Deuteronomy
by Walter Brueggemann
Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries. Abingdon, Nashville, 2001. 305 pp. $34.00. ISBN 0-687-8471-7.
This series, to which Bruggemann’s volume makes an outstanding contribution, addressees a readership with some theological sophistication, but not necessarily with specialized expertise in biblical studies—parish ministers, seminarians, and lay leaders. Following a general introduction to Deuternonomy, the commentary treats each literary unit under three headings: literary analysis devoted to genre and structure; exegetical analysis dealing with historical, linguistic, and rhetorical issues; and theological and ethical analysis serving as the point of departure for the reader's reflection on the contemporary significance of the text.

In keeping with the purposes of the series, Brueggemann’s treatment of Deuteronomy is not a detailed, in-depth treatment of the text. It reflects the current state of scholarship, but does not expand the discussion. Other commentaries will better serve the reader seeking verse-by-verse and word-by-word discussions of the Hebrew text. The strength of Brueggemann’s volume is his theological/ethical reading of the text. The Shema’s insistence on the necessity of only one loyalty leads him to comment on the twin dangers of despair born of the impossibility of such absolute loyalty and pride born of self-delusion (pp. 88–91). Noting that Deut 11:1–32 emphasizes Israel’s relationship with yhwh, and therefore Israel’s life in the land, as both gift and demand, Brueggemann proposes that Deuteronomy challenges contemporary society to acknowledge that “self-promotion . . . not curbed by the demand of the holy, and self-sufficiency . . . not impinged upon by the presence of the neighbor constitutes a path to destruction” (p. 141).

This commentary will prove especially helpful for readers interested in the movement from exegesis to theological reflection. Brueggemann exemplifies this movement with unusual skill.

Mark E. Biddle
Baptist Theological Seminary at
Richmond
Richmond, Virginia

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Joshua
by L. Daniel Hawk
Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative & Poetry. Liturgical, Collegeville, 2000. 303 pp. $39.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8146-5042-2.

Hawk continues to establish his reputation as one of the leading practitioners of literary analysis of Old Testament narrative. Among a sudden plethora of Joshua commentaries and monographs, Hawk offers a major witness to the strengths and weaknesses of post-critical literary study of biblical narratives. He observes every literary feature, structural pattern, change or variation in choice of vocabulary, new topic or character echo of Deuteronomy. Such observations lead Hawk to two questions: “How does Joshua construct an identity for the people of God?” and “What does Joshua hold to be the essential mark(s) of Israelite identity?”

Hawk finds that “abrupt shifts and contradictory assertions create an overall sense of uncertainty and openness” (p. xviii) so that “the book offers a strikingly conflicted depiction of Israel” (p. xxii). Joshua thus has the remarkable effect of illustrating the relative character of a national identity founded on territorial claims, kinship bonds, or proper religious practices. The essence of Israelite identity is rather “Yhwh’s exclusive choosing of Israel and Israel’s exclusive choosing of yhwh (cf. 24:2-15).”
Hawk’s literary reading has nothing to say about actual history or about readers of the text. Nor does it interact with other literature on the subject. These represent distinct weaknesses of this approach. Is it really probable that an ancient Israelite reader would pick up on the narrative subtleties that Hawk discovers and raise the questions about confusion, contradiction, and changing identity that Hawk raises? Some of the confusing contrasts Hawk discovers may be rooted in the complexities of historical reality, the intricacies of deuteronomistic theology, and the needs of an exiled people of God. Perhaps a study integrating historical setting, literary setting, and authorial purpose with Hawk’s acute literary observations would provide a stronger commentary while relieving the necessity to find contesting plots and contradictions in every section of the narrative.

Trent C. Butler
Gallatin, Tennessee

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Habakkuk: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
by Francis I. Andersen
Anchor Bible 25. Doubleday, New York, 2001. 409 pp. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-385-08396-3.

After introducing the book as a whole, Andersen covers Habakkuk section by section following a typical Anchor Bible format: translation (with prosodic analysis); issues germane to the section; detailed notes on phraseology; and summary comments. The scope includes the full range of historical and literary issues, but the focus is on philological and text-critical matters. Andersen follows the majority in supposing that the Babylonian crisis in the early sixth century b.c.e. was the context for Habakkuk’s prophecies, and that the literary form consists of a two-part dialogue between the prophet and Yhwh—two prayers of the prophet (1:2–4 and 1:12–17), each with a response from Yhwh (1:5–11 and 2:2–5), followed by a series of woe-oracles (2:6–20) to which a prayer of the prophet is appended (3:1–19).

