Essays

Review: Power and the Pulpit

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Cover image of "Power and the Pulpit" edited by Gerald Hiestand and Joel Lawrence

Power and the Pulpit

Power and the Pulpit (The Center for Pastor Theologians Series) edited by Gerald Hiestand and Joel Lawrence. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9798385247554) 2025.

Summary: A theology of preaching grounded in God’s word and Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered preaching with humility.

Over the years, I have participated in the ministry of the word as part of a preaching team in our congregation. And, for a space, I coordinated expository preaching training for college ministry staff. Both of these occasioned thought and discussion about the theology of preaching. What is our vision of what it is we do when we set forth God’s Word with God’s people? Furthermore, does it make any difference? Where does the power come from that works transformation both in us as preachers and in our hearers? Do we still believe, as the apostle Paul wrote that “preaching comes, not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4).

So, it was with great interest that I welcomed this latest collection of essays from the Center for Pastor Theologians conference in 2023. The focus was on the theology of preaching and addressed the questions mentioned above. The essays are organized under three parts: the centrality, the humility, and the practice of the pulpit.

The Centrality of the Pulpit

Jeremy Treat opens this collection discussing “Why Preaching Still Matters” in a time when this is being jettisoned in some churches. He argues that the simple answer is that God has commanded it and that God works effectually in his people as the word centered on the cross is proclaimed. He addresses concerns particular to this generation. Jason Meyer then focuses on Paul’s theology of preaching. Rather than a rhetorical performance, preaching is to be cruciform, empowered by Christ. In “Bring the Thunder!”

Douglas Sean O’Donnell return to the source of power in preaching: God’s commission, the Spirit’s empowering, prayer, and the power of the cross. Then Philip Ryken focuses in “The Ministry is the Message” on our union with Christ in his suffering and glory. Finally, Nicole Massie Martin discusses how the slain but standing Lamb of Revelation 5 is “The Answer” to all our life questions and, indeed, the center of all things.

The Humility of the Pulpit

Matthew D. Kim returns to the preacher’s identification with Christ’s suffering in “Is Your Preaching Pain-Full?” Are we conscious of our own weakness and dependent through prayer on Scripture and the Holy Spirit? And do we empathize with the sufferings of our people? Kevin Vanhoozer contrasts the bully pulpit and the “kata-pulpit,” that pulpit that is in accord with scripture. He sees preachers as curators of the Word of God. However, recent pastoral abuses have undermined, or as Laurie Norris would say “pasteurized the pastorate.” Instead of combativeness or compromise, she calls pastors to cruciformity. Then to close this section, Stephen Witmer turns to the poetry of George Herbert, the poet-pastor to speak of “Treasures from an Earthen Pot.” Following Herbert, he speaks of embodied, local, and limited preaching.

The Practice of the Pulpit

Ahmi Lee opens this section writing of “The Philanthropic Pulpit,” a meditation on Oration 14 of Gregory of Nazianzus. He emphasizes how the pulpit promotes “true human flourishing as God intended and wills.” Trygve. D. Johnson then considers “The Power and Purpose of the Pulpit.” The essay is a study of P.T. Forsyth. Jaclyn Williams focuses on the embodied, incarnational nature of preaching and the joy of being “used by God to declare eternal truths within temporal space.” Neal D. Presa draws upon Ambrose of Milan to discuss mystagogical preaching–connecting “what occurs in the context of the gathered worshiping community to God’s work in the world….” Finally, Eric Redmond discusses the importance of specific application.

Conclusion

I appreciated the call to a scripture-centered, cross-focused, and Spirit empowered preaching that ran through these essays. We’ve had enough of human charisma and self-help messages with a veneer of God. What was also delightful was to see how speakers drew not only on scripture but also great preachers through history: Gregory, Ambrose, Herbert, and Forsyth. Finally, these essays focused on the humbling, high-calling of preaching, where under God’s grace, we may, in a way, speak incarnationally. That is, where it is Christ speaking to his people through us.

These are essays to encourage the pastor, laboring week by week and wondering if it matters. And they remind us of being participants in the miracle of God’s word among God’s people.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Previous reviews of books from The Center for Pastor Theologians Conferences:

Becoming a Pastor Theologian: https://bobonbooks.com/2017/12/21/review-becoming-a-pastor-theologian/

Beauty, Order, and Mystery: https://bobonbooks.com/2019/01/28/review-beauty-order-and-mystery/

Tending Soul, Mind, and Body: https://bobonbooks.com/2020/07/14/review-tending-soul-mind-and-body/

Review: Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul

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Cover image of "Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul" edited by David W. Gill and Lisa Richmond

Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul

Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul, David W. Gill and Lisa Richmond, eds. Pickwick Publications (ISBN: 9798385244430) 2025

Summary: Essays on the technological thought of Ellul, both foundational principles and applications.

