The Case For God
By Karen Armstrong
Alfred A. Knopf, 2009
Book Review John L. Ng
December, 2009
Standing in his workshop, I entered into a delightful conversation with a Yeshiva teacher who moonlights as a furniture repairer (He was fixing my dining table chairs). I asked him to help me understand the illusive meaning of El Shaddai, one of the Hebrew names for God in the bible. He said one must begin by acknowledging that God is beyond human knowing. No one can know God; otherwise God is not God. We can only perceive God through our experiences within God’s creation. This brief encounter prepared me for Karen Armstrong”s The Case For God.
Ms Armstrong begins her monograph with the same premise as my Jewish friend. It is an eloquent and intelligent survey of Western religious thoughts. The book is divided into two parts, from The Unknown God prior to the Renaissance to The Modern God since then. She is no stranger to the subject. According to my count, she has written at least 15 books, including A History of God: the 4000-year quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and The Bible: a biography, on similar subjects. In fact, if you have read any of her books, you will find that there is much recapitulation in this one.
Her approach is in contrast to Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. Both seek to argue for the reality of God. Here they part company. Keller uses pseudo-rational methods to prove the God of the Christian traditions. Few of his arguments are circular reasoning. Armstrong argues that you cannot prove or disprove God through reasons (logos). Rather every religious tradition is embedded with stories (mythos). Its adherents experienced God through rituals, symbols and gestures in these stories. For example, the Christian tradition centers around two great narratives – the Exodus event in the older Testament and the Christ event in the newer Testament. Out of these grand narratives, every Christian in history finds faith, meaning and a sense of being.
The rise of science in the Age of Reason is the cause of this shift from the mythos to the logos. The mistake of the church was to succumb to rationalism in defending its historical faith. It tried to apply scientific methods in understanding Scripture. This rational approach to faith would be foreign to the great church fathers from Augustine to Aquinas. In many ways, the Western church has continued this rational approach to faith and has not recovered from this gross error.
Of particular interest is her critique on the recent atheistic movement in the West. These neo- atheists, Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion, Hitchens God Is Not Great: how religion poisons everything, and Harris The End of Faith: religion, terror and the future of reason, make the same glaring error in their polemics as the religious fundamentalists. Both take a similar literal and rational approach to argue for or against faith. Armstrong rebukes both to lower their polemics by recognizing the balance and differences between mythos and logos.
Theism is not a rival theory to be tested. It is not primarily a set of propositions about God to be asserted and assented in a worldview. God is not a theory to be discussed but an ultimate reality in which people, individually and especially communally, find significant meaning through story living and story telling. Much of our Bible is narrative. It was given through history not to argue for God in rational sets but for us to encounter God in our ontology.
Alfred A. Knopf, 2009
Book Review John L. Ng
December, 2009
Standing in his workshop, I entered into a delightful conversation with a Yeshiva teacher who moonlights as a furniture repairer (He was fixing my dining table chairs). I asked him to help me understand the illusive meaning of El Shaddai, one of the Hebrew names for God in the bible. He said one must begin by acknowledging that God is beyond human knowing. No one can know God; otherwise God is not God. We can only perceive God through our experiences within God’s creation. This brief encounter prepared me for Karen Armstrong”s The Case For God.
Ms Armstrong begins her monograph with the same premise as my Jewish friend. It is an eloquent and intelligent survey of Western religious thoughts. The book is divided into two parts, from The Unknown God prior to the Renaissance to The Modern God since then. She is no stranger to the subject. According to my count, she has written at least 15 books, including A History of God: the 4000-year quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and The Bible: a biography, on similar subjects. In fact, if you have read any of her books, you will find that there is much recapitulation in this one.
