BOOK REVIEW

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f you are not familiar with the writings of C. S. Lewis, Christian theologian and scholar, this book is an excellent introduction to his works. If you know his works, you will enjoy this book as a refresher course of his main ideas
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There is a good Forward summarizing Lewis’ life and works: “If there is one word to describe Lewis’ life, it would be joy. The harmonizing of himself with the rest of the created world, the process that led him from atheism through theism and pantheism to Christianity, he has described as joy.” “What a Christian can joyfully believe. . . is the subject of this anthology, and selections have been taken from 15 of Lewis’s works. The readings are thematically arranged . . .”
Here are just a few of his thoughts from the 127 readings in The Joyful Christian:

THE SECOND COMING
“The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end.” One anticipates and plans - looking forward to getting married next month, getting a raise next week, being on the verge of a great scientific discovery, etc. “Surely no good and wise God would be so very unreasonable as to cut all this short? Not now, of all moments!” He uses very effectively the example of the characters in a play not knowing the ending. “...and we cannot tell at what moment the end ought to come. That it will come when it ought, we may be sure; but we waste our time in guessing when that will be. That it has a meaning we may be sure, but we cannot see it. When it is over, we may be told. We are led to expect that the author will have something to say to each of us on the part that each of us has played. The playing it well is what matters infinitely.”

HUMILITY
“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”

IS CHRISTIANITY HARD OR EASY?
“. . .the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose . ..”U

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SISTER WENDY ON PRAYER
Sister Wendy Beckett
Harmony Books 2006

Sister Wendy has been a personal favorite since meeting her through her television series on art.

Wendy Mary Beckett was born in 1930 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She spent her early childhood in Scotland where her father was studying medicine at Edinburgh University.

As a child of three or four she had an experience that shaped her entire life: “For some reason I was sitting under the table. I could smell the sausages. I could hear the band. I could feel the carpet. And I became conscious of God. It was an overwhelming experience of greatness and of goodness and of protection.

“I remember feeling with wonder that the world - so bewildering to a little child - made sense, that it was God’s world and I was a blessed child within it. If you ask how I knew, I cannot tell you. I saw nothing and I heard nothing. But from then on God was always with me, the center of all I did, giving it significance.”

The family returned to South Africa and Wendy and her sister Pamela attended a Catholic school. In 1947 Wendy returned to the United Kingdom as a Notre Dame novice, given the name Sister Michael of Saint Peter. She read English at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. By choice she spoke only to her tutor and never had a conversation with a fellow student; she was an avid reader. Wendy received Oxford’s highest accolade, a Congratulatory First.

In 1954 Wendy earned her teaching diploma and returned to South Africa. Her teaching experience was not satisfying; curriculum was very limited, as was the library at the convent. Her order denied her the prayer time she required (There were two half-hour periods of private prayer a day). She lectured at Witwaterstand University; she became a reverend mother. After the Second Vatican Council, which liberalized religious orders, she became “Wendy” again, though she preferred the two male saints’ names.

Wendy repeatedly asked to be transferred to a more contemplative order. In 1970, after a series of epileptic seizures, she was allowed to become a hermit. She lived on the grounds of a Carmelite convent in Norfolk and became officially “a Consecrated Virgin under the protection of the Sisters of the Carmelite Order.” Wendy chose to keep monastic garb which she designed for herself. Up at 1:30am, she collects the day’s food left out for her in an anteroom of the monastery - cold veggies, skimmed milk, and one slice of rye bread plus yesterday’s newspaper. The Mass is the center of her life. At 8:30am she is back in her simple trailer without radio, TV, telephone, fax or computer. She displays countless postcards and art reproductions.

Her work was translating medieval Latin works, though illness intervened. She asked to study art and wrote (to earn her keep) Contemporary Women Artists and magazine articles for Modern Painters. The community built a brick library (looks like a privy) next to her trailer. She was persuaded by a BBC researcher to take part in a documentary set at the National Gallery. There was tremendous response to this program and dozens of documentaries and twenty-two books followed. David Willcock, the researcher, TV producer and writer and Wendy have collaborated on eighteen films at art galleries around the world. Willcock wrote the biographical material on Wendy from which I have quoted.
This is not a “how to” book on prayer, but rather a series of meditations. Wendy sees prayer as “terrifyingly simple and deeply personal.” Following are significant thoughts from Wendy about prayer:

Ask yourself what do I really want when I pray? Do you want to be possessed by God? Or to put the question more honestly, do you want to want it? Then you have it...If you want God to take possession of you, then you are praying.

That is all prayer is.

What should I do? Stand before God unprotected and you will know yourself what to do.

Rote prayer is not prayer at all. Understand the meaning of the words “Our Father, etc.”

There are three levels of prayer, the deepest being wordless union with God; the second, in church or on your knees using words, either vocally or mentally; the third level is spiritual talk, less structured - listening to sermons, talking to friends about the things of God. If we are truly oriented toward God, then our slightest activities . . .are a form of prayer.
The essential nature of our plea is not that God will change the real world, but that he will strengthen us to bear the impact of it. Reading Scripture, thinking about scripture, studying Scripture, meditating scripture - these are essential preludes to the silent acceptance of the reality of God in prayer.

Read books that draw us closer to God - books that show human goodness and courage.

Whenever we speak about prayer, we are really speaking about the power of the Holy Spirit. “For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26)
There is no holiness without prayer. For that matter, there is no Christianity without prayer. If we believe in the God whom Jesus reveals to us as Father, then we stretch out to Him, and that yearning - always, remembering a yearning of the will, not of the emotions - is prayer.