In 1954, French sociologist-philosopher-theologian, Jacques Ellul published La Technique: L’enjeu du siècle. It didn’t get much notice until published in English ten years later as The Technological Society. It is one of three books on technology Ellul wrote, along with The Technological System and The Technological Bluff. One of the most significant ideas from his works is the idea of technique. He sees technique as the ultimate stage of technology which he describes as “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.”

Does that sound familiar? As our generation comes to grips with what it means to live in a highly networked society with technology integrated into the fabric of our lives, all toward the end of increasing efficiency, Ellul sounds prescient. Likewise, as we grapple with the implications of the rapid advances in artificial intelligence and its implementation, Ellul’s descriptions are eerily prophetic.

In 2024, the International Jacques Ellul Society met for its biennial conference on the topic of Ellul’s thought on technology. Out of the conference presentations arose the 31 essays in this volume. I could write a review on each one, given their depth and breadth. I won’t do that but rather try to give you a sense of the richness of Christian thinking on technology, inspired by the writing of Jacques Ellul more than seventy years ago!

The book is divided into two parts: Foundations and Applications. The first part focus on the contours of Ellul’s thought, sometimes in conversation with other thinkers. Carl Mitcham opens the section charting and critiquing Ellul’s thought within the larger discussion of the philosophy of technology. Jennifer Karns Alexander takes Ellul’s ideas about efficiency and raises questions about the “efficiencies” of AI, noting the ways its inefficiencies are offloaded to other sectors of society. I was fascinated by the contrast Justine McIntyre makes between technique’s appeal to satiety and nature’s promise of sufficiency. Several essays weigh Ellul in light of other thinkers: Weber, Mumford, Fuller, Charbonneau, Illich, and Arnold Gehlen. Finally, Felicia Wu Song closes out the section with a Christian ethic of non-power in a digital world focused on technique and productivity.

The second part opens with what I thought one of the most important essays of the whole by David W. Gill, one of the conference organizers. In “The End of Technicized Work” he explores the implications of our technopoly on the displacement of workers and its economic consequences and what work and vocation might look like in this brave new world. Some of the essays explore the implications of technology on music, art, organizations, law, education, and the state. For example, I would highlight T. Bone Burnett’s essay on recording technology, tracing what he sees as a deterioration of sound quality in the technological advances and what he is doing to counter this. Several essays explore what it means to be human in a world of technique. Geraldine E. Forsberg’s essay on a theological perspective particularly stood out in this regard

The second part closes with two essays of particular applicative import. Firstly, challenging church use of technology, Luke Proctor, calls the church to incarnational, not virtual reality. Secondly, noting Ellul’s focus on the individual, Matthew Littlehale argues for the role of local communities to resist the incursion of technique.

In conclusion, this volume represents some of the best thinking extending the insights of Jacques Ellul. In particular, it challenges those of us in the Christian community to discernment rather than passive adoption of the latest technology. Where do we draw the line and not bow to the god of efficiency? And what does it mean to walk in the “non-power” of the cross? What will it mean for us to both minister to and advocate for the displaced? Finally, how will we live into the incarnational, embodied life of human community in an increasingly digital world?

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

Review: Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings

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Cover image of "Israel's Scriptures in Early Christian Writings" edited by Matthias Henze and David Lincicum

Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings

Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings, edited by Matthias Henze and David Lincicum. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802874443) 2023.

Summary: How Jewish scriptures were used in the New Testament and in other early Christian writings.

The Jewish scriptures were the only “Bible” of the New Testament writers and important for other early Christian writers along with the coalescing collection of texts that make up our New Testament. But what constituted “Jewish scripture” particularly for first and second century CE writers? What materials were particularly important and how did writers appropriate these materials? It is with all these questions that this major reference work of essays concerns itself.

In the Introduction, the editors set up a fourfold system for classifying use of the Old Testament: marked citation, unmarked citation, verbal allusion, and conceptual allusion. Contributors use this system with a high degree of consistency throughout the volume. Then, the remainder of the book consists of five sections of essays, on each of which I will comment briefly.

Contexts

The section begins by asking “what were the “scriptures” in Jesus time?” This is important because no “canon” existed of these scriptures. The following six chapters consider the reuse of scripture in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, in early Jewish literature, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in Philo and the Alexandrian tradition, and in Josephus.

