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Common Ground: Islam, Christianity and Religious Pluralism

By Paul L. Heck

Georgetown U. Press (2009)
$24.95 US. Paper.240 pp.

ISBN #978-1-58901-507-4

Review By Wayne A. Holst

My Thoughts:

Thirty years ago - I was making door-to-door contacts
with people in my North West Calgary community as a new
congregational developer - I became aware of the growing
number of Muslims living in my suburban neighbourhood.

They came from many parts of Asia and Africa, and were
drawn to the educational and occupational opportunities
they found here in Calgary.

Over time, I became aware of similar changes in the
population configuration of many Canadian cities. Town
and country/rural parts of the country have not been
similarly affected.

I invited the imam of the local Sunni mosque to speak
to my congregation because I wanted to "humanize" the
development I saw taking place. Interestingly, the
inter-national magazine of my denomination picked up
the story. Apparently, a new trend was detected.

Three decades later the trends have only continued to
demonstrate that my country and city is going through
a major transformation of its citizenry. The majority
of students at the university where I teach are no
longer of white racial background (this includes Asians
and Latinos.) What we once called "visible minority"
folk are truly becoming "the visible majority."

I find the book "Common Ground: Islam, Christianity
and Religious Pluralism" by Paul Heck most helpful to
me because it acknowledges the cultural pluralism I
have been describing - not just in other parts of the
world, but right here at home.

Heck approaches the challenge as an evolution in human
relations. He assumes, for example, that Muslims are
growingly comfortable living in Western nations and
are open to the secular, democratic institutions that
have emerged in our socities. Christians would do well
to see these Muslims among us as allies, and not
adversaries, in terms of religious committments.

The author of this book wants his readers to view
the two faith traditions standing on a certain
"common ground" regarding theology, ethics and
politics. We need to work together, recognizing our
differences, but determined to build societies
together that reflect the values we share.
This is a perspective that applies globally as well
as locally. We can demonstrate - generally and
specifically - that religious committment can be a
unifying, peaceable phenomenon and not a divisive,
confrontational reality.

We can recognize there will always be religious
differences, but our commonalities can prove to be
more significant.

Together, we can build new societies - globally and
close to home - as we grow more aware and respectful
of the various faith traditions which which we share
our lives.

If you are interested in building bridges with people
of other faith traditions - as I have for thirty
years here in Calgary - this book could provide some
excitingly new perspectives.




Buy the book: http://tinyurl.com/ylop4dr

Dr. Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary and co-ordinates adult spiritual development at St. David’s United Church in that city.

____________________________________________________________________________

Colleagues List, Vol. V. No. 29, March 12 , 2010

Indian Residential Schools: Another Picture

By Eric Bays

Review By Wendy Fletcher

Book on residential schools 'an exercise in revisionist history'

The author’s counter-point is problematic in that his work and those he attempts to “refute” are not in the same genre.

The earlier volumes are peer-reviewed by recognized historians. They are works tested by the standards of critical historical scholarship. By comparison, Eric Bays' book, published by the author himself, has undergone no peer review process of any kind. As a result, it does not adhere in any way to the standards of accepted historical discourse.

If the results of the work were not so inflammatory, one could, perhaps, more easily overlook the genealogy of the book. However, by insisting on throwing this work into the public arena as a refutation of accepted interpretation, the work must be held accountable to the standards of historical writing.

This book functions as a form of proof-texting; isolated examples of comments and events are strung together at random with the purpose of demonstrating that the schools were not all bad—a point already conceded by earlier authors. However, by placing anecdotal material in a loose arrangement as an alternative historical view, the author is conducting an exercise in revisionist history.

Orthodox Rabbi Irving Greenberg, writing about historical interpretation in light of the horror of the 20^th century, wrote, “No statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of burning children.” Such a thing might be said as we approach the question of how to tell the story of residential schools. The author notes that rumours of harm are greatly exaggerated, that only about 100,000 children were drawn into the residential school experiment (p.13). How can it be that we think that harm done to even a single child is insufficient to raise alarm about the meaning of the residential school experience, let alone 100,000? Were the lives and well-being of 100,000 of our children dispensable?

