The Courage To Be Protestant
By David F. Wells
Eerdmans, 2008
Review by John L. Ng
December, 2010
In my seminary class, we spend two full evenings in conversation on the ways the church responds to culture. How the church responds to culture determines how it will read the biblical narrative. And how it reads the biblical narrative will shape its ministry task. Since the Renaissance, criticism against the modern church has been that it caters to Modernity in how it reads the Bible and rehearses the gospel. Wells, professor of historical theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, makes a similar indictment against the Evangelical churches today. Since World War II, many churches have allowed Post Modernity to dictate their content for ministry. No one can deny or should ignore our default culture as the societal context for church ministry. All church ministry is done in the context of culture. The danger is when the church accommodates culture toward the perilous precipice of
compromise.
The Courage to Be Protestant is Well’s fifth monograph on the Evangelical movement in America.* This final writing is a culmination of the previous four. His theological threads bundle them as a serial whole. The issues at stake are what is truth, who is God, who is self, who is Christ and what is the church. Unlike the previous books, this final page is more polemic and a passionate read. Wells, alarmed with the American Evangelical movement, gets to the point – it takes little courage to be called a Protestant; it is something more vigilant to live out its confessional orthodoxy.
What divides the Evangelical church is not its orthodoxy but is orthopraxy – how it lives, moves and has its being in Post Modern culture. Irrespective of culture, there are the traditional churches that have always done it that way. They see the church as a faith community in which one has to believe before s/he can belong. Reacting to this apparent irrelevance, there are two major ministry movements since World War II. There are the marketer churches who base their ministry on a business model. They define non-Christians as unchurched consumers and the gospel as a product packaged to cater them. The marketers see the church as a faith community in which a seeker can belong by making it as painless as possible to believe. Then there are the emerging churches that mimic culture’s Post Modern categories as context and content for ministry. They like to make their faith community as a hip, irreverent and inclusive place. The emergent welcome anyone to belong before s/he believes.
Seeking to transform church ministry to accommodate Post Modernity, the marketers and emergent have, inadvertently or intentionally, yanked orthopraxy from their historical orthodoxy. With biting humor and sarcastic polemics, Wells rips into the marketers’ seeker friendly ministry and the emergent’s relativism and inclusivity. Using his five themes – truth, God, self, Christ and the church – Wells calls the Protestant church to engage culture in orthopraxy without abandoning its orthodoxy. The Courage To be Protestant is required reading for my class. Likewise, I would encourage this read for anyone who ministers to and works with people for the sake of the gospel.
*No Place For Truth, 1993; God In The Wasteland, 1994; Losing Our Virtue, 1998; Above All Earthy Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, 2005.
Eerdmans, 2008
Review by John L. Ng
December, 2010
In my seminary class, we spend two full evenings in conversation on the ways the church responds to culture. How the church responds to culture determines how it will read the biblical narrative. And how it reads the biblical narrative will shape its ministry task. Since the Renaissance, criticism against the modern church has been that it caters to Modernity in how it reads the Bible and rehearses the gospel. Wells, professor of historical theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, makes a similar indictment against the Evangelical churches today. Since World War II, many churches have allowed Post Modernity to dictate their content for ministry. No one can deny or should ignore our default culture as the societal context for church ministry. All church ministry is done in the context of culture. The danger is when the church accommodates culture toward the perilous precipice of
compromise.
The Courage to Be Protestant is Well’s fifth monograph on the Evangelical movement in America.* This final writing is a culmination of the previous four. His theological threads bundle them as a serial whole. The issues at stake are what is truth, who is God, who is self, who is Christ and what is the church. Unlike the previous books, this final page is more polemic and a passionate read. Wells, alarmed with the American Evangelical movement, gets to the point – it takes little courage to be called a Protestant; it is something more vigilant to live out its confessional orthodoxy.