Andersen occasionally reaches distinctive conclusions, for example, that the woe-oracles comprise the central message of the revelation that Yhwh commanded the prophet to write (2:2; p. 207 and passim). There is some vagueness in the analysis of literary form. For example, the speech in 2:1 is described as “Habakkuk’s response” (p. 191), but Habakkuk has just finished his prayer in 1:12–17. Surely this does not imply that Habakkuk is “responding” to himself, but subsequent remarks (e.g., pp. 194 and 222–24) fail to clarify the ambiguity. Equivocal treatment of such anomalies raises unanswered questions about the theory of a dialogue in 1:2–2:5. On major historical and literary issues affecting the interpretation of Habakkuk, readers will not find much that is fresh or incisive. What they will find is a wealth of philological and text-critical information, with an excellent bibliography and guide to the scholarly discussion. Those not persuaded by the Cross-Freedman theory of Hebrew prosody will have little use for some of what is discussed under the rubric of poetic structure, but all can profit from Andersen’s extensive discussion of parallelism, comparative semantics, etymology, grammatical forms, variant readings of the versions, and mythology. This is by far the best resource for these aspects of the study of Habakkuk.

Michael H. Floyd
Episcopal Theological Seminary of the
Southwest
Austin, Texas

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Hope Amid the Ruins: The Ethics of Israel’s Prophets
by Carol J. Dempsey
Chalice, St. Louis, 2000. 160 pp. $19.99. ISBN 0-8272-1439-1.

This thematic introduction to prophetic ethics seeks to retrieve a moral vision rooted in the recovery of healthy relationships with God, humankind, and creation. Dempsey employs a reader-oriented approach, and brings to bear current ideological, sociological, and ecological concerns as sources for assessing prophetic ethics.

Dempsey begins by situating this study in the context of current scholarship. She examines the “relationality” inherent in creation and covenant, which provides the “cornerstone for and the key to understanding and evaluation of the prophets’ ethical message” (p. 20). Next, she explores torah as a way of life rooted in a vision of justice, righteousness, and loving-kindness. She then questions the appropriateness of the prophets’ moral perspective on violent punishment, abuse of divine power, and ecological consequences of human sin. The next chapters offer a critique of violent and gendered images of God and people, and explore the prophetic re-visioning of the relationship between worship and ethics. Finally, Dempsey returns to the theme of cosmic redemption and the retrieval of hopeful images of transformation.

Dempsey identifies “shortcomings, flaws, imperfections, and unsettling images” that betray contextual influences on the prophetic message (p. 127). Although Dempsey’s reflections resonate with contemporary sensitivities, her critical reflection on the function of prophetic metaphors and shocking rhetorical strategies remains incomplete. Her call for “further ethical reflection” (passim) is mostly limited to identifying problem areas. The book would have been enhanced by interaction with other serious attempts to explain the relationship between sin and judgment in the prophets (e.g., Klaus Koch and Patrick Miller). Dempsey is correct in affirming that prophetic ethics reflect a “vision of harmonious and interdependent relationships among all dimensions of creation” (p. 123) and that there is a “systemic connection” between God, humankind, and creation (p. 87). “What is needed,” Dempsey writes, “is a socio-ecological vision of justice and an ethic that embraces all creation and works toward its liberation and redemption” (p. 120).

Gordon H. Matties
Canadian Mennonite University
Winnipeg, Manitoba

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Matthew and Empire: Initial Explorations
by Warren Carter
Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2001. 249 pp. $25.00. ISBN 1-56338-342-4.

In his most recent book, Carter rejects the commonplace interpretation that Matthew is primarily a religious or spiritual text that concentrates on the conflict between Matthew’s church and its Jewish environment. Carter convincingly contends that this gospel cannot be correctly understood without taking into account the way it interacts with Roman imperialism. Using an “imperial-critical” method, he asks what impact the experience of Roman imperialism had on Matthean soteriology, forcing contemporary readers to reconsider the way the gospel is taught and preached.