Israel’s Scriptures in the New Testament

Seventeen chapters make up this section, a major portion of the book. The writers consider every New Testament book. However, this is not in commentary form. Rather essayists note the uses of scripture under the four categories noted above. It is interesting, for example, to note the number of texts Matthew cites whereas the bulk of John’s use is allusions. Likewise, it is interesting to see how Paul’s use of scripture varies from letter to letter.

Themes and Topics From Scriptures in the New Testament

Here, eight chapters consider the use of Jewish scripture under the topics of God, Messiah, Holy Spirit, Covenant, Law, Wisdom, Liturgy and Prayer, and Eschatology. Of the essays in this section, I especially valued the one on Messiah. It demonstrated both a coherent messianism, and yet no monolithic “messianic idea.”

Tracing Israel’s Scriptures

This part of the work studies four books that make up a major part of the New Testament use of Jewish scripture: Deuteronomy, Isaiah, the Psalms, and Daniel. Each chapter explores the uses of the book throughout the New Testament. Then the final chapter considers key persons from the Jewish scriptures throughout the New Testament: Abraham, Moses, David, Jacob, Joseph, and Elijah. The essay also considers lesser known female figures including Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.

Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christianity Outside the New Testament

Finally, the editors offer a helpful extension of this study beyond the horizon of the New Testament. Essays include studies of the use of Jewish scriptures in the apocryphal gospels and apocalypses, in Adversus Judaeos literature, in Marcion and the critical tradition. It was fascinating, in Adversus Judaeos, to see how Christian writers used scripture as a key source of authority as they engaged Jewish opponents to their message. The concluding essay is wonderful icing on the cake in the form of looking at the use of Israel’s scripture in early pictorial art.

Concluding Comments

I appreciated the breadth of this work not only in the consistent use of the four-fold classification but also in keeping each essay at a manageable length, important in such a long work. Yet for all that, the depth of scholarship, evident in citations and bibliography, is impressive. I suspect, unlike this reviewer, most readers won’t read this straight through. Rather, it serves as a helpful reference work, whether for addressing the Jewish scriptural background to the New Testament, for exegesis of particular books, or for biblical themes. And if you are concerned with the relationship of the two testaments, this is an absolute must read.

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

Review: Interpreting Jesus

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Cover image of "Interpreting Jesus" by Dale C. Allison Jr.

Interpreting Jesus

Interpreting Jesus, Dale C. Allison Jr. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802879196) 2025.

Summary: Six essays on Jesus addressing eschatology, Moses, miracles, women with Jesus, memory, and methods of attestation.

In 2010, after completing Constructing Jesus, Dale C. Allison Jr. told his wife, “Honey, I’m done with Jesus” to which she replied, “He’ll be glad to hear that.” In the Preface to this book, he confesses, “But I was wrong. I have been unable to stay away. What he thinks now I do not know.” I cannot speak for Jesus, but I’m glad he didn’t stay away. I found each of the six essays here thought-provoking, the work of a careful scholar not afraid to engage prevailing scholarship with fresh ideas.

The first essay explores the indications that Jesus believed the “last things” were imminent and that the latter days had begun. Yet his followers had to deal with delay beyond what they expected (and we all the more). However, Allison notes the indications as Jesus nears Jerusalem and faces not only unreceptiveness but imminent death, that he foresaw some form of interim period before his triumphal return. He cites the parables of the bridegroom’s delay and the master’s delay as examples. And he looks at examples of contingency in Jewish literature and allows for the possibility of the delay being contingent on the occurrence of certain events.

The next essay explores how Jesus’ life may be seen as a type of fulfillment or enactment of Moses. He does this by way of noting some of the parallels between Moses and Simeon Stylites and exploring how these map onto Jesus. Allison follows this with what I thought one of the most important essays that took exception in some ways to the radical skepticism of Jesus scholarship of the miracle accounts. He allows, with scholars like Michael Licona, that historical investigation does not require on to a priori rule out the miracle accounts. He notes credible contemporary testimony documented both in Catholicism and scholars like Craig Keener. Should the possibility of credible testimony to the miraculous be ruled out for the accounts of scripture?

The Chosen introduces the idea of women being included in the company of Jesus, sometimes traveling with Jesus and the male disciples. While Allison does not interact with this portrayal, his next essay discusses the biblical accounts. He notes the support women gave, and their presence in various accounts. Allison also notes Jesus teaching on the lustful look and other issues relating to men and women. He seems to be reluctant to allow for women as a permanent part of an itinerating band, while allowing for them to accompany a larger group to Jerusalem for feasts.