What divides the Evangelical church is not its orthodoxy but is orthopraxy – how it lives, moves and has its being in Post Modern culture. Irrespective of culture, there are the traditional churches that have always done it that way. They see the church as a faith community in which one has to believe before s/he can belong. Reacting to this apparent irrelevance, there are two major ministry movements since World War II. There are the marketer churches who base their ministry on a business model. They define non-Christians as unchurched consumers and the gospel as a product packaged to cater them. The marketers see the church as a faith community in which a seeker can belong by making it as painless as possible to believe. Then there are the emerging churches that mimic culture’s Post Modern categories as context and content for ministry. They like to make their faith community as a hip, irreverent and inclusive place. The emergent welcome anyone to belong before s/he believes.
Seeking to transform church ministry to accommodate Post Modernity, the marketers and emergent have, inadvertently or intentionally, yanked orthopraxy from their historical orthodoxy. With biting humor and sarcastic polemics, Wells rips into the marketers’ seeker friendly ministry and the emergent’s relativism and inclusivity. Using his five themes – truth, God, self, Christ and the church – Wells calls the Protestant church to engage culture in orthopraxy without abandoning its orthodoxy. The Courage To be Protestant is required reading for my class. Likewise, I would encourage this read for anyone who ministers to and works with people for the sake of the gospel.
*No Place For Truth, 1993; God In The Wasteland, 1994; Losing Our Virtue, 1998; Above All Earthy Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, 2005.
Wisdom by Stephen S. Hall and
Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz
By Stephen S. Hall
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
By Kathryn Schulz
HarperCollins Publishers, 2010
Review by John L. Ng
September, 2010
A Peanuts cartoon has Charlie Brown asking Snoopy: I hear you’re writing a book on theology. . . . I hope you have a good title. Snoopy muses: I have the perfect title. . . . “Has It Ever Occurred To You That You Might Be Wrong!” A thousand years before Descartes’ “Cognito, ergo, sum”, Augustine, the eminent church doctor, wrote in The City of God, “Fallor, ergo, sum” – I err, therefore I am. Our error prone human condition is a greater verification of our existence than our cognitive capacity.
Kathryn Schulz’s “Being Wrong” is a fascinating narrative on why being wrong is so human. She enquires an array of past and present thinkers, writers, performers and scientists to convey that our senses will fail our perception, our minds will mislead our thinking and our communities will astray our convictions. Shakespeare’s “Comedy Of Errors” is not so much a comedy. Few lines are funny. We laugh because the characters, being human that they, keep getting it wrong in their assumptions and perceptions.
Error’s Latin etymology means to wander, roam, move. To err implies that we are seeking, exploring and discovering new things, even when we go astray from the truth. Being mistaken is as natural as breathing. Yet we go through life insisting that we are mostly right most of the time about most things. We want to be right because it is so gratifying to be right. And being wrong threatens everything about us.
Schulz encourages us to face up to being wrong as a given and a gift. Our willingness to accept our error prone condition will redeem our faith, revise our understanding, transform our self perception and enrich our relationships. As she concludes, being wrong “really did turn out to be both an agonizing lesson and an unparalleled pleasure.”
Stephen Hall’s “Wisdom” takes a different turn to complement our error prone condition. Hall argues that the subject of wisdom is no longer the exclusive domain of theology or philosophy. Quoting freely from clinical psychology and neurobiology, he looks at the human mind as the psychological root of wisdom. No matter how he slices up our brain, he still comes back to those theological/ philosophical presuppositions regarding what defines wisdom.
In Part Two, he delineates the eight characteristics of a wise person. He refers to them as the pillars of wisdom: 1. an emotional art of coping with reality, 2. an ability to know what is important when making judgment, 3. a moral reasoning process between right and wrong, 4. an innate compassion for others in kindness and empathy, 5. a humility in perceiving our truer self, 6. an unselfish altruism for others, 7. an acquired longsuffering ability to wait, 8. a learned willingness to live with uncertainly.
Ultimately, Hall concludes that wisdom comes with age (not a guarantee, only a necessity). As we grow old, we hope that through our error prone journeys we might gain a little wisdom along the way. Both books are a fine read to enrich our thinking about being human – full of errors and full of potential unto wisdom.