Her approach is in contrast to Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. Both seek to argue for the reality of God. Here they part company. Keller uses pseudo-rational methods to prove the God of the Christian traditions. Few of his arguments are circular reasoning. Armstrong argues that you cannot prove or disprove God through reasons (logos). Rather every religious tradition is embedded with stories (mythos). Its adherents experienced God through rituals, symbols and gestures in these stories. For example, the Christian tradition centers around two great narratives – the Exodus event in the older Testament and the Christ event in the newer Testament. Out of these grand narratives, every Christian in history finds faith, meaning and a sense of being.
The rise of science in the Age of Reason is the cause of this shift from the mythos to the logos. The mistake of the church was to succumb to rationalism in defending its historical faith. It tried to apply scientific methods in understanding Scripture. This rational approach to faith would be foreign to the great church fathers from Augustine to Aquinas. In many ways, the Western church has continued this rational approach to faith and has not recovered from this gross error.
Of particular interest is her critique on the recent atheistic movement in the West. These neo- atheists, Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion, Hitchens God Is Not Great: how religion poisons everything, and Harris The End of Faith: religion, terror and the future of reason, make the same glaring error in their polemics as the religious fundamentalists. Both take a similar literal and rational approach to argue for or against faith. Armstrong rebukes both to lower their polemics by recognizing the balance and differences between mythos and logos.
Theism is not a rival theory to be tested. It is not primarily a set of propositions about God to be asserted and assented in a worldview. God is not a theory to be discussed but an ultimate reality in which people, individually and especially communally, find significant meaning through story living and story telling. Much of our Bible is narrative. It was given through history not to argue for God in rational sets but for us to encounter God in our ontology.
I Was A Stranger
Untamed Hospitality
I Was A Stranger: a Christian Theology of Hospitality
By Arthur Sutherland
Abingdon, 2006
Untamed Hospitality: welcoming God and other strangers
By Elizabeth Newman
Brazos, 2007
Review John L. Ng
November, 2009
Sutherland’s book is thin with numerous personal muses; Newman’s is thick with theological and philosophical discourses. Both call us back to this
missing virtue of the church and its congregants. Hospitality is practiced among God’s people since the time of Abraham. In fact, in many cultures, old and present, hospitality is a social norm. And yet, according to the authors, and I agree, it is glaringly missing in today’s churches.
It is not there maybe because we have a distorted notion of hospitality. Some think it is nothing more than social entertainment. Some reduce it to sentimental nicety. Some assume it is a woman’s thing and should be left to them. Some see it narrowly as a professional tool in the market place. Some see it widely as inclusion in a diverse society. Whatever the reasons or excuses, it remains that most of us do not practice hospitality.
According to Newman, hospitality is an intentional, responsible and caring act of welcoming, in public and private, friends and strangers without regard for reciprocation. She spends 200 pages with footnoted research to propose a doctrine and practice of this definition. At times her arguments are pretentious and darkly negative. Sutherland, on the other hand, needs a little more than 80 pages to be lightly funny. As different as their approaches, both always return to the Biblical texts as the content and context for hospitality.
There is where we need to go to inspire our practice of hospitality. Three iconic images illuminate our way. The classic image is Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18 welcoming strangers to their tent. It says that Abraham ran to greet them and bowed to the ground in their presence. He provided water to wash their feet; Sarah baked fresh morsels of bread and a servant prepared a calf to feed them. At day’s end, they hosted this enjoyable evening with strangers under the shade of an oak tree and had an epiphany that changed their lives for good and ever.
On their way home from a horrific week in Jerusalem, two disciples (probably husband and wife) were terribly sad and emptied of courage (Luke 24.13f). Along the way they met a stranger and three of them rehearsed the events surrounding the crucifixion. Toward sundown, they arrived in Emmaus and the couple invited the stranger to stay with them. A hurried meal was prepared. Their guest took break, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. In that Eucharistic act, Jesus, the guest who became the host, brought joy to their hearts, emptied them of sadness and gave them courage.
