Leviticus 23–27: A New Translation and Introduction and Commentary
by Jacob Milgrom
Anchor Bible 3B. Doubleday, New York, 2001. 848 pp.$55.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-385-50035-1.

Leviticus 23-27 completes the magisterial three-volume commentary by Jacob Milgrom. The first volume, Leviticus 1–16, provided commentary on the Priestly School in ancient Israel. The second volume, Leviticus 17–22, provided commentary on the Holiness Source in the book of Leviticus (chaps. 17–27); it includes an extensive discussion on the historical location and the theological orientation of the Holiness School, as well as commentary on legislation regulating slaughter and meat consumption (chap. 17), sexual practice (chaps. 18, 20), holiness (chap. 19), and instructions for the priesthood (chaps. 20–21). Leviticus 23–27 completes the commentary on the Holiness Source. As a result, the introduction is placed at the outset of volume two. The volume on Lev 23–27 contains extensive commentary on the calendar (chap. 23), tabernacle furnishings (chap. 24), the teaching of justice in the Jubilee (chap. 24), covenant (chap. 25), and the laws surrounding consecration and redemption (chap. 27).

The entire three-volume work provides a rich resource for theological reflection on sacred space, environmental and sacramental theology, the power of God to control time, and the implications of holiness for human transformation and for justice. Readers who wish to understand more clearly the power of baptism and the eucharist in Christian worship and life, or the role of clergy as priest in the sacraments, can find no better guide than Milgrom’s three-volume commentary on Leviticus.

THOMAS DOZEMAN
UNITED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
DAYTON, OHIO

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Psalms
by Konrad Schaefer
Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry.
Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 2001. 403 pp. $49.95 (cloth).
ISBN 0-8146-5061-9.

Schaefer's commentary stresses practical uses that are rooted in and conversant with current academic discourse. In this endeavor, the volume succeeds magnificently. Schaefer adds to the scholarly discussion by focusing on two often ignored issues: the poetic structure of each psalm and the theological and thematic relationships of neighboring psalms. This focus makes the commentary much more of a theological and devotional reading of the psalms than other contemporary commentaries. It also creates a work that is accessible to a wide audience by keeping in-depth discussions of scholarly debates to a minimum.

While Schaefer’s powerful examination of the poetics of each psalm is one of the book’s strong points, he sometimes tightly defines the metaphors he so carefully uncovers. Instead of broadening the reader’s understanding of the rich metaphors, he defines them in ways that may limit a reader’s appreciation. In addition, some of his definitions seem doctrinal in focus rather than based on ancient Hebrew understandings. For example, the discussion of “evil” and its presentation in the individual psalms reflects a modern understanding that does not do justice to the complexity of the word in the Hebrew language.

This work is a joy to read. It looks seriously at how the psalms are prayers that reflect the depth of relationship between God and humanity. It will be useful to both the teaching scholar and the parish scholar and could be used in the classroom to acquaint students with the theological function of Hebrew poetry.

BETH LANEEL TANNER
NEW BRUNSWICK THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY

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A Retreat with the Psalms: Resources
for Personal and Communal Prayer
by John C. Endres and Elizabeth Liebert
Paulist, New York, 2001. 254 pp. $18.95. ISBN 0-8091-
4026-8.

In the deluge of books on spirituality that have flooded the market in recent years, it is rare to find one with a balance of good scholarship and creative spiritual practice. John Endres, S.J., and Elizabeth Liebert, S.N.J.M., have managed to do just that with this superbly crafted resource for praying the psalms. They bring to this study a wealth of personal, practical wisdom from their years of experience teaching and leading retreats centered on the spirituality of the psalms.

The book is an ideal resource for church study groups and retreats. It is organized around various genres of the psalms, beginning with psalms of lament, then moving through psalms of thanksgiving, praise, repentance, and wisdom. There is a helpful introductory chapter on the characteristics of Hebrew poetry and the various genres within the psalms, followed by another chapter that explores creative, contemporary forms of praying the psalms—including lectio divina, art play, and body movement. The book’s ecumenical appeal is enhanced by reflections from a broad spectrum of commentators on the spirituality of the psalms, from Athanasius and Calvin to Kathleen Norris and Pope Paul VI. A final chapter on the christological context of selected psalms invites us to pray the psalms “in, with, and through Jesus” (pp. 210–35).

A Retreat with the Psalms engages head, heart, and hands in creative and playful ways that press beyond an analytical approach to Bible study and plumb the depths of human experience through praying the psalms. It is well organized, written in a style easily accessible to the non-specialist, and full of creative, practical ideas that stimulate the intellect and satisfy the soul.

STEPHEN BRACHLOW
BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT RICHMOND
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

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Reading Biblical Narratives: Literary
Criticism and The Hebrew Bible
by Yairah Amit
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 188 pp. $20.00. ISBN 0-
8006-3280-X.

