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My favorite books of 2012

January 7, 2013 — 3 Comments

This past year was a rich year for reading, and whittling my 2012 reading list down to a top ten was tough, but I’ve given it my best shot. As it happens, only two of these were actually published in 2012, but they’re all timely anyway. It was interesting for me to realize that three are novels, five pertain to public theology, and the other two have to do with history and ecclesiology, respectively.

Novels
Gilead (Picador) by Marilynne Robinson. I finished this one on New Year’s Eve, and it was easily one of my very favorite books of the year. Robinson’s prose is poetically earthy, and the themes of the story are profound. The premise may not immediately hook you – an elderly, dying Congregationalist minister in Iowa writing an honest letter to his young son – but if you stick with it, you’ll be deeply moved.

My Name is Asher Lev (Anchor) by Chaim Potok. A novel about a tormented artist who struggles to pursue his craft without abandoning his Jewish faith, something that becomes more and more difficult as his “gift” becomes increasingly evident. It’s an interesting look at the Hasidic Jewish community, a tradition foreign to many of us. And for those of us who aren’t artists in any obvious sense, it’s an insightful look at the life of an artist. As a Christian, I found much to ponder, considering the challenge of being “in the world but not of it.”

The Poisonwood Bible (Harper) by Barbara Kingsolver. I’d wanted to read this one for quite some time, but it was always a bit intimidating to me, both because of length and because of its premise. But I think it’s a hugely important book for Christians to read, especially as we think about the ways we engage with others across cultures. My thoughts on the book, and the difficult questions it raises, are here.

Public Theology
A Public Faith (Brazos) by Miroslav Volf. I had a lot to say about this when I read this in early 2012 (I re-read it this fall), but in brief, he argues that as adherents of the world’s major religions grow numerically, as globalization brings them together geographically, and as they each seek to promote their vision for society, we face the twin temptations of imposition and withdrawal. Volf writes that the Christian faith, when functioning properly, offers a unique vision of human flourishing, as well as the resources to realize it. I wish everyone would read this book.

Desiring the Kingdom (Baker Academic) by James K.A. Smith. I was too intimidated to actually review this one, but it was a paradigm-rocker for me. Drawing on Augustine, Smith emphasizes that we’re primarily desiring beings, making decisions not first and foremost on the basis on reason or belief, but because of desire. We’re liturgical animals, he says, created to worship. Those who design shopping malls, he provocatively points out, understand this better than do those who lead our churches and Christian schools.

Creation Regained (Eerdmans) by Al Wolters. This book tackles worldview in light of the Reformed understanding of the narrative arc of the Bible, which moves from creation to fall and on to redemption. It may seem opaque, but my biggest takeaway was Wolters’ distinction between structure and direction in creation – in a nutshell, all creation (including people and institutions) is structurally good, but because of the fall all creation is misdirected, which is where redemption comes in. This understanding, I think, has profound implications for cultural engagement. My review is here.

Kingdom Calling (IVP) by Amy Sherman. For some odd reason I never reviewed this one, but it’s a wonderful plea, as the subtitle aptly puts it, for “vocational stewardship for the common good.” Sherman shows how our vocations – the work we do every day – can and should serve the common good and point to the coming of the Kingdom. For those who are not in so-called “full-time ministry” and feel that only pastors and theologians and evangelists and missionaries are truly doing God’s work, this book will encourage you and will equip you to serve God and others through the work of your hands.

Every Good Endeavor (Dutton) by Timothy Keller. This is the best, most comprehensive book I know of on the “integration of faith and work.” Whereas most books like this focus on a single aspect of that integration, Keller takes more of a both/and approach, emphasizing a broader, more cohesive whole, and does so in a more theologically robust way than many others. I anticipated the book here and pointed to it again here.

Church and History
Ancient-Future Faith (Baker Academic) by Robert Webber. I include this one because its themes have stuck with me throughout the year, more than most of the books I read. As we find ourselves on shifting cultural terrain, Webber believes we’ll find key resources for the future in the practices and beliefs of the ancient church, focusing specifically on the implications for our understanding of Christ, church, worship, spirituality, and mission. By the way, for those of us in traditions inclined to mark the beginning of church history in 1517 (and for those with no appreciation for church history at all), we need this book.

Moral Minority (Penn) by David Swartz. I’ll be reviewing this one very soon, but for now I’ll simply say it’s a well-researched, fascinating, historical look at evangelical political involvement in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century. It’s getting some very good press from the likes of the New York Times, Christianity Today, and Scot McKnight, all well-deserved in my opinion.

If you’re interested in my previous favorites, check out my 2011 and 2010 lists. What books would you recommend I read in 2013?

Miroslav Volf on values and voting

September 6, 2012 — 1 Comment

Last week Miroslav Volf posted this on his Facebook page:

In this year of presidential elections, I decided to summarize key values that guide me as I make the decision for whom to cast my vote. It takes knowing three basic things to choose a candidate for public office responsibly:

1. values we hope the candidate will stand for and the order of priority among them;
2. ways in which and means by which these values are best implemented in any given situation;
3. capacity—ability and determination—to contribute to the implementation of these values.