The author compares the residential school experience to Robertson Davies’ experience as a student at Upper Canada College, on of Canada's premier educational institutions (p. 79).

Residential school deniers often make the argument that it was just like boarding school. The meticulous work of historians such as Milloy leaves us with no doubt that these schools were not elite establishments of privilege. They were chronically under-funded institutions from which the vast majority of students left (note: left, not graduated) alienated from their own cultures and illiterate in English culture, totally unprepared to face the world which met them. This of course refers to those who survived the experience. It does not take account the many, still not fully documented thousands of students who died in the schools. I wonder, what was the death rate among students at Upper Canada College in a comparable period?

The author’s inclination to re-write the story of the residential school experience is of course understandable. As a church leader, the author presided over a diocese with just such a school. Who among us wants to face the full horror of that in which we as a people have participated?

The dilemma is that the benevolent paternalism which reaches to re-write the story in such an anecdotal fashion (“the staff members I contacted were not racist”, p.135) is reminiscent of the benevolent paternalism which made these schools possible in the first place. An uncritical desire to make things right will not make it so. To insist that we weight the so-called “positive side” of the residential school experience as equal with its horror re-victimizes those already harmed and prevents the enlightenment necessary for true reconciliation.

Wendy Fletcher, PhD, is principal and dean, as well as professor of History of Christianity at Vancouver School of Theology.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Anglican Journal, January 15, 2010 

Thieves In The Temple:The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Basic Books, New York. March, 2010

$32.95 CAD. 211 pages

ISBN # 978-0-465-00932-9

Review By Wayne A. Holst

My Comment:

As we read of church closings taking place among the
old Canadian mainline I am reminded of a comment I heard a friend use
to describe his move from my own United Church of
Canada congregation to a local 'big box' church -
"We left because we wanted to hear good preaching."

(What I also picked up was a sincere yearning for a simple,
uncomplex Gospel shorn of such things as seeing the good in
other faith traditions or disturbing issues like actually
being hospitable and non-threatening to gay people.)

While I am all for good church preaching and teaching,
(I have spent almost fifty years engaged with it)
experience tells me that life is actually not as simple
and unfettered as we would like. Who does not want to hear
'good preaching?' - that's a motherhood statement.

Frankly, I fear that the authentic Good News is missing
from many churches. No sector of the Canadian church has
a corner on the Gospel. Current challenges to the mainline
may actually be a blessing in disguise. They can focus us
on what is important, not on what is simple or popular.

___

Some years ago, my wife and I attented a local Calgary
"megachurch" to experience what people are offered there.

The pastor (backed by the latest in music and technology)
quoted with sincerity a few passages from Paul's book of
Romans and devastatingly declared that it should be quite
obvious to any Bible-believer that gays were unwelcome and
could not be saved.

(He did allow that some people may have an orientation
for which they needed to repent and from which they needed
to be healed.)

It was all I could do to keep Marlene in her pew beside me!
A woman who usually prefers to take a back seat was all but
ready to make a scene and stomp out of the church in disgust!
"How can someone consider himself a Christian," she said,
"... and come out with such terrible things?" "Why should
people believe the words of a Bible like that?

It did not help when I tried to calm her down (she is
still upset about it some years later) by saying that
we have to tolerate what he honestly believes even if
we find it totally unacceptable ourselves.

___

Why do I give this extensive story and commentary?
Because I believe that the 'popular' modern megachurch
phenomenon will suffer an even greater bust, in time,
than mainline Protestantism. Megachurch faith is, to a
great extent, superficial and sometimes dangerous.

Even though I have Christian friends who will disagree,
I fear it is a house largely built upon the sand. It
is currently quite popular (there is a rather distinct
"Canadian" kind of megachurch more reflective of our
own cultural values) but I suspect it too will disintegrate
sooner rather than later.

That said, let no one think that I am an uncritical fan
of the formerly significant mainline church that the
"big box" superstore church seems to be replacing.
I do not excuse sidelined Protestantism for its dependence
on culture and tradition long after the writing was on the wall.
I am no fan of entrenched hierarchies and rote belief-systems.

The "emerging church" movement which I learn from is one
that is attempting to move beyond both mainline and
evangelical Protestantism toward a truly renewed faith.