Amit offers a wide-ranging discussion of the construction of biblical narrative “designed not only for academic readers but also for the nonspecialist” (p. xii). Following a brief introduction to literary criticism as an academic enterprise, she studies issues such as demarcating boundaries, narrative structures and sequencing, the development of character, and the use of narrative voice. She considers the relationship of story to history and how individual tales function in edited and canonical contexts. For the scholar, this terrain should be familiar. As Amit indicates in her preface, persons wanting a more detailed consideration of academic questions should consult the works cited—which is particularly helpful with its combination of American, European, and Israeli scholarship. Amit writes accessibly and introduces lay readers to the world of literary criticism. For example, in her examination of 2 Samuel 13 she looks at the complex interaction of elements such as how the story employs multiple scenes of varying length, the intentional invocation of familial terminology, the introduction of minor characters, and the move between various locales to “see how all the elements combine to serve the central objective, which is to depict Amnon as a thoroughly bad character and thus build up sympathy for Absalom” (p. 130). By contrast, she explores the advantages of offering a single, unbroken scene in Genesis 23 when Abraham purchases the Cave of Machpelah. After chronicling the nuanced speech of each character, she concludes that “breaking up such a story into a series of scenes would have destroyed the dynamic of the negotiation” (p. 52). She thereby shows how the writers and editors carefully crafted this interaction for heightened effect.

Amit chooses an interesting variety of texts to explore and surveys them fairly, if somewhat conservatively. Her work is best suited for readers unfamiliar with this area of scholarly inquiry who seek an overview balancing methodological approaches to biblical narrative with a treatment of specific texts that focuses on the literary techniques they employ to generate meaning.

SANDIE GRAVETT
APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY
BOONE, NORTH CAROLINA

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Befriending the Beloved Disciple: A
Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John
by Adele Reinhartz
Continuum, New York, 2001. 206 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-8264-
1319-6.

For some time it has been fashionable to talk about “readings” and “reading strategies.”Now Adele Reinhartz has demonstrated how multiple readings of the Gospel of John are not only possible but lead a reader to interact with the gospel in profound and sometimes unexpected ways. As an exercise in ethical criticism, Reinhartz adopts Wayne Booth’s metaphor of book as friend and personifies the Beloved Disciple as one to whom she can relate in various ways in the venue of the world constructed by the gospel. As a child of Holocaust survivors, she writes this book out of her struggle to make a place for herself in the reading experience.

Reinhartz recognizes that the gospel contains not one but three stories: the historical tale (about Jesus), the cosmological tale (about the world), and the ecclesiological tale (about the Johannine community). She takes issue with the Martyn-Brown reconstructions of the history of the community that posit an exclusion from the synagogue and proposes a modified version of the ecclesiological tale in which the Jewish synagogue did not force the exclusion of the Johannine believers. The heart of the book comprises four readings of the gospel: a compliant reading in which the reader adopts the role of one who accepts the perspective of the Beloved Disciple, a resistant reading in which the reader explores the position of the opponents in the story, a sympathetic reading in which the reader focuses on areas of agreement and shared values, and an engaged reading in which Reinhartz both critiques the Beloved Disciple and allows the Beloved Disciple to critique her values and perspectives.

The result is a probing exploration of the gospel’s anti-Judaism and the effects of its dualistic worldview. Readers will in turn be compliant, resistant, sympathetic, and engaged as they interact with Reinhartz, but in the end they will almost surely be more competent readers.

R. ALAN CULPEPPER
MCAFEE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA

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Paul, Apostle of the Living God:
Kerygma and Conversion in 2
Corinthians
by Mark J. Goodwin
Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2001. 261 pp.
$28.00. ISBN 1-56338-318-7.

If N. T. Wright is correct that paganism is on the rise, it is time to get our theological bearings straight again about the God we serve. This work may contribute to that goal by exploring the phrase “living God” in its biblical, Hellenistic Jewish, and Pauline contexts. Goodwin advances our comprehension of this epithet by stressing its covenantal significance in Israel’s scriptures and its polemical thrust in Hellenistic Judaism, where it served to describe Israel’s God as the one true creator-God and the antithesis of dead idols.

Paul expands upon these two notions. Although the phrase appears only a few times in Paul’s letters, Goodwin argues convincingly that the apostle’s preaching to Gentiles began with a summons to turn from idols to serve the living God in holiness, and thus become members of God’s new-covenant community effected by the life-giving resurrection of Jesus. Paul’s “living God” theology, then, adds the themes of life-giving power evidenced in the resurrection and in the Spirit’s conversion of Gentiles. Goodwin demonstrates the importance of these various pre-Pauline and distinctively Pauline themes in the interpretation of 2 Cor 1–7, where the unique phrases “Spirit of the living God” (2 Cor 3:3) and “temple of the living God” (6:16b) occur.