But how reliable are the memories of the eyewitnesses? Allison’s next essay addresses the question of the reliability of memory. He particularly has in view Richard Bauckham’s strong defense of the eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus. He considers the case of Peter and Mark and how the literature on memory leads him to bring a measure of caution in weighing their accounts. While not dismissing Bauckham, he raises the question of whether all memories are equally reliable. May some be more reliable than others?

The final essay is a deep dive into the criteria and methodologies used in historical Jesus scholarship. The question is what may we most confidently attribute to Jesus? For example, scholars consider themes that have multiple attestation as more likely to be authentic. They discredit independent sources. Likewise, there is the criteria of dissimilarity. That is, scholars credit Jesus with saying things found nowhere else. Allison explores a number of exceptions to this methodology.

I must confess that as a non-professional, I knew of Allison but have not read his prior works. While evangelicals may not agree with all his conclusions, his careful scholarship also offers encouragement. What struck me about these essays was a sense of even-handed fairness and an openness to modify his own views. I appreciated his engagement with scholars like Michael Licona, Craig Keener, and Richard Bauckham. And I appreciated his candor in wrestling with questions any of us who have studied the gospels at length have wrestled with.

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

Review: Brave Companions

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Cover image of "Brave Companions" by David McCullough

Brave Companions

Brave Companions, David McCullough. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781668003541) 2022 (first published in 1991).

Summary: Short profiles of exceptional American men and women from biologist Louis Agassiz to writer Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Recently, I reviewed a posthumously published collection of essays by David McCullough. I’ve loved his work ever since devouring his mammoth biography of Harry Truman. But in browsing the list of his books, I discovered there was one I had missed–this one! Obviously I’ve now remedied it.

In this work, McCullough offers brief sketches of a number of extraordinary historical figures, mostly Americans. Collecting these essays for this book, McCullough observed:

“Reading these essays again, selecting and arranging them as a book, I am struck by how much they have in common. In my way, I see now, I have been writing about the same kinds of people all along. And I see, too, the extent to which they have revealed the world and times past for me, and things about myself, that I would not have known otherwise” (p. xi).

It was indeed the case that this collection revealed more than the people, but also glimpses of our world and history in five sections.

First, he addresses “Phenomena.” He begins with the extraordinary journey of Alexander von Humboldt in South America from 1799-1804, accompanied by Aime Bonpland. Essentially, the pair rediscovered rediscovered South America. He follows with a portrait of biologist Louis Agassiz, whose first instruction to students after giving them a preserved fish was “Oh, look at your fish!” He and Asa Gray were friends and phenomena at Harvard who came to loggerheads over Darwin’s theories, which Agassiz couldn’t accept. He concludes the section sketching the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. McCullough portrays the extraordinary renown for a woman she achieved as well as her renunciation of her father’s Calvinism.

Part Two on “The Real West” portrays life in the cattle town of Medora, in North Dakota’s Badlands. He does so though the lens of two figures, both who lost a fortune there–Teddy Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores. Roosevelt went there an asthmatic stripling. Work alongside cowboys exhilarated him and turned him into the adventurous, robust figure we know. The other vignette is of artist Frederic Remington, through whom many Americans saw the West portrayed.

In Part Three, McCullough turns to “Pioneers.” He begins with the pioneer railroad engineers who built the first Panama Railway in the early 1850’s, overcoming both topography and disease. The next two essays concern the Brooklyn Bridge, on which McCullough wrote a full-length book. The first focuses on the Roeblings, father and son. Washington Roebling’s extraordinary engineering accomplishment, despite the effects of Caisson’s Disease, is underscored in the second, in which McCullough chronicles his discovery of the meticulous engineering plans for the bridge. Many bore Roebling’s initials and are works of art. McCullough describes his efforts to preserve this treasure. Finally he portrays a trio of early aviators who also wrote: Charles Lindbergh, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and Beryl Markham.

Then in Part Four, McCullough turns to contemporaries in “Figures in a Landscape.” The first essay is a peril for anyone who already has too many books on the TBR pile. He profiles Conrad Richter, a novelist portraying life on America’s extending frontier. I learned he even wrote a trilogy on the early settlement of Ohio. Then he sketches the work of lawyer Henry Caudill and his fight against strip mining interests denuding the landscape of eastern Kentucky (which continues to this day). We meet zoologist Miriam Rothschild who has studied marine biology, entomology, and farming. Finally, he accompanies photographer David Plowden in his efforts to capture small town America.