We need to go even further. Many Catholic and other
Christians share with many Protestants a desire for
post-denominational Christianity - i.e. diverse and
inclusive communities of "The Way" as we have come
to learn existed during the time of the early church.

I think G. Jeffrey MacDonald shares good insights
in "Thieves." His ideas take us beyond both American
and Protestant Christianity to envision the kinds of
renewal to which many aspire for future generations.
I hope to spend more time with this book over the
next months - applying ideas found here to the
spiritual world with which I am most familiar.

When "Thieves" appears in bookstores this spring, I
hope at least some of you will also consider it.

___


Reserve a copy from Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/yj5ebzl

Dr. Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary and co-ordinates adult spiritual development at St. David’s United Church in that city.

____________________________________________________________________________

Colleagues List, Vol. V. No. 25, February 13 , 2010

Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years

By Philip Jenkins

HarperOne: New York. March, 2010.

Hardcover, $27. US. $33. CAD. 352 pages.

ISBN #978-0-06-176894-1.

Review By Wayne A. Holst

If you seek a credible study of how evil profoundly defiled
ancient church councils, read Philip Jenkins new book
"Jesus Wars."

If you seek clarity on how one of those same church councils
produced timeless teachings about Christ still honored by
Catholic, Orthodox, most Protestant Christians today, you should
also read this book.

This perceptive study challenges common perceptions of how lofty
Christian doctrine was formulated amid human chaos and  it all centers
on Chalcedon (451 CE.)

The author helps us see that the key factors at work were often not
religious but extraneous. "When we look at what became the church's
orthodoxy," says Jenkins, so much of those core beliefs gained the
status they did as a result of what appears to be historical accident
or the workings of raw chance."

It was not a matter of one side having better theological arguments
than the other. All had good people and arguments. "What mattered,"
writes Jenkins, "were the interests and obsessions of rival emperors
and queens, competitive ecclesiastical princes and their churches,
and the empire's military successes or failures against particular
barbarian nations."

In the long term, it seems, debates defining the meaning of Christ
were settled by one straightforward issue: which side gained and held
supremacy within the Christian Roman Empire and was therefore able to
establish its particular view of orthodoxy.

Just because one view became orthodoxy does not mean it was always
and inevitably destined to do so so; in truth, the Roman Church became
right because it survived.


"It was all mere chance and accident - unless, of course, we follow a
tradition common to Christians, Jews and Muslims of seeing God's hand
in the apparently shapeless course of worldly history."

Jenkins is known for helpful studies like this. He teaches and
researches at Penn State and Baylor universities, previous books
include "The New Faces of Christianity" and "The Lost History of Christianity."


He helps us look at this era strategically and prevents our drowning
in historical minutiae while alerting us to the developing story
within the story. However remote and irrelevant the narrative of
those early conciliar conflicts may appear to us, they set
precedents that continued to influence and divide the Christian
world in later eras. Those affected were the Catholic/Orthodox
split; the Reformation; early-modern Victorian battles between
faith and reason and on to the present.

Great councils like Chalcedon are important because they debated
pivotal, timeless issues such as the quest for authority in
religion, the relationship between church and state, the proper
ways of interpreting Scripture, the ethics and conduct demanded
of Christians, and the means of salvation.

What ultimately became known as Christian orthodoxy was hammered
out in a process that was painfully slow, gradual and often bloody.
We are helped to see how Christianity evolved over time and this
provides a perspective to help us understand how Christianity and
other world religions evolve in new circumstances. For example,
some modern African Christianity and Islamic religious behaviour
today demonstrate parallels to what occurred in early 5th-6th
century conciliar Christianity.

Why study the protracted debates over the two natures of Christ
which was the theological thread running through that entire era?
We chart the course of theological evolution and why it was
important to ancient audiences who believed theological
orientation had practical consequences for state and society.

Why did ordinary people get so passionately involved in such
intricate theological debates? We learn that when court
rivalries shaped theological debate, having the 'right' theology
meant having the kind of empire God favoured. Even the slightest
concession to error in such essential matters was understood to
affect the substance of Christian truth.

Four sees played primary roles in the councils under consideration -
Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome. The councils were
centres of political theatre and action. Powerful prelates became
linked to powerful political leaders. Fortunes rose, fell, rose
and fell again.