Sister Wendy uses various paintings to bring home her points, using illustrations in her book. She states that works that touch her and deeply affect her are rare “in that they directly unite me to God, I could say that they have a relevance to my prayer. I would never want to use them during prayer, but when I come to pray, what they have shown me may be a powerful incentive to surrender.”U

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WHEN ANSWERS AREN’T ENOUGH
Experiencing God as Good When Life Isn’t
Matt Rogers
Zondervan 2008

Matt Rogers, age 30, had been Co-Pastor of the New Life Christian Fellowship at Virginia Tech for a year when the shootings occurred on April 16, 2007. This book is a result of that experience. “I wasn’t looking for answers. I knew the answers. I was searching for a way to experience God as good when the world around me appeared dark and hopeless.”

The author draws on inspiration from several sources, especially the late Madeleine L’Engle, to whom this book is dedicated, “for showing me something better than intellect alone; for teaching me to experience what I once only believed.” After the death of her husband from cancer, she says: “We do not have to understand God’s ways, or the suffering and brokenness and pain that sooner or later come to us all. But we do have to know in the very depths of our being that the ultimate end of the story, no matter how many aeons it takes, is going to be all right.”

Other inspirations came from the Bible, Annie Dillard, C. S. Lewis, and Philip Yancey. Rogers invited Yancey to speak to the congregation at Virginia Tech following the massacre. He was inspired by Yancey’s book, Disappointment with God. Yancey, from Colorado, brought his wife and a friend who had been wounded at Columbine High School eight years previously. Yancey paid for everything. He donated 1200 copies of his book, Where Is God When It Hurts, one copy for each attendee. His only request was a Hokie shirt for himself and his wife and guest. He offered no answers, only solace.

The author asks the reader to think of his book as a series of meditations and reflections on tragedy, something like “a private journal made public or as a letter from a friend.” The April 16th tragedy reminded him of his own personal experiences with death and tragedy. His baby brother had died shortly after birth; a neighbor died when Rogers was ten; his best friend died; his father was in a serious accident.

Rogers shares an extensive interview with one of the wounded at Virginia Tech. Questions asked included: “What do you think about God after all this? Does he still seem good to you? What has this done to your faith?” The responses indicate that his faith has been strengthened. The caring and coming together of people afterwards, not only on campus but around the world, showed the love of God’s family coming together.

The author interviewed a family two years after six of their nine children had been killed in a home gas explosion. The husband is quoted as saying: “I never felt angry at God, though I think it’s fine if others do. God can take it. . .it never occurred to me that God was punishing our family. . .Knowing God is good beforehand helped us in knowing God as good afterwards.” Their belief in an afterlife with God sustained them. Their church family were incredibly supportive - funeral and medical expenses paid, extensive chores and household repairs, a trip to Alaska, etc.
Rogers found that trips to beautiful places helped heal him. He visited the shore in North Carolina. “I do not need one more sermon assuring me God is good. I need to taste and see this for myself.” “Creation itself is not the thing. But it speaks to us of that which is. It tells us of a good God who long ago made the heavens and the earth and saw that it was good. The mere presence of beauty is not enough to heal us. We must move in its direction; let it capture our attention, choose to be drawn in. . . I must look for the Lord’s reflection in the sea; otherwise, all I see is water.”
He stays with the Yanceys in Colorado on his way to Estes Park as a visiting lecturer; he is given a trip to Japan two weeks before the big earthquake. He muses on disasters in the world - the tsunami in Indonesia, the cyclone in Bangladesh. He makes a conscious effort to aid others - supporting a child in Bangladesh, serving Thanksgiving dinner to the needy, etc.

Experiencing the goodness of God is Matt Rogers’ answer to the dark times. “Goodness and evil are such total opposites, one cannot relate to the other. The poetic apostle John wrote, ‘The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.’ So evil is out of place, and goodness, when it comes to us, is a gift. And we know it.”

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ON GOD
An Uncommon Conversation Norman Mailer with Michael Lennon
Random House 2007

THE COLLECTED POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON
Introduction and Notes by Rachel Wetzsteon
Barnes & Noble Classics 2003

At a recent book exchange party, I was delighted to receive a volume of
Emily Dickinson’s poetry with a fine introduction and notes by Rachel Wetzsteon, poet and Assistant Professor of English at William Paterson University.

It is hard to imagine any reader who does not know about Dickinson’s life and poetry. Certainly students in the United States have been introduced to her and many continue to enjoy the spirit and beauty of this nineteenth century poet throughout their lives.

The notes in this edition specifically show how Dickinson’s poetry influenced other poets, dramatists, dance choreographers, composers, and visual artists. Also, excerpts from reviews, some not very kind, appear from The Saturday Review, 1891; The Nation, 1896; and the Atlantic Monthly, 1913.

Rather than review Dickinson’s life and poetry, I will simply set down a few of my favorite poems with the hope that the reader will turn to other poems and other poets for quiet contemplation and enjoyment.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
that could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

A word is dead
When it is said.
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

To make a prairie it takes a clover
and one bee. -
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.
I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.

Some bigraphical notes from Wikipedia:

Emily Dickinson (10 December 1830 – 15 May 1886) was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After being schooled at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before retiring to her family's house, the Homestead.

Throughout her adult life she rarely traveled outside of Amherst or very far from home. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.

Dickinson was a prolific private poet, choosing to publish fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often utilize slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.

Her poems also tend to deal with themes of death and immortality, two subjects which infused her letters to friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. U

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THE BIBLE: A BIOGRAPHY
By Karen Armstrong
Atlantic Monthly Press 2007

Karen Armstrong is a former nun, literature professor, historian, and author of numerous books, including “Islam”, “Buddha”, “A History of God”, and “The Spiral Staircase”. According to "Book List", her latest work is "An excellent precis of the writing and compiling of the Bible and ensuing centuries of biblical interpretation . . . This is one terrific book." And, from The New York Times Book Review: "Armstrong can simplify complex ideas, but she is never simplistic."