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
By Kathryn Schulz
HarperCollins Publishers, 2010
Review by John L. Ng
September, 2010
A Peanuts cartoon has Charlie Brown asking Snoopy: I hear you’re writing a book on theology. . . . I hope you have a good title. Snoopy muses: I have the perfect title. . . . “Has It Ever Occurred To You That You Might Be Wrong!” A thousand years before Descartes’ “Cognito, ergo, sum”, Augustine, the eminent church doctor, wrote in The City of God, “Fallor, ergo, sum” – I err, therefore I am. Our error prone human condition is a greater verification of our existence than our cognitive capacity.
Kathryn Schulz’s “Being Wrong” is a fascinating narrative on why being wrong is so human. She enquires an array of past and present thinkers, writers, performers and scientists to convey that our senses will fail our perception, our minds will mislead our thinking and our communities will astray our convictions. Shakespeare’s “Comedy Of Errors” is not so much a comedy. Few lines are funny. We laugh because the characters, being human that they, keep getting it wrong in their assumptions and perceptions.
Error’s Latin etymology means to wander, roam, move. To err implies that we are seeking, exploring and discovering new things, even when we go astray from the truth. Being mistaken is as natural as breathing. Yet we go through life insisting that we are mostly right most of the time about most things. We want to be right because it is so gratifying to be right. And being wrong threatens everything about us.
Schulz encourages us to face up to being wrong as a given and a gift. Our willingness to accept our error prone condition will redeem our faith, revise our understanding, transform our self perception and enrich our relationships. As she concludes, being wrong “really did turn out to be both an agonizing lesson and an unparalleled pleasure.”
Stephen Hall’s “Wisdom” takes a different turn to complement our error prone condition. Hall argues that the subject of wisdom is no longer the exclusive domain of theology or philosophy. Quoting freely from clinical psychology and neurobiology, he looks at the human mind as the psychological root of wisdom. No matter how he slices up our brain, he still comes back to those theological/ philosophical presuppositions regarding what defines wisdom.
In Part Two, he delineates the eight characteristics of a wise person. He refers to them as the pillars of wisdom: 1. an emotional art of coping with reality, 2. an ability to know what is important when making judgment, 3. a moral reasoning process between right and wrong, 4. an innate compassion for others in kindness and empathy, 5. a humility in perceiving our truer self, 6. an unselfish altruism for others, 7. an acquired longsuffering ability to wait, 8. a learned willingness to live with uncertainly.
Ultimately, Hall concludes that wisdom comes with age (not a guarantee, only a necessity). As we grow old, we hope that through our error prone journeys we might gain a little wisdom along the way. Both books are a fine read to enrich our thinking about being human – full of errors and full of potential unto wisdom.
Head and Heart – American Christianities
By Garry Wills
The Penguin Press, 2007
Review by John L. Ng
July, 2010
Irrespective of the rancor in American politics concerning the separation between church and state, no reasonable person can ignore the influence religion, particularly Christianity, has in the founding and history of the United States. The meaning of separation is at the heart of this bitter debate. Some have sought to blacken the line of separation by defining it as the autonomous functions of church and state that must exist apart from the other. Another way to define separation is that the state should function independently but inseparable from the church.
The framers, both deists and theists alike, of the constitution never intended that religion, particularly Christianity, play no role in politics. As witnesses of European state churches, they feared governmental infringement on the establishment of religion and were desirous a constitutional guarantee of religious freedom in American life. Indeed it is the freedom of religion that has flourished Christianity in the new world. As Garry Wills notes in “Head and Heart,” government cannot legislate religious activities, like having faith in Jesus. But one would hope and expect that one’s faith in Jesus should influence every facet of that person’s life, including his political participation.
“Head and Heart” is a good read. Garry Wills, one of few American writers I enjoy reading, is a devoted Catholic and a learned historian. In his
introduction to his class on the history of the constitution, Wills asked his students three questions: Do you believe in the separation of church and state? Do you believe in the separation of religion and politics? Do you believe in the separation of morality and politics? Almost all students responded yes to the first and second questions. But none responded positively to the third. Wills admits willingly that the answers to the second and third questions are inconsistent. A shared rationale recognizes that most people’s morality is affected by their religion. In fact, I would agree that answers to all three questions must be consistent. Since morality is affected by religion and much of religion is formulated by an instituted church, it would be reasonable to expect the church to play a role in politics.
