Hearing the Call

Hearing the Call: Liturgy, Justice, Church and World, essays by Nicholas Wolterstorff; edited by Mark R. Gornik and Gregory Thompson. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011. 440 pp. $30.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-6525-0.

Reviewed by John E. Shaffett

This is the author's version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source:

The Christian Librarian 55(2) 2012/56(1) 2013: 43.

Nicholas Wolterstorff has written many thoughtful works over the years. Hearing the Call is a collection of essays he has written over a fifty year period. “This collection of popular and semi-popular essays” is his response to certain issues he considers of the utmost importance: liturgy, justice, the church, and the world. Wolterstorff stands in the Dutch Reformed tradition and has been influenced by the thought of Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian and statesman of the nineteenth century. This book is meant for a wider audience, however. The author and editors chose essays that would be applicable to people outside of the reformed tradition.

The book is divided into four part parts: liturgy, justice, church, and the world. The book also includes two interviews with the author. These interviews and the two autobiographical essays fit in well with the collection of essays. The author and editors have been careful to keep the essays from repeating itself.  Wolterstorff writes clear, understandable prose. Hearing the Call is written for a broad audience and succeeds in addressing key issues that will be clear to this audience.

Some of the key issues addressed in this book are the difference between justice and love. The author believes that all persons bear the image of their creator and that they have certain rights. He shows how justice is emphasized by the Old Testament prophets. Wolterstorff describes how he became confronted with the issue of justice in regards to the Palestinians and the blacks of South Africa. He also addresses the issue of women in the ministry. Other issues addressed by Wolterstorff: patriotism, church architecture, art, economics and many other issues.

Wolterstorff has addressed important issues in a thoughtful way. He has shown how both the liturgy and working for justice is important.  He thinks one of the most important things that the Christian scholar can do is to keep alive the memory of Christian tradition. He draws from this tradition in many of his essays. It is no accident being a teacher for many years that Wolterstorff teaches us many important truths that we need to know.

Appearance versus Reality

Guy de Maupassant, "The Necklace," 1984, translated by Marjorie Laurie.

Maupassant (1850-1893) wrote a wonderful short story called the necklace. In this story he describes a clerk's wife who is unhappy with her lot in life. The author sets up the story beautifully from the very beginning:

"She was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks. She has no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded by any rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a little clerk at the Ministry of Public Instructions."

This displays a master craftsman at work. Maupassant apprenticed for seven years under Gustave Flaubert who was a distant relative. Maupassant's writing showed a "lack of sentimentality toward his writers," as is shown in this story. We see very early that the clerk's wife is not happy with her life. Indeed she seems to hate her life:

"She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains."

The clerk's wife was all about appearances. The author observes: "She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that; she felt made for that."

In a few paragraphs we know the clerk's wife well. She is unhappy with her lot. She is discontent. She feels she was born for better things. She desires to have the outward trappings of wealth: fine jewelry, dresses, and china.

This story makes me think how often we fret for what we do not have instead of rejoicing in what we do have. We are always thinking the grass is greener on the other side. We deal in appearances and not reality. We need to keep up with our neighbors. How much of our life is built on falsehood?

Your Grown-up Faith

Your Grown-Up Faith: Blending the Three Elements of Belief

By Kenneth L. Parker, Liguori, 2012, 108 pp., ISBN 978-0-7648-2221-6, $10.99 (paper).

This is the author's version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source:

Catholic Library World, March 2013, Vol. 83 Issue 3 p.213.

Kenneth L. Parker’s Your Grown-Up Faith argues for developing a mature Christian faith. He does this by describing three stages of Christian belief: “The Child’s Way,” “The Youth’s Way,” and “The Adult’s Way.” The child’s way is characterized by the acceptance of authorities and the “religious environment they create.” The youth’s way is a period of questioning and curiosity. The adult’s way is where the faith is “internalized,” “the limits of human authorities are acknowledged, and the insufficiency of human reason is recognized” (xx). A grown-up faith would be a synthesis of all three elements.

The three elements of belief were originally developed by Friedrich von Hugel in his work, The Mystical Element of Religion. Parker draws from this work and the life and writings of John Henry Newman. In addition, this work is autobiographical since the author shares his own experience of going through these stages of faith. Parker grew up in the Wesleyan Church and became a Roman Catholic during his doctoral studies in Reformation history at Cambridge University. He has been a professor of historical theology at Saint Louis University since 1992.

Parker argues persuasively that we need to mature in our faith. His autobiographical reflections on experiencing the child’s way, the youth way, and the adult way enhance the value of Your Grown-Up Faith. This would be a good book to read in a study group.

Trust of People, Words, and God

Trust of People, Words, and God: A Route for Philosophy of Religion

By Joseph J. Godfrey, University of Notre Dame Press, 2012, 498 pp., ISBN 978-0-268-03001-8, $49.00 (paper).