This book is only two hundred and twenty-nine pages long plus a glossary of key terms, notes, and index, yet it seems complete, filled with vital history and commentary. It is especially valuable for a reader with limited knowledge of the writing of the Bible and a good refresher course for others.

I was particularly interested in how a literal interpretation of the Bible evolved. . . ."an exclusively literal interpretation of the Bible is a recent development. Until the nineteenth century, very few people imagined that the first chapter of Genesis was a factual account of the origins of life. For centuries, Jews and Christians relished highly allegorical and inventive exegesis, insisting that a wholly literal reading of the Bible was neither possible nor desirable."

In 1859, Darwin published “On the Origin of Species”. In 1881, Archibald Hodge (son of the author of “Systematic Theology”) and Benjamin Warfield published a defense of the literal truth of the Bible. According to them, "the scriptures not only contain but are the Word of God, and hence all their elements and all their affirmations are absolutely errorless and binding on the faith and obedience of men." Every biblical statement - on any subject - was true to the facts. According to Armstrong this was an entirely new departure. Before this time interpreters had not believed that every single word of scripture was factually true. "Many had admitted that, if we confined our attention to the letter, the Bible was an impossible text.

The belief in biblical inerrancy, pioneered by Hodge and Warfield, would, however, become crucial to Christian fundamentalism and would involve considerable denial."
In the late nineteenth century, Englishman John Nelson Darby toured the United States. "He was convinced, on the basis of a literal reading of Revelation, that God would shortly bring this era of history to an end in an unprecedentedly terrible disaster."

The Antichrist would appear and deceive and inflict seven years of misery and war, but Jesus would descend and defeat him on the plain of Armageddon outside Jerusalem. Christ would rule for a thousand years until the Last Judgment. True believers would be spared. Darby held that before the Times of Tribulation there would be a "rapture" and born-again Christians would be whisked up to heaven. The “Scofield Reference Bible” published in 1909, explained the Rapture in detail -"a gloss, which for many Christian fundamentalists, has become almost as authoritative as the Bible itself.
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Before the 1925 Scopes trial, conservatives had been wary of evolution, but very few had espoused "creation science" . . ."After Scopes, however, they became more vehemently literal in their interpretation of scripture, and creation science became the flagship of their movement. Before Scopes, fundamentalists had been willing to work for social reform with people on the left; after Scopes, they swung to the far right of the political spectrum, where they have remained."

But as the reader learns, the Bible continues to be studied, interpreted, and examined in the light of ongoing history and discovery. The Word of God demands of us a lifetime of reading and study, and for a Christian, the love of God through Jesus Christ for us all shines through.U

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WASTING TIME WITH GOD – A Christian Spirituality of Friendship with God
By Klaus Issler
Inter Varsity Press 2001

Klaus Issler is Professor of Christian Education and Theology at the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in La Mirada, California, and adjunct faculty for the Institute for Spiritual Formation. In his book he answers the question of how a believer can deepen his or her relationship with God.

He shares his own quest by discussing prayer, suffering, guidance, and knowing a God who is in three persons. He draws extensively on the Bible and scholarly sources. Issler makes many excellent observations and suggestions, and the following are only a few he discusses.

“Close friendships are essential for all believers, not only for the joy they give to us, not only for the contribution they bring to Christian community, but also for the help they provide in relating with God.”

“With friends we experience a foretaste of heaven: encouragement, sympathy, care, laughter, bonding, sensing someone’s soul.” “Although buzz words like community and love abound in the church, deep relationships fare no better here. Believers tend to gravitate toward ways of seeking God that are predominately individualistic: personal Bible study, private prayer and times of solitude. Although helpful (and recommended in this book), these spiritual disciplines do not enrich the relational competencies we need to deepen our relationship with a God who experiences a deep fellowship within the Trinity.”

The author in his chapters on Faith and Commitment reminds readers that if they want to know God more deeply they “must become much more conscious of God throughout the day, to keep God’s grand Kingdom project in mind so that this concept pervades how we think, how we feel, how we act.” Seeking God requires commitment. “It will not happen automatically just by attending church or reading the Bible or saying routine prayers.” He urges us to make more room for God and to move beyond busyness and our preoccupation with life’s lesser matters. He reminds us that once in a while we get a wakeup call through illness or accident or a loved one’s sudden death, etc. But why wait, the author asks. Set your priorities. One does not need an agenda; look for opportunities to communicate with God – one minute breaks, retreats, journaling, etc. But be open, especially during the spiritual “dry season.”

The author offers many more helpful chapters. I was drawn especially to his comments about Bible reading: “We skew our perception of God by reading Scripture as essentially a historical account of how God acted in the past, rather than a divine record about people just like us who experienced a normal friendship with God available to contemporary believers as well.”

This book was purchased from our own Saint Michael’s Book Cart.

What Would Jesus Really Do?
By Andrew Fiala
Rowman & Littlefield 2007

Andrew Fiala is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cal State University, Fresno. He teaches ethics and applied ethics. He has written several books and articles and is editor of the journal “Philosophy in the Contemporary World.”

The author is speaking both to Christians and relativists in an attempt “to help both figure out what to think about the relationship between Christianity and ethics.”