The concluding Part Five, “On We Go” is different in not focusing on biography. First, McCullough remembers Washington, DC as he knew it–a very different place from today. The next is a from a magazine assignment, summarizing fifty years of history between 1936 and 1986. I lived through thirty-two of those years and the essay makes me think what I’d write about the next forty. Then McCullough advises Middlebury College graduates in a commencement speech to learn history by traveling. Finally, “Simon Willard’s Clock” is a reflection on the U.S. House of Representatives that I wish all present members of the House would read.

A few of these essays reprise material from McCullough’s longer books. Sometimes a snack rather than a full meal is just right and that is what these essays were. I was particularly fascinated to learn about Alexander von Humboldt, Conrad Richter, and Henry Caudill, a co-belligerent with Wendell Berry. But the particular strength of this book was the chance in brief to glimpse a number of seminal figures, and perhaps find one or two to probe more deeply. We all need our pantheon of brave companions.

Review: History Matters

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Cover image of "History Matters" by David McCullough

History Matters, David McCullough (edited by Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael Hill, foreword by Jon Meacham). Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781668098998) 2025.

Summary: Essays and lectures on the importance of history, biographical vignettes, influences on the writer, and writing process.

I became a fan while reading Harry Truman. Nine hundred pages in and I didn’t want the book to end. It was not only the subject, but the writing. And so I’ve read just about everything David McCullough has written. (Looking over his publications, I discovered I somehow had missed Brave Companions. I will remedy that soon!). And so I was delighted to learn of this new, posthumous collection of his essays and lecture transcripts, edited by daughter Dorie McCullough Lawson and researcher Michael Hill.

The pieces in this collection are grouped into four parts. Firstly, apropos of the title is a section titled “why History?” He sums it up as follows:

“But, I think, what it really comes down to is that history is an extension of life. It both enlarges and intensifies the experience of being alive. It’s like poetry and art. Or music. And it’s ours, to enjoy” (p.4).

He adds, in the words of Barbara Tuchman that the key to good historiography is to “Tell stories.” He goes on to write about American values and hid long-range optimism about the country. A short essay on luck and history explores Washington’s luck with the weather in escaping the British and McCullough’s own good fortune. The final essay in this section is a transcript of his Paris Review interview with good background on his beginnings as a writer and behind the scenes glimpses of several of his books. Most interesting was his reason for not writing on Picasso–he just didn’t like him. He found when you have to spend years researching someone, it helps to like them as a person.

Part Two is titled “Figures in a Landscape.” These essays offer vignettes of Americans against the backdrop of their history: Thomas Eakins, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Washington, and Harry Truman. The two longest ones are on Washington and Truman. Of Washington, he described his essential trait as leadership–of people and a nation. He could call people to do things beyond what they thought their capacity. Of Truman, he argues that part of his greatness was his profound sense of history. In less than twenty pages, he summarizes the strengths and flaws of the man, considering him among America’s great presidents.

In Part Three, the topic is “Influences.” He begins with the love of learning of three Yale men: Ezra Stiles, John Trumbull, and Manasseh Cutler. The latter was a pioneer in higher education on the Ohio frontier, and Ohio University’s oldest building is Cutler Hall. He offers a profile of the actor Vincent Scully. This is followed by McCullough’s account of getting a speech idea through to Arthur Schlesinger, advisor to candidate John Kennedy. In the end, one sentence made it into a speech. I was so fascinated by his profile of Paul Horgan, I found used copies of a couple of his works. He loved the writing of Herman Wouk. Of course, one essay offers a list of his favorite books. The section concludes with a delightful Christmas ritual titled “A Book on Every Bed.”

Part Four centers on McCullough’s writing process. He begins with great writing advice and his own practice of never working from an outline, which he likens to painting by number. Like many writers, he emphasizes the hard work of rewriting, describing himself as a rewriter. He offers a tribute to his Royal Standard typewriter, on which he wrote all of his books. In his advice to writers, he advises reading widely as well as deeply and this section includes an essay with more book recommendations. The final essay is on history and art, highlighting Churchill as an artist. McCullough was as well, the endpapers featuring two of his watercolors.

If McCullough is new to you, it will whet your appetite for his books (and many others as well). For others, it clarifies the values that informed McCullough’s writing–of history’s importance, of telling a good story, of living with a character long enough to bring them to life. Finally, these essays are a workshop for writers, especially of biography and history. They represent a fitting summing up of his life.

Review: Year of Wonder

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Cover image of "Year of Wonder" by Clemency Burton-Hill

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Harper (ISBN: 9780062856203) 2018.

Summary: A guide to classical music introducing readers to one selection each day with a short introduction to the composer and work.

