Book Reviews

Summary: The relationship between Christianity and the founding of the United States is a complicated matter.

As I was finishing up In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life 1492-1783, I picked up God of Liberty. Thomas Kidd’s history is well known and spoken of well by Mark Noll and many others. God of Liberty was the historical overview that I needed after the very particular history of the use of scripture.

The role of Christian faith in the founding of the United States is fraught matter. All sides have reasons for why it matters (often more about current events than historical accuracy.) And because there are a large number of founding fathers, pretty much anyone can find support for their position by proof texting a few pamphlets or speeches or sermons.

God of Liberty does a good job at showing the complication of any particular position. Christian faith was important to many in the colonies, both as a reason for coming to the colonies and as a reason for breaking away from Britain. But separation of Church and state, at least in it early incarnations, was also important in how the country was organized during and immediately after the revolution.

England had a state church, so many of the more radical revolutionaries were against state churches as a concept. But many of the colonies already had a state church with their own constituencies and theological reasonings.

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Summary: As with everything, it’s complicated.

Noll is one of my favorite historians. He is well respected but probably not well known outside of those that pay attention to 17th to 19th century American religious history. I had him both as an undergrad at Wheaton and when he was a visiting professor in grad school at the University of Chicago. He has been at Notre Dame for the last 10 years.

Noll has written widely, everything from multiple books on Christianity in the Global South to a history of Race and religion in US politics to modern analysis of Evangelical thought to his more traditional early American religious history. A theme that has continued through several of his recent books is that how Christians, particularly Protestants, use scripture.

In the Beginning Was the Word is Noll’s attempt to make sense of the high level of biblical rhetoric from the colonies. The colonies were a different world from the modern US in a number of ways that many current users of those early religious quotes do not adequately take into account.

First, and probably most important, the bible was universally understood and referenced in a way that is very difficult to understand today. Those that were literate and had any books almost always had a bible. But many did not have any other book or if they did have other books it was only a handful of books or pamphlets. So the bible was culturally well known and it was expected that people would understand references to scripture in the way that many people today reference current events or culture, but with a higher expectation of understanding.

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Summary: A joint story between a 14th century German town that has first contact with aliens and modern academics that discover the first contact.

I have recently become a subscriber to the online magazine Christ and Pop Culture. In addition to the very good articles, subscribers have access to a private Facebook group. At this point, as much as I like the magazine and want to support good content with my subscription, the Facebook group is more important to my continued subscription.

One of the topics a few weeks ago was the ever popular, “what are your favorite books you read this year”. Seth Hahne, the primary illustrator at Christ and Pop Culture (and author and illustrator of Monkness the Homunculus) recommended Eifelheim. I was looking for something different and picked it up.

Eifelheim is an odd book. It is a very detailed and well researched book about 14th century Germany. It is also a first contact story (aliens crash-land on Earth). And it takes very seriously the Christian faith of the 14th century Germans. This is not a Christian book, but it is one that uses the fictional setting to think seriously about what it means to be human, what love of neighbor looks like, the problem of evil, and a variety of other theological and moral issues.

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Summary: Globalization requires attention to religion.

Miroslov Volf has been in the news lately because of Dr Hawkins at Wheaton College referenced his book Allah when she donned a hijab and pledged solidarity with Muslims in the wake of proposals to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

I have appreciated Volf, especially with his work around grace and reconciliation. His book Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (review) is excellent. While it is still on my to-read list, his 1996 book Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation is considered a modern theology classic by many (and named as one of the 100 most important books of the 20th century by Christian Century.)

Volf was originally a Trinitarian specialist, but his biography has impacted much of his work over the past twenty years. Volf grew up in the former communist Yugoslavia. Communism, then the fall of communism, and then the breaking apart of the country amid war and ethnic tensions moved his focus to reconciliation, politics, and interfaith religious issues.

