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More Short Notes

Reviewed by Paul Beasley-Murray.

The Encylopedia of Christian Civilisation (edited by George Thomas Kurian. Four volumes; 2733pp; £375 hardback; Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2011; ISBN 098 1 4051 5762 9), with over 1,420 entries, is a massively comprehensive reference work. This encylopedia tries to explore the impact of Christianity on human civilisation as a whole, and is therefore not only interested in the impact of the Christian faith on religion, but also on music, art, literature, architecture, law, visual arts and society as a whole. The result is a wide-ranging collection of articles ranging from Christian poetry to architecture, women in early Christianity to Chinese Christianity, African independent churches to William Gladstone, alcohol to censorship, rapture of the saints to the Summer Institute of Linguistics, from Calvary Chapel to FF Bruce.  Inevitably, even in a work of this size, there are gaps, and there are some strange balances. Apart from less than a page on Baptist theology and an entry on the Southern Baptist Convention, Baptists  as a denomination get little mention; four pages are devoted to Anglicanism, while eight pages are devoted to Methodism and the Methodist Church. From a British perspective, the encylopedia has a substantial American flavour. There are, for instance, articles on Bill Bright, W A Criswell, Stanley Hauerwas, E Y Mullins, and Billy Sunday; on the other hand Timothy Dudley-Smith, Malcolm Muggeridge, Jim Packer and John Stott, also feature. Every article is followed by helpful references and suggested readings. The editor and his 350 collaborators are to be congratulated on the result. Sadly the price will ensure that this work of reference will mostly be found on library shelves. 

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Practical Theology (edited by Bonnie J Miller-McLemore; 626pp; £110 hardback; Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2011; ISBN 978 1 4443 3082 3) is a wonderful resource for those teaching practical theology, and includes 56 essays, mostly written within a North American context.  Divided into four parts, Part 1 is devoted to ‘Way of Life: Shaping Faith among Believers in Home and Society’; Part II deals with ‘Method: Studying Theology in Practice in Library and Field’; Part III is headed ‘Curriculum: Educating for Ministry and Faith in Classroom, Congregation, and Community’; while Part IV, the longest section, looks at ‘Disciple: Defining History and Context in Guild and Global Setting’.

For practitioners - ministers who are actually engaged at the coal face – most of the essays are totally irrelevant. The great exception is Part I, where there are some fascinating essays on suffering, healing, playing, eating, loving, consuming and blessing. I found, for instance, the essay on suffering by Pamela Cooper-White immensely stimulating.  “Suffering”, she writes, “is the starting point for all pastoral and practical theology”. She goes on to distinguish between suffering and pain: “suffering is the meaning that we make or attempt to make of our pain – pain is mute, but suffering speaks”. In her essay on healing, Susan J Dunlop develops the thought that “When a person finds peace, courage, hope, or vocation, there is healing even when illness remains.” In his essay on pain, Jaco Hamman makes the provocative statement: “We hear Jesus offering to all life to the full, which certainly is not possible without experiencing the transformative power of play”. The essay on eating by Dorothy Bass includes reflections on the Lord’s Supper –  quoting Gordon Lathrop who described it as “a hungry feast”, a meal at which “our own deep hunger for the reign of God is reawakened” – but strangely says nothing about hospitality.

Each essay is followed by a helpful bibliography.  At the back there is also a useful index of subjects.

Beautifully printed, the price of this companion sadly ensures that it remains in libraries.