The book examines the dynamic and uneven relationship between church and state. Their interplay has transformed the political and the religious landscape in American. Wills divides the history of church and state into five epochs: The pre-enlightenment period of the 17th century that witnessed the early Puritans, the conflicting colonies and the first Great Awakening; The enlightenment of the 18th century that included the rise of the Unitarians, the Quakers and the founding of a new nation; The Romantic Era of 19th century ushered in the slavery conflict, the Civil War and the second Great Awakening; The Cultural Wars years of the 20th century that included the two great world wars, the rights movements and Evangelical politics; The Religious Nation period of the latter 20th and early 21st centuries that gave rise to faith based politics, advanced social services, education and wars.
Whether one is initiated or not in the debate of church and state politics, this read provides an informed background for conversations. Every good Christian ought to be a good citizen; every good citizen ought to be informed of the political issues. Many of these issues are at once hostile and friendly to our faith and practice.
The Penguin Press, 2007
Review by John L. Ng
July, 2010
Irrespective of the rancor in American politics concerning the separation between church and state, no reasonable person can ignore the influence religion, particularly Christianity, has in the founding and history of the United States. The meaning of separation is at the heart of this bitter debate. Some have sought to blacken the line of separation by defining it as the autonomous functions of church and state that must exist apart from the other. Another way to define separation is that the state should function independently but inseparable from the church.
The framers, both deists and theists alike, of the constitution never intended that religion, particularly Christianity, play no role in politics. As witnesses of European state churches, they feared governmental infringement on the establishment of religion and were desirous a constitutional guarantee of religious freedom in American life. Indeed it is the freedom of religion that has flourished Christianity in the new world. As Garry Wills notes in “Head and Heart,” government cannot legislate religious activities, like having faith in Jesus. But one would hope and expect that one’s faith in Jesus should influence every facet of that person’s life, including his political participation.
“Head and Heart” is a good read. Garry Wills, one of few American writers I enjoy reading, is a devoted Catholic and a learned historian. In his
introduction to his class on the history of the constitution, Wills asked his students three questions: Do you believe in the separation of church and state? Do you believe in the separation of religion and politics? Do you believe in the separation of morality and politics? Almost all students responded yes to the first and second questions. But none responded positively to the third. Wills admits willingly that the answers to the second and third questions are inconsistent. A shared rationale recognizes that most people’s morality is affected by their religion. In fact, I would agree that answers to all three questions must be consistent. Since morality is affected by religion and much of religion is formulated by an instituted church, it would be reasonable to expect the church to play a role in politics.
The book examines the dynamic and uneven relationship between church and state. Their interplay has transformed the political and the religious landscape in American. Wills divides the history of church and state into five epochs: The pre-enlightenment period of the 17th century that witnessed the early Puritans, the conflicting colonies and the first Great Awakening; The enlightenment of the 18th century that included the rise of the Unitarians, the Quakers and the founding of a new nation; The Romantic Era of 19th century ushered in the slavery conflict, the Civil War and the second Great Awakening; The Cultural Wars years of the 20th century that included the two great world wars, the rights movements and Evangelical politics; The Religious Nation period of the latter 20th and early 21st centuries that gave rise to faith based politics, advanced social services, education and wars.
Whether one is initiated or not in the debate of church and state politics, this read provides an informed background for conversations. Every good Christian ought to be a good citizen; every good citizen ought to be informed of the political issues. Many of these issues are at once hostile and friendly to our faith and practice.
The Prodigal
The Waiting Father
by Helmut Thielicke
Lutterworth Press, 1987
The Return of the Prodigal Son
by Henri J. M. Nouwen
Image Book, 1994
The Cross & the Prodigal
by Kenneth Bailey
InterVarsity Press, 2005
The Prodigal God
by Timothy Keller
Zondervan, 2009
Review by John L. Ng
June, 2010
The parable of the prodigal in Luke 15 is as old as the Gospel story and as timeless as the Gospel truth. It is perhaps the most well known of Jesus’ parables. Enough books, commentaries and sermons have parsed it for our puritan consumption. The four monographs in this review look at this well rehearsed story and give fresh imagination to our hearing. Seeing the parable from different perches, the four authors take the readers in refreshing and different directions. And study and teaching of this parable is enriched when the four monographs are read together.