Volf has a strange religious background. He grew up in officially godless communism, but his parents were Pentecostals. A mix of Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Muslims dominated his country of origin. He earned two PhDs under the German Lutheran theologian Jurgen Moltmann. He came to the US and taught at the evangelical Fuller Seminary before moving to Yale, and now identifies as Anglican. But Flourishing largely comes from several years of jointly teaching a class on globalization and faith with Tony Blair (who converted to Roman Catholicism after leaving office as the Prime Minister of the UK).

Flourishing is both fascinating and feels like I have read the book before. Madeleine Albright’s The Mighty and the Almighty makes a case for why international affairs need to pay more attention to religion, as do several of Jimmy Carter’s books and John Danforth’s Faith and Politics. While not focused on international politics, Stephen Prothero stresses the importance of understanding religions to understanding the world around us in Religious Literacy and God is not One.

Volf, while not directly drawing on the Economics of Good and Evil (review), does a good job of teasing out the limits of our current economic and political system around morality and justice.  The concepts around the need for pluralism in a globalized world felt very well trodden by everyone from Thomas Friedman’s World is Flat to James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World (review) and many others.

Despite previously covered ground, I think Flourishing is a book worth reading. Miroslav Volf calls on religious groups to step up and act right in a pluralistic world because the world needs the input of religious voices. Right now, democracy and capitalism have won the day, but neither can inherently move us to a more moral world without the influence of religious voices. Democracy is limited to the morality of the voters and elected officials. Immoral officials and/or ignorant, cynical, or prejudiced voters will trample the rights of the minority. As Volf rightly notes, the problem in the Middle East is not just violent dictatorships but constitutional democracies that are making choices that are not pluralistic.

Volf is particularly talking to other Christians in this book. He is trying to make the case that we should embrace political pluralism. But he distinguishes political pluralism from religious pluralism. This is one of the areas where I think Flourishing is unique. He has a grid of religious pluralism and exclusivism, political pluralism, and political exclusivism. Volf thinks the healthiest place is where political pluralism and religious exclusivism intersect. The political pluralist embraces the rights of everyone and is outward looking to the rest of the world, but also is strengthened by moral stamina that comes from religious exclusivism.

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Summary: A readable (and devotional) look at the Holy Spirit.

I picked it up Fresh Air: The Holy Spirit for an Inspired Life when it was originally on sale after reading an interview on Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed Blog and then a long review by Brian LePort at Nearemmaus.

Levison is a professor at Seattle Pacific University. He has written academically about the Holy Spirit, but this is more devotionally focused than academically focused (at least that is how I read it.)

Each chapter starts with three or four scripture passages that Levison asks that you read before you start the chapter, and maybe keep open beside you as you read the chapter.

Most chapters are explorations of the Holy Spirit in Biblical context.  For instance, one chapter looks at the interaction between Job and Elihu. Levison talks about how we speak of the advice we give to others. Elihu uses words and concepts that are biblical and theologically correct, but uses them in a tone and methods that violate the actual principle of the words he was saying. Levison says, “I worry that many of us, like Elihu, mistake spectacular experiences for the spirit and, as a result, damage others because we think we’re wiser than we actually are. We dispense advice or deliver speeches that are neither inspired nor beneficial. Elihu thinks he’s inspired, but, as Jeremy might say, he’s really just plain mean.”

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Summary: The basis for the TV show Grantchester (PBS).

Last year, around the time when Downton Abbey’s fifth season came out, my wife and I watched the short six episode season of Grantchester (also on Masterpiece). I have been looking forward to the show’s eventual second season when I saw that the book was on sale. (Still $3.85 for Kindle Edition, and $3.99 for the audiobook with the purchase of the Kindle Edition.)

Sidney Chambers is a young parish priest in Grantchester, a small town on the edge of Cambridge. It is 1953 and the world is returning back to normal after WWII. Sidney is trying to find his way in the world and eventually finds that he is good at finding trouble. His friend Inspector Keating soon realizes that Sidney is good at getting information from people that would not talk to the police and can connect  disparate pieces of the puzzle together to find the criminals.