This is the author's version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source:

Catholic Library World, Mar2013, Vol. 83 Issue 3, p204.

Godfrey’s Trust of People, Words, and God argues that trusting is central to the practice of theistic religion. Trusting that is directed “towards some people and towards some words and towards God are key to what theistic religion offers as the target of hope” (ix). The book emphasizes religion as practiced. It “includes how people live as well as what they hold to be true” (ix). A key image of the book is open hands. It illustrates the idea that trusting “is to be receptive to enhancement” (398). Godfrey asserts that trusting is something that a person does. The author analyzes the concepts of trust, faith, and belief and explores ways that connect these ways with trusting God.  

Trust of People, Words, and God is a well-argued essay on the subject of trust. The book does a good job of engaging some of the key authors on trusting and religious faith: Marcel Sarot, Paul Helm, Richard Swinburne, Annette Baier, Russell Hardin, Gabriel Marcel, Richard Foley, Hans Kung, Alvin Plantinga, and others. The author employs the tools of Anglo-American Analytic philosophy, Continental philosophy, and Scholastic philosophy in analyzing trust. Chapter one introduces the topic and defines the key terms that will be used throughout the book. Chapter two shows how trust will be explored in four dimensions: “reliance trust, I-thou trust, security trust, and openness trust.” The author draws from the thought of Martin Buber and Gabriel Marcel, especially, when describing the I-Thou model of trust. Chapter four describes how analogy can bridge human trusting to religious trusting. Chapter five “considers how trusting can be virtuous” (24). The relationship between trusting and knowledge is analyzed in chapter six. It “considers how knowing is helpful for good trusting, and how trusting is helpful for knowing” (xi).  Chapters nine and ten consider whether trusting can offer an argument for God. The final chapter explores religious faith and trust. The author argues that the act of faith is neither primarily intellectual nor moral, but includes an intellectual and volitional aspect. Religious faith not only includes reliance trust, but I-Thou trusting as well. The author makes a distinction between believing that and believing in. The knowledge of God is mediated through messengers and a message. So in believing the message the believer believes in God. Godfrey notes that what connects people with God are “language, community, and the presence of God-who-is-not simply-available” (385).

Trust of People, Words, and God is a well-crafted essay on trusting people, words, and God. Religious believers will see how trusting “is connected to religious living and believing” (399). Non-believers’ understanding of trusting will be enhanced. This book will help anyone trying to understand trust, both conceptually and practically. This book will also help those who want to understand the role of trust in “human relationships, religious experiences, and the nature of knowledge.” It is recommended for all libraries.

The Poetry of Piety

The Poetry of Piety: An Annotated Anthology of Christian Poetry by Ben Witherington III and Christopher Mead Armitage. Baker Academic, 2002.

I try to read books in various genres: fiction, non-fiction, essays, epics, plays, history, and others. I read poetry not too often. One of the books I read recently argued that poetry should be part of our reading diet. I agreed with the author and began looking for a way to incorporate reading poetry into my reading schedule. My favorite time to read is early in the morning. It is at this time I like to read the Bible, a prayer book, and from one of the Great Books of the Western Civilization. I agree with Lewis on the importance of reading the old books, books from every century. Recently, I ahve been reading from John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. 

I found The Poetry of Piety on the shelves recently. I was familiar with Ben Witherington. I have read some of his books with great profit. There are 28 chapters in Poetry of Piety. It contains poems that would be familiar to many Christians. Some of the authors included are: George Herbert, John Donne, Phyllis Wheatley, John Henry Newman, C.S. Lewis and others. Some chapters have multiple poems. There are multiple poems for John Donne, George Herbert, and Gerald Manley Hopkins. Christpher Armitage explains the structure of the poem and Witherington discusses the theological meaning of the poem.

One of my favorite poems is Newman's "Lead Kindly Light:"

Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home

Another one I like is "The Apologist's Prayer by C. S. Lewis:

 From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories I seem to score;
From cleverness shot forth on thy behalf . . .
From all my proofs of thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Tolkien: A Celebration

Tolkien: A Celebration : Collected Writings on a Literary Legacy edited by Joseph Pearce. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999. ISBN: 0898708664

We have been waiting expectantly for The Hobbit movie to come out. To prepare for the movie I read the book to my family. I think it is the third time I have read the book to my family. It is interesting that both Bilbo and Frodo go on adventures once they turn fifty. That is interesting since I will be turning fifty soon.

I was afraid I would be disappointing in the movie since  it is divided into three parts. I enjoyed the movie, however and would see it again. Since that time I have read The Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers to my kids. It is the first time I am reading the Lord of Rings to the kids believing it to be above them. There is something to be said for reading great literature together as a family.

