Theological reflection Archives

The Gospel According to Christ’s Enemies, David J. Randall. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2022.

Summary: How the statements of Jesus’s enemies about him often proclaimed, in unintended ways, the very gospel truth about him.

We often start with the statements of Jesus himself, as well as those of the apostles, to understand his mission and message, indeed who this Jesus is in his person. Most of us would not turn to the enemies of Jesus for reliable testimony about Jesus and the good news we proclaim. David Randall offers a fascinating study that shows that, often unintentionally, Jesus’s enemies also proclaim gospel truth about him–sometimes as jests, sometimes as criticisms, sometimes as outright malicious statements. He shows how they spoke truer than they knew, in a book that is both devotionally rich and offers a line of apologetic reasoning for the gospel.

Here are some of the contentions of Jesus’s enemies that he deals with:

He welcomes sinners (thanks be to God!).
No one ever spoke like this man. (Soldiers sent to arrest Jesus)
It is better that one man should die for the people. (Caiaphas)
Behold, your king! (Pilate)
He saved others; he cannot save himself (chief priests and scribes mocking Jesus at the cross)
Jesus came into the world to save sinners (Paul, former persecutor of the church)
In Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians (a term, possibly of derision by outsiders)
They are turning the world upside down (Thessalonians in Acts 17:6 of Paul and his companions)
He’s a babbler (Acts 17:18-19, of Paul in Athens)

Randall devotes a chapter to each of these exploring both the contention of the enemies and then elaborating the gospel truth embedded in the criticisms. As you can see, Randall considers both direct attacks on Jesus and those against the church.

One of the richest chapters is the one in which Randall reflects on Jesus’s matchless words–that no man ever spoke like this man. He observes the distinctive note of authority in the teaching of Jesus and then notes how this is reflected in what he says about God, about human beings, about salvation, about morality, about contentment, and about values.

Randall examines scripture, uses stories from church history, quotes from other commentators, and verse and hymns woven together in accessible discussions of each point. He also offers two concluding chapters, one on the gospel of Jesus, and one on some contemporary attacks on Christianity, that he turns around in the same way;

Religion is the problem in the world, not the solution.
Christians are no better than anyone else.
Christianity is for simple people.
And conversely, Christianity is for intellectuals.
Christians are intolerant.
We just need more of Jesus’s teaching about loving one another.

Randall has a delightful way of turning each of these around that not only blunt the attack but actually turn it into an opportunity to bring good news. Jesus indeed welcomes sinners. He speaks like none other. He is the one who died for all, the one who saved others by not saving himself, and the King. It makes me wonder whether such a phenomenon is true of the body of Christ at this time.

Are the criticisms aimed at us by our most vigorous opponents just true, or do they proclaim the unintended truth of Jesus? It seems to me that such can be so only if we are living the servant life of Jesus, pursuing the mission of Jesus, and bringing the message of Jesus. Then we become the paradoxes in which what opponents say as harsh truths are actually unintended truths of the gospel. Would that were so of us as Randall shows it true of Jesus!

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

Reading Black Books, Claude Atcho. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2022.

Summary: Theological reflections on ten key pieces of Black literature.

A number of books have been written about reading diverse literature, for example, the literature of the Black community, to gain understanding and empathy for that experience. Reading Black Books does that and more. Claude Atcho considers a variety of key works of Black literature from a theological perspective, focusing on one major theme for each work. He considers this not only edifying, but also offering insights into our theological “blind spots” and deficiencies. Particularly, he believes this reading can lead to a more whole and just faith. He also warns that such reading may not be easy. Black literature reflects the trauma of the Black experience, often in all of its rawness.

The collection opens with considering the theme of the image of God in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. He then moves to the nature of sin in Richard Wright’s Native Son, the story of Bigger Thomas, who begins by killing a rat and ends up committing multiple murders. Wright’s work explores both the personal and systemic aspects of sin. James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain considers God and Gabriel’s toxic faith lacking in God’s redemptive love. Countee Cullen, in his poems “Christ Recrucified” and “The Black Christ” draws the connection later drawn by James Cone between the cross and the lynching tree, and the powerful connection that Christ’s cross has for many Blacks. Salvation is the theme of his consideration of Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain. For Atcho, it presents a stifled liberation, more dependent on Moses than the liberating work of God.

Nella Larsen’s Passing, serves as a lens for considering racism through the phenomenon of “passing” and Clare’s decision to “pass” to attain an upper class lifestyle. In Beloved, by Toni Morrison, Atcho considers the healing and memory, the issue of racial trauma through the story of the very unfriendly ghost of Beloved. W. E. B DuBois’s, “The Litany of Atlanta” considers something alien to much of white experience–lament–the sense of loss, the absence of God, confronting God, being formed in lament, and dealing with pain through the cross. A second Richard Wright story, The Man Who Lived Underground serves as a reflection on justice as we encounter the injustices faced by model Black citizen Fred Daniels who is unjustly arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, escapes custody and hides in the sewer system. Finally, Margaret Walker’s “For My People” reflects on the meaning of hope in a communal setting.

Each chapter combines critical consideration and theological reflection. Having not read a number of the works commended by Atcho, I can say his treatment whetted my appetite for reading these works. This book serves both as a basic reading list for seminal works of Black literature and a rich theological reflection on those works. Ideally, one would read this work in conjunction with the books and verse that serve as the focus of each chapter, perhaps for a course like “Reading Black Books with the Eyes of Faith” or a book group of Christians eager to grow in theologically-informed reading of Black works. To aid in this, the book includes discussion questions for each chapter/work. Now to go and buy/borrow the books in this book!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program.