In defining Christ as both fully divine and fully human, having
one personhood but two natures Chalcedon served as a solid
theological base for several key Christian communions such as
Rome and Constantinople. It also set the stage for the tragic
process of condemning the churches of Antioch and Alexandria
as the Nestorian and Monophysite traditions were declared
heretical. The emerging churches of Western Christendom
effectively lost half their world, the churches of the East.

What was not weakened in Eastern Christendom through internal
dissention was ultimately all but destroyed when Islam began
to emerge as a new religious force with which to be reckonned.

Many of the contentious issues surrounding Chalcedon survive
to modern times and remain alive in contemporary forms and ideas
like the God who suffers with us. Much has changed and they are
no longer viewed generally as heresies.

Jenkins reflects in his concluding chapter on what was saved
from so much spiritual calamity. After fifteen hundred years
the churches - "have never found a path that avoids the powerful
pressures of individual ambition and political interest. If
nothing else, that experience argues strongly for being
tolerant of nonessential expressions of the faith."

Viewed historically, we know that other theologies might have
succeeded and might yet do so in times to come. We should
therefor give "heresy" its due since all views expressed in
a debate seeking "orthodoxy" remain part of and integral to
the Christian faith. The very existence of heresy is a sign
of a vital faith tradition.

Amazingly, Jenkins concludes, the church preserved its belief
that Christ was human as well as God. Today, that belief is
standard, official doctrine for the vast majority of Christians.
We need constantly to reexamine and restate the grounds of our
belief (Dorothy Sayers) since the Chalcedonian formula is not
only our end, but also our beginning (Karl Rahner).

The author might have entitled his book "Back to the Future
of Faith."



Buy the book online: http://tinyurl.com/yjsshz2

Dr. Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary and co-ordinates adult spiritual development at St. David’s United Church in that city.

____________________________________________________________________________

Colleagues List, Vol. V. No. 23, January 30, 2010

A Case For The Divinity Of Jesus, Examining the Earliest Evidence

By Dean L. Overman

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Lanham, MD. 2010. $25.95 CAD.
Hardcover. ISBN #978-1-4422-0322-8.

Review By Wayne A. Holst

My Comment:

When I first looked at "A Case for the Divinity of Jesus" my
guard was up - because, over the years - I have read many
defenses of the classic Christian teaching concerning Jesus as
"Divine Son of God" and now find many of them inadequate.

Of course, it is intriguing to read what scholars like Elaine
Pagels and Bart Ehrmann have to say with their "alternate"
presentations of who the early church believed Jesus to be.
I admit to be influenced by modern liberal scholarship and
inclined to disregard the latest "apologetic defense"
from the conservative theological guild.

I return to the book's title. "A Case for the Divinity of Jesus"
and a small word made me stop and think. That title offers a
more winsome invitation to debate than I have often encountered.
If Overman had entitled his book "THE Case for the Divinity of
Jesus" my guard would have automatically gone up. I have read
to many "last words" from many perspectives on the subject.

Then I read about the author's background. Dean Overman is a
trained theologian who has invested most of his career as a
practicing lawyer. He applies the forensic (investigatory) skills
of a trained legal expert to the subject at hand. Most theologians
are likely to bring only a theological discipline to the questions
under investigation. Approaching an issue from the perspective of
two complementary but differing disciplines can be an asset.

That is not to say I find Overman's presentation fully convincing
TO ME. I readily admit that my bias - after years of reflecting
on Jesus' divinity - is in favour of a more humanistic approach.
My sentiments are with theologians like Marcus Borg and John
Crossan who approach the subject from a rational rather than a
supernatural perspective.

I recognize that my approach is very much influenced by the
zeitgeist, or spirit of the age, and that Overman's approach
defends the classic understanding which has dominated
Christian thinking for two thousand years. I like that the
author brings a critical method from his legal discipline to
bear on his approach to seeking truth.

Both liberal and conservative perspectives can benefit  from this.