Acts 16.11f tells the story of Paul and company’s encounter with Lydia in Philippi. At a prayer meeting, they met Lydia and shared with her the gospel. After she prayed to embrace Jesus as her savior, she invited these strangers to stay at her home. At first, Paul refused her hospitality. But Lydia insisted and prevailed upon them to stay with her. The scene is at once poignant and awkward. A bunch of strange men, at least five, staying with a single woman would break every social mos. Be that as it may, Lydia’s single act of hospitality was strategic in securing Paul’s missionary efforts in Macedonia. No doctrine of hospitality is as effective in convincing our practice of hospitality as listening with our eyes to the above three narratives. Ultimately, hospitality is an act of the heart. It begins with and feeds on the compassion we feel for others, be they family, friends or strangers. Who knows – maybe we are welcoming God when we are welcoming others into our lives.
By Arthur Sutherland
Abingdon, 2006
Untamed Hospitality: welcoming God and other strangers
By Elizabeth Newman
Brazos, 2007
Review John L. Ng
November, 2009
Sutherland’s book is thin with numerous personal muses; Newman’s is thick with theological and philosophical discourses. Both call us back to this
missing virtue of the church and its congregants. Hospitality is practiced among God’s people since the time of Abraham. In fact, in many cultures, old and present, hospitality is a social norm. And yet, according to the authors, and I agree, it is glaringly missing in today’s churches.
It is not there maybe because we have a distorted notion of hospitality. Some think it is nothing more than social entertainment. Some reduce it to sentimental nicety. Some assume it is a woman’s thing and should be left to them. Some see it narrowly as a professional tool in the market place. Some see it widely as inclusion in a diverse society. Whatever the reasons or excuses, it remains that most of us do not practice hospitality.
According to Newman, hospitality is an intentional, responsible and caring act of welcoming, in public and private, friends and strangers without regard for reciprocation. She spends 200 pages with footnoted research to propose a doctrine and practice of this definition. At times her arguments are pretentious and darkly negative. Sutherland, on the other hand, needs a little more than 80 pages to be lightly funny. As different as their approaches, both always return to the Biblical texts as the content and context for hospitality.
There is where we need to go to inspire our practice of hospitality. Three iconic images illuminate our way. The classic image is Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18 welcoming strangers to their tent. It says that Abraham ran to greet them and bowed to the ground in their presence. He provided water to wash their feet; Sarah baked fresh morsels of bread and a servant prepared a calf to feed them. At day’s end, they hosted this enjoyable evening with strangers under the shade of an oak tree and had an epiphany that changed their lives for good and ever.
On their way home from a horrific week in Jerusalem, two disciples (probably husband and wife) were terribly sad and emptied of courage (Luke 24.13f). Along the way they met a stranger and three of them rehearsed the events surrounding the crucifixion. Toward sundown, they arrived in Emmaus and the couple invited the stranger to stay with them. A hurried meal was prepared. Their guest took break, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. In that Eucharistic act, Jesus, the guest who became the host, brought joy to their hearts, emptied them of sadness and gave them courage.
Acts 16.11f tells the story of Paul and company’s encounter with Lydia in Philippi. At a prayer meeting, they met Lydia and shared with her the gospel. After she prayed to embrace Jesus as her savior, she invited these strangers to stay at her home. At first, Paul refused her hospitality. But Lydia insisted and prevailed upon them to stay with her. The scene is at once poignant and awkward. A bunch of strange men, at least five, staying with a single woman would break every social mos. Be that as it may, Lydia’s single act of hospitality was strategic in securing Paul’s missionary efforts in Macedonia. No doctrine of hospitality is as effective in convincing our practice of hospitality as listening with our eyes to the above three narratives. Ultimately, hospitality is an act of the heart. It begins with and feeds on the compassion we feel for others, be they family, friends or strangers. Who knows – maybe we are welcoming God when we are welcoming others into our lives.
Preventing Ministry Failure
InterVarsity Press, 2007
Review by John L. Ng
September, 2009
According to various surveys, 90 percent of ministry providers interviewed feel inadequate with ministry demands, 80 percent believe their
ministry affects them and their families adversely and 45 percent experience some level of burnout. These hard data speak to the high potential for ministry failure. Preventing Ministry Failure addresses this concern. The book is collaborated by Brad Hoffmann, a church pastor, and Michael Todd Wilson, a licensed counselor. They are co-founders of ShepherdCare, a resource service for ministry and care givers.