The Waiting Father is this great scholar’s sermonic work of several of Jesus’ parables. One of them is the prodigal in the first two chapters. Thielicke’s imagination of God as the ‘waiting father’ in the title captures the essence of the story. Some preachers are indifferent scholars and some scholars are poor communicators. But this professor of Hamburg University, Germany, is both an insightful interpreter and imaginative preacher. Any student of scripture and lover of truth would enjoy reading his theological insights. A word of caution. The two chapters are not a breezy read. Thielicke’s thoughts are dense with layers. One must be intentional and diligent to appreciate them.
The Return of the Prodigal Son is Nouwen’s reflection of the parable based on his lingering contemplation of Rembrandt’s masterpiece of the same title. The Rembrandt painting provides a fascinating sensory interpretation of the parable. This Catholic priest simply writes what his senses enjoy the varied and many nuances of the father, the younger and older sons. To appreciate Nouwen’s reflection, the reader must take the time to enjoy the Dutch master’s painting. It would be good to have a print of it along side while reading. You will never hear or tell the parable again without seeing the rich images of this masterpiece.
The Cross & the Prodigal is one of several books by Kenneth Bailey on the parable. For 20 years Bailey was a Near East School of Theology professor in Beirut, Lebanon. Living in the land of the New Testament has given him a unique insight into the cultural and social backgrounds of the parable’s literary forms. The book’s subtitle – Luke 15 Through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants – preludes his fascinating look at the parable through the cultural and social nuances of Jesus’s first audience. The parable’s reality is made more vivid and vital.
The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller is this New York pastor’s summary of Christianity for a post-modern, urban world. His play on words by calling God prodigal alludes to God’s reckless and extravagant grace on humankind as portrayed by the father in the parable. True to form, Keller skillfully weaves the theological threads of the parable with the strands of contemporary culture in its hang-ups and assumptions. He lucidly presents the Gospel with post-modern imagination. (The book is complemented by a separate DVD presentation by the author and discussion guide for group studies.)
by Helmut Thielicke
Lutterworth Press, 1987
The Return of the Prodigal Son
by Henri J. M. Nouwen
Image Book, 1994
The Cross & the Prodigal
by Kenneth Bailey
InterVarsity Press, 2005
The Prodigal God
by Timothy Keller
Zondervan, 2009
Review by John L. Ng
June, 2010
The parable of the prodigal in Luke 15 is as old as the Gospel story and as timeless as the Gospel truth. It is perhaps the most well known of Jesus’ parables. Enough books, commentaries and sermons have parsed it for our puritan consumption. The four monographs in this review look at this well rehearsed story and give fresh imagination to our hearing. Seeing the parable from different perches, the four authors take the readers in refreshing and different directions. And study and teaching of this parable is enriched when the four monographs are read together.
The Waiting Father is this great scholar’s sermonic work of several of Jesus’ parables. One of them is the prodigal in the first two chapters. Thielicke’s imagination of God as the ‘waiting father’ in the title captures the essence of the story. Some preachers are indifferent scholars and some scholars are poor communicators. But this professor of Hamburg University, Germany, is both an insightful interpreter and imaginative preacher. Any student of scripture and lover of truth would enjoy reading his theological insights. A word of caution. The two chapters are not a breezy read. Thielicke’s thoughts are dense with layers. One must be intentional and diligent to appreciate them.
The Return of the Prodigal Son is Nouwen’s reflection of the parable based on his lingering contemplation of Rembrandt’s masterpiece of the same title. The Rembrandt painting provides a fascinating sensory interpretation of the parable. This Catholic priest simply writes what his senses enjoy the varied and many nuances of the father, the younger and older sons. To appreciate Nouwen’s reflection, the reader must take the time to enjoy the Dutch master’s painting. It would be good to have a print of it along side while reading. You will never hear or tell the parable again without seeing the rich images of this masterpiece.