So where does it leave me? I would recommend you read this book
because the arguments presented here must continue to be addressed -
even if the reader is inclined to some skepticism in places. Truly,
we all approach questions of transcendant meaning with a bias
that is often hard won. I was once quite willing to accept
Jeremias' (and thus Overman's) argument because it fit more
readily with my pious theological upbringing. Then I was
influenced by Bultmann whose radical "demythologization" of
the Gospels helped me to recognize the value of human reason,
as a starting point for theological speculation. I continue
to grapple with what divine revelation means in today's world
I refuse to let my biases get in the way of openness to a
continued investigation of these important issues.

So I hope that you, like me, will approach a book like this
with an open mind. The author is confident in his presentation,
but he is not blindly opinionated to orthodoxy or apologetic
in a dreary, unimaginative sense.

Overman's approach to dealing with other faith traditions is
dead on as far as I am concerned.

I want to approach persons of other faiths with respect and
integrity. At the same time I agree with the author that
"a listless resignation to a reductionist faith consisting of
only the lowest common denominator" is not the way to go
in terms of inter-faith discussions. I learned that ecumenical
dialogue between the churches calls for confidence in one's
own faith and the same principle holds here. Persons from
other faith traditions with whom I am in conversation do not
respect wishy-washy theology. They do respect conviction
combined with a spirit of "grace and truth."

Perhaps we are indeed maturing in the faith. Many of us
have developed a hard-won stance through much struggle, but
we want ever to remain open to new levels of understanding.
Whatever your current position on the divinity of Jesus,
this book will help to press your boundaries, and hopefully
keep them flexible.

___


To buy the book, click: http://tinyurl.com/yd6778k

The New Shape Of World Christianity

By Mark Noll

Inter Varsity Press,
2009. $29.00 CAD. 212 pages.
ISBN #978-0830-8284-7-0.

Review By Wayne A. Holst 

My thoughts:

Canadians possess a unique vantage point from which
to read this book. As North Americans, we share many
characteristics in common with Americans. Yet, as
non-Americans we are able to understand the impact
of American ways on our own culture. This helps us
to identify with American influence on many people
from around the world.

In the last number of years, other colleagues like
Philip Yancey and Martin Marty have helped us to
better understand the significant changes taking
place in terms of the contemporary globalization of
Christianity. Colleague Mark Noll does not replicate
these efforts. Instead, he demonstrates that what
took place when Christianity became contextualized
to North America is now being replicated, in its
own unique ways, around the world.

"Correlation is not causation" - the author is at pains
to make clear. Just because there are similar patterns
between America and the world does not mean that the
American experience caused the global experience. In a
brilliantly descriptive turn of phrase Noll says that
the world is becoming like America and that is why the
American experience is worth studying.

Every book that Noll writes is worth reading. This one
will be of particular interest to those with a love for
history, for mission, and their co-relationship.

__

An Interview with Mark Noll about
"The New Shape of World Christianity"

http://shar.es/1EqYl

___

Purchase the book

Amazon.ca link: http://tinyurl.com/yhafmqt

Dr. Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary and co-ordinates adult spiritual development at St. David’s United Church in that city.

____________________________________________________________________________

Colleagues List, Vol. V. No. 10, October 24, 2009  

The Future Of Faith

By Harvery Cox 

HarperOne, 2009

$32.99. 245 pages
ISBN #978-0-06-1755521

Review By Wayne A. Holst 

My Thoughts:

I was raised in a confessional Christian tradition and
era. I had my formative theological experience almost a
half century ago when faith was considered the equivalent
to belief. My mentors were proud to expose me to a
tradition that "knew where it stood theologically."
I am grateful for that spiritual formation, even as I
find it less and less meaningful.

Experience has taught me to be suspicious of dogma.

It has taken my five decades of attempting to live my
Christianity to better understand what Harvey Cox means
when he declares that we are moving away from belief-
centered toward an experience-centered epoch of faith.

Note that he does not say what we are experiencing is
all that new. Cox declares that the early centuries of
Christianity were in many ways like the period he sees
us entering.

Of course there will always be a need for "beliefs" and
"formalizations of faith" into statements and systems.
There will always be a need to "know where we stand"
about matters of eternal import.

Yet, many of the traditional ways we have been taught
to formalize and to know this - through doctrines and
identifiable church structures that advocated and
defended these particular beliefs - seem to be out of
touch with where many people are situated today.