Most important are the values. As I identified each value, I thought it important to (1) name the basic content of the value, (2) give a brief rationale for holding it, (3) suggest some parameters of legitimate debate about it, and (4) identify key questions for the candidate.

I write as a Christian theologian, from the perspective of my own understanding of the Christian faith. Whole books have been written on each of these values, explicating them and adjudicating complex debates about them. In giving rationale for a given value, I only take one or two verses from the Bible to back up my position, more to flag the direction in which giving a rationale would need to go than in fact strictly to offer a rationale. I have identified some 20 such values. In coming days I will post one a day.

He has now posted eight or so of those twenty values, and each is worth serious consideration, regardless of the different conclusions each of us will come to. If you haven’t already, you can see the rest of the values by subscribing to his Facebook page.

In one of his essays in The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis writes, “He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself.”

It’s imperative, in my view, that Christians think theologically about the political options with which we are presented. If we have surrendered ourselves first and most fully to God, and if we have come to view our other allegiances, commitments, and loves in their proper place under the Lordship of Christ, the way we approach politics will look different than those who find their primary identity in a nation or a party or a class.

The bottom line is this: voting matters, and it matters why we vote as we do.

[Image credit: via aaronfreiwald.com]

In Culture Democrat, election, Miroslav Volf, politics, Republican, values, voting

Miroslav Volf on religious exclusivism as a basis for political pluralism

June 19, 2012 — Leave a comment

Since 1995, the Center for Public Justice has sponsored an annual Kuyper Lecture “to promote public consideration” of three key things:

Religion as a driving force – the deep, driving influence of competing religions in human society
Christ, the Light of the world – the comprehensive and inescapable claim of Jesus Christ on the world
An international Christian community – the strength and influence of international bonds of Christian community

Past lecturers include Mark Noll (author of The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind), James Skillen (author and former president of CPJ), and Michael Gerson (columnist and co-author of City of Man). This year the lecture was given by Yale professor Miroslav Volf on “A Public Faith: A Christian Alternative to Secular and Religious Political Exclusivism” at Gordon College. Volf’s thesis, which comes at about 3:15 in the video below, is this:

I believe that religious exclusivists indeed can embrace pluralism as a political project… not just out of pragmatic reasons because they need to achieve certain goals and under certain conditions it might be better for them to do so, but they can embrace pluralism as a political project from the deep resources of their faith itself.

Here’s the full video of the lecture, including responses afterwards.

Gordon College alumnus Laura Johnson interviewed Volf and summarized some of his key ideas, including some of the questions that prompted his focus on this topic:

When Miroslav Volf, Director of the Center for Faith & Culture at Yale University, taught his first session of a class on “Faith and Globalization,” he noticed that the issue of religious exclusivists, namely those who consider their faith be the one true faith, came up repeatedly. Teaching alongside former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, seven years to the day after the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001, Volf noted a central theme that emerged from the class: “How can people of very different religious persuasions live under the same roof? How can they seek and arrange their common affairs together without coming to blows, without serious conflict?”

Another Gordon alum, Emily Boop, wrote a great response to the lecture for Capital Commentary:

Participating in a pluralist political order does not mean giving up deeply held convictions, but learning to live and work alongside those who have convictions—held just as firmly—that entirely contradict one’s own. Christianity is uniquely equipped to participate in such a system because our scriptures teach us to have a high view of other people who, like us, are made in the image of God. In Philippians 2:3, Paul clearly states, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Cultivating the virtue of humility is key for Christian engagement in politics, for it is difficult to label anyone who approaches politics with humility as “intolerant.”

These questions of religious exclusivism and political pluralism are urgently important for all of us to consider, as world events continue to unfold in real time, driven by and impacting both. If we live with full confidence that our beliefs are true, we don’t need to be afraid of conversations with those whose beliefs differ. On the contrary, those who are unable to engage in these kinds of conversations with both humility and strength of conviction reveal, in my view, that they’re really not very confident in their beliefs. I have more to say about this in my earlier review of Volf’s important book on this topic.

What do you make of Volf’s thesis? Do you think it’s possible to hold exclusive religious claims and yet embrace pluralism as a political project?

[Photo credit: celebratinggodsgoodness.org]

In Justice A Public Faith, Center for Public Justice, faith, Gordon College, justice, Kuyper Lecture, Miroslav Volf, peace, political pluralism, politics, religion, religious exclusivism

Resisting manipulation, seeking truth, and acting justly in an election year

May 3, 2012 — 6 Comments

Being an election year, it seems as good a time as any to reflect a bit on citizenship and civility. I plan to read several books along those lines between now and November, and I’ll share some thoughts along the way. One of the ones I’m most looking forward to digging into is Uncommon Decency by Richard Mouw. I’ve heard great things about it, and I wonder how it compares to Miroslav Volf’s A Public Faith, which I reflected on earlier this year. I might also re-read The Case for Civility by Os Guinness as well as unSpun by some of the folks behind FactCheck.org – an essential resource for making sense of “creative” campaign rhetoric.