Ministry failure is a real threat to every ministry provider. I suffered its severity years ago that altered my mental and physical health forever. Just recently a friend in church work took a long leave o stay at a retreat for healing. Both my friend and I wish we have resources to give us better options. Based on the authors’ research, Preventing Ministry Failure offers seven ‘foundational stones’ to help ministry and care givers to have a long and productive ministry.
The first foundational stone is genuine intimate relationships with God and others. Having these healthy relationships is crucial to a healthy ministry. The second stone is a deep sense of life’s calling. Knowing who we are, what we need to do and where we ought to go according to God’s purpose puts all professional work in its proper prospective. The third is stress-management. Acquiring the learned abilities to monitor and manage one self, ministry responsibilities and others can prevent emotional exhaustion and ministry burnout.
The fourth has to do with life and ministry boundaries. Having a clean, cognitive understanding of what things are true, important and right will guard against unintentional and harmful detours. The fifth is the importance of re-creation. Setting the time and making the space to balance work with leisure is the better portion of holistic living. The sixth is sufficient people skills. The acquired skills of monitoring, motivating and managing others are non-negotiable in building a ministry. The last is leadership skills. Likewise, the acquired skills of monitoring and managing purpose, people and process in ministry are also non-negotiable in getting from here to there.
These seven stones are foundational because they are basic blocks for building an effective minister in ministry. They are framed along three progressive tiers. The ground level for effective ministry defines who you are: calling and intimacy. The middle tier defines what you value: boundaries, management and re-creation. The top tier defines how you ought to relate: leadership and relational skills. No one wants to fail. Regardless of where we seek help to avoid it, ultimately we come back to self-help. Preventing Ministry Failure provides common sense observations and practical suggestions toward this end. It is probably most usage when ministers and caregivers use this resource book in a group setting. We learn best when in dialogues with others as we share our own experiences and seek collective wisdom in knowing what we ought to be and do.
Review by John L. Ng
September, 2009
According to various surveys, 90 percent of ministry providers interviewed feel inadequate with ministry demands, 80 percent believe their
ministry affects them and their families adversely and 45 percent experience some level of burnout. These hard data speak to the high potential for ministry failure. Preventing Ministry Failure addresses this concern. The book is collaborated by Brad Hoffmann, a church pastor, and Michael Todd Wilson, a licensed counselor. They are co-founders of ShepherdCare, a resource service for ministry and care givers.
Ministry failure is a real threat to every ministry provider. I suffered its severity years ago that altered my mental and physical health forever. Just recently a friend in church work took a long leave o stay at a retreat for healing. Both my friend and I wish we have resources to give us better options. Based on the authors’ research, Preventing Ministry Failure offers seven ‘foundational stones’ to help ministry and care givers to have a long and productive ministry.
The first foundational stone is genuine intimate relationships with God and others. Having these healthy relationships is crucial to a healthy ministry. The second stone is a deep sense of life’s calling. Knowing who we are, what we need to do and where we ought to go according to God’s purpose puts all professional work in its proper prospective. The third is stress-management. Acquiring the learned abilities to monitor and manage one self, ministry responsibilities and others can prevent emotional exhaustion and ministry burnout.
The fourth has to do with life and ministry boundaries. Having a clean, cognitive understanding of what things are true, important and right will guard against unintentional and harmful detours. The fifth is the importance of re-creation. Setting the time and making the space to balance work with leisure is the better portion of holistic living. The sixth is sufficient people skills. The acquired skills of monitoring, motivating and managing others are non-negotiable in building a ministry. The last is leadership skills. Likewise, the acquired skills of monitoring and managing purpose, people and process in ministry are also non-negotiable in getting from here to there.