I have noticed a book on the shelves of our library on Tolkien: Tolkien: A Celebration. It is edited by Joseph Pearce who has written extensively on Catholic authors. He has even written a book on Tolkien. In his research he came upon some essays on Tolkien that needed to be published. This book is the result of this desire. Tolkien: A Celebration presents a good collection of essays on the literary legacy of Tolkien. It would be an excellent introduction to those beginning to look at the person behind the Lord of the Rings. The essays do a good job in showing how the Lord of Rings is a Christian work. Peter Kreeft has also written an excellent book on Tolkien called the philosophy of Tolkien.

"Recollections of J. R. R. Tolkien" by George Sayer tells how Sayer first met Tolkien and about other meetings they had over the years. George Sayer was a student of C. S. Lewis and has written an excellent biography on Lewis. Stratford Caldecott's essay describes Christian themes in The Similarian and the Lord of the Rings. Robert Murray argues about the parabolic nature of the Lord of the Rings. Stephen R. Lawhead talks about his personal experiences in writing fantasy and how it is connected to the work of Tolkien. Sean McGrath talks about how the Lord of Rings teaches that we must be willing to die if we want to die. This is related to Jesus' teaching that those who want to save their life will lose it; but those who lose their life for the sake of the gospel will attain it.

Anyone interested in exploring the Christian background to The Lord of the Rings would be wise to start with this collection. The essays would be understandable for the general reader and do not require knowledge of the secondary literature on Tolkien. The essays are enjoyable to read and provide much insight into the life and thought of J.R. R. Tolkien.

For Faith and Friendship

For Faith and Friendship, edited by Fisher Humphreys, T. J. Mashburn, and Richard F. Wilson. Covington, Louisiana: Insight Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780914520528.

For Faith and Friendship is the story of twelve Baptist theologians who met three times a year for several years. In these meeting they discussed theology and related matters. The group was called the "Trinity Group" because "of the importance of the Trinitarian understanding of God for Christian theology. Each member of the group wrote one chapter. The chapters are mostly autobiographical. Some of the members of the group are Fisher Humphreys, T. J. Mashburn, J. Bradley Creed, Ralph C. Wood, and others. The book was dedicated to one of the founding members of the group, Philip Wise. Wise died in the Spring of 2009.

One of the consistent themes in this book is the journey of faith. Each of the chapters depict how the author changed over time. For example, Mashburn writes how he lost his faith to regain it. He really didn't lose his faith, but he shows how his faith changed over time. Mashburn was warned before he left the United States to study in Europe to be careful he didn't lose his faith. He says what he lost was the 'slam dunk' "approach to reading and understanding the Bible. This is the view that interprets the Bible in very literal ways, with little or no regard for any factors (for example, etymology, historical context, literary genre) save the words themselves" (73). I enjoyed reading this chapter since I studied under Mashburn when I was a librarian at the University of Mobile. He was a wonderful teacher and he followed the Socratic method of teaching. He was also a humble man who had a great interest in hermeneutics. Mashburn summarizes his main point" "Losing your faith is really about being honest with God, others, and yourself. It is a filtering process in which some beliefs/practices are celebrated, others discarded, and still others revised and developed" (80). This summarizes the theme of the journey of faith that is present in other chapters.

Two other chapters I would like to mention are Dwight A. Moody's essay on encountering C.S. Lewis a second time and Ralph Wood's essay that presents G. K. Chesterton as a Christian Humanist. Moody tells how after several years elapsed of not reading Lewis he found him again. Much of the essay describes this journey and how he began to teach a course on C. S. Lewis. He spends much of the essay on showing how some of Lewis's best writings is contained In the Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis edited by Walter Hooper. Wood argues that the answer for our time is to discover the Christian Humanism of G. K. Chesterton. Wood too writes about his spiritual journey, but most of his essay is dedicated to explicating the Christian Humanism of G. K. Chesterton. Wood has recently published a book on Chesterton. He has also written a popular book on Flannery O'Connor.

For Faith and Friendship show how our Christian faith develops. It does not stay the same. It also teaches about the importance of friendship. Moody shows how C. S. Lewis thought that friendship was one of God's best gifts.

Recovering Theological Hermeneutics

Jens Zimmermann, Recovering Theological Hermeneutics: An Incarnational-Trinitarian Theory of Interpretation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004. ISBN: 0801027276.

I wrote a review earlier of Zimmerman's more recent Incarnational Humanism. One could see in that book some of the hermeneutical views of Zimmermann. Recovering Theological Hermeneutics makes explicit what is implicit in Incarnational Humanism. Both books supplement one another. They could be considered companions. Zimmermann's goal is to correct some of the myths of premodern hermeneutics. He believes that the "interpretive practices from the early church to the Enlightenment" is "not given due credit for its richness and complexity" (17). The purpose of this book is to correct this failing. He argues that the goal of premodern hermeneutics was "communion with God." Zimmermann writes a history of hermeneutics from premodern times to postmodernism.