The value of this book for most preachers and teachers will lie in its discussion of “living God” themes in the Bible, Judaism, and Paul generally, rather than its exegesis of 2 Corinthians. This insightful discussion should allow the reader to forgive the dissertation-like style and repetition that, unfortunately, characterize the work.

MICHAEL J. GORMAN
ST. MARY’S SEMINARY & UNIVERSITY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

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Abba Father: Understanding and Using
the Lord's Prayer
by Kenneth Stevenson
Morehouse, Harrisburg, 2000. 208 pp. $17.95. ISBN 0-
8192-1879-0.

The author describes in his “Prologue” how he “decided to take the Lord’s Prayer around the eight deaneries of the Diocese of Portsmouth on a kind of extended roadshow” (p. 1). His live performances were no doubt effective, and they have transferred well to the printed page.

The success of the book lies in an accessible style and a clear presentation. Part One deals with standard issues, both exegetical and theological, in approaches to the Prayer, while Part Two interprets its constituent phrases. Part Three explicates the Prayer’s treatment by Evelyn Underhill, F. D. Maurice, Leonardo Boff, Cyprian of Carthage, Teresa of Avila, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gregory of Nyssa, and Lancelot Andrewes. The contents of Part Three are key to Stevenson’s book, because throughout he is concerned with the Prayer as “a living text, whose narrative is constantly being written, a narrative made up of the ministry and teaching of Christ as that keeps interacting with our response as obedient disciples as part of the Church Catholic” (p. 175). The result is an invitation to appreciate fresh, unfolding meanings over the Christian centuries.

A word should perhaps be said in regard to the title of the book. Although called “Abba,” it does not deal with the Aramaic of the Prayer. And while Stevenson is well aware that the Prayer is dependent on the Kaddish of Judaism (pp. 56–57), he makes nothing of that when he deals with “Hallowed Be Your Name” (pp. 70–75). Stevenson is concerned with Abba more in the sense of Underhill’s Abba: Meditations Based on the Lord's Prayer (London: Longmans, 1940). That spirituality, of course, is of vital interest, however much one might also consider the Judaic spirituality implicit in Jesus’ orientation to his Abba.

BRUCE CHILTON
BARD COLLEGE
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK

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Christians and Roman Rule in the New
Testament: New Perspectives
by Richard J. Cassidy
Crossroad, New York, 2001. 159 pp. $25.95. ISBN 0-8245-
1903-5.

In nine brief chapters, well divided into short and pithy analyses, Cassidy leads his audience through his method; the features of Roman rule during the New Testament era; the interface between Jesus and Roman rule in the Synoptic Gospels; the Fourth Gospel; the Acts of the Apostles; Rom 13:1–7 and 1 Peter; a reading of Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Timothy as “Paul in Chains” in Rome, at the end of his career; and Revelation. A final chapter draws conclusions about the reception of this interface in second-century Christian churches and its significance for Christians in the third millennium.

Cassidy’s agenda is clear: “An integral feature of Christian discipleship is ‘standing firm’ against the idolatrous claims and blandishments of those human authorities who are headed for destruction” (p. 95). He re-reads the Lukan Jesus in an unexpectedly anti-Roman fashion and indicates that Mark and Matthew make their own contributions to this attitude. His handling of the Pauline material is innovative. He accepts that Rom 13:1–7 and 1 Peter (see 2:1–2, 13–17) show a respectful attitude to Roman authority, but argues that Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Timothy all reflect the final period of Paul’s life, when he was a chained prisoner in Rome. The late Paul insists upon the unique Lordship of Jesus against all false claims from Roman authority. Caution with some of these bold arguments should send the reader back to his more detailed studies (regularly referred to in footnotes). I wonder about aspects of his analysis of the historical setting of the emerging New Testament documents. However, he makes an impressive case for the way these documents must have appeared in the Romedominated second Christian century. The book sounds a timely warning in our post-September 11, 2001 era, as both sides call upon the authority of God in the pursuit of violence.

FRANCIS J. MOLONEY, S.D.B.
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON, D.C.

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Soul and Psyche: The Bible in
Psychological Perspective
by Wayne G. Rollins
Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999. 280 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-
8006-2716-4.

Rollins serves as our tour guide into the seemingly new field of “psychological biblical criticism.” This field, however, turns out not to be so new after all, as he demonstrates in the first part of the book, entitled “Retrospect.” Rollins summarizes work done in “biblical psychology” and “psychological biblical criticism” from the early church through the late twentieth century. He gives particular emphasis to the last quarter century, which has witnessed an explicit interest in psychology by biblical scholars. Not only has psychological biblical criticism been around for a long time, Rollins wants to ensure that it continues far into the future. In the second part, entitled “Prospect,” he makes the case for the use of psychology in biblical studies. He defines psychological biblical criticism and sets out the exegetical and hermeneutical agenda for the field.