Recently a conservative Lutheran gave a presentation on
my campus about what he had learned from a visit among
the Amish Mennonites. I had to tell him, diplomatically
I hope, that both he and his subjects shared a common
confinement and both seemed locked in a time warp. While
both he and the Amish may find security in the theological
and cultural defenses each constructed to defy modernity
and secularization, and while there are certain benefits
to naming our "securities" - neither approach says much
to me about faith. Neither has any appeal to me or to many
of the people with whom I relate. Neither helps me live
with the realities that make up life as I know it.

That said, I personally do not find distinguishing between
"religion" and "spirituality" to be all that helpful at this
stage of my life. My faith needs the mutuality of both
religion and spirituality.

I will not be confined to past definitions of faith but neither
will I reject tradition outright. For me, faith is a constantly
evolving, growing and integrating phenomenon.

___

I have always appreciated the special gift of Harvey Cox
to identify the spiritual trends of an era and to describe
them with engaging clarity.

He spoke to me during the sixties in "The Secular City."
He challenged me when he wrote of our new awareness and
appreciation for eastern faith traditions. He inspired
me as he described the global appeal of charismatic/
pentecostalism. Now, he is able to encourage me with
"The Future of Faith."

Wherever you are on your journey, this book will challenge
you with new and exciting insights about the future of faith
from personal, communal and global perspectives.

Dr. Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary and co-ordinates adult spiritual development at St. David’s United Church in that city.

____________________________________________________________________________

Colleagues List, Vol. V. No. 11, October 31, 2009

The Grasshopper

By Joseph L. Lothian

Cambria Publishing, Calgary
$24.95. 350 pages.
ISBN #978-0-9697023-4-4

Review By Wayne A. Holst 

Canada is a nation built on the dreams and labour of its immigrant
families. From the First Nations to recently arriving new Canadians
Alberta continues to re-experience the happy phenomenon of diverse
hopefuls finding a home and becoming contributing members of our
society.

The pattern is familiar. Difficult beginnings, adjustments,
set-backs. Then ultimately, a personally defined "success."

At the core of this success story is the requirement to "be a
steady worker." While our nation thrives on the chastened dreams of
its newcomers, it does not offer its benefits without expectations.
"Steady work" offers the rewards of individual self-esteem and
societal development.

Over the years, written history - both fictional and non-fictional -
honours this Canadian myth. It inspires our young people with
unlimited possibilities. It challenges our middle-aged adults with
something to work for. It satisfies our seniors who look back on
their lives with a desire for meaning and legacy.

Octogenarian Joseph L. Lothian, the son of immigrants from Belgium
and Wales was born in the Crowsnest Pass of southern Alberta. Not
surprisingly, he began his career as a miner, spent much of his
career in the hydrocarbon field and currently lives in Calgary with
his wife Greta.

This is the author's first novel. While it may require some
refinement in plot and character development, it makes up
for any deficiencies with poignant immediacy and authenticity.
Lothian relates a story that speaks to all ages and communities.
It should be recommended reading in our schools and public
libraries so that children and adults are more aware of our
province's heritage. It should be made avaliable to seniors
in their residences.

This is a book of historical fiction but it is not hard to
detect that real-life models formed the basis of many
personalities appearing in the narrative.

The central character is Mykola Krushelitznicki, who, like many
ethnic Canadians changed his name to a more pronounceable Kola
Krush. Shy and retiring as a youth, he made friends with Billy
Maharg the son of the school principal. Billy excelled while
Kola's domestic and cultural handicaps forced him to repeat
grades. Yet the two remained lifelong friends in spite of
divergent careers and considerable geographic distance.

While Kola's family of origin was essentially dysfunctional,
Billy's was quite solid. However, a gradual reversal of family
fortunes emerged that was largely caused by religion and ethics
based on religion. Kola started with little formal faith
background while Billy became a priest. Both found in the
Catholic faith a stabilizing compensation.

"The Grasshopper" title is shrouded with mystery until the story's
end. Kola and Billy meet after a lengthy separation. They seem
drawn by fate to acknowledge a tragic youthful mining accident.
The narrative concludes on a note of profound contrition.