Recovering Theological Hermeneutics is divided into three parts. Part one tells the story of premodern hermeneutics. This was probably my favorite part. The author looks at the interpretive practices of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Puritans, and Pietists. Part two covers secular hermeneutics. Gadamer and Levinas are the two primary scholars covered in this part. Each have a chapter to themselves. The reader will observe the high respect Zimmermann has for Gadamer's work. The chapter on Levinas was difficult to understand. In the third part Zimmermann presents his own views on theological hermeneutics through the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Recovering Theological Hermeneutics presents a well-crafted history of hermeneutics for premodern interpreters to postmodern interpreters. Some chapters are more difficult to understand. Some background knowledge of hermeneutics would be helpful in reading this text. The book seemed to be different than the title indicated. The reader assumed it would be a methodology on interpreting the Bible theologically. This book looks more at the "grounds" for interpretation than the methods. Zimmermann argues that there must be a transcendental ground for us to know who we are. For example, he shows how Calvin taught a double knowledge. To know ourselves we must know both God and ourselves. Zimmermann also emphasizes how everything is interpretation. Everyone stands from somewhere. This also emphasizes als the idea of the incarnation. We are all influence by our culture and history. This would be a good book for anyone interested in philosophical hermeneutics.

The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought

The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought

Edited by Chris L. Firestone and Nathan A. Jacobs, University of Notre Dame Press, 2012, 412 pp., ISBN 978-0-268-02906-7, $40.00 (paper).

This is the author's version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: 

Catholic Library World, Dec2012, Vol. 83 Issue 2, p 127.

In The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought, Chris Firestone, Nathan Jacobs and thirteen other contributors discuss the role of God in the thought of major philosophers from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The major philosophers examined are Locke, Hobbes, Boyle, Newton, Bayle, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Fichte, Schleiermacher, Schelling, Hegel, and Kierkegaard. The essays of The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought argue that the thought of these thinkers have been secularized and their religious thinking has largely been ignored. Firestone and others note, “The philosophers of this period are . . . not orthodox theists; they are freethinkers, emancipated by an age no longer tethered to the authority of church and state” (1). These philosophers, however, are “bent not on removing God from philosophy but putting faith and reason on more sure footing in light of advancements in science and a felt need to rethink the relationship between God and the world” (1). The purpose of the book is to examine this often ignored part of the story.

The strong part of these essays is that each of the philosophers examined is by a noted scholar in the field. In addition, each of these scholars believes that the philosophers have been misinterpreted by not taking seriously their religious thought. Some might think it is strange that Kierkegaard was included in this collection since he is an orthodox thinker. Myron B. Penner, however, shows how his thought has been distorted by a secular mindset. For example, Kierkegaard has been interpreted “as a fideist who opts for transcendence and spurns the use of reason altogether in religious belief” (384). In truth, Kierkegaard argued against “modern reason.” It is against the argument in modern philosophy which “invests authority entirely in human reason” and denies a transcendent source.

The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought makes an important contribution to the field of modern philosophy. It corrects an overlooked dimension of major philosophers from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. This reviewer was surprised that it was written in understandable prose that a non-philosopher could understand. It is recommended for all college and university libraries.

The Boxcar Children: The Garden Thief

The Boxcar Children:The Garden Thief:130

Created by Gertrude Chandler Warner, Albert Whitman & Company, 2012, 107 pp., ISBN 978-0-8075-2751-1, $15.99.

This is the author's version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source:

Catholic Library World, Jun2012, Vol. 82 Issue 4, p.317.

The Boxcar children have been a family favorite for generations. Only the first nineteen stories were written by creator Warner. Other books in the series have been written by other writers. The recent books of the series are set in the modern day. One wonders why this series continues to be popular. Many parents remember reading them when they were young. They want to share this experience with their children. Another reason is that the stories are written in simple prose that is appealing to people of various ages. The writing is basic which makes it readable for young readers, but the stories are also fun to read.

In this new addition to the series, the many strong points of the series continue. Grandfather’s friend, Mr. Yee, has broken his arm and he cannot tend his prize-winning garden. He has won many blue ribbons for his garden in the past. The children, Benny, Violet, Jessie, and Henry offer to help Mr. Yee. Another difficulty is that someone has been vandalizing and stealing fruits and vegetables from the garden. The kids tell Mr. Yee they will help him solve this mystery.

The Garden Thief is an exciting mystery that will keep the reader turning the pages. It includes black and white drawings that complement the text. The Garden Thief  is written for ages seven-ten or grades two-five. It also will serve as a good read-aloud for the family or classroom.