Long an advocate for psychological biblical criticism, Rollins has now made his most significant contribution, not only to this emerging field of inquiry but also to biblical studies in general. He shows that psychology has always had a “place at the table” in biblical studies, even when it has been called by other names. The recent interest in the psychological in biblical studies, then, is not a “new creation,” but a “renewal” (and renaming) of what has been going on all along. I have only two criticisms of the book. First, Rollins’s writing style is turgid at times as he discusses authors upon authors and studies upon studies. Second, Rollins does not mention the relevant work of Bruce Malina and others who have applied cultural anthropology to the study of the New Testament. Nevertheless, Rollins has presented us with an informative and clear guide to one important way of pursuing biblical criticism in the twenty-first century.

MICHAEL WILLETT NEWHEART
HOWARD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
WASHINGTON, D.C.

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God of Grace and God of Glory: An
Account of the Theology of Jonathan
Edwards
by Stephen R. Holmes
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 289 pp. $38.00. ISBN 0-
8028-3914-2.

The past twenty-five years have seen increasing interest in the theology of Jonathan Edwards by an ecumenical array of theologians. Holmes contributes to this ongoing conversation with a Barthian appreciation of Edwards. Holmes thinks that Barth “would have recognised a kindred spirit” in Edwards (p. 65), since they shared a trinitarian understanding of God’s agency, centered in the cross. But while Holmes finds Edwards’s doctrine of election to be thoroughly christological, he faults Edwards for not following “his own best insights when he spoke of those who are in rebellion against God” (p. 271). Unlike Barth, Edwards failed “to offer a christologically determined doctrine of reprobation” (p. 265).

One might well respond that it is possible to be “christological” without being Barthian, and that in Edwards’s telling of “the gospel story” (p. 239) he refused to ignore the biblical witness of Christ’s coming in glory “to separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt 25:32). But Holmes is right to note the dissonance Edwards’s view of hell creates with other themes in his theology, particularly his theology of creation. Holmes makes a valuable contribution in suggesting a trinitarian amplification of Edwards’s idealist ontology, so that “Edwards’ assertion that to be is to be known would have to become ‘to be is to be known and loved’ ” (p. 87). Edwards wrote in many genres on many subjects, and there is always a temptation to tie his thought together more tidily than he did himself. But this book provides a powerful synthesis of Edwards’s theological vision: “[T]he being and history of the world is a generous overflowing of the being and life of the Triune God, and finds its meaning in the eschatological enlargement of that life” (p. 245).

AMY PLANTINGA PAUW
LOUISVILLE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

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The Genealogy of Violence: Reflections
on Creation, Freedom, and Evil
by Charles K. Bellinger
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001. 157 pp. $32.00.
ISBN 0-19-513498-2.

Rarely could a book be timelier. Recent events have made the understanding of the roots of violence, particularly political violence, a most urgent task.

In this compelling volume Bellinger argues that current social scientific efforts to comprehend the origins of violence by ascribing it to childhood traumas, difficult social conditions, or the projection of the psyche’s unacceptable “shadow” onto others all fail by drifting into reductionism or by relieving the individual of responsibility. As an alternative, Bellinger explores the “vertical,” God-ward dimension of human motivation, thereby building a bridge between theology and social theory. To do so, Bellinger turns to the thought of Søren Kierkegaard, and, to a lesser extent, René Girard. Bellinger develops an account of the genealogy of violence from Kierkegaard’s remarks about human anxiety. As Bellinger notes, Kierkegaard explored the painful ambivalence that humans feel in the face of the possibility of growth in faith, hope, and love to which God calls them. From Kierkegaard’s perspective, various forms of violence are negative responses to this daunting prospect; they are desperate attempts to escape from the possibility of spiritual growth.

Bellinger’s use of Kierkegaard to expose the hidden roots of violence in our God-relatedness is significant. Moreover, he is surely right that much violence is the fruit of humanity’s angry rejection of the future intended for it by God. However, one wonders if Bellinger has not succumbed to the very reductionism that he detects in other theorists. Is all violence rooted in the human revulsion from sanctification? Is not some violence motivated by more mundane dynamics? By stressing the role of humanity’s antipathy to its divine vocation, Bellinger may have neglected the roots of global rage in our more ordinary vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, Bellinger’s book is an essential corrective to the more shallow analyses that would locate the antidotes to violence in nothing more potent than social engineering and humane education.

LEE C. BARRETT
LANCASTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

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Cross Purposes: The Violent Grammar of
Christian Atonement
by Anthony W. Bartlett
Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2001. 277 pp.
$30.00. ISBN 1-56338-336-5.