Unlike stories produced by well-known authors, books like this
will not make national best-seller lists. Yet, reading the
The Grasshopper can be a refreshing alternative. Our protagonist
is an honest, simple man attempting to make his way with integrity
amid life's complex vagaries.

Lothian is a natural raconteur as well as a late-blooming author.
He is worth engaging in both modes as this reviewer has himself
experienced him.

What a gift is this reflector of our magnificent pluralism!

Dr. Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary and co-ordinates adult spiritual development at St. David’s United Church in that city.

____________________________________________________________________________

Colleagues List, Vol. V. No. 15, November 28, 2009

Rowan's Rule: Biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury

By Rupert Shortt 

Eerdmans, 2009

$30 US. 466 pp.

Review By Donald Bolen

What happens when someone with a monastic bent, steeped in the church’s tradition while gifted with a creative mind and a poetic spirit, is asked to take on the responsibilities of Christian leadership and eventually, in the midst of great ecclesial tensions, to become the Archbishop of Canterbury? One could anticipate that this story would be rich with potential and fraught with challenges. Time has borne that out, and Rowan’s Rule is a helpful telling of the story thus far.

Given that Rupert Shortt had already written a shorter volume on the current archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams: An Introduction, 2003), the full cooperation of Archbishop Williams in the preparation of this volume implies a certain confidence in the author, who was a former student of Williams. Rupert Shortt has rewarded that confidence with a reflective and engaging portrait that, while at times critical, offers sympathetic insight into the life and thought of one who has been frequently misunderstood as he has sought to guide the Anglican Communion through difficult waters.

Shortt’s narrative is complemented by the extensive use of quotations from the archbishop’s writings, speeches and poetry. Rowan’s Rule is not a book about the current situation in the Anglican Communion—Shortt notes that this “is the story of an individual, not of an institution”—but in the latter half of the volume in particular, covering the years since the archbishop’s enthronement in Canterbury in 2003, the two are necessarily intertwined.

Rowan’s Rule treats at length the archbishop’s leadership on the issues that have caused great turmoil in the Anglican world: same-sex blessings, the election to the episcopate of persons in same-sex unions and the deeper ecclesiological issues concerning the way authority is exercised in the church and the nature of the relationship between the churches of the Anglican Communion. Here Shortt works with sources (principally speeches and letters of the archbishop) that are already in the public domain, but his presentation has the merit of offering a comprehensive picture of Williams’s theological perspectives. This provides a helpful context within which to interpret his response to particular issues. Shortt traces a shift in the archbishop’s thinking toward a more conservative approach to these issues and offers reasons for that shift, but I am not convinced that he adequately takes account of the very different responsibilities of a theologian and a bishop in the church, a distinction the archbishop has taken to heart.

What emerges most clearly in the biography is Archbishop Williams’s own way of exercising authority. Shortt presents him as “a man of God rather than a manager,” who “does not (and cannot) run the Communion” (italics mine). Faced with conflict, the archbishop has fostered a Christ-centered searching of the Scriptures and Tradition, opening a space for dialogue in order to see the complexity of issues under discussion. Shortt notes the pertinence of a comment made by the archbishop in 1992, in a review of the biography of the recently retired archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. He compared Runcie to Pope Paul VI: “Such figures...carry the unresolved tensions of their communities in their own persons, and guarantee that uncomfortable truths are not buried. There are worse ways of leading churches....”

Most readers will be especially interested in the portrait of Rowan Williams as a person with a deep but searching faith. In this regard the first chapters are the most engaging, beginning with his Welsh childhood and his move at age 11, accompanied by his parents, from the Presbyterian church in which he was baptized to a local Anglican church. Shortt traces the early theological influences on Williams through his student years at Cambridge and Oxford, identifying St. Augustine as “Rowan’s single greatest influence, and the greatest of all Christian thinkers in his view.”

We learn that during the mid-70s Williams thought seriously about entering a monastic community, quite possibly a Roman Catholic one. More than once in the book we read that he could not accept papal infallibility—a statement that Shortt does not expand upon—but for a time this did not seem definitively to rule out his becoming Roman Catholic. While at Oxford, Williams, who enjoyed the theater, played the part of St. Thomas More in a college production of “A Man for All Seasons.” One of his friends from those days is cited, noting parallels between the actor and the man he played: “two devout men of razor-sharp intellect seeking to thread their way through a maze with integrity.”