Carter demonstrates that Matthew’s readers are in fundamental conflict with the spiritual and political elite in surrounding society. Evidence is found throughout but is particularly seen in Jesus as Emmanuel in contrast to the Emperor as deus praesens; in a new social vision of human community that challenges Rome’s; in a world view that contests imperial theology and demonstrates that power does not belong to Jupiter and Rome but to God and the Son Jesus Christ. The gospel is a counternarrative, a work of resistance that ironically adopts imperial terms and symbols (e.g., king, kingdom, power, and heaven) to show that service is stronger than domination and that all power in heaven and earth ultimately is God’s (28:18).

Careful exegesis and exploration of parallels in Roman history and literature raise important questions for twenty-first century Christians. Since imperialism is not just “a past occurrence” (p. 172), how should we respond to the continuing effort to control nations through military and economic force? Are the Roman imperial values of domination, hierarchy, exploitation, and propagandizing still valued in our society? If so, what is God’s response today? Carter’s final answer to some of these questions is provocative for a church in a violent world. “Without soldiers there can be no large-scale acts of aggression against other peoples. Without an imperial mindset there can be reconciliation and transformation” (p. 179).

Earl S. Johnson, Jr.
First Presbyterian Church
Johnstown, New York

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The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary
by Ben Witherington III
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 463 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-8028-4503-7.

Witherington reads the Gospel of Mark as an ancient biography composed significantly of chreiae (concise recollections of what historical figures said and did). Thus he views Mark’s rhetoric as simple and inelegant but nonetheless “profound, powerful, and persuasive” (p. 19). Believing the gospel to have been written in Rome during the Neronic 60s when Christians were being persecuted, Witherington understands Mark’s rhetorical aim as that of convincing his community to “follow the example of Jesus and avoid the mistakes of the first disciples” (p. 36). Therefore, he presents in each major section of the commentary a discussion on “Bridging the Horizons” to help contemporary readers consider how we might follow the example of Mark’s Jesus. Pastors and teachers will welcome the inclusion of such sections in the commentary.

An enormous amount of information is gathered into this volume, including background information on such things as synagogues and “parable and allegory in early Judaism.” While many readers will consider the presence of so much material another strength of the book, others may view it as a weakness. Pastors may be little interested in plowing through Witherington’s arguments with scholars over form-critical issues, sentence punctuation, or how Matthew shortened and generalized Mark.

Despite insights into Mark’s gospel offered by a variety of feminist, ethnic, and liberationist scholars, Witherington does not incorporate these insights into his interpretation. Consequently, despite the considerable length of the commentary, there is more to say on any number of key texts in the gospel. One reference to “ideological readings” of Mark suggests he considers liberationist approaches to be biased in ways his is not. Indeed, he never names the theological, political, or intellectual presuppositions that guide his work. The omission is unfortunate. He leaves unknowing readers with the impression that his views on such issues as Mark’s genre (ancient biography—which assumes that there is a lost ending of Mark containing a resurrection appearance), provenance (Rome rather than Galilee), and Christology (a royal Christology that liberationists will find untenable for Mark) have objectively settled such questions. They have not.

Mitzi Minor
Memphis Theological Seminary
Memphis, Tennessee

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Jesus Against Christianity: Reclaiming the Missing Jesus
by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2001. 384 pp. $20.00. ISBN 1-56338-362-4.

This book challenges many of the assumptions of traditional Christianity, but it does so in the name of faithfulness to the life and message of Jesus of Nazareth, not for the sake of adherence to some contemporary style of thought. The first part of the book is a demonstration that the God portrayed in the Bible is a violent, angry God, sometimes pathologically so, but that this same God is also presented as concerned with the establishment of justice among humans, and, at least in some passages, as a loving and merciful God. Nelson-Pallmeyer then argues that the traditional Christian concept of God, insofar as it attempts to encompass all these characteristics into one portrait, is incoherent and must be transformed. The criterion for this transformation, the author claims, is to be found in the compassionate God of nonviolence preached by Jesus of Nazareth. Disclosing and explicating this criterion forms the second part of the book. In this part, Nelson-Pallmeyer uses the work of Richard Horsley, John Dominic Crossan, William Herzog, and Walter Wink to situate Jesus and to disengage his message from the framing of the gospel writers.