Bartlett discloses the logic of violence at the root of prevailing accounts of the atonement. He argues that the cross “is the undoing of all violence by the radical gentleness of the Lamb entering and transforming the depths of the human condition” (p. 4). Bartlett employs the thought of René Girard to explain the saving significance of the cross. In times of crisis and chaos humanity seeks to halt its free fall through the expenditure of life, through the killing of a scapegoat. “Jesus’ death follows the age-old pattern; but this time a limitless response of trust and surrender on part of the victim broke the pattern, provoking something entirely new in the repertoire of human possibility” (p. 257). Bartlett calls it “abyssal compassion” (p. 18) and states that it is only by Jesus’ entering the “abandonment of the abyss that redemptive compassion and forgiveness can truly erupt in human affairs” (p. 41). Strengths of the book include a carefully researched survey of accounts of the atonement from Irenaeus to Luther that exposes a violent element lurking in all of them, a historical sketch of the way these accounts have generated violence, and a biblical discussion of sacrifice and wrath. Those who have not read Girard may struggle because Bartlett frequently refers to “mimesis” without adequately explaining the term. Those who have read Girard will be interested to read Bartlett’s insightful critique. Similarly, he utilizes the work of Jacques Derrida to illuminate the radical contingency of the cross, but he also uses the cross to challenge the work of Derrida. Most common explanations of the atonement reduce the significance of the cross to a transaction that provides salvation. In contrast, Bartlett’s presentation opens the way for the cross not only to be a means of forgiveness and salvation but also to reorient our behavior and theological method. At times the radical challenge of the book is lessened by its abstractness, but there are moments of concreteness throughout, including an excellent conclusion.

MARK D. BAKER
MENNONITE BRETHREN BIBLICAL SEMINARY
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA

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Eschatology
by Hans Schwartz
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2000. 431 pp. $26.00. ISBN 0-
8028-4733-1.

Western historical consciousness having been severed from its biblical sources by the Enlightenment, the present now faces a set of ultimately unsustainable options: either resignation and despair or futurist activism. On that premise Schwartz pursues a Lutheran understanding of New Testament eschatology that is neither solely individualistic nor wholly otherworldly. The result is a theological manual valuable for its encyclopedic comprehensiveness: Schwartz scans biblical, exegetical sources to trace the emergence and development of eschatology in both Testaments, surveys contemporary systematic interpretations, and enters into dialogue with a broad and diverse array of competing voices ranging from scientific materialism and New Age spirituality to Christian millennialism. His dialogue becomes markedly ecumenical with regard to Roman Catholicism; the classic Catholic doctrine of purgatory and its contemporary interpreters receive a generous and respectful hearing. Schwartz’s volume is also tightly coherent. He mounts an argument that the New Testament presents an eschatology of proleptic anticipation that in turn constitutes a more viable option for contemporary society than the others noted above. His project will evoke demurrals at numerous points even from those sympathetic with its basic thrust. Among them: Schwartz relates Christian hope to Jewish as universal to particular. Along with the generation of the “New Quest,” he reconstructs the message of the historical Jesus as a gospel of free grace. He denies that either Jesus or the New Testament authors entertained imminent expectation; if Paul at times shows traces of “eschatological fever,” these are not essential to his faith. Problematic points such as these do not, however, detract from the overall value of this clear and committed account of the object of Christian hope.

WILLIAM P. LOEWE
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON, D.C.

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God and the Creative Imagination:
Metaphor, Symbol and Myth in Religion
and Theology
By Paul Avis
Routledge, New York, 1999. 207 pp. $24.99. ISBN 0-415-
21503-X.

The title is a shade misleading; to most people “creative imagination” means the arts, matters that concern the author only incidentally. “My thesis in this book is that Christianity lives supremely from the imagination. My central claim is that the role of the imagination is crucial to understanding the true nature of Christianity” (p. 3).

The crucial terms of his title have been used in many different ways, usually to undercut the faith or to palliate it to suit a “rational” world. Avis is familiar with the literature on the subject and has thought deeply and written wisely. “Christianity is a faith that subsists in the symbolic world and is appropriated through imaginative indwelling” (p. 7).

Parts I and II are devoted to a solid, searching account of the imagination, building on the thought of Romantic poets. Part III has equally thoughtful and creative chapters devoted to metaphor, symbol, and myth. Part IV concludes Avis’s case with his presentation of “critical realism,” “symbolic realism,” and “mythic realism,” three necessary components of a living faith. He repeats the term “realism” because metaphor, symbol, and myth are firmly grounded in the experience of the world.

The book is written in a direct and accessible style, which may, for some, obscure the profundity of the thinking. There are many striking formulations that deserve to be quoted to indicate how thoroughly and vividly Avis has thought through the case for a living imagination in a living faith. This book should be read by all who think seriously about Christian faith and who understand the faith as a living reality. If taken with full seriousness, it has the power to revolutionize theological thinking and to revivify thought about the arts.

