have shaped readings of Mark 13 before arguing for his own approach of considering what the author of Mark intended his readers to grasp. Then he turns to the first four verses of Mark which he sees as key to the whole. He would argue that the parallel phrases of the disciples question are both concerned only with the fall of the temple and that the second concerns the sign to be looked for to warn when the time of the temple (and Jerusalem’s fall) was imminent. Their question did not envision any events beyond this including the Son of Man’s return.

He then argues that the rest of the chapter follows an A-B-A-B pattern:

A. Verses 5-23 are Jesus’ immediate response to the questions. He first warns them of what will not be signs of the temple’s fall–false messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, and persecution. The sign will be the “abomination of desolation” that Jesus’ original hearers would have understood as those who defiled the temple, probably fulfilled in 67 AD when Zealots and their leaders performed sacrilegious acts in the temple. It was at this time that Christians fled the city to Pella and escaped its destruction, heeding the warnings Jesus gave.

B. Verses 24-27 speak of events in some subsequent time, “in those days, after that tribulation” when there will be signs in the heavens and the Son of Man comes on the clouds. Stein understands this occurring at some indefinite time in the future after the fall of Jerusalem, but not necessarily close in time.

A1. Verses 28-31 focus again on “these things” which Stein understands as the abomination of desolation (which is likened to the blossoming of the fig tree) and the ensuing fall of Jerusalem, and sees “this generation” as the generation that will still have living members when these events in 70 AD occur.

B1. Verses 32-37 speak of no one knowing the time and refers not to the fall of the temple but to the return of the Son of Man, and concludes with exhortations to be watchful and ready at any time.

One benefit of this explanation is that his inclusion of the sign of Jerusalem’s fall encourages the believers to trust the other predictions, particularly post 70 AD. Also, the exhortations to faithfulness in the face of persecution and watchfulness are relevant to their situation (and indeed for believers in subsequent generations).

What I most appreciated about this work was the clarity and concision of writing (138 pages, excluding bibliography and indices), and the close textual work that supported his arguments, providing an explanation of this text that demonstrates that neither Jesus nor Mark were mistaken in what was said or written, as would be the case of those who believed that Jesus thought that the Son of Man’s return would be within the apostles’ generation. Stein concludes this lucid explanation of Mark 13 with his own interpretive translation consistent with his reading. A useful resource for anyone teaching or leading a study of Mark.