This important book should be read by every pastor or Christian educator for several reasons, not the least of which is that it confronts readers with some of the horrendous material in the Bible and forces them to come to terms with it. Such an exercise also has the advantage of raising the larger issue of the Bible’s inconsistencies and the necessity of reading the Bible critically. The reader will get a clear introduction to a leading trend of New Testament scholarship. If Christianity is to remain intellectually and ethically relevant, pastors and educators will have to rethink its fundamentals. This book is an excellent and accessible place to start.

Max A. Myers
St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral
Buffalo, New York

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Jesus and the Village Scribes: Galilean Conflicts and the Setting of Q
by William E. Arnal
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. 290 pp. $26.00. ISBN 0-8006-3260-5.

Arnal opposes the presumption that Jesus and his disciples conducted an itinerant ministry, traveling from village to village in Galilee, begging for food. Gerd Theissen developed Harnack’s seminal work on the Didache, proposing that Jesus called people who were already homeless and gave them a mission, sending them to Galilean villages to ask for food and to offer God’s blessings in return. The householders who accepted them also collected their sayings, and thus Q was born. The passages in Didache refer, in Arnal’s view, not to an itinerant movement, but to the abuse of Christian hospitality offered by congregations to any traveling Christian.

The middle part of Arnal’s book is a superb description of how Archelaus’s decision to rebuild Sepphoris and found Tiberias changed the patterns of life in Galilee. He argues that building the two small cities was a strategy for more efficient exploitation of the economic potential of Galilee. Building the cities hastened the monetization of the Galilean economy and pushed farmers more toward cash cropping. In turn, this created situations in which, after poor crop years, peasants needed to borrow money to buy food to feed their families, using their land as collateral. Such loans, says Arnal, almost inevitably meant that the peasants would lose their lands.

The depreciation of peasant life would have happened gradually, and so it cannot have produced large-scale itinerancy or the “rhetoric of rootlessness” in Q. Arnal suspects that the Q tradents were Galilean scribes who had lost their position of prestige to the bureaucrats of Archelaus’s new cities. Q speaks of a “mission” for the reign of God, but this was metaphorical language for scribal networking with village chiefs: come to Capernaum for all your scribal needs rather than to those newfangled folks in Tiberias or Sepphoris. This part of Arnal’s hypothesis is novel but unpersuasive. Arnal’s discussion of the setting and dating of Q is, however, instructive.

The book will be most useful to those interested in theories of the production of Q, but the middle chapter would be valuable to anyone seeking an overview of first century Palestinian economics.

Richard B. Vinson
Baptist Theological Seminary at
Richmond
Richmond, Virginia

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Acts
by Paul W. Walaskay
Westminster Bible Companion. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1998. 262 pp. $22.95. ISBN 0-664-25261-3.

This volume belongs to a series offered to church laity, especially church school teachers, to help them read the Bible more intelligently. It is based on the NRSV, which is presented at the beginning of each section’s discussion. It does not follow a verse-by-verse format but uses an essay form. Enough background information from Luke and the Old Testament is given to enable the reader to follow the plot of the narrative. Acts is treated as an historical account of the ancient variety. This means it is shaped by a tendency and may contain historical errors. Authorship is moot; its locale could be Antioch or Rome; its date falls between 75 and 85 c.e. On tough passages, like Ananias and Sapphira, the scandal of miracle’s dark side is noted. Then the emphasis shifts to ethics. The story speaks to us about a nation’s obligations for the health and welfare of its poor, especially children and the elderly. Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus is not a conversion, because he did not turn from his Jewish past, but a call to an open future. The we-sections derive from a travel diary but bring the reader into the action. We are now going with Paul on mission.

The commentary is well suited for its intended audience. It is academically and ideologically mainstream. It is beautifully and clearly written. It offers good assistance to the novice in following and making sense of the plot of Acts.

Charles H. Talbert
Baylor University
Waco, Texas

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The Letter to Philemon: A New Translation and Commentary
by Joseph A. Fitzmyer
Anchor Bible 34C. Doubleday, New York, 2000. 138 pp. $21.95. ISBN 0-385-49629-X.