SHORT NOTES – Paul Beasley-Murray

Serving God’s Words: windows on preaching and ministry (IVP, Nottingham 2011; 225pp; £11.99; ISBN 978 1 84474 547 0), edited by Paul A Barker, Richard J Condie and Andrew S Malone, is a ‘Festschrift’ celebrating the 65th birthday of the Australian Anglican preacher, Peter Adam. It consists of 12 essays, most of which explore perspectives on preaching from within the Scriptures. The essay which I found of most interest was by Don Carson on the minister’s devotional use of the Bible, where he makes the following helpful points: 1. Resolutely abolish the distinction between devotional Bible reading and Bible study; 2. Resolutely set aside time for Bible reading beyond the Bible reading undertaken for the next sermon or Bible study; 3. Resolutely set out to read the Bible in different ways; 4. Resolve to keep improving your Bible reading – that is, with increasing insight and integration; 5. As you read, resolutely pursue faith and obedience, individually and corporately, situating yourself and your church in the cosmic contest between good and evil, God and the devil, the temporary and the eternal; and 6. While you read your Bible, resolutely feast on the grace of God in the gospel.

After the Suicide: Helping the bereaved to find a path from grief to recovery (Jessica Kingsley, London 2011; 192pp; £17.99; ISBN 978 1 84905 211 5), by Kari Dyregrov, Einar Plyhn and Gudrun Dieserud, all three Norwegians, is written primarily for those who have been bereaved by suicide, but is also useful for those supporting the bereaved. Highly readable, it fills a real gap in the market and will be much appreciated by those coming to terms with the loss of a loved one through suicide. Sadly, it is not written from the perspective of Christian faith.

The Modern Theologians Reader (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2012; 450pp; £19.99; ISBN 978 1 4051 7110 6), edited by  David F Ford and Mike Higton with Simeon Zahl, is a useful student textbook providing a wide-ranging collection of primary texts from theologians of diverse traditions and cultural backgrounds. 

The World’s Christians: who they are, where they are, and how they got there (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2011; 399pp; £19.99; ISBN 978 1 4051 8887 6), by Douglas Jacobsen, is a wide-ranging and fascinating introduction to global Christianity. My one quibble is that the author does not seem to understand Baptists: he talks, for instance, of the Southern Baptist Church, whereas in fact it is the Southern Baptist Convention – for Baptists, church is always local!

The Future of the Global Church: History, Trends and Possibilities (Authentic, Milton Keynes 2011; 240pp; £24.99 hardback; ISBN 978 1 85078 966 6), by Patrick Johnstone, author of six editions of the prayer guide Operation World, is an amazing storehouse of data, with maps and charts on every page. The book is divided into seven sections: 1. Demography: Nine Global Challenges; 2. History: 20 Centuries AD; 3. Religion: The Major Streams; 4. Christianity: Six Megablocs; 5. Christianity: Renewed Growth; 6. Christianity: The Evangelical Explosion; 7. The Unevangelised; 8. Christian Missions and the Future; 9. Conclusion: An Evangelized World? Unusually for a book full of statistics, this is a passionate book, for it cites statistics in such a way as to stir hearts: nearly every page has a spiritual application to challenge or provoke thought. Typical of such ‘food for thought’ are these words found on the final page: “The Lord Jesus has given us the keys of the Kingdom to unlock the doors to the hardest hearts, the most resistant cultures and the most closed countries. Let us go out in faith as William Carey did two centuries ago, to ‘expect great things from God; attempt great things for God’”.  For anybody with any concern for global mission, then this reference work is a must!

First published in 2001, Comparative Religious Ethics: a narrative approach to global ethics (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2nd edition 2011; 360pp; £22.99; ISBN 978 1 4443 3133 2), by Darrell J Fasching, Dell de Chant, and David M Lantigua,  is a textbook for students of comparative religion, and is particularly focussed on issues of war and peace. New to this edition are discussions of globalization, ecological dimensions to ethics, and Ghandian traditions of non-violence in age of terrorism.

The Religion toolkit: A complete guide to religious studies (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2012; 348pp; £19.99; ISBN 978 1 4051 8246 1), by John Morreall and Tamara Sonn, is a beautifully produced and highly accessible text-book. Right at the very beginning the authors state their own approach: “Understanding other people’s religions requires a temporary suspension of belief – our own beliefs. This certainly does not mean that scholars of religion must abandon their own beliefs. It only means that we must not make them the standards by which to judge others”.