These seven stones are foundational because they are basic blocks for building an effective minister in ministry. They are framed along three progressive tiers. The ground level for effective ministry defines who you are: calling and intimacy. The middle tier defines what you value: boundaries, management and re-creation. The top tier defines how you ought to relate: leadership and relational skills. No one wants to fail. Regardless of where we seek help to avoid it, ultimately we come back to self-help. Preventing Ministry Failure provides common sense observations and practical suggestions toward this end. It is probably most usage when ministers and caregivers use this resource book in a group setting. We learn best when in dialogues with others as we share our own experiences and seek collective wisdom in knowing what we ought to be and do.
Foundations of Spiritual Formation: a community approach to becoming like Christ
By Paul Pettit, ed.
Kregel Publications, 2008
Review by John L. Ng
July, 2009
That phrase, Spiritual Formation, made common more than thirty years ago, in its inflated usage has devalued its essential meaning. In fact, it has generated a minor cottage industry from the “The Purpose Driven Life” books to “Walk Thru The Bible” seminars. Obviously, there is a spiritual void in enough Christians to feed this apparent movement, especially within evangelical churches. Foundations of Spiritual Formation is a collection of essays by contributors from varied theological traditions that include Dallas Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Moody Bible Institute.
Paul Pettit, DTS’s spiritual formation program director and the book’s complier, defines spiritual formation as a continual process through which a “dynamic, holistic, maturing relationship between the individual and God, between the individual and others (believers and non-believers)” is being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. The book is in two parts. Part 1 sets the theological foundation and approach that includes a study of the Old and New Testaments’ notion of the faith community as context for forming true spirituality. Part 2 offers seven practical elements of spiritual formation: the work of the heart, character development, training in love, leadership and identity, life calling, story telling and preaching. Because they are by different writers, the chapters are uneven in text and texture. Some are didactic and academic; others are narrative and practical. More critically, several hardly adhere to the premise that spiritual formation is primarily communal.
Part 1 argues for community as the context for spirituality. But I am not sure it is convincing to me because I happen to agree with it or because its rationale is well argued. The American brand of evangelicalism has evolved into an individual endeavor, apart from and at times in resistance to community. Once upon a time, the most basic unit of human living was a village in which each villager is responsible to one another. Then it downgraded to the extended family and then to the immediate family. Today, most Christians live their faith as a single individual apart from community. The book calls its readers back to the Biblical notion of faith community as the essential place for spiritual formation. The depth of our spirituality is intrinsically related to the depth of our participation in a faith community.
Part 2 presents what seems like a random selection of practical elements in spiritual formation. I wonder what theological rationale is used to justify these topics. Taken as a whole, however, the book provides a competent introduction of a communal approach to spiritual formation. It can be summarized by four broad assertions: one, who we are in Christ is the prerequisite of an open and seeking heart for spiritual formation; two, where our defining place in a faith community impacts our spiritual formation; three, true spirituality has outward communal implications as well as inward personal realities; four, true spirituality is living the presence of God in practical holiness with others in community. In spite its flaws, Foundations of Spiritual Formation provides exactly that
Kregel Publications, 2008
Review by John L. Ng
July, 2009
That phrase, Spiritual Formation, made common more than thirty years ago, in its inflated usage has devalued its essential meaning. In fact, it has generated a minor cottage industry from the “The Purpose Driven Life” books to “Walk Thru The Bible” seminars. Obviously, there is a spiritual void in enough Christians to feed this apparent movement, especially within evangelical churches. Foundations of Spiritual Formation is a collection of essays by contributors from varied theological traditions that include Dallas Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Moody Bible Institute.
Paul Pettit, DTS’s spiritual formation program director and the book’s complier, defines spiritual formation as a continual process through which a “dynamic, holistic, maturing relationship between the individual and God, between the individual and others (believers and non-believers)” is being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. The book is in two parts. Part 1 sets the theological foundation and approach that includes a study of the Old and New Testaments’ notion of the faith community as context for forming true spirituality. Part 2 offers seven practical elements of spiritual formation: the work of the heart, character development, training in love, leadership and identity, life calling, story telling and preaching. Because they are by different writers, the chapters are uneven in text and texture. Some are didactic and academic; others are narrative and practical. More critically, several hardly adhere to the premise that spiritual formation is primarily communal.