“Ethics” is about the question of how to lead a good life in community with others. “My effort here has been to further deepen and intensify your ethical reflection by engaging in a critical encounter with Jesus ... . I do not maintain that Jesus is irrelevant or pernicious. Indeed, the spirit of ethics can be found in Jesus’s idea of loving one’s neighbor as oneself. But we need to go beyond Jesus in the same way that Jesus went beyond Moses. Jesus provides a wonderful and inspiring model of a life of service and an ethic of love. But he simply fails to provide us with answers to the tough questions of ethics.”

Fiala’s knowledge of the Bible is comprehensive. He mainly uses the gospels to pinpoint the ethical teachings of Jesus. He notes that it is impossible to interpret these teachings in various ways and reminds us that Christians are not united in their thinking about ethics.

The book is divided into fifteen chapters: Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the author’s humanistic approach to ethics and the Bible; 3, 4, and 5 clarify general ethical concepts with specific focus on virtue ethics; 6 through 11 deal with several applied issues (abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, sexuality and the family, slavery and social welfare, and politics); 12, 13, and 14 review what modern philosophers have thought about Jesus and Christian ethics; 15 discusses liberal politics and where we can go from there.

Jesus’s primary teaching was the golden rule. Fiala asks two hard questions about applying it properly – Who is my neighbor? And what should I do to love him or her? “While Jesus’ reinterpretation of the idea of the neighbor in the good Samaritan parable is provocative, it needs further development. This is why the golden rule has been supplemented in contemporary ethics with the idea of universal human rights, which ought to be respected despite our differences.”

The author attempts to avoid theology in his discussion. However, it is difficult to distinguish the ethics of forgiveness from theology. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15) “But one can argue that forgiveness is good directly, without appeal to theology; forgiveness and related Christian virtues – such as love, mercy, tolerance, and peacefulness – are virtues that are important in living well in community with others. It is possible to see in Jesus an example of the moral life that can be defended on its own, without resorting to theology.”

“What Would Jesus Really Do?” is a well-written, provocative book, especially for a Christian. It is worth reading, learning from, and arguing about. It does not aid you in determining whom to vote for in 2008 –or does it? U

THE GOOD HEART; A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Wisdom Publications 1996

This book is an account of the 1994 John Main Seminar, the tenth annual meeting of the World Community for Christian Meditation
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John Main (1925-1982), of Irish background, was born in London. He served in the British Foreign Service in Malaya and learned Chinese. He was introduced to meditation by an Indian monk. He taught International Law in Dublin. In 1958 he became a Benedictine monk in London, but was asked to stop meditation, as this was not part of the Christian tradition of prayer. However, by 1969, Main rediscovered a Christian tradition of meditation and dedicated the rest of his life to teaching this lost tradition of Christian prayer to lay people.

The Dalai Lama was asked to be the main speaker at the Seminar, the first time a non-Christian was so honored. He had twice met John Main, just as Main was beginning his meditation organization. The Dalai Lama was asked to comment on eight passages from the four Gospels, including the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, the parable of the mustard seed and the Resurrection. Each day’s meeting consisted of reading aloud by the Dalai Lama, periods of quiet meditation, and a panel of participants directing questions. About four hundred were in the audience.

Among the participants were Father Laurence Freeman, OSB; Geshe Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama’s principal translator since 1985, a scholar and author; a teacher of Sanskrit and Pali and a Benedictine Oblate; a Sister of St. Joseph New York, psychotherapist and spiritual director, etc.

The Dalai Lama’s approach to the Gospels was ‘exploratory rather than definitive.” He modestly said that he knew little about the Christian scriptures or theology but he was eager to learn. He did not want to give offense or shake anyone’s faith. He reassured his listeners that he in no way came to “sow seeds of doubt” about their own faith. He counseled people to “deepen their understanding and appreciation of their own traditions.” He pointed out that “human sensibilities and culture are too varied to justify a single ‘way’ to the Truth.” The Dalai Lama resisted suggestions that Buddhism and Christianity are different languages for the same essential beliefs. There are many similarities in ethics, the emphasis on compassion, brotherhood, and forgiveness. “But inasmuch as Buddhism does not recognize a Creator-God as a personal Savior, he cautioned against people calling themselves ‘Buddhist-Christians’, just as one should not try ‘to put a yak’s head on a sheep’s body.’ ”

“Christians at the seminar were surprised to discover that a Buddhist was helping them understand and discover in new ways the stories and texts that had been familiar to them, perhaps since childhood.” The dialogues between Christians and Buddhists can be models of how it is possible for human beings to love each other because they are different, not just despite their differences. The Dalai Lama commented that “it is also crucial to recognize that both spiritual traditions share the common goal of producing a human being who is a fully realized, spiritually mature, good and warm-hearted person. Once we have recognized these two points – commonality of the goal and the clear recognition of the diversity of human dispositions – then I feel there is a very strong foundation for dialogue.”

This book contains an especially helpful preface and introduction, commentary by Father Freeman on the gospel readings, a description of Buddhism and its many divisions by Thupten Jimpa, along with notes and a glossary of Christian and Buddhist terms. I found this study an excellent and inspiring work. It is helpful for readers unfamiliar with Buddhism. Those who have heard His Holiness the Dalai Lama know that he is a person of true depth, humility, and is a manifestation of love in abundance.U

IN THE BEGINNING --A New Interpretation of Genesis
By Karen Armstrong
Alfred A. Knopf 1996

Karen Armstrong, lecturer and prolific writer, is an inspiration to her listeners and readers. Her numerous books include “A History of God” and “Jerusalem.” I first became acquainted with her interpretation of Genesis when she appeared on Bill Moyers’ PBS series “Genesis: A Living Conversation” where representatives from various religious faiths discussed their views and interpretations.