Fitzmyer’s new commentary on Philemon is divided into three sections: an introduction (41 pages), a bibliography (25 pages), and a translation with commentary and notes on the text (46 pages). Besides the usual introductory material, the first section includes helpful discussions on slavery in the ancient world, the significance of this epistle for the Christian tradition, and the theological teaching of the letter (i.e., how the ideas found in Philemon interrelate with those found in Paul’s other letters). The bibliography is comprehensive and includes ancient, medieval, and modern works. Following the translation of each portion of the text is a brief comment followed by thorough notes.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this commentary is Fitzmyer’s suggestion about the origin of the letter. He argues against the traditional understanding of the text’s origin, which has dominated the interpretation of this letter since the time of Chrysostom (and was supported by Fitzmyer in his previous writings). According to that view, Onesimus was a runaway slave who deserted his master Philemon and sought refuge with Paul. Based partly on the fact that Paul does not use any of the technical terminology for a runaway slave and partly on some rather striking ancient parallels, Fitzmyer suggests that Onesimus was not a runaway slave. Instead, he found himself in some kind of difficulty with his master Philemon and so went to Paul in hopes that the latter, as an amicus domini (“friend of the master”), would intervene on his behalf.

Those familiar with Fitzmyer’s earlier Anchor Bible volumes (on Luke, Acts, and Romans) will find that the commentary on Philemon is of the same high quality.

Paul B. Duff
The George Washington University
Washington, D.C.

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Cruciformity: Paul's Spirituality of the Cross
by Michael J. Gorman
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 429 pp. $28.00. ISBN 0-8028-4795-1.

Gorman identifies a narrative spirituality in the experience of the apostle Paul, centered, he argues, in the cross. Given much of the fuzziness of modern-day spirituality, one looks forward to a book rooted in the text of the epistles and related to “the experience of God's love and grace in daily life.”

Gorman begins with Paul’s experience of the three persons of the Trinity. Four chapters are devoted to his experience of God the Father, whom he prefers to call “the cruciform God” rather than (with Moltmann and Bauckham) “the crucified God”; his encounter with Christ; his experience with the Spirit; and his experience of the three-in-one. There is sufficient repetition of texts throughout these chapters to make one wonder about the wisdom of beginning a Pauline study with the traditional trinitarian formula.

Then comes the heart of the study, in which Gorman isolates the texts that relate the narrative of the cross and the patterns for life that emerge from the narrative. Philippians 2:6–11 takes center stage. “For Paul, to be in Christ is to be a living exegesis of this narrative of Christ, a new performance of the original drama of exaltation following humiliation, of humiliation as the voluntary renunciation of rights and selfish gain in order to serve and obey” (p. 92).

Chapters follow on cruciform faith, cruciform love, cruciform power, and cruciform hope. To share Christ’s faith is costly, issuing in the lists of hardships Paul repeatedly mentions in connection with his ministry, as well as the sufferings he anticipates for his readers. Faith works through love—love told in the master story of the humiliation of Christ in Phil 2:6–11 and expressed in the cruciform love of believers through generosity, non-retaliation, and hospitality. In dealing with power, Gorman offers a mild rebuff to Elizabeth Castelli’s argument that Paul uses the imitation motif as a means of gaining and maintaining power.

The future of the cruciform life lies in the death-resurrection pattern of the master story. Romans 6:3–8 affirms that the experience now of newness of life will find its logical conclusion in the experience of resurrection to eternal life in the future. The cruciform life is depicted as life in community, and this always involves corporate and even political relationships. “To be ‘in Christ’ is to live within a community that is shaped by his story, not merely to have a ‘personal relationship’ with Christ” (p. 350). Gorman acknowledges that the church living as God’s avant garde of the new creation at times was a threat over against the Greco-Roman culture.

Charles Cousar
Columbia Theological Seminary
Decatur, Georgia

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What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? What Archaeology Can Tell Us about the Reality of Ancient Israel
by William G. Dever
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2001. 326 pp. $17.50. ISBN 0-8028-4794-3.

Dever’s volume is two books in one: a polemical broadside, and a primer in Palestinian archaeology. Dever takes on the revisionist school of biblical interpretation, which regards the history of Israel as a theological construct invented by the Persian and Greek-period Jewish scribes who wrote the Bible. He attacks both the philosophical underpinnings of this movement, which he associates with post-modernism and nihilism, and its practitioners, whom he accuses of sloppy scholarship and intellectual dishonesty. But Dever’s book is also a careful assessment of the archaeological evidence for ancient Israel, read in conversation with the biblical text. In contrast to a discredited “biblical archaeology,” which sought to use archaeological evidence to prove that the Bible is true, Dever watches for “convergences” (p. 91): places where the world described in the Bible coincides with what archaeology reveals about Israel’s past. For example, Dever notes that the description of Jehoiakim’s palace in Jer 22:13–19 fits neatly with a structure excavated at Ramat Rachel, right down to the recessed windows and the red paint (pp. 241–42). Such convergences of the biblical and archaeological evidence make possible a reliable description of much of Israel’s past.