Maybe you’ve heard a few classical music pieces like Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons or Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and thought to yourself, “I’d like to explore more classical music but have no idea where to begin.” Year of Wonder is written for you, although it offers wonders for listeners of many years as well. The book is a day by day guide focusing on one piece and one composer each day. Most of the music selections run 3-10 minutes. The introductions are a page or so.

Clemency Burton-Hill, the author of the book, is best known for her writing and programs on the BBC. She has been host of Radio 3’s Breakfast program, a host for the BBC Proms and also Creative Director, Music and Arts, at WQXR-FM in New York, perhaps the leading classical music station in the United States. She is also a musician, having performed all over the world, including playing under Daniel Barenboim. In 2020, she survived a near life-ending brain hemorrhage while in New York City.

What makes this such a marvelous book is really several things. Firstly, she writes chatty yet informative and well-researched introductions to each piece. Writing about Johann Sebastian Bach on January 1, she gives us a description of him I’ve never come across before:

“Bach was the daddy: without him there would be no jazz, funk, or hip-hop; no techno, no house, no grime. He basically wrote the blueprint for everything that was to come. His stuff is wise and witty and capacious enough to contain more than just multitudes: it contains all of everything.”

Makes you want to listen to Bach, doesn’t it?

Secondly, her love of the music comes through. She comes back to Bach on February 14 writing that his Concerto for two violins in D Minor, BWV 1043 is her “desert island disc” and that her love for it knows no bounds. Equally, she can express fury when a woman composer like Fanny Mendelsohn fails to get the recognition she deserves for her music. Burton-Hill defies the stereotype of the snobby-stuffy classical music host.

Thirdly, she doesn’t just stick with the familiar heavy hitters. She introduces us to over 240 composers. Over 40 are women. A number are people of color. They span nearly 1000 years from Hildegard of Bingen in the twelfth century to Alissa Firsova, a millennial born in 1986. She includes gay and transgender composers, and those, including Beethoven, with disabilities.

I also appreciated her candor as she introduced religious music (which is a lot of classical music!) in both acknowledging her own agnosticism yet deeply respecting the efforts of composers to express the transcendent. (I personally hope her experience will be something like that of C.S. Lewis, recounted in Surprised by Joy, who was moved by Wagnerian opera (!), among other things, to seek the transcendent.)

Never heard of Clemency Burton-Hill? Meet her in this book trailer as she introduces the book:

The daily selections are available on playlists on most music streaming platforms. Unfortunately, in my Kindle version, this information was at the end of the book. (I found the playlists both on Apple Music and Spotify by searching “Year of Wonder.” On both platforms each month is its own playlist. I also discovered that there are playlists for Another Year of Wonder, a sequel to this work, published in 2021.

Reading this was a journey of delight. There were pieces I’ve sung, pieces I’ve loved, and those that were new discoveries. Because I was reviewing the book, I took much less than a year to go through it and I didn’t listen to everything on the playlists. Perhaps in January I’ll return to spend a year of wonder with this book.

Review: A Prophet in the Darkness

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Cover image of "A Prophet in the Darkness" ed. Wesley Vander Lugt

A Prophet in the Darkness, Wesley Vander Lugt, editor. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514011058) 2024.

Summary: An exploration of the work of Georges Roualt and his identification of human suffering with Christ’s sufferings.

“Paul Klee says ‘Art does not reproduce the visible; rather it makes visible.’ This is what the art of Georges Roualt (1871-1958) has done; his images have penetrated deeply into the human dilemma to find meaning and offer hope, helping us to see light in the darkness, making visible the invisible.”

Thus Sandra Bowden, in the forward of this work, introduces A Prophet in the Darkness, an exploration of the theological significance of the works of Georges Roualt. A theme running through all these essays was that Roualt’s faith and artistic vision came together in a body of work that identified deeply with the suffering and the marginalized. However, juxtaposed with these works are paintings of the suffering Christ, in whom suffering is transformed into redemption.

Many of the essays reference Roualt’s Miserere series. These were executed in the 1920s as paintings transferred to copper plates, and finally printed in 1948. A number of these are reproduced in the book. One triptych includes “Are we not all slaves,” “Believing ourselves to be kings,” and “Who does not wear the mask?” (an image of a clown). The series portrays human folly and suffering juxtaposed with images of the Passion. They communicate visually our desperate need for mercy (hence Miserere). And they also reflect Roualt’s style of images outlined with thick black lines.