In the meantime, I want to share a wonderful couple of paragraphs by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, from her book Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies (Eerdmans). It’s not a book about politics, per se, but it’s packed full of lessons that would serve us well in our political engagement for sure. In this excerpt she introduces a series of really good questions:

Any effort to find reliable reporting needs to start not with questions about the sources but with questions about ourselves. What are my responsibilities as a citizen? As a person of faith? As a consumer? As a leader? As a parent? As an educator? What am I avoiding knowing? Why? What point of view am I protecting? Why? How have I arrived at my assumptions about what sources of information to rely on? What limits my angle of vision? Have I tried to imagine how one might arrive at a different conclusion? How much evidence do I need to be convinced? What kind of persuasion works most effectively for me? How do I accredit or challenge authority?

The answers to these questions are not simply personal. Some of them involve serious theological reflection on the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the state, what it means to give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s, and whether and how to participate in the conduct of worldly affairs. If you’re Mennonite or Amish, that boundary is drawn pretty clearly. But most of us, I think, are navigating the murky middle ground marked out between not-so-separate church and state, trying to resist manipulation, seek truth, and act on it justly in the ways that remain open to us. (pp. 59-60)

What have you found to be helpful in discerning how to be civil in the public square while being a good steward of one’s citizenship?

[Photo credit: isoc.com]

In Culture, Gospel Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, citizenship, civility, Eerdmans, election, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, Miroslav Volf, politics, public square, rhetoric, Richard Mouw, stewardship

Repaso: Chuck Colson on common grace; “saudade”; peacemaking & prayer; suffering & art; Miroslav Volf resources; food industry infographic

April 27, 2012 — 1 Comment

1. Chuck Colson on common grace
Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship and former Watergate “hatchet man,” passed away this week. He was at times controversial in some circles, but in this podcast from a few years ago, Gabe Lyons and Andy Crouch discuss his positive legacy and share part of an interview with him, including his understanding of common grace:

The term “common grace” has fallen at a disuse in modern times. However, the Reformers understood it be God’s grace spilled out in life for the benefit of non-believers, as well as, believers. Saving grace is the grace that transforms us. Common grace is what the just and unjust alike experience when God’s people work to restore things back to God’s original design.

2. “Saudade”
Those of us who grew up between cultures — as missionary kids, business kids, embassy kids, and the like — are often lumped together as third culture kids. My mom sent me this blog post on the Portuguese word “saudade,” which more or less means “a longing, a melancholy, a desire for what was.” It’s something TCKs commonly experience:

Third culture kids often struggle to give voice to their longing. Well aware that they are not from the country(ies) where they were raised, they still have all the connections and feelings that represent home. When trying to voice these, others look on with glazed eyes. Just recently someone said to me “But you’re not an immigrant! You’re American!” The tone was accusing and it was meant to be. What was unsaid was “Give it a rest! We know you grew up overseas. Big deal. You’re American and you’re living in America…” Ah yes….but I have “Saudade” I have that longing for something that “does not and cannot exist” and I know that. On my good days it is well hidden under the culture and costume of which I am now living. But on my more difficult days it struggles to find voice only to realize that explaining is too difficult.

3. Leymah Gbowee on peacemaking and prayer
Sarah Pulliam Bailey has an interview in Christianity Today with Leymah Gbowee, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Here’s Gbowee’s perspective on the connection between prayer and reconciliation:

There’s something special about prayer itself that changes things. It consoles you in your faith and open doors. Reconciliation is often a spiritual process. If someone offends you deeply, it’s too difficult for any man to heal you, so you have to encounter a higher power to receive that forgiveness. If you are the offender, even if the person you affected forgives you, you have to encounter something else to be able to forgive yourself. In order for reconciliation to take place, you have to be reconciled with God, yourself, and those who offended you.

4. When the world is suffering, what good do artists do?
William Dyrness, professor of theology and culture at Fuller Seminary, reflects on the purpose of art and the vocation of the artist when the world is suffering. Here’s how he begins:

Artists perform a strange alchemy, turning colors, nouns, and notes into landscapes, sonnets, and string quartets. Sometimes they perform an even greater magic by shaping images that keep us going, even in the darkness. As St. Augustine said, they provide the means of transport to move us along our journey. Our life, the Bishop of Hippo wrote, is a journey of the affections, which is meant to bring us to our true homeland in God. Many things attract our affections and move us, but they only take us forward when they are loved for the sake of God…

5. Online resources from Miroslav Volf
A blogger by the name of Andrew Goddard has compiled an impressive list of articles and lectures from Miroslav Volf that are available online. If my review of A Public Faith piqued your interest, this would be a great place to learn more about Volf’s work.

6. Ten companies that own what we eat
This fascinating chart shows the ten companies that own most of the food products we buy. Did you know the food industry was arranged this way? Click the image below to enlarge.

Repaso is intended as a thought-provoking compilation of news and commentary from the past week related to the intersections of faith, development, justice and peace. As always, I welcome your thoughts on any of the links and ideas in this roundup!

[Photo credit: Christianity Today]