Book Reviews

Loren Ipsum

2009-10-26T20:14:00.001-07:00

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Marcus Borg: On Images of Jesus

2008-12-21T16:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a brief portion of Marcus Borg's Book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith:

Images of Jesus matter. The foundtaional claim of this book is that there is a strong connection between images of Jesus images of the Christian life, between how we think of Jesus and how we think of the Christian life. Our images of JEsus affects our percetion of the Christian life in two ways: it gives shape to the Christian life; and (as we shall see later in this chapter) it can make Christianity credible or incredible.

The way images of Jesus give shape to the Christian life is illustrated by two widespread images and their effects on images of the Christian life. The most common image of Jesus--what I call the "popular image"--sees him as the divine savior. Put more compactly, this image is a constellation of answers to the three classic questions about Jesus: Who was he? The divinely begotten Son of God. What was his mission or purpose? To die for the sins of the world. What was his message? Most centrally, it was about himself: his own identity as the Son of God, the saving purpose of his death, and the importance of believing in him.

The image of the Christian life to which this image of Jesus leads is clear: it consists of primary of believing--that Jesus was who he said he was...

Only slightly less common is an image of Jesus as teacher...

Both images, it seems to be, are inadequate.

If you like the excerpt, check out the book:

Karl Barth: Call to Discipleship

2008-12-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

The Call to Discipleship (Facets)

This book is a cheap way to get to know the basics of Karl Barth's theology. He begins the book talking about discipleship as the obedience--without conditions--to Jesus Christ. He goes on throughout the book to talk about what this fettered obedience looks like. He argues that discipleship is not found in an "ideal or principle...nor do we have the basis of a new society freed from the principles of private property. It is simply but more inclusively, question of specific summons to specific people..."

The book is gut-wrenching call to those who have diluted or watered down discipleship to some kind of ten step program to a better life. Unlike other popular evangelists, Barth pulls no punches when he talks about radical obedience to the person of Jesus Christ as he instructs us in our lives. This book is not for the faint of heart or for those looking for an easy answer to the question of Christian discipleship.

After I finished reading the book, I laid down to sleep and kept turning over these ideas of Barth's in my head. The book has altered my view of what true discipleship looks like, and will, I am sure, still speak to thousands in this postmodern age we live in. I would highly recommend reading it to all those who read my book reviews.

Concept-Based Learning

2008-11-27T01:38:00.001-08:00

Lynn Erikson, in her book on concept-based learning, is asking teachers to think "beyond the facts." The author is not suggesting that facts are unimportant or that facts don't matter, but that simply teaching facts in the traditional skill/drill/kill model of schooling will not move students towards the higher level thinking the 21st century will require of them. I highly recommend this book to any beginning teacher.

Savage Inequalities

2008-11-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

Recently I wrote about subsidarity in relationship to Christian Organizations and I have also written about anti-federalism as a good way to lessen the power of government and increase the role of the church in America, but I now also have had my eyes opened to the problem of subsidarity. For those of you who have read about me, you know my soft spot is Camden, NJ. It just so happens for a class at Cal Poly we have to read a book entitled Savage Inequalities. The book is a bit dated, but I can tell you from personal experience that the chapter on Camden still rings true for Camden today.

Camden is one of the poorest cities in America and has one of the highest murder rates per capita as well. Reading about the education system is somewhat disheartening when you read that cities like Cherry Hill and Haddon spend thousands more on their students and have access to science labs, books and other resources that Camden does not have. According to the theory of subsidarity, the problem should be fixed by those in Camden, but what happens when the schools are so unequal, the problems so large, that the city seems unable to fix the massive systemic problems that arise? Do we expect them to take the proverbial boostraps and pull? It is good and nice to talk about subsidarity and anti-federalism, but is there a time when states need to step in and say, “It’s time to fix these cities?” Or will money not fix the problem?

See, I don’t think Camden needs more money. I think Camden needs better teachers. I don’t think Camden needs nicer houses, I think that the hundreds of boarded up houses need to be fixed by contractors who are willing to come in and install plumbing and basic sanitation so that the homeless can survive. But if all the contractors are living in Cherry Hill, what is going to compel them to come to an unsafe city and help people who are losing money? The problem of subsidarity is it is built on choice and people simply choose the wrong thing.