Dever demonstrates that we can know far more about ancient Israel than the revisionists allow. By documenting convergences between archaeological evidence and biblical descriptions of everyday life, he refutes the late dating of biblical texts advocated by this school. But he is less successful in demonstrating the significance of historical inquiry for theology. Christian and Jewish readers may well be left wondering how they are to read those texts of the Hebrew Bible for which archaeological convergence is lacking, or irrelevant. Those who already accept the value of historical investigation for biblical study will find ample support in Dever’s book for their position. But those who advocate a primarily literary approach to the biblical texts are more likely to be offended by Dever than to be persuaded by him—this is, after all, a fiercely partisan book. Further, the text is marred by numerous typographical errors. Still, this is a fascinating and important book for anyone interested in the interplay of scripture and history.

Steven S. Tuell
Randolph-Macon College
Ashland, Virginia

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On the Interpretation and Use of the Bible with Reflections on Experience
by Ronald S. Wallace
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999. 137 pp. $12.00. ISBN 0-7073-0775-9.

Wallace presents an approach to biblical interpretation primarily for use by ministers. He frames his discussion with opening and closing autobiographical sketches of his own journey, and he provides personal illustrations throughout. He outlines three fundamental presuppositions of biblical interpretation: inspiration, revelation, and salvation history (ch. 2). Although all are affirmed, the latter becomes the decisive interpretive device, as Wallace insists on seeing God’s providential hand guiding the texts and history of Israel toward fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The “unity” and “interdependence” of the two testaments are developed in detail in chapters 3 and 4. Wallace’s Christocentric emphasis removes any possibility of the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible by anyone other than Christians. Thus, in attempting to underline Jesus’ Jewishness, Wallace has separated Jewish readers from the Hebrew Bible.

In the remaining chapters Wallace takes a decidedly pastor-centered approach. The minister mediates the interpretation of the Bible for the worshipping community through preaching (pp. 44–45)—what he calls “Pastoral Intercourse” (p. 55). Although he affirms the Bible as a composition of both human and divine origin, it is in the faith life of the minister and the community that true interpretation takes place. Critical scholarship can help, but it is nothing if it does not speak to and listen to the church (p. 68). Ultimately, what counts more than historical criticism is a canonical approach (p. 69) that includes typology (ch. 10), allegory (too broadly defined, ch. 11), and a solid understanding of doctrine (ch. 12). Ultimately, the book reads like an extended homily, descriptive of interpretive issues but rather thin on argumentation. It should prove helpfully reassuring for those who share the theological views of the writer, but it is unlikely to convince others to adopt this approach.

Richard S. Ascough
Queen’s Theological College
Kingston, Ontario

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The Trinity
by Philip W. Butin
Foundations of Christian Faith. Geneva, Louisville, 2001. 126 pp. $11.95. ISBN 0-664-50140-0.

As one of the volumes in a series designed primarily for laypersons, Butin’s introduction to Christian faith in the triune God is compact, well-informed, and reader-friendly. In the first few chapters, Butin explores the roots of the doctrine of the Trinity in the biblical witness and sketches its history from the early centuries of the church to the remarkable resurgence of the doctrine in the modern period. In the last three chapters, the author discusses the importance of trinitarian faith for Christian prayer and worship, for Christian life and witness, and for the church’s participation in the mission of the triune God in the world.

Butin’s concern throughout is to present trinitarian faith not as esoteric teaching but as central to Christian faith and life. The doctrine of the Trinity “encapsulates the good news” that God is for us, that God lives in relationship, and that God’s eternal self-giving love overflows to the creation in the missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Butin deals briefly but fairly with issues in trinitarian theology that continue to be debated. Elizabeth Johnson and Catherine LaCugna are mentioned along with Barth, Rahner, von Balthasa, Moltmann, Lossky, and Zizioulas as contributors to the recovery of trinitarian faith.
On the relationship between trinitarian worship and trinitarian ethics, Butin contends that our “vertical koinonia” with the triune God is inseparable from our “horizontal koinonia” with one another. Regarding language used in trinitarian prayer, worship, and theology, Butin is cautiously open. While insisting that public worship and theology should be rooted in and guided by scripture and classical trinitarian terminology, he calls the church to remain “open in principle” to other ways of addressing God. Convinced that efforts are needed to “reverse the destructive legacy of patriarchy,” Butin cites biblical texts that use female images of the divine as clear warrants for expanding the church’s customary ways of thinking and speaking of God.