JOHN W. DIXON, JR.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT
CHAPEL HILL
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA

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Christianity, Art and Transformation:
Theological Aesthetics in the Struggle for Justice
by John W. de Gruchy
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001. $60.00
(cloth). ISBN 0-521-77205-2.

This book provides a much needed theological aesthetic and connects both theology and art to social ethics or “transformation.” As a professor at the University of Cape Town, de Gruchy became aware that “apartheid was not only unjust but also ugly” (p. 1). By studying the relations of ugliness and oppression to their opposites, beauty and redemption, de Gruchy saw the need to connect theology, aesthetics, and social ethics.

In a richly nuanced study he surveys the hot and cold relationship between the Christian church and art, from the pre-Constantinian appropriation of Hellenistic images to the 20th century when Nazis adapted late romantic aesthetics for their evil ends.

Concluding that the misuse of art and ethics “demands a theological aesthetic” (p. 94), de Gruchy provides one with an analysis of the aesthetic theories of von Balthasar and Barth with frequent references to Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, mediating the conflicts among these aesthetic theories from a surprising source, Bonhoeffer. He finds in Bonhoeffer’s later works insights that recover not only an “aesthetic existence” but also a transforming ethic needed in a world brutalized by Nazism and apartheid. Such an aesthetic existence is “an essential element in both our personal transformation and the liberation of the church as an agent of transformation” (pp. 165–66). Spelling out an aesthetic praxis, de Gruchy critiques architecture, particularly in colonial South Africa, and focuses on visual art in the church, laying out criteria for the inclusion of art especially in the liturgy.

This study is a major contribution to theological aesthetics with the added benefit of social ethics. Application to praxis of the theological foundation for aesthetics that the author finds in Bonhoeffer could be more fully developed. But this is less a critique of this thoughtful book than an appeal for expanded interpretation of de Gruchy’s helpful insights.

CHARLES MCCOLLOUGH
ANDOVER NEWTON THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
NEWTON CENTRE, MASSACHUSETTS

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Sleuthing the Divine: The Nexus of
Science and Spirit
by Kevin Sharpe
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2000. 191 pp. $ 16.00. ISBN 0-
8006-326-2.

This book explores the potential for meaning in the world we have come to know through the sciences. After arguing for the relevance of science for spirituality, Sharpe deals with ultimate questions regarding “the beginning of time,” law and divine action, mystery and knowledge. Thereafter he focuses on freedom and values, as rooted in the evolutionary history of the human species.While the larger part is a modern day “natural theology,” the final part addresses the Christian tradition. Sharpe has been inspired by ideas of the physicist David Bohm on wholeness and implicate order. Another characteristic of the book is Sharpe’s active search for adequate words and images. Sharpe is concerned about all that is imported into the conversation when one speaks of God as a being. His view could be considered panentheistic (“all in God”), though he does not call it thus, as our world is envisaged as embedded in a larger whole, which may perhaps be understood as divine.

Sharpe, former editor of the popular magazine Science and Spirit, is not only well informed about the sciences but also deeply involved in communicating about these issues to a wide readership. The book is not defensive but imaginative. It may stimulate a lively conversation among scientists and others, for instance in a parish. Some will recognize in the trajectory traveled here their own inclinations, while others may disagree strongly.Whatever one’s response, the book is worth reading.

WILLEM B. DREES
UNIVERSITY OF LEIDEN
THE NETHERLANDS

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New Maps for Old: Explorations in
Science and Religion
by Mary Gerhart and Allan Melvin Russell
Continuum, New York, 2001. 240 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-8264-
1338-2.

The Authors’ Metaphoric Process: The Creation of Scientific and Religious Understanding (Texas Christian University Press, 1984) received considerable acclaim as a new and imaginative way to understand metaphor as distinct from analogy or simile. Their argument, in brief, was that, if concepts are to be understood in terms of their place in a network of interrelated concepts or “field of meaning,” then an analogy represents an extension of a single field of meaning through comparing a known concept with an unknown reality. Metaphor, on the other hand, represents a conscious distortion of two otherwise disparate fields of meaning through deliberate linkage of two well known but hitherto unrelated concepts. Metaphor, accordingly, is in principle far more revolutionary since it has the potential to change not only a given field of meaning but one’s entire “world of meaning” or way of looking at reality.

The eleven essays in this volume continue this line of argument in various workshops or lectures which were for the most part subsequently published in various contexts. The present volume has the merit of gathering them together, albeit under various subheadings related to the overall topic of science and religion. What is meant by “metaphoric process” is thereby further illuminated and applied to specific contexts.