Armstrong points out that “the Bible makes it clear from the very beginning that it will not give neat, tidy answers to questions that simply do not admit of a simple solution. Instead, the authors (of Genesis) make us wrestle with the complexities of the text, and in the process we come to realize at a deeper level than before that there is no easy, straightforward path to enlightenment. The editors were demonstrating the basic religious principle that no one human account can ever comprise the whole of divine truth.”

Armstrong discusses each event and character in clear and thought-provoking language, from the two versions of the Creation through each story, showing parallels of blessing and cursing as the authors of Genesis attempt to explain the nature of God and of humankind.

I like what Armstrong says about faith. “Religious people often speak of ‘faith’ as though it were a matter of conserving the old and traditional; they claim that it gives them absolute certainty and is not compatible with doubt. But Genesis shows that in fact faith begins by demanding a radical break with the past and facing the terrors and enigmas of the unknown.”

It is clear that God did not choose leaders based on their moral superiority. All of the patriarchs had serious flaws – they were human, after all. Noah is depicted as a very flawed character; Abraham made some questionable decisions; Isaac and Jacob were “too spiritually blind to recognize the truth”; Joseph had a very large ego, etc. Judah was deeply flawed, but ironically he was the one “who brought about the reconciliation and final denouement:” in the story of Joseph. He accepts full responsibility for the crimes of his family; “Judah had been able to accept the painful truth that had torn siblings apart since the time of Cain: that love is unfair. Only when we accept this and make peace with past pain and rejection can we move positively into the future as whole human beings.”

“But the inescapable message of Genesis is that blessing and enlightenment are not achieved by acquired facts and believing doctrines. Genesis gives us no coherent theology but seems to frustrate our desire for clarity at every turn. Instead, knowledge means self-knowledge and an understanding of the mystery of our own being. We also have to recognize the sacred mystery of our fellow men and women . . . Other human beings remain as opaque and mysterious as God – indeed, they can reveal to us the essential mystery and otherness of the sacred.”U

A HISTORY OF THE END OF THE WORLD
By Jonathan Kirsch,
Harper San Francisco, 2006

Jonathan Kirsch is the author of ten books, including “The Harlot by the Side of the Road” and “God against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism.” He is a book columnist for the Los Angeles Times, an NPR affiliates broadcaster, an Adjunct Professor at New York University, and an attorney specializing in publishing law and intellectual property
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This book is an exhaustive study of the uses and abuses of the Book of Revelation -- all you ever wanted to know and more. He includes the complete text of the King James version of Revelation with his own headings within the pages of the book as well as a helpful glossary.

The Book of Revelation is an “apocalypse” (from Greek, meaning “unveiling”; “revelation” is the Latin equivalent). According to Jewish sources from the first century, seventy apocalypses were known before Revelation; “all but two that have survived from antiquity were wholly excluded from the Bible as it is known and used in both Jewish and Christian tradition. The only exceptions are the book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible and the Book of Revelation in the New Testament.” Kirsch quotes extensively from Daniel to point out how Daniel influenced Revelation.

The author discusses the mystery of who the “John” who wrote Revelation might have been. He discusses the symbolism of the Mark of the Beast, 666, The Antichrist, the Whore of Babylon, etc. Those readers who have read and studied Revelation will be familiar with much of Kirsch’s analysis. Probably the most significant parts of his book deal with how people through the ages have interpreted and misinterpreted Revelation. “At its first appearance the Book of Revelation was nearly excluded from the Christian scriptures, and its strange and punishing text has always puzzled, agitated, threatened, and offended many Christians who were prepared to accept Revelation as Holy Writ. But it is also true that Revelation ultimately seized and held the Christian imagination - and in some ways, the Western imagination - over the next fifteen centuries. John’s little book, sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly, may have turned out to be a failure as a work of prophecy, but it remained the equivalent of a best seller in the Middle Ages and long after.”

The main problem with Revelation is that the world did not end. “Revelation has always been the ‘text of choice’ for religious eccentrics who see their own time as the end time, ranging from Montanus in the second century to David Koresh in the twentieth century, and countless others in between.” Kirsch tells of the many individuals and sects who were influenced by their own interpretations.

“With the detonation of the first atomic bomb, the apocalypse took a quantum leap into a new and previously unimaginable realm and humankind was suddenly forced to confront the awful knowledge that the end of the world does not require God at all.” He cites science fiction movies that are not about science but rather disaster. He points out that Christian fundamentalism has produced its own pop-culture version of the apocalypse with movies, books, comics, miscellaneous items of inspiration merchandise. Radio and television bring us fundamental preaching. Hal Lindsey’s “The Late Great Planet Earth,” published in 1970, sold more than twenty million copies. The Christian right used quotes from Revelation to condemn and to bolster its agenda to support “family values.” The “Left Behind” series has sold more than fifty million copies.

Near the end of Kirsch’s book he gets to the heart of the matter for me. It is a telling paragraph and I quote it in its entirety:
“But any contemplation of the end-time, whether it is rooted in religion or science or some combination of the two, poses the same moral risk that has always confronted human beings who seek a revelation in the original sense of unveiling what is concealed. The apocalyptic texts of both Judaism and Christianity tempt us to occupy ourselves with fantasies of revenge and redemption while watching for signs and wonders that augur the end of the world.