The Cross & the Prodigal is one of several books by Kenneth Bailey on the parable. For 20 years Bailey was a Near East School of Theology professor in Beirut, Lebanon. Living in the land of the New Testament has given him a unique insight into the cultural and social backgrounds of the parable’s literary forms. The book’s subtitle – Luke 15 Through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants – preludes his fascinating look at the parable through the cultural and social nuances of Jesus’s first audience. The parable’s reality is made more vivid and vital.
The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller is this New York pastor’s summary of Christianity for a post-modern, urban world. His play on words by calling God prodigal alludes to God’s reckless and extravagant grace on humankind as portrayed by the father in the parable. True to form, Keller skillfully weaves the theological threads of the parable with the strands of contemporary culture in its hang-ups and assumptions. He lucidly presents the Gospel with post-modern imagination. (The book is complemented by a separate DVD presentation by the author and discussion guide for group studies.)
Jesus And Community
By Gerhard Lohfink
Paulist Press, 1984
Reviewed by John L. Ng
April, 2010
This not so recent book has something to say to our post modern generation. First written in German in 1982, this English edition was published two years later. Gerhard Lohfink was a New Testament professor at the University of Tubingen for many years. In 1986, he resigned from the university to join the Catholic Integrated Community, founded to address the meaning of being a faith community. His involvement with this group gives credence to Jesus and Community. Its subtext seeks the meaningful relationship between having faith in Jesus and being part of Christ’s church.
In the first winter of the 20th century, Adolf von Harnack, a theologian and historian, in his lectures on “The Essence of Christianity” attended to the notion of religious individualism. Harnack contented that the rule of God comes to individuals and not community. An individual hears the good news and makes a volitional choice “to stand on the side of God.” Not that he overlooked the communal nature of the people of God, whether it was Israel or the church. Rather Harnack posits that the primary essence of faith is individual. This religious individualism has seeped into our popular theology and shaped the way we think about faith and practice. Not only is salvation personal, it is also private to many of us. On any Sunday, just listen to our responses to God in worship. The pervasive “I” in our songs and prayers exposes our religious privatization.
Lohfink contests that private faith has no space in the kingdom of God. When Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God (Mark 1.15), he envisioned a community under God’s reign. Like any earthen kingdom, the Kingdom of God must have a collective people. He explores that communal requirement in kingdom thinking in sequential and related subjects. First, Jesus’ communal intentionality for his disciples was imaged in the light of God’s creation and in the historic redemption of Israel. In the Exodus event, God liberated a nation, not merely individuals. Second, the calling and nurturing of the Twelve by Jesus was intended to create a faith community. The disciples represented a renewed people of God now and in eschatological reality. Third, Lohfink shows how the New Testament church saw its communal life as a fulfillment of Jesus’ teaching of God’s kingdom. The final chapter contours the church of earlier centuries as a counter-culture community who embraced its identity and sought to live God’s reign on earth.
Although the book is rich in theological language, it is a practical read for everyone. One example is Lohfink’s reading of the Lord’s prayer in Luke 11. At first glance, the first person plural usage in the prayer at once sets the communal context of faith. As intimate as prayer is, Jesus teaches us how to pray in communal language: our Father . . . , give us. . . , forgive us. . . , lead us. . . . This communal aspect of personal faith is further enhanced by the prayer’s first petitions: hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Lokfink insightfully shows that when we pray for the sanctity of God’s name, in effect we are seeking God’s preservation of his people for his name’s sake in eschatological anticipation (Ezekiel’s vision in 36.22-24). Where ever we are, we gather as a faith community that lives, moves and has its being under the rule of God and representing God on earth. That is the essence of being Christian.