The collection of essays opens with a biography of Roualt by his son, Philippe. He discusses Roualt’s experience of war, family tragedy, and personal suffering. Then he considers how these intersected with his deep faith to form his aesthetic. Thomas Hibbs argues amid contemporary hopelessness, Roualt’s work enables us to “see, feel, and say” in a way that counters nihilism without lapsing into sentimentality. Soo Y Kang explores the influence of writer Leon Bloy, who wrote of poverty. Joel Klepac, an artist and therapist considers the healing power of Roualt’s images.

Pamela Rossi-Keen writes from her experience of community-centered art in post-industrial Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. Drawing on Walter Brueggeman’s ideas of prophetic imagination, she shows how Roualt’s art carries prophetic weight for communities like hers. Then James Romaine compares Roult’s work to that of Romare Bearden for their ability to evoke empathy.

William A. Dyrness explores the resistance within the Christian tradition to modern art. And he argues that engaging Roualt’s work might lead to a more nuanced approach. Stephen Schloesser focuses on the Miserere series, showing how Roualt deals with appearance and reality and how the beauty of a broken world meets in the beauty of a suffering Savior in the series. Finally, editor Wesley Vander Lugt weighs why Roualt resonates with contemporary viewers.

This work “shows” as well as “tells.” The book includes a number of black and white images of Roualt’s works. In addition, the book points to links available on the publisher’s website (https://www.ivpress.com/rouault) for works not included in the book. Finally, “Artistic Interludes” offers artist responses to the work of Georges Roualt, including a number of color plates of works by the artists inspired by Roualt. Two of the color plates reproduce works of Romare Bearden and of Georges Roualt.

This book introduced me to Roualt’s work. I came to understand not only its power to evoke empathy but also his profound insights into human suffering and the suffering of Christ.. For Christians skeptical of modern art, this book offers a profound counter argument that represents a deep Christian spirituality expressed through modern art. This book is a feast for both the eyes and the heart!

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

Review: Waiting for God

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Cover image for "Waiting for God" by Simone Weil

Waiting for God, Simone Weil, Translated by Emma Craufurd with Introduction by Leslie A. Fiedler. Harper & Row Perennial Library (ISBN: 0060902957) 1973 (Originally published in 1951, link and cover photo are to current edition in print).

Summary: Weil’s correspondence with her mentor and four essays on her religious thought focused around loving and attending to God.

Simone Weil is a “one off” figures. She struggled with migraine headaches. She worked tirelessly while paying little heed to her own nourishment or her worsening tuberculosis. Weil struggled with her intellectual inferiority to her brother, the mathematician Andre Weil, mostly because she struggled with geometry while producing profound religious and philosophic insight. She died young, at the age of 34.

Waiting for God captures the essence of her spiritual journey and insights into one’s relationship with the transcendent God. The title captures a theme running through the correspondence and essays that make up this book. In “The Love of God and Affliction” she writes:

“How are we to seek him? how are we to go toward him? Even if we were to walk for hundreds of years, we should do no more than go round and round the world. Even in an airplane we could not do anything else. We are incapable of progressing vertically. We cannot take a step toward the heavens. God crosses the universe and comes to us.”

Life consists of waiting for God to come to us in love and stir in us love for him. And in her spiritual autobiography written to her priestly mentor, Father Perrin, she describes how during prayer at Assisi and in reciting George Herbert’s poem, “Love,” “Christ himself came down and took possession of me.” Yet despite this profound encounter, she never felt she could enter the church.

Her letters to Father Perrin that make up the first part of this collection, explain her reasoning. Part of her answer is that she does not believe she loves God enough to deserve the grace of baptism. Another aspect is that while she loves the saints and liturgy, she does not love the church. Instead, she fears the flawed influence it might have upon her as a social structure, Thus, she anticipates many of the objections of the “nones” who would describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. While her intellectual integrity prevents her from entering the church, she takes great pains to express her gratitude to Father Perrin. At one point, she writes,

“In gaining my friendship by your charity (which I have never met anything to equal), you have provided me with a source of the most compelling and pure inspiration that is to be found among human things. For nothing among human things has such power to keep our gaze fixed ever more intensely upon God, than friendship for the friends of God.

What a friend Father Perrin must have been!

Then the second part of the book turns to her essays. First is her essay on school studies. Having worked in student ministry, this essay was worth the price of admission. Specifically, Weil draws the connection between prayer and study in the act of attention. In particular, the “lower attention” given to disciplined study develops this faculty in prayer. But I also found myself wondering whether attention in our prayers also may make us attentive in our studies.

From here she discusses “The Love of God and Affliction.” She speaks of the corrosive effects of enduring affliction on the soul and how help may only be found at the foot of the cross. Only by grace may we enter into an apprenticeship of obedience that awaits the coming of God to us.