Part 1 argues for community as the context for spirituality. But I am not sure it is convincing to me because I happen to agree with it or because its rationale is well argued. The American brand of evangelicalism has evolved into an individual endeavor, apart from and at times in resistance to community. Once upon a time, the most basic unit of human living was a village in which each villager is responsible to one another. Then it downgraded to the extended family and then to the immediate family. Today, most Christians live their faith as a single individual apart from community. The book calls its readers back to the Biblical notion of faith community as the essential place for spiritual formation. The depth of our spirituality is intrinsically related to the depth of our participation in a faith community.
Part 2 presents what seems like a random selection of practical elements in spiritual formation. I wonder what theological rationale is used to justify these topics. Taken as a whole, however, the book provides a competent introduction of a communal approach to spiritual formation. It can be summarized by four broad assertions: one, who we are in Christ is the prerequisite of an open and seeking heart for spiritual formation; two, where our defining place in a faith community impacts our spiritual formation; three, true spirituality has outward communal implications as well as inward personal realities; four, true spirituality is living the presence of God in practical holiness with others in community. In spite its flaws, Foundations of Spiritual Formation provides exactly that
Exclusion & Embrace: a theological exploration of identity, otherness and reconciliation
By Miroslav Volf
Abingdon Press, 1996
Review by John L. Ng
May, 2009
Miroslav Volf, professor in theology at Yale Divinity School, has written a “theological exploration” that illuminates a vision of what it means to live under God in a post-modern world of glaring human pluralism. Perhaps the greatest challenge that ruffles many thoughtful Christians is how to live with the otherness of others whose contempt and hostility toward one another, including the church, are real. His book is an impressive, lucid synthesis of Biblical theology, historical philosophy, post modern thinking, contemporary issues with insightful readings of the Christian’s Scripture and current global conflicts.
All peoples viscerally seek to protect their communal identity by drawing boundaries to exclude others who are different from them. This determined exclusion can easily lead people, individually and collectively, toward hatred and even violence. The natural consequence of exclusion is almost always oppression, injustice and violence. Volf responds to the problem of exclusion by proposing “embrace” as a way to live with one another in God’s grace. The only way to redeem this flawed human diversity is to accept the otherness of others, including our enemies, in forgiveness and reconciliation. Here he wrestles with gender and race, oppression and justice, deception and truth, violence and peace with acute insights and a wide breadth of research. Volf’s brilliant argument for “embrace” is convincing.
A native Croatian, with first hand exposure to the atrocities during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, Volf flirts with a personal application of his proposed “embrace” but does not. The year was 1993. For months the Serbian fighters had been plundering his native country, “herding people into concentration camps, raping women, burning down churches, and destroying cities.” In his theological enlightenment, how would he embrace his enemies, the perpetrators of these unspeakable evils, in real time and space? What would embrace actually look like in his personal life? Where would he find the courage and strength to embrace his enemies? How would embrace impact his sense of jurisprudence? When asked how he would embrace the Serbians, Volf conveniently gives a canned response: No, I cannot – but as a follower of Christ I think I should be able to (page 9). After more than 300 pages of impression theological exploration, he never comes around to tell us how he has applied embrace in his social and political contexts.
A failure of this book can be said of many others of the same genre. There is a serious disconnect between the clear confidence of cognitive theology and the ambivalence of soot smudged human reality. Perhaps my difficulty in plowing through his reasoning is that it lacks a sense of ground truth (a military term referring to the reality check of a theory in actual combat). Struggling to follow his argument, I agitatedly ask, so what – does embrace really work for him? I desperately want him to show me the power of embrace. If he has practiced embrace with his enemies, Volf does not tell us. The reader seriously doubts if he has found it within himself to accept, forgive and reconcile with those who have killed and raped his people. The book is deep with brilliant insights in abstract theology but shallow in applied theology. When all has been written and done, infinitely more is written than done.