Overall this is a good book. It is more of a story of a pastor that is working through his calling and who happens to keep coming across murder and crime than a true cozy mystery book. There are hints of a young Father Brown, but the focus is not on Sidney’s wisdom but his perceived inadequacy. He seems to be good at solving mysteries, but he wants to be good at (and satisfied with) leading a church parish.

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Summary: Mostly thoughts on religious things.

Marilynne Robinson is a fantastic novelist. Her most recent novel, Lila, is among my favorite novels ever and I recently re-read her award winning novel Gilead and enjoyed it even more the second time.

But Marilynne Robinson the essayist I am not sure of. She is an incredible writer. Her ability to string words together holds true whether she is writing non-fiction or fiction. But being an essayist requires more than a gift with words.

Part of my frustration with her is that her politics are always present. That is fairly natural since most of the time, the subject actually is politics. Her earlier book of essays, When I was a Child I Read Books, was much more political than this collection. In many ways I am not sure why her politics bothers me so much, because much of the time I agree with them.

I am not always sure why these essays were written. Some of them were probably cathartic or were addressing a specific issue, and I guess that shouldn’t matter. But I was just not engaged through many of them. There are snatches of brilliance throughout the book. (As I said, she can put together a phrase.) And part of the issue is that I listened to the book. For both this an When I was a Child, I picked up the audiobook because the Kindle or paper editions were so expensive. It is odd, in this case the audiobook was half the price of the kindle book. I think that if I read another set of her essays I will check them out of the library.

That being said, what I do find interesting about Robinson is her Calvinism. She is clearly Calvinist in the way that Abraham Kuyper and the covenantal Calvinists are Calvinist (and not the way that neo-Calvinists like John Piper and Albert Mohler are Calvinists.) The focus is on covenant not the five solas or the TULIP. And so she speaks with great respect for Calvin and has clearly read him carefully and widely. Her essays on fear or grace or human limitations are all theologically rich and intellectually helpful.

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Summary: A useful introduction to the Catholic expression of Christianity.

As I continue on my project of reading about Catholicism, I stumbled on a book that is a companion to a documentary series.  I did not watch the documentary, but I picked up the book because the point of the documentary and companion book was to explain Catholicism to those that are inside and outside the church.

My first thought is that this is not about Catholicism, it is about Christianity. But the author of the book and documentary is not primarily explaining Catholicism, as opposed to Protestantism or Orthodoxy, but explaining Catholicism as an expression of Christianity.  So parts of this book read more like a basic systematic theology.  Barron is explaining who God is, why we worship him, the basics of the Trinity, the revelation of God, basic teachings of Jesus, end times, heaven, hell, purgatory, etc.

There were three areas that I found particularly helpful. Most helpful is Barron’s discussion of the church. He takes three different looks at it. One is a discussion of St Peter and Paul as exemplary of the tension between the organizational care of the church and the outreaching mission of the church.  Both are essential and a focus on either one to the exclusion of the other weakens the church as a whole.

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Takeaway: Real life is usually not like the movies.

Joy Davidman is best known, not for her own work, but as the wife of CS Lewis. The story of their marriage was featured in the movie Shadowlands. It is a good movie, but it seems as much fiction as reality.

I have previously read a short biography by Lyle Dorsett that was the rough basis of Shadowlands and I have read several biographies of Lewis which include discussions of Joy and her life.

This new biography is the first full fledged biography of Joy Davidman and is the product of much new documentation (primarily newly discovered letters) and research. It is hard to think more documentation would become available to warrant another biography.

Santamaria has written a highly readable and interesting biography of a complicated and not always likable woman. Davidman was a child prodigy, a promising young author and poet. But she was swept up with communist fervor, atheism, and her art became primarily focused on her causes.

Davidman was brilliant, but troubled. After strings of affairs, starting as a fairly young awkward teen she started a relationship with Bill Gresham. They were married in August 1942 and had two children. But it was a turbulent marriage. Bill was an alcoholic and likely had other mental health issues. But Joy was an equal partner to the turbulence.

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