And more than a few readers and hearers of these texts have taken it upon themselves to do God’s work of revenge and to hasten the end-times. But the most exalted and exalting passages of the Bible, both in its Jewish and Christian redactions, plainly instruct us to put aside the pursuit of ‘secret things’ and call on us to answer the urgent needs of the hungry and the homeless, the prisoner and the patient, all in the here and now.”U

CHOOSING A BIBLE– For Worship, Teaching, Study, Preaching, and Prayer
By David C. Kraus
Seabury Books, 2006

Author David Kraus is executive editor for Bibles at Oxford University Press. He is a lifelong Episcopalian, a member of St. Paul’s-on-the-Green in Norwalk, Connecticut. He has written an excellent and helpful guide (and under 100 pages) for distinguishing among the many Bible translations. He urges the reader to learn enough about the different translations to be able to apply the right one to the right task
.
“The idea that there is only one right way to translate a text must evaporate when we realize how many translations of the Bible there really are. When we encounter this multiplicity of versions, either we can despair and withdraw into one favorite translation to the exclusion of all others, or we can wander at a loss, picking and choosing from among the great variety of Bibles available but never understanding what each one is trying to accomplish. In working through a variety of Bible translations, however, we may also come to a better understanding of what translation truly is.”


He points out that any translation works with two languages, the original or source language, and the translated or target language. Similarly, it also works with two communities – the original audience for the text and the present-day audience. Kraus then gives specific examples of how the translation treats language and audience.

Kraus has two helpful charts. One lists translations generally available and gives the basic orientation (usually toward a particular religious or denomination perspective), whether translated by committee or an individual, the extent of their canonical contents and whether American or British in style or in editionsreflecting both. His second chart shows where some of the main current translations fall in general on a spectrum ranging from most literal approach to most dynamic or functional. Most are in the middle
.
The book deals with the many issues of translation. It is important to know who the “contemporary audience” is. This affects many aspects:

1. Vocabulary Choices – scholarly or intensive study? Teenagers? Kids? English not a first language?

2. Sentence Structure – To be read aloud in religious services? Or to oneself?

3. Technical Terminology – The Bible refers to agricultural implements and practices – “winnowing forks,” “threshing floors”; religious objects – “phylacteries” – unfamiliar to many modern audiences. Denominational differences – “episkopas,” often translated as “bishop” but the Greek word itself means “overseer” or “superintendent.”Other translations use more general terms – “church official” or “leader” or “elder.”

4. A particularly well thought out chapter deals with the use of inclusive language. He treats the subject even-handedly and takes the “heat” out of the discussion. Those opposed he calls “traditional view” and those in favor “contemporary view.” He portrays each side carefully and thoughtfully.

5. There are many other examples given that help in choosing a translation. It is important to become familiar with the choices and to enjoy more than one translation.

MYSTERIES OF FAITH
By Mark McIntosh
The New Church’s Teaching Series,
Vol. 8
Cowley Publications 2000

Mark McIntosh is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Chicago and associate professor of systematic theology and spirituality at Loyola University. This book is part of a series written to help Anglicans deepen their understanding of the Christian faith. It is from our own church library.

Theology is “something we all do by virtue of our baptism”, says the author. It is not just an academic subject but rather about seeing the meaning of things in the context of our life with God. For example, a meal with friends means something pleasurable in our culture; in the context of life with God it might mean a lot more – if it becomes an occasion of the deep self-sharing with one another we call communion.

McIntosh gives us three moments or stages in the theological journey:

1.Seeing differently.There are moments that put us at the edge of mystery, though they are infrequent. We need the context to see the meaning – the story of god’s life with the world. “The story of creation and salvation can become the story by which we see the truth of what is going on in our lives and in our world.”

2. Hearing god’s word. Theology as a habit of life. Active listening is a habit. When theology becomes a habit, it becomes part of your character, a fundamental having and holding of what you are. The Holy Spirit confronts us with God’s story and makes it alive in us.

3.Theology’s Conversation with God. “The work of prayer is the activity of god the Holy Spirit freeing us from the grasping, frightened, self-important bundles of instincts we have been taught to think of as our true selves in order to discover the deep, strong, and passionate person we are created to become in Christ. As we are drawn into his stance before the Father, we are given the freedom and clarity of vision to want truly and desire authentically.”

I confess that I struggled somewhat to grasp all that the author intended. However, his comments on the meaning of revelation touched a chord and I give you the following quotation to ponder:

“The self-disclosure of God cannot take place fully in one ‘historical event,’ a bit of the past that is over and gone. Instead, revelation is an event that continues to stand open before us, so what happened between Jesus and his first followers is, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, still happening in our midst.The events of God’s self-disclosure in creation and in the exodus and in the coming of Jesus do not take place in time, but because they take place by the hand of God, they still beckon us to be transformed forever by our sharing in the Exodus, the words of the prophets, and above all the pascal mystery itself. So the fact that God is revealed precisely by rescuing us in Christ helps us to understand what revelation is: it is God coming to find us and bring us home.”

THE ESSENTIAL RUMI - Translated by Coleman Barks
Introduction by Huston Smith 1995
Quality Paperback Book Club

Rumi is a renowned Islamic mystic and poet. He was born Jelaluddin Rumi in 1207 in Afghanistan, then part of the Persian Empire. His father was a Sufi master in Konya, now part of Turkey. Rumi succeeded him and was a dedicated scholar and teacher until the age of thirty-seven. His life changed when he formed a special friendship with the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz.

When Shams disappeared, Rumi began to change from scholar to artist and his poetry soared. “. . . his genius is in his capacity for love and his power to give it poetic expression . . . Rumi’s ability to ring the changes on love seemed to be inexhaustible. . .he was particularly atuned to longing, symbol of the soul’s severance from the divine.” He announced: “I am neither of the East nor the West, not of the land nor of the sea. . .Putting aside duality, I have seen that this world and the next are one. I seek the One, I know Allah is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward.”

Rumi’s poems “are not discrete entities but a fluid, continuously self-revising, self-interrupting medium. They are not so much about anything as spoken from within something. Call it enlightenment, ecstatic love, spirit, soul, truth . . .” Names do not matter.