Abingdon Press, 1996
Review by John L. Ng
May, 2009
Miroslav Volf, professor in theology at Yale Divinity School, has written a “theological exploration” that illuminates a vision of what it means to live under God in a post-modern world of glaring human pluralism. Perhaps the greatest challenge that ruffles many thoughtful Christians is how to live with the otherness of others whose contempt and hostility toward one another, including the church, are real. His book is an impressive, lucid synthesis of Biblical theology, historical philosophy, post modern thinking, contemporary issues with insightful readings of the Christian’s Scripture and current global conflicts.
All peoples viscerally seek to protect their communal identity by drawing boundaries to exclude others who are different from them. This determined exclusion can easily lead people, individually and collectively, toward hatred and even violence. The natural consequence of exclusion is almost always oppression, injustice and violence. Volf responds to the problem of exclusion by proposing “embrace” as a way to live with one another in God’s grace. The only way to redeem this flawed human diversity is to accept the otherness of others, including our enemies, in forgiveness and reconciliation. Here he wrestles with gender and race, oppression and justice, deception and truth, violence and peace with acute insights and a wide breadth of research. Volf’s brilliant argument for “embrace” is convincing.
A native Croatian, with first hand exposure to the atrocities during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, Volf flirts with a personal application of his proposed “embrace” but does not. The year was 1993. For months the Serbian fighters had been plundering his native country, “herding people into concentration camps, raping women, burning down churches, and destroying cities.” In his theological enlightenment, how would he embrace his enemies, the perpetrators of these unspeakable evils, in real time and space? What would embrace actually look like in his personal life? Where would he find the courage and strength to embrace his enemies? How would embrace impact his sense of jurisprudence? When asked how he would embrace the Serbians, Volf conveniently gives a canned response: No, I cannot – but as a follower of Christ I think I should be able to (page 9). After more than 300 pages of impression theological exploration, he never comes around to tell us how he has applied embrace in his social and political contexts.
A failure of this book can be said of many others of the same genre. There is a serious disconnect between the clear confidence of cognitive theology and the ambivalence of soot smudged human reality. Perhaps my difficulty in plowing through his reasoning is that it lacks a sense of ground truth (a military term referring to the reality check of a theory in actual combat). Struggling to follow his argument, I agitatedly ask, so what – does embrace really work for him? I desperately want him to show me the power of embrace. If he has practiced embrace with his enemies, Volf does not tell us. The reader seriously doubts if he has found it within himself to accept, forgive and reconcile with those who have killed and raped his people. The book is deep with brilliant insights in abstract theology but shallow in applied theology. When all has been written and done, infinitely more is written than done.
Team Building Books
Becoming A Healthy Team
by Stephen A. Macchia
Baker Books, 2005
Leading The Team Based Church
by George Cladis
Jossey-Bass Books, 1999
The Fifth Discipline, revised
Peter M. Senge
Doubleday, 2006
The Wisdom of Teams
by Jon R. Kalzenbach & Douglas K. Smith
Harper Business, 2003
Review by John L. Ng
February, 2009
Nothing gets done without a team; nothing gets done well without an effective team. A team is a managed group of diversely gifted members who are mutually accountable to strive toward a shared purpose. Many groups in ministry are not teams. They may be a working group whose members share information only to better their individual tasks. They may be a pseudo team whose members meet without a common purpose or a collective task focus. The members of a real team share complement skills, mutual accountability and a common purpose.
Real teams are challenging to lead and more difficult to build. In Becoming a Healthy Team, Macchia, a church consultant, writes about the five basic traits of a healthy team. Using the acronym TEAMS, he spells trust (relational), empowerment (personal), assimilation (collective wholeness), management (organizational), and service (collective purpose). With a dash of biblical references here and there and reflection questions for discussion, Macchia gives us a simple, readable resource to cultivate and nurture a healthy working team.