Certainly the project of rethinking the difference between analogy and metaphor in terms of contrasting fields of meaning is a rich one. What I do not find even in these further essays, however, is exploration of what happens conceptually after the moment of discovery, the socalled “aha” experience. How does one systematize the new insight so that it can be properly tested for its enduring validity and scope of application? Precisely here both the similarities and the differences in methodology between religion and science could be fruitfully explored.

JOSEPH A. BRACKEN, S.J.
XAVIER UNIVERSITY
CINCINNATI, OHIO

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Beyond The Ordinary: Spirituality for
Church Leaders
by Ben Campbell Johnson and Andrew Dreitcer
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 168 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-
8028-4773-0.

God has always made demands on God’s followers —demands beyond the ordinary. For Johnson and Dreitcer, this call is to a deeper spiritual focus for clergy and laity. They ask church leaders to recapture a fundamental vision: the Spirit at the center of the life and ministry of each church. “In most of our congregations it would indeed be cutting edge to have clergy and lay leaders talk with each other about the living Presence of God at the center of the church. Even more daring would be setting aside time to share in serious, extended prayer together for the rebirth of the church” (p. 159). This book can be a tool for precisely such conversation and action. It is filled with prayer and listening activities as well as discussion questions at the end of each chapter. The book outlines, illustrates, and invites the reader into a vital, God-centered, personal and communal ministry and spirituality. Each congregation needs to know its “myth” and vision and ways to do this are delicately outlined. Chapters address the importance of leaders as spiritual companions and the art of discernment as primary in the call to revitalize the church.

This book offers a balance of prayer and action and encourages faithful attending to the scriptures and prayer. It invites leaders to leave idolatry of head counts and statistics to listen faithfully for God’s unique word for them. The authors present a fresh vision for letting God transform weary clergy and laity.With diligent attention to their suggestions, the book may be “a well” for those (beginning or seasoned) seeking spiritual direction for cutting-edge ministry.

REBECCA B. LANGER
SPIRITUAL FORMATION PARTNERS
MECHANICSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA

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The Web of Women’s Leadership
by Susan Willhauck and Jacqulyn Thorpe
Abingdon, Nashville, 2001. 174 pp. $15.00. ISBN 0-687-
07296-4.

From the first century, the Christian community has debated how to organize itself for ministry. The hierarchical model that has prevailed, this book contends, not only results in injustices for women and other “marginalized” people but also has “de-capacitated” the church in its mission and ministry (p. 9). A new model of leadership is needed, one that embraces all those at the margins, one that fits the leadership styles of increasing numbers of clergywomen.

Drawing on social research, biblical models, and their own experience, the authors present the metaphor of the web as an alternative model of leadership.Web leadership is a way of thinking and acting that could effectively address important issues of spiritual unity, diversity, education, and church polity. In structure the web is circular rather than pyramidal, interconnected, with permeable and ever-changing borders. Power is shared in a community that is organized around spiritual gifts and realized in diversity. Leaders connect from the center outward rather than downward, with emphasis upon participatory relationships. The web is both a metaphor and a process, a way of leadership that is not limited to women but utilizes “the female advantage” (p. 19).

In their final chapters, “The Web and Pedagogy” and “The Web: How and Why It Could Work,” the authors provide practical suggestions for implementing their vision of web leadership through education and the ministry of congregational groups, clergy and laity. This book offers creative, hopeful thinking coupled with concrete ways to bring about change in the church.Willhauck and Thorpe demonstrate their considerable experience and knowledge as educators whose commitment to web leadership is exemplified by their collaborative writing and by their decision to list their website address for readers’ responses.

JUDITH B. BAILEY
TAYLORSVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH
DOSWELL, VIRGINIA

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Mainline to the Future: Congregations
for the 21st Century
by Jackson W. Carroll
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2000. 144 pp. $16.95.
ISBN 0-664-22253-6.

Many laments have been sung already for the mainline, old line, “side line” churches. Carroll describes the present challenge facing mainline congregations as one of transmitting the faith in “post-traditional” society. The contemporary world is not only post-industrial, post-Christian, and postmodern but post-traditional. This means that many of the most cherished ecclesial traditions of the past—liturgy, hymns, musical instruments, architecture, organizational patterns —no longer have intrinsic relevance to post-traditional people. How can the mainline churches answer this challenge with integrity and so engage in vital ministry and mission, claiming a future?

Much of Carroll’s book is devoted to a serious engagement with the characteristics of socalled nontraditional or new-style churches (sometimes referred to as “seeker” churches or mega-churches). Among the elements that the author examines are: large size, claiming biblical precedent in foregoing established traditions, theological conservatism (not fundamentalism), lack of or weak denominational ties, strong and entrepreneurial leadership, emphasis on the spiritual gifts of all, clarity about target audience, intentionality about leading people to serious commitment to Christ, nontraditional buildings and music, informal dress, low-key yet professional worship services, participation in small groups that meet people’s needs, local outreach ministries, expectation of high commitment from members, and standards of excellence for leaders. Carroll honors these churches by the care given to accurate description of how these churches are reaching out in post-traditional society.