Paulist Press, 1984
Reviewed by John L. Ng
April, 2010
This not so recent book has something to say to our post modern generation. First written in German in 1982, this English edition was published two years later. Gerhard Lohfink was a New Testament professor at the University of Tubingen for many years. In 1986, he resigned from the university to join the Catholic Integrated Community, founded to address the meaning of being a faith community. His involvement with this group gives credence to Jesus and Community. Its subtext seeks the meaningful relationship between having faith in Jesus and being part of Christ’s church.
In the first winter of the 20th century, Adolf von Harnack, a theologian and historian, in his lectures on “The Essence of Christianity” attended to the notion of religious individualism. Harnack contented that the rule of God comes to individuals and not community. An individual hears the good news and makes a volitional choice “to stand on the side of God.” Not that he overlooked the communal nature of the people of God, whether it was Israel or the church. Rather Harnack posits that the primary essence of faith is individual. This religious individualism has seeped into our popular theology and shaped the way we think about faith and practice. Not only is salvation personal, it is also private to many of us. On any Sunday, just listen to our responses to God in worship. The pervasive “I” in our songs and prayers exposes our religious privatization.
Lohfink contests that private faith has no space in the kingdom of God. When Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God (Mark 1.15), he envisioned a community under God’s reign. Like any earthen kingdom, the Kingdom of God must have a collective people. He explores that communal requirement in kingdom thinking in sequential and related subjects. First, Jesus’ communal intentionality for his disciples was imaged in the light of God’s creation and in the historic redemption of Israel. In the Exodus event, God liberated a nation, not merely individuals. Second, the calling and nurturing of the Twelve by Jesus was intended to create a faith community. The disciples represented a renewed people of God now and in eschatological reality. Third, Lohfink shows how the New Testament church saw its communal life as a fulfillment of Jesus’ teaching of God’s kingdom. The final chapter contours the church of earlier centuries as a counter-culture community who embraced its identity and sought to live God’s reign on earth.
Although the book is rich in theological language, it is a practical read for everyone. One example is Lohfink’s reading of the Lord’s prayer in Luke 11. At first glance, the first person plural usage in the prayer at once sets the communal context of faith. As intimate as prayer is, Jesus teaches us how to pray in communal language: our Father . . . , give us. . . , forgive us. . . , lead us. . . . This communal aspect of personal faith is further enhanced by the prayer’s first petitions: hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Lokfink insightfully shows that when we pray for the sanctity of God’s name, in effect we are seeking God’s preservation of his people for his name’s sake in eschatological anticipation (Ezekiel’s vision in 36.22-24). Where ever we are, we gather as a faith community that lives, moves and has its being under the rule of God and representing God on earth. That is the essence of being Christian.
Mary For Evangelicals
By Tim Perry
InterVarsity Press, 2006
Review John L. Ng
February, 2010
Evangelical reactions to Mariology fall into two main camps – an ignorant silence or an incensed rejection. There are those who know little and say even less about the place of this peasant mother of Jesus in our faith and practice. Then there are those, based on what they see and know, are violently against any acknowledgement of her. Yet this simple woman played a significant role in shaping a truer spirituality in the church. There is not one single church father or mother whose spiritual formation was not touched by Mary. It certainly surprises me that church luminaries like Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther were devotees of Mary.
It would seem the church today is diminished that much more without a clearer (in place of “clearer” more balanced?) and reasoned understanding of Mary in its spiritual theology. Tim Perry’s thoughtful and balanced (in light of above change, in place of balanced, “thought provoking”)work is helpful toward that end. He is a professor of theology at Providence College, Manitoba, Canada. The monograph is divided evenly into three sections:
Part 1 looks at Mary through Holy Scripture, in the letters of Paul and the gospels, mainly in Matthew and Luke, to know her and her role in redemptive history; Part 2 traces Mary in church history. At different epochs, various names were bestowed upon her: New Eve, Mother of God, Queen Mother, Mother of the Church. They encapsulate the church’s thoughts of her from the Patristic period to modern times; Part 3 works toward an evangelical Mariology, seeking a useful dialogue toward a doctrine of Mary’s person in our spiritual imagination and a doctrine of Mary’s work in our telling of the Christ event.