The following are a few of his short poems I have selected to give you an idea of his style and range:

When you are with everyone but me,
you’re with no one.

When you are with no one but me,
you’re with everyone
.
Instead of being so bound up with everyone,
be everyone.

When you become that many, you’re nothing.
Empty.

Pale sunlight,
pale the wall.

Love moves away.
The light changes.

I need more grace
than I thought.

THE GUEST HOUSE

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,
or your own genuine solitude?
Freedom, or power over an entire nation?

A little while alone in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given you.

There is a strong connection between Jesus and Rumi. A Christian church in Shiraz, Iran, has a quatrain from Rumi carved in stone over its door:
“Where Jesus lives, the great-hearted gather,
We are a door that’s never locked.

If you are suffering any kind of pain,
stay near this door. Open it.”

Rumi died in 1273. His poetry lives on.

ANGELS – Their Mission and Message
Charles R. Jaekle,
Morehouse Publishing, 1995
(In our Saint Michael’s Library)

Charles Jaekle is an Episcopal clergyman and pastoral counselor. He has interviewed men and women who have had encounters with angels.

There is much variety in their experiences. Angels appeared in visions or dreams; some were seen but not heard; some were flesh and blood humans, but most were strangers; angels appeared most often as female, mostly imposing and beautiful. Everyone interviewed had some connection to a Christian church. All had a belief in God and were ‘ready.’ All reported a personal crisis prior to their angel experience. Jaekle says that many people today report angel visitations and “testify to their life-transforming power,” but often are reluctant to share their experiences for fear of being considered odd.

“Pseudo-Dionysius”, a fifteenth-century theologian, organized angels into a celestial hierarchy. The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 speculated extensively about the nature of angels, reaffirming the opening statements of the Nicene Creed (God as creator of all things visible and invisible – means both earthly and angelic creatures). Aquinas’s “Summa Theological” has a section on angels. He followed Pseudo-Dionysius’ “The Celestial Hierarchy” with thirty-four grades and classifications.
As knowledge and science changed, elaborate hierarchies of angels were questioned and then abandoned.

But even Descartes believed in angels. “The subject-object thought forms bequeathed to us by Rene Descartes did not banish angels but relentlessly marginalized them into the realm of the supernatural, as decorative objects or psychological projections.” “However, Descartes” subject-object world is being questioned by new thinkers who are making it possible to return to a kind of spiritual unity we have not experienced for four hundred years, reviving the possibility of viewing angels other than as ‘objects’ to be tested and then dismissed by the canons of scientific method.”

Jaekle goes on to discuss Martin Luther’s sermons about angels (none included in any English language editions of his writings). Calvin had a “cautionary” angelology; Wesley was “interested” and believed in their existence but decried the evils of excess of Roman Catholicism. The author also mentions the views of Emanuel Swedenborg, Karl Barth, and Carl Jung.

There are forty-seven encounters with angels in the Old Testament and seventy in the New Testament. Scripture views angel appearances as follows: God’s messengers, leading toward a strengthening of one’s faith, producing life-transforming changes, life-protecting and supportive, disclosing vitally important information about one’s destiny in life that has been obscured or hidden. An encounter cannot be programmed – it is always unanticipated. The author asks the question “How can these characteristics become bench marks for a congregation-based pastoral ministry and how can those men and women who experience an angel encounter profit from such care?”

Jaekle has dozens of angel stories, but what are rare are “angel stories in which angels do their ministry within congregations of faith and make their witness of God’s presence known there in the congregation as the household of God’s people.”
John Wesley, in one of his late sermons, includes a poem of Bishop Ken:

O may thy angels while I sleep,
Around my bed their vigil keep;
Their love angelical instill,
Stop every avenue of ill!
May they celestial joys rehearse,
And thought to thought with me converse!
An ancient prayer for Saint Michael and All Angels’ Day used by the Church of England:
O everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of angels and men in a wonderful manner; grant as thy holy angels always do Thee service in heaven by thy appointment they may succor and defend us on earth, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

GOD’S SECRETARIES
The Making of the King James Bible
By Adam Nicolson
Harpercollins, 2003

Have you ever wondered how the King James version of the Bible came to be written? There is no better source than Adam Nicolson’s book. He gives the reader the historical background that gave England its ruler James I in 1603 after the death of Elizabeth I. It was James, of course, who initiated the idea of a translation of the Bible which could be used in all the Churches of England.

In 1604 the Hampton Court Conference on the future of the church was held; rules for translators were drawn up; translators were appointed and initial work was begun. In 1610 the Revision Committee met in Stationers’ Hall in London and in 1611 The King James Bible was published.

The author has done a thorough job of research, using primary and secondary sources to bring to life the organization of the task and the varied personalities of the contributors. He explains The King James style: “This English is there to serve the original not to replace it ... and is not the English you would have heard on the street, then or ever. It took up its life in a new and distinct dimension of linguistic space, somewhere between English and Greek (or for the Old Testament, between English and Hebrew).

These scholars were not pulling the language of the scriptures into the English they knew and used at home. The words of The King James Bible are just as much English pushed towards the condition of a foreign language as a foreign language translated into English.
It was, in other words, more important to make English godly than to make the words of God into the sort of prose that any Englishman would have written, and that secretarial relationship to the original languages of the scriptures shaped the translation.”

Nicholson entertainingly describes several of the translators, (the names of fifty are recorded) telling of their expertise as well as their personal strengths and foibles. The men were divided into “companies” of translation. Notable were Lancelot Andrewes, Director of The First Westminster Company, whose members were responsible for the translation of Genesis through II Kings. Edward Lively directed The First Cambridge Co., responsible for I Chronicles through The Song of Songs. The First Oxford Company, under John Harding, translated Isaiah through Malachi. John Dupont directed The Second Cambridge Co. is the translation of the Apocrypha. Thomas Ravis directed The Second Oxford Company in translating The Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and Revelation. The Second Westminster Co., under Director William Barlow, translated The New Testament Epistles.