Carroll’s chief criticism of the new-style congregations involves their theology—for example, preoccupation with growth, downplaying the sinfulness of the human condition, or creating God in one’s own likeness in small groups. Carroll calls for a “selective retrieval” of traditions that enable the church to be effective in mission today. He calls for a church with strong, shared leadership based on a clear vision of purpose that arises out of the community. Resources, programs, and practices must be mobilized, correlating the vision with the genuine needs of people. Perhaps most importantly, leaders must demonstrate both competence and religious authenticity.Mainline congregations must develop their own seriousness about their priorities and pursue them with a commitment to quality and excellence. Carroll has contributed a timely book, worthy of reflection by leaders of mainline congregations. It would serve well as the basis for discussion groups among clergy or lay leaders.

CRAIG L. NESSAN
WARTBURG THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
DUBUQUE, IOWA

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Worship in the Shape of Scripture
by F. Russell Mitman
Pilgrim, Cleveland, 2001. 165 pp. $16.00. ISBN 0-8298-
1421-3.

I read this book during the first six months of my first pastorate. Mitman proved to be a helpful conversation partner as I settled into the daunting task of planning worship every week for and with a congregation that was new to me. The book’s premise is evident in the title: Worship in the shape of Scripture. Not only should the day’s lections (scripture passages assigned by the lectionary) guide the writing of the sermon, Mitman contends, but they should also give shape to every other element in the worship service. That being the case, the entire worship service—not just the sermon—becomes a proclamatory event. Now the sermon is not the climax of the worship service, but one piece of a larger interpretation of scripture.

Though grounding his work firmly in current academic and ecclesial conversations about liturgy, Mitman does not leave the practitioner wanting. The book’s chapters and appendices are strewn with anecdotes, litanies, worship service outlines, and music for worship (much written by Mitman himself). In the final two chapters he addresses even the most “humdrum housekeeping” matters, including how to read in worship, how to write orally, what form the bulletin should take, and the appropriate use of gestures in worship services.

While Mitman does reference his work in parish ministry, he draws most heavily on his experience as a Conference Minister. And therein lies this six-month pastor’s critique. I also continue asking the question that lingered after reading the book: How does one educate a congregation about worship? In his work Mitman is “preaching to the choir”; his congregants think about worship every week. But how does the parish minister educate her congregation about worship? The Bible study work groups Mitman describes certainly are a starting point. But if a church’s liturgical practices do not yet have the shape and tenor Mitman outlines, how does one move a congregation in the direction of more hermeneutically sound liturgy? Does the educational process happen indirectly or are there more direct forms of education? But perhaps these are questions for a second volume, one that, if written, will accompany this helpful and practical book for the thoughtful worship planner.

KIMBERLEIGH BUCHANAN
PILGRIMAGE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
MARIETTA, GEORGIA

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The Art of Teaching the Bible: A
Practical Guide for Adults
Christine Eaton Blair
Geneva, Louisville, 2001. 138 pp. $12.95. ISBN 0-664-
50148-6.

Why is it that most churches offer a steady stream of Bible study opportunities, only to attract few participants? Blair offers a creative response to this common dilemma when she envisions the Bible teacher as artist. Artistic teaching, when grounded in knowledge of scripture, methods for studying scripture, and the needs of adult learners, can awaken teachers and students to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. “Just as a painter must be taught the medium of paint and canvas and must develop ease with tools such as brushes and palette, so too teachers need help in developing their knowledge and skills” (p. 4).

Blair begins her description of artistic teaching of the Bible with a theological framework that identifies the purposes for Bible study: conversion, identity formation as people of God, faith in action, and spiritual growth into a holy life. Clarity and focus in relation to these purposes enable teachers to reflect critically on their own intentions and to plan coherently. Blair’s enlightening chapter on adult development, learning, and transformation helps teachers become attentive to ways adults learn best. Based on these two chapters, Blair offers a comprehensive model for adult Bible study. She shows how the model’s five movements—remembering, revisiting the text, reflecting critically, reinterpreting, and responding—can be creatively crafted into teaching-learning occasions that invite adults to engage seriously with scripture and to open themselves to the formative grace of the Holy Spirit.

Pastors, educators, and Bible teachers of all levels of experience will welcome this book. For the beginning teacher of adults it offers necessary skills for planning and preparation. For more experienced teachers it offers suggestions for classroom creativity and a deepening sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The appealing and needed gifts contained in this book could help reorient adult education in the church, a reorientation that some say is long overdue.

JANE ROGERS VANN
UNION-PSCE
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

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