In Leading the Team-Based Church, George Cladis, a mega church pastor, defines pastoral leadership as a team leader. Using the Trinitarian model (a bit of a theological stretch), he demonstrates the dynamics of teamwork that include covenanting, visioning, culture-creating, collaborating, trusting, empowering and learning. Filled with stories and illustrations, the book is a good read and practical for those who want to build and lead a team effectively.
Like many books written by Christians, it is predictable that they use scriptural references and examples as proof texts. At times, these quotes are out of context or badly exegete. I also find that these books often refer to management books from the business sector as their theoretical reference point. Two of them are: The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge and The Wisdom of Teams by Jon Kalzengbach and Douglas Smith.
Senge, of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT, introduces the idea of a "learning organization" that is shaped by personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning. The book is tough read. Plowing through the thick materials requires slow and careful reading. For someone willing to invest the time, it offers helpful insights to think conceptually. Katzenbach and Smith, management consultants, offer a “high performance organization” model that is propelled by performance challenge, mutual accountability, collective focus and individual discipline. The book is more anecdotal and less conceptual. Although the case studies are helpful, the book leaves the readers to discover for themselves what make an effective team.
Every ministry leader needs to cultivate and nurture a working team to get things done well. These book samples may serve well as primers for understanding, building and leading a more effective team toward a shared vision and common purpose
by Stephen A. Macchia
Baker Books, 2005
Leading The Team Based Church
by George Cladis
Jossey-Bass Books, 1999
The Fifth Discipline, revised
Peter M. Senge
Doubleday, 2006
The Wisdom of Teams
by Jon R. Kalzenbach & Douglas K. Smith
Harper Business, 2003
Review by John L. Ng
February, 2009
Nothing gets done without a team; nothing gets done well without an effective team. A team is a managed group of diversely gifted members who are mutually accountable to strive toward a shared purpose. Many groups in ministry are not teams. They may be a working group whose members share information only to better their individual tasks. They may be a pseudo team whose members meet without a common purpose or a collective task focus. The members of a real team share complement skills, mutual accountability and a common purpose.
Real teams are challenging to lead and more difficult to build. In Becoming a Healthy Team, Macchia, a church consultant, writes about the five basic traits of a healthy team. Using the acronym TEAMS, he spells trust (relational), empowerment (personal), assimilation (collective wholeness), management (organizational), and service (collective purpose). With a dash of biblical references here and there and reflection questions for discussion, Macchia gives us a simple, readable resource to cultivate and nurture a healthy working team.
In Leading the Team-Based Church, George Cladis, a mega church pastor, defines pastoral leadership as a team leader. Using the Trinitarian model (a bit of a theological stretch), he demonstrates the dynamics of teamwork that include covenanting, visioning, culture-creating, collaborating, trusting, empowering and learning. Filled with stories and illustrations, the book is a good read and practical for those who want to build and lead a team effectively.
Like many books written by Christians, it is predictable that they use scriptural references and examples as proof texts. At times, these quotes are out of context or badly exegete. I also find that these books often refer to management books from the business sector as their theoretical reference point. Two of them are: The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge and The Wisdom of Teams by Jon Kalzengbach and Douglas Smith.
Senge, of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT, introduces the idea of a "learning organization" that is shaped by personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning. The book is tough read. Plowing through the thick materials requires slow and careful reading. For someone willing to invest the time, it offers helpful insights to think conceptually. Katzenbach and Smith, management consultants, offer a “high performance organization” model that is propelled by performance challenge, mutual accountability, collective focus and individual discipline. The book is more anecdotal and less conceptual. Although the case studies are helpful, the book leaves the readers to discover for themselves what make an effective team.
Every ministry leader needs to cultivate and nurture a working team to get things done well. These book samples may serve well as primers for understanding, building and leading a more effective team toward a shared vision and common purpose