Those readers who thrive on the use of words and language as well as those who enjoy historical political intrigue and scandal will be enthralled by God’s secretaries.

The Last Week – A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem
By Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan

We at Saint Michael’s have been fortunate to have the opportunity to study Mark’s gospel under the guidance of Dr. Phil Johnston. In addition, a few years ago we welcomed Marcus Borg as a lecturer and teacher. "The Last Week, written by two distinguished authors, is the perfect follow-up to Dr. Johnston’s classes.

The following are significant quotes from the book:

“We intend . . . to tell and explain, against the background of Jewish high-priestly collaboration with roman imperial control, the last week of Jesus’s life on earth as given in the gospel according to Mark.. . . in this book we focus on what Jesus was passionate about as a way of understanding why his life ended in the passion of good Friday.

"To narrow the passion of Jesus to his last twelve hours – arrest, trial, torture and crucification – is to ignore the connection between his life and his death.

"Christian liturgy has started to collapse Holy Week into the last three days and renamed Palm Sunday as Passion Sunday . . . the loss of Palm Sunday’s enthusiastic crowds and of all those days and events in between may weaken or even negate the meaning of that death and therefore of the resurrection.

" Our hope is that this slender volume may supply a needed corrective and proper narrative basis both for sacred liturgy within the church and for story, play, and film inside or outside it . . . it is time to read it again, get it right, to follow it closely and understand fully its narrative logic.

While reading The Last Week it is helpful to refer to the Old Testament references used by Mark and also to compare Mark’s narrative with the accounts in the other gospels.

“For Mark . . . Jesus as Son of Man has been given the anti-0imperial Kingdom of god to bring to earth for god’s people, for all those willing to enter it or take it upon themselves. Mark insists from one end of his gospel he account to the others . . . that Jesus as the Human One is already here below with full authority, that he must pass through death to resurrection, and that he will (soon) return with full heavenly power and glory.

" It is because Jesus as the Human One (Son of Man) from Daniel 7 is already present on earth that the Kingdom of god is already here for all willing to pass through death to resurrection with Jesus.”

CREATIVITY – Where the Divine
and the Human Meet
Matthew Fox, 2002
Penguin Books

CREATIVITY is drawn from a sermon given by Episcopal priest Matthew Fox in 2000 at the Unity Church of New York and from a talk he gave in 1993 at the Art Institute in Chicago.

C REATIVITY. . . may be the best thing our species has going for it. It is also the most dangerous.”. . . “Creativity constitutes the very meaning of being human, and our power of creativity distinguishes us from other species. Evil, as well as profound goodness, transpires through our creativity.” “There is a special encounter with the Divine where creativity occurs... Where beauty and grace happen and explode ...the place where the Divine and the human are most destined to interact.”

Fox has given the reader a complex and important message. He confesses that he began this book intending to write on creativity, but something more was born – an insight about a theology of sin and grace emerged and he came to realize “that something else lay behind a recovery of a spirituality of creativity.” See what creativity can do! Thus he delves into the subject of original sin as a repression of creativity, of redemption as a liberation from our fear of creativity and of salvation as the return of creativity, which is the return of the Spirit.

His most practical chapter deals with putting creativity to work in culture and everyday life. Especially of interest to me were his comments on education. He believes that our schools, especially our inner city schools, are failing to meet the needs of students of African, Hispanic and Native American backgrounds. “Instead of education providing a rite of passage into adulthood and an access into the dominant culture’s opportunities at work, the educational experience seems to be a big part of the problem. I believe it is because the pre-modern cultures ...value creativity as being the heart and soul of education. Story telling and ceremony, myths that tell us the great stories of how we got here and why we are here and what, therefore, our common ethic can be – these comprised the basis of education for tens of thousands of years for our species. The modern European agenda . . .did not teach us survival, that is, sustainability, with the earth and her processes. It did not teach us ethics or aesthetics . . .reverence or gratitude . . . wonder . . .it did not keep the child, which is wisdom herself, alive in us... it banished wisdom at the expense of raw knowledge.”

Fox believes that a “soul-loss” is occurring in the name of education. “When learning loses its sense of joy, its sense of wonder and delight, when exams and competition replace wonder as the sole motivation for working hard in school, where the sense of sacredness of learning is forgotten, then education is a failure and is doomed to fail.”

“When the Bible declares that we are made in the ‘image and likeness’ of the Creator, it is affirming that creativity is at our core just as it lies at the core of the Creator of all things.”

DINNER WITH A PERFECT STRANGER
– An Invitation Worth Considering
David Gregory 2005
WaterBrook Press

What would you do if you received in the mail an invitation that read as follows: You are invited to a dinner with Jesus of Nazareth, Milano’s Restaurant, Tuesday, March 14, eight o’clock? There is no RSVP or return address.

So begins the account of Nick, the recipient, his reactions and his subsequent dinner.

Chapters are titled The Seating, The Course, The Dessert, The Coffee, and The Bill.

This is a short book, one that can and should be read in one “seating.” It draws the reader in immediately and in a very clever way gives one the basic lessons of Christianity.

Perhaps some may find it too simplistic and unsophisticated, but I found it entertaining and insightful. It would be a wonderful gift for any age person, for believers, doubters, and all who seek to know Jesus better.

David Gregory works in Texas for a nonprofit organization. After a ten-year business career he returned to school and studied religion and communications, earning two master’s degrees.