Her longest essay is “Forms of the Implicit Love of God.” The essay is divided into sections on the love of neighbors, the order of the world, religious practices, friendship, and implicit and explicit love. In contrast to the clarity of her shorter letters, I found this essay more difficult to follow. Perhaps the best way to describe it is that it read a bit like the Pensees with her thoughts grouped under the subheadings.

However, she concludes on a high note in a line by line meditation upon the “our Father.” As have many others she concludes that the prayer “contains all possible petitions; we cannot conceive of any prayer not already contained in it.”

This is but one of the many works she produced, most published posthumously. I differ with her at points. For example, we will never deserve grace, in baptism or anything else. Yet hers is a voice that comes from outside of our echo chambers. Above all, her insight that life consists in waiting for and attending to God captures the heart of Christian devotion.

Review: The Story of America

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Cover image of "The Story of America" by Jill Lepore

The Story of America, Jill Lepore. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691153995) 2012.

Summary: Essays on American origins from Jamestown and the Constitution to the IOU and Webster’s dictionary.

Nations as well, as individuals strive for self-understanding. Much of this comes through the stories we tell of ourselves, particularly the stories of our origins. That is, we try to understand how we got here as a way of understanding who we are. This is what Jill Lepore strives to do in this collection of essays on the story of America. Rather than a comprehensive, beginning to the present account, she offers a variety or origin stories, arranged roughly in chronological order.

Most of these essays first appeared in The New Yorker. Lepore says, “I wrote them because I wanted to learn how to tell stories better. But mostly, I wrote them because I wanted to explain how history works, and how it’s different than politics.” She adds to this her definition of doing history: “History is the art of making an argument about the past by telling a story accountable to evidence.”

She begins with the primal origin story, the settlement of Jamestown through the lens of Captain John Smith, who gave us our first account of the settlement, concluding that while he was an “Elizabethan gallant,” he was not a fraud. The colony was a mixture of success and catastrophe, American dream and American nightmare.

Subsequent essays consider the Puritans and the succession of historians who have tried to tell their story, Franklin’s The Way to Wealth, and the career of Thomas Paine, hailed for Common Sense and excoriated for The Age of Reason. She writes on the 4,400 words of the Constitution, often not read and even less understood, and the meanings that have accrued, including originalism as one form of interpretation.

From key events and ideas, Lepore moves to origins less noticed but also significant, for example, the origins of the I.O.U. and the development of bankruptcy law. Particularly fascinating is Lepores avvount of Noah Webster and his dictionary, begun in 1800 and ended in 1828. She reflects on his singular effort in defining 70,000 words compared to Johnson’s 43,000. He defined American words using American examples in his definitions and dug into the etymology of words. And Webster, a religious man whose faith was implicit in the work, reaped the benefit of the religious revivals coinciding with the dictionary’s publication.

She turns to the art of presidential biographies, particularly those on Washington to Jackson. And then there is that inferior item, the campaign biography! She weighs in on Jefferson and the Hemings family. She chronicles Charles Dickens’ journeys in America and his decided dislike for the country. Paired with Dickens in the following essay is Edgar Allan Poe. No love lost between the two men. She charts Poe’s struggle with poverty, his drinking and the question of whether Poe was a genius or mad. Then there are our heroes and the accounts that make them bigger than life, from the dime novels on Kit Carson to Longfellow’s Paul Revere. Added to these is Earl Derr Biggars’ Charlie Chan based on Hawaiian Chang Apana. Chan was hailed as great crime fiction in the day and for invidious racial stereotyping today.

Along the way are essays on the development of voting ballots and Clarence Darrow on a major labor case. One essay discusses the Great Migration. the subject of Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, another on homicide and the death penalty. She concludes with the daunting task of writing inaugural addresses. Certainly, James Garfield was daunted, reading his predecessors. Only Lincoln really excelled. Most were mediocre to awful. Most address some version of history as they look to the future. But even the best speakers are rarely at their best here.

One of Lepore’s observations is the role of literacy in these stories. The story of our democracy is a story of reading and writing. She believes “Americans wrote and read their way into a political culture….” This, for me begs the question of the future of our democracy in our post-literate culture that wallows in an epistemic crisis. Instead of “stories accountable to evidence” we resort to fake news memes created with increasing visual sophistication. And it seems we are recreating our origin stories, engaging in both erasure and fable, attacking the history that is accountable to evidence. If nothing else, what Lepore does is remind us, in engaging story, of our real origins. And she reminds us of what we may easily lose.