Making Sense of Near-Death Experiences: A Handbook for Clinicians (Jessica Kingsley, London 2011; 176pp; £18.99; ISBN 978 1 84905 149 1), edited by Mahendra Perera, Karuppiah Jagadheesan and Anthony Peake, consists of a wide-ranging collection of studies on the phenomenon “whereby powerful physical and emotional sensations and visions are experienced by someone who is either close to death or has been declared clinically dead” which appear to affect between 4%-9% of the general population. On the whole these experiences are positive, but occasionally they are negative in nature. The cause of such experiences is uncertain. Research suggests that these visions are not due to medication or to confusional states of the dying. Neither do they seem to be linked to religious belief, a desire for comfort or to expectation. If nothing else, this book makes clear that these phenomena are very complex!

And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 2011; 421pp; £19.99; ISBN 978 0 8028 6606 6. Available in the UK through Alban Books of Edinburgh), by Fleming Rutledge, consists of some 55 sermons preached over a period of 35 years (1975-2010) by a clearly gifted Anglican woman priest. Although for the most part the sermons are not expository in nature, they are nonetheless clearly rooted in Scripture as also in the contemporary world. The title of the book is taken from the very first sermon, in which the author states her belief that Scripture is a record of God speaking to us. Reading some of these sermons made me want to hear the preacher!  

Understanding Jesus: Five Ways to Spiritual Enlightenment (Paternoster, Milton Keynes 2011; 365pp; £12.99; ISBN 978 1 84227 7390), by Peter S Williams, a Christian philosopher currently working in Norway, is a really good work on Christian apologetics, which could prove to be a great resource to preachers, but also helpful to any thoughtful seeker. According to Williams, there are five ‘ways’ to understanding Jesus: 1) Jesus’ self-centred teaching; 2. Jesus’ dynamic deeds; 3. Jesus’ resurrection; 4. Jesus and fulfilled prophecy; and 5. Jesus and contemporary experience. Make no mistake: Williams is a scholar (the ‘end-notes’ take up 50 pages!), but he has the gift of wearing his scholarship lightly. This is a book to read and to lend! 

Recent booklets from Grove of Cambridge, all 28pp in length and costing £3.95, include:

Leadership and Social Networking: Updating your ministry status (Leadership 6, 2011; ISBN 978 1 85174 808 2), by Anna Drew and Richard Moy, contains an introduction to Facebook and Twitter: “if you can manage yourself, and use these tools wisely without amusing yourself to death or exacerbating negative drivers within you, we think that these tools will be missional, disciple-making and, most of all, fun”. 

Sacralized Youth Work (Youth 24, 2011; ISBN 978 1 85174 806 8), by Sally Nash, is about enabling ‘Generation Y’ young people interact with symbols with a sacred meaning – in a context where 49% of English churches have no 11-14 year olds and 59% no 15-19 year olds, this is an urgent task. 

Ministering with Emotional Intelligence (Pastoral 127, 2011; ISBN 978 1 85174 805 1), by Colin Horseman, concerns the essential pastoral skill required “to understand and interpret one’s own emotions and the emotions of others, and to manage those emotions in order to reach a desire outcome”.  

Evangelistening: Recovering the Art of Listening in Evangelism (Evangelism 96, 2011; ISBN 978 1 85174 812 9), by Tim Sumpter, is about putting the ‘listening’ back into evangelism: we need to understand people’s concerns and questions, before we can address them. In this context the author has developed a pre-Alpha course, ‘Points of You’, in which non-churchgoers are invited to come with their questions with a view to forming an agenda for later discussion. Interestingly at the very first evening of his first course, the following questions were raised: ‘Why does it seem that the good people in life experience more difficulties?’; ‘What happens when we die?’; ‘Where was God in Auschwitz?’; ‘Is everything in our lives pre-ordained?’;  ‘Is it possible to do so much evil you exhaust God’s love?’; ‘Is Christianity the only true religion?’; ‘Isn’t it unfair that God should choose to bless some and not others?’; ‘How do you forgive someone that really hurts you?’