Shortt notes that the principal challenge during these years was to apply his immense theological learning to his own life, “which involved tracing clean spiritual lines amid mental complexity.” In the end, this led him “to opt for the commoner path to fulfilment through marriage and fatherhood.”

Rowan’s Rule is at its best in presenting Archbishop Williams’s account of the integrity of Christian faith. The archbishop “never felt Christian belief was something to be apologised for.” In his words, “If we are not self-created, we are answerable to a truth we don’t produce.” And that answer is a response to an experience of the holy: “the holy, which makes you silent and sometimes makes you laugh and which above all makes the landscape different once and for all.”

While the book has a splendid introduction, it lacks a proper conclusion, ending abruptly less than two pages after an account of the Lambeth Conference of 2008 (the publisher was probably beckoning). But all told, it is a fine book—valuable to anyone seeking to understand current tensions within the Anglican Communion and, more broadly, worthwhile reading because it depicts a profoundly Christ-centered life, offering a window into one highly gifted person’s searching faith in searching times.

ETERNAL LIFE: A New Vision

By John Shelby Spong

HarperOne, 2009
$32.99. 268 pages.
ISBN #978-0-06-076206-3

Review By Wayne A. Holst

My Comment:

Perhaps it is because he is growingly aware of the finality
of life (John Spong is now in his 79th year.) Perhaps it is
because he has already reiterated his key theological claims
in many previous books and sees no need to repeat the rather
apologetic stance that has characterized much of his writing
until now.

Perhaps he knows that most of his readers will approach this
book with opinions of him already formed and will accept or
reject much of what they read based on that. Perhaps he has
come to accept that, because he is nearing the end of his
life he can relax a bit and allow others to take up the
causes he has championed for so long.

Whether one or more of the reasons stated above apply, this
is a different kind of Spong book from the others. I find it
mellower and more positively engaging.

Over the past 25 years, I have regularly found Spong's books
to be helpful; even when I disagreed strongly with what he
had to say. With this book however, I am less guarded. There
are places in it of poignancy for me. I felt tears welling
in my eyes as I mulled over well-written passages. I take
this emotion as a signal that both he and I have arrived at
a maturer stage of life when some issues - while important -
are no longer as urgent as they once were.

___

Spong claims to be friends with Richard Dawkins. I assume that
this means they agree on many things or at least share the
same worldview. One place where they must obviously differ,
of course, is on the matter of what happens after we die.

Read "Eternal Life" if you are a person who can agree with a
certain amount of Richard Dawkins' critique of religion; what
he says about evolution and the 'absence' of God in our times -
and yet cannot agree with him and other new atheists on matters
like Ultimate Meaning. Spong remains convinced that God exists
even as he rejoices that people like Dawkins have popularized
many of the secular causes he has defended for decades.

(Interestingly, Dawkins seems to be discovering that there are
other Christian perspectives than fundamentalism. That was not
his posture in "The God Delusion" but he seems more elightened
in his new argument for evolution: "The Greatest Show on Earth.")

___

Spong remains a person of faith while Dawkins is not. Yet, Spong
declares that he has taken his agenda about as far as he can go.
He believes that there are others even now emerging to carry
the torch further.

"I suspect that if future generations notice me at all," he
writes in his preface, "they will say, not as some of my critics
say today, 'He is too radical,' but rather, 'He was not nearly
radical enough...'

"I see future thinkers - yes overtly Christian thinkers -
already on the horizon and eager to go to places in their
writing that it has not yet occurred to me to walk.

"I think especially of such people as Gretta Vosper in Ontario
(and others...)"

 ___

Reaching 'a certain age' causes many of us to approach the big
questions of life differently. We are more aware of our limits
and we are more into 'a summing up' of what we have tried to do
with our lives. Spong engages many of the themes of previous
books here; and some new ones. But he does this with a grace
and charm that I have not previously observed in his writing.

I encourage you therefore, and at whatever your age or stage
of life, to read this book.

Dr. Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary and co-ordinates adult spiritual development at St. David’s United Church in that city.

____________________________________________________________________________

Colleagues List, Vol. V. No. 9, October 17, 2009