We can’t force people to care about Camden, can we?

Jesus Wants to Save Christians (Chapter One)

2008-11-02T14:52:00.001-08:00

I was turned on to Ben Witherington's review of Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rhett Smith and am finding the work incredibly helpful in my own review of the book. Witherington rightly says:

"In the first major chapter of the book, the authors turn to Exodus and isolate a particular key motif. If we ask what it is that gets the ball rolling, the juices flowing, and more to the point what sets God into motion and into action, it is the cry of the oppressed."

There are many others blogging about the book. Here is one that doesn't seem to be as happy about the book (I agree with him about the annoying syntax). Here as well is an interview with Bell on the subject of the book. Here is a more positive one from another reviewer.

There is an interesting progression found where first God sees, then hears, and then comes down (p. 22). We would be wise to think of this as a good model for the Christian. First we see. We can see from far away, but we cannot necessarily hear. If we move closer to the oppressed, we begin to gain ears to hear the cries of the oppressed. If we wish to really "know" the oppressed, however, we must "come down" from our pedestals and be with the oppressed. The chapter raises an important question for Christians:

...what do we do about Abel's blood which cries out from the ground after he is unjustly killed by his brother?

Because, as the authors note, "When we're on top, when the system works for us, when we are capable of managing our lives, what is there for God to do?" So often in America as rich Christians, we are oblivious to the empire all around us. This is what Rob Bell and Don Golden are attempting to make us aware of. The Egypt in the Bible is really US. This obviously has serious political implications and raises serious controversy among some who believe America to be the world's messiah.

The authors spend the time talking about the idea of systemic evil in our society. In a manner reminiscent of modern TV shows like The Wire, the authors attempt to show how evil moves its way up the chain because everyone is simply doing what their master tells them to do. At the top of it all is pharaoh--unjustly asking people to do something for nothing.

...so what do we do about the blood calling out? What do we do about the fact that WE might be Egypt today? These are important questions that I would like to discuss here and that I think make the book definitely worth reading.

Rob Bell and Don Golden: Jesus Wants to Save Christians?

2008-11-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

I have just finished Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile by Rob Bell and Don Golden. The book begins with a reminded that, in our world, we are "East of Eden" and we been moving further and further east as violence has become more and more normalized. They explain the natural progression of violence as one that begins with disobedience to God, furthers to family violence, travels further to societal violence and sin (Noah), and travels finally to the whole world attempting to build towers to nowhere.

The book first follows Israel is chapters one through three. The first chapter is about freedom from oppression as the Jews are freed From Egypt, the second chapter is about the rebuilding of Empire under Solomon and the Jews forgetting their identity as a freed people and enslaving others, and finally the coming of Jesus in chapter three as "David's other son."

Chapter four goes into the life of the early church as a group dedicated to spreading the message of Jesus to the whole world, whereas chapter five shows how a belief in America as a doer of good may be misleading. He spend the majority of chapter five showing why he believes America is an empire.

The authors go into more detail in chapter six to talk about the signficance of the blood on the doorposts at passover and how Jesus and the Eucharist are a continuation of that tradition. The epilogue finishes by challenging us to leave an "empire of indifference."

Let me quickly highlight one strength and one weakness here (I will be posting more on some of the individual chapters in the future). One general strength is the way the authors are able to paint a new picture of Christian theology without using all the buzz words usually associated with it. This book will speak to new Christians who need an axis on which to understand the Bible as a narrative. The book will also speak to those who are tired of hearing the same thing over and over again in the evangelical church.

That said, one weakness of the book is the danger of seeing the Bible through only one hermenutical lens. The book almost seems to say, "The whole narrative of the bible only points to one thing...empires are evil." While I agree that this is one theme of scripture, the book doesn't really address how the rest of the Bible might be brought into this grand metanarrative. Granted, this may not be something the author's could have fixed because their approach to scripture was very narrow in this regard and were attempting to hit a few target points.

They hit these target points very well, but we just have to be careful how much we let one of these lenses dominate our theology of scripture