Butin’s book will serve admirably as an introduction to the doctrine of the Trinity for study groups in local congregations.

Daniel L. Migliore
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, New Jersey

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Unprecedented Choices: Religious Ethics at the Frontiers of Genetic Science
by Audrey R. Chapman
Theology and Science Series. Fortress, Minneapolis, 1999. 261 pp. $22.00. ISBN 0-8006-3181-1.

Will a time come, say, in a society that values male children over female, when parents will simply place an order for a male baby? Who is going to address such issues, both ethically and politically? Who is going to develop the policies and propose the laws that will work for the common good, avoiding situations where anybody can “play God” for virtually any purpose?
Chapman believes that the voices of religious ethicists and the communities for which they speak must be raised and heard, in response to the challenges that will continue to be posed by the fast-paced developments of genetic science in our day. This sobering, richly documented, scientifically thorough, and theologically informed study merits close reading by all ethicists, religious or secular, who are concerned with these issues.

Unprecedented Choices is also must reading for parish pastors. Chapman knows her way around the world of denominational policies and politics and is also at home with theological discourse at its most sophisticated levels. One of the book’s many strengths is its careful and empathetic review of the numerous public responses by representatives of organized religion—mostly Protestant—during the past four decades. If this is unfamiliar territory for some, the book will bring them up to date and acquaint them with the relevant writings of theologians who have addressed these issues substantively.
The main problem, according to Chapman, is that too much work remains to be done. Neither the theologians nor the religious bodies that have addressed these issues have integrated the findings of genetic science in thoroughgoing fashion. Nor have they consistently developed the policy guidelines that the current political and cultural situation so urgently requires. However, it is not always clear what Chapman expects of religious ethicists and their communities in a world of research and new technologies that has begotten so many unprecedented choices. Still, this well-written book offers criteria by which all future theological writing and statements in this field must be judged.

H. Paul Santmire
Watertown, Massachusetts

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The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America
by Mark Lewis Taylor
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. $16.00. 208 pp. ISBN 0-8006-3283-4.

Taylor challenges Christians to follow the example of the executed Jesus in opposing structures of political power. He effectively draws out anti-imperial elements in the scriptures, particularly in Paul and Mark, to support his theology of resistance. Taylor argues that state power creates a state of terror among all portions of the underclass, and that this is especially visible in the practices of police brutality, ever-expanding prisons, and capital punishment. He proposes that Christians offer a counter-terror program of non-violent protest, creative dramatic action, and organized movements to undermine this state power.

Taylor’s presentation on the creation and maintenance of the underclass (in its economic, racial, ethnic, and other manifestations) provides food for thought on most social issues of our time. Indeed, institutional power, whether military, regulatory, ecclesiastical, or corporate, can terrorize individuals who are powerless. His application of this truth to what he calls “lockdown America” suffers from his omission of the terrorizing action that offenders themselves create in the midst of the underclass Taylor is describing. Taylor lauds movements that would stop prison growth, or eliminate prisons entirely, but offers no alternatives that would help those who are incarcerated. These men, women, and juveniles need healing, socialization, and training in order to lead productive lives. The present system offers little help, but sending these children of God back to their neighborhoods is not a useful solution either.

The Executed God is a theological resource for those developing advocacy ministries and for preachers and teachers whose congregations are nestled in their comfortable pews. It would provide only tangential help to those developing pastoral ministries within prisons or with the families of inmates. The strident language would work against its use as a study book for groups not already fully committed to abolition of both prisons and capital punishment.

Barbara M. Sadtler
James River Correctional Center
State Farm, Virginia

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Church Planting: Laying Foundations
by Stuart Murray
Herald, Scottsdale, 2001. 288 pp. $19.99. ISBN 0-8361-9148-X.

This book is not a “how to” manual for church planting. It attempts to “lay some theological foundations for church planting, to invite church planners to think seriously about missiology and ecclesiology, to reflect on their assumptions and expectations, and to take care that they lay strong
foundations for the churches that they are plant-ing” (p. 12).