Since the divine election of Mary as the human agency through whom the Son of God came into the world, this simple handmaiden of faith and obedience has provoked pietistic devotion and fervent veneration among believers in many traditions. To be sure, some responses are vacuous but much is genuine and serious. In a real sense, the church teaching has struggled in history to match this profound devotion with a formulated theology.
However, not all Mariology is reasoned or biblical. Needless to say, the following examples are without biblical credence: the notion of Mary’s perpetual virginity of the patristic era, her immaculate conception of the fifth century and her bodily assumption (taken up to Heaven without physical death) of the 20th century. As in all theological intercourse, when a doctrine is pushed to its extreme the result is, at best wrong, and is at worst, heretical. Likewise, the Protestant reformation’s silent rejection of all Mariology is just as wrong and extreme.
Perry calls us back to a more balanced response to this iconic image of faith, devotion and obedience. “Mary’s life is a faith-filled life in a very real world. Hers is a world as full of threats and challenges and joys and sorrows and moments of doubt and fear as ours. Her persistence in that world, her reliance on grace . . . marks that life as an example . . . for all who would claim the title ‘disciple’.” (p. 295) I have to confess that it was out of ignorance that Mary has been ignored in my faith formation. Just as the iconic images of David and Paul have been inspirational and instructive, the inspiring image of Mary can also illuminate brightly my walk with God in faith and practice.
InterVarsity Press, 2006
Review John L. Ng
February, 2010
Evangelical reactions to Mariology fall into two main camps – an ignorant silence or an incensed rejection. There are those who know little and say even less about the place of this peasant mother of Jesus in our faith and practice. Then there are those, based on what they see and know, are violently against any acknowledgement of her. Yet this simple woman played a significant role in shaping a truer spirituality in the church. There is not one single church father or mother whose spiritual formation was not touched by Mary. It certainly surprises me that church luminaries like Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther were devotees of Mary.
It would seem the church today is diminished that much more without a clearer (in place of “clearer” more balanced?) and reasoned understanding of Mary in its spiritual theology. Tim Perry’s thoughtful and balanced (in light of above change, in place of balanced, “thought provoking”)work is helpful toward that end. He is a professor of theology at Providence College, Manitoba, Canada. The monograph is divided evenly into three sections:
Part 1 looks at Mary through Holy Scripture, in the letters of Paul and the gospels, mainly in Matthew and Luke, to know her and her role in redemptive history; Part 2 traces Mary in church history. At different epochs, various names were bestowed upon her: New Eve, Mother of God, Queen Mother, Mother of the Church. They encapsulate the church’s thoughts of her from the Patristic period to modern times; Part 3 works toward an evangelical Mariology, seeking a useful dialogue toward a doctrine of Mary’s person in our spiritual imagination and a doctrine of Mary’s work in our telling of the Christ event.
Since the divine election of Mary as the human agency through whom the Son of God came into the world, this simple handmaiden of faith and obedience has provoked pietistic devotion and fervent veneration among believers in many traditions. To be sure, some responses are vacuous but much is genuine and serious. In a real sense, the church teaching has struggled in history to match this profound devotion with a formulated theology.
However, not all Mariology is reasoned or biblical. Needless to say, the following examples are without biblical credence: the notion of Mary’s perpetual virginity of the patristic era, her immaculate conception of the fifth century and her bodily assumption (taken up to Heaven without physical death) of the 20th century. As in all theological intercourse, when a doctrine is pushed to its extreme the result is, at best wrong, and is at worst, heretical. Likewise, the Protestant reformation’s silent rejection of all Mariology is just as wrong and extreme.
Perry calls us back to a more balanced response to this iconic image of faith, devotion and obedience. “Mary’s life is a faith-filled life in a very real world. Hers is a world as full of threats and challenges and joys and sorrows and moments of doubt and fear as ours. Her persistence in that world, her reliance on grace . . . marks that life as an example . . . for all who would claim the title ‘disciple’.” (p. 295) I have to confess that it was out of ignorance that Mary has been ignored in my faith formation. Just as the iconic images of David and Paul have been inspirational and instructive, the inspiring image of Mary can also illuminate brightly my walk with God in faith and practice.