After responding to the critics of church planting, Murray builds a theological framework around the concepts of God’s mission, the incarnation, and the kingdom of God. He then reviews New Testament insights concerning church planting and follows with a historical description of various types of church planting. He then exlores at length the task of church planting in a postmodern and post-Christian era. He discusses various new models of the church, the ethos or culture of healthy congregations, the need for creative experimentation with respect to church structure and size, and the debate regarding mega-church vs. multi-church. He considers a number of leadership issues, including the question of what “servant leadership” means, especially in a mega-church setting. His discussion of mission leadership includes neglected roles such as apostle and prophet. He affirms the role of women in leadership while rejecting clericalism.

This is a thoughtfiul and balanced presentation that should be read especially by bishops and regional church executives, as well as by church planters.

Edward A. White
The Alban Institute
Washington, D.C.

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The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance
by Dorothee Soelle
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2001. $20.00. 325 pp. ISBN 0-8006-3266-4.

Soelle makes a powerful case for her position that the reunification of “the inner light of being at one with every living thing [mysticism] and the resistance against the machine of death” (p. 5) constitutes “the future of religion” (p. 297). She supports her thesis by effectively combining scholarship on mystical traditions, personal experience of political and liberation theologies, intimate awareness of connections between aesthetics and justice, and her position as a Christian and scholar “neither professionally anchored nor personally at home in the two institutions of religion—the church and academic theology” (p. 1). This unusual blend renders her witness both intellectually stimulating and spiritually provocative.

Soelle provides theological underpinnings for understanding what mysticism is, points toward relationships through which mysticism may be experienced, and establishes convincing connections between mystical spirituality and justice. Her thoughtful reflections on the role of mysticism in transformation will benefit church leaders wrestling with varying needs of different generations, influences of other religions on Christian thought and practice, and stresses of pluralism, fundamentalism, materialism, and individualism. This magnum opus will challenge institutional commitments that compete with willingness to live into the Good News of Jesus Christ. Communities of faith will find hope and a vision of transformation as they respond to God’s call to re-examine what living the message of Jesus Christ requires both personally and corporately in the third millennium.

One concern persisted throughout reading The Silent Cry. Soelle under-represents the role of the mystical stage of “purification” in personal, corporate, and cosmic transformation. The joys of “illumination” and “union” do indeed eclipse the difficulties of purification, but a more balanced depiction of the three traditional stages of mysticism would have strengthened Soelle’s position. That said, the book is beautifully (and poetically) written, deeply provocative, and grounded equally in scholarship and narrative. It makes an important contribution to the study of mysticism’s role in the vitality and effectiveness of Christianity.

Nancy E. Waldo
Richmond, Virginia

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Strategies for Preaching Paul
by Frank J. Matera
Liturgical, Collegeville, 2001. 186 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-8146-1966-5.

Preaching Like Paul: Homiletical Wisdom for Today
by James W. Thompson
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2001. 178 pp. $19.95. ISBN 0-664-22294-3.

In quite different ways these two books provide helpful resources to preachers who want to use Pauline texts as the basis for their sermons. The two authors agree that Paul can and ought to be a fundamental source for our preaching, and that the ease with which most preachers weekly rush toward the gospel lesson as the text for the homily deprives us of immeasurable homiletical riches.

Matera is most concerned with the content of the Pauline texts assigned by the lectionary. He studies the texts in the order they appear in the lectionary cycles and provides a useful summary of what Paul has to say in each text. While the book does not break new ground either exegetically or hermeneutically, it provides a clear, concise summary of what Paul is saying and why he is saying it.

Thompson’s book is more ambitious because he is concerned not so much with the content of Paul’s letters as with the strategies by which Paul makes theological and, by extension, homiletical claims. At first it looks as though Thompson is going to collapse Pauline texts into yet another source for narrative preaching, a genre whose legitimate popularity has sometimes tilted toward illegitimate exclusivity. However, Thompson gives at least equal weight to Paul as a parenetic preacher and as a pastoral theologian. The book concludes with suggestive sermon sketches based on Pauline texts and strategies.
These are both good books. Matera reminded me of what I had learned about Paul. Thompson helped me think afresh about how to use Paul as a resource for my preaching.

David L. Bartlett
Yale University Divinity School
New Haven, Connecticut

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