following god through mark: theological ... - word &...

FOLLOWING GOD THROUGH MARK:THEOLOGICAL TENSION IN THESECOND GOSPEL,by Ira Brent Driggers.Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007.Pp. 148. $24.95 (paper).

In this book, Driggers answers the chal-lenge issued by Nils Dahl in the mid-’70s—to attend to the neglected area of the New Tes-tament’s vision of God—by exploring thetheo-logy of Mark’s Gospel. He does so by ex-ploring God’s characteristic immanence andtranscendence in relation to the disciples.

Driggers begins by distinguishing Jesus asmain character and God as main actor ofMark’s Gospel. This distinction allows Drig-gers to explore the characterization of Godthrough Jesus (God’s “invasive” role) andapart from Jesus (God’s “transcendent” role).In Mark’s prologue, Jesus is identified with Is-rael’s God in a unique and intimate way, yetMark does not collapse the distinctiveness ofeach character, according to Driggers. Such adistinction is also apparent in the baptism andtemptation accounts. Driggers highlights thetensions between God as present in Jesus and“God’s continued transcendent activity” (18).

Drawing on the characterization of God,Driggers argues for a continuing tensive rela-tionship in the story of the disciples’ call(1:16–20). The language of “making [the disci-ples] fishers of people” suggests that, while thedisciples choose to follow, God also calls anddraws the disciples. Mark’s ambiguity in thispericope and the prologue creates a tensionthat shouldn’t be collapsed into a single expla-nation. This passage also portrays the disciplesas joined to Jesus’ ministry; they are “to extend

God’s transformative eschatological reign intothe world” (34).

In chapter three, Driggers analyzes thetheme of the disciples’ hardening in Mark1:21–8:21, which is tied to their misunder-standing of Jesus, his teaching, and ministry.They “fail to recognize Jesus’ role as agent ofGod’s eschatological reign” (38). Yet Mark alsohighlights God’s action in hardening the disci-ples (e.g., 6:52). According to Driggers: “To theextent...that God continues to act both tran-scendently and invasively the growing rift be-tween Jesus and his disciples will reflect thatvery tension” (50). Driggers applies this narra-tive tension to Mark’s audience, who will expe-rience it as indicating divine mystery.

In chapter four, Driggers focuses on God’saction of scandalizing the disciples, first by thepromise of Jesus’ impending suffering anddeath and then by its realization. Yet even asMark portrays the disciples in their darkesthour as they abandon Jesus (14:50), he in-cludes Jesus’ teaching about a faithful futurefor the disciples in God’s purposes (Mark 13).The good news will be preached, and the Spiritwill provide the disciples with words to speak(13:9–13). Mark’s audience will perceive Je-sus’ passion as arising from human resistanceto God’s action and from divine necessity. The“crucifixion paradoxically implies both God’svulnerability and God’s sovereignty” (82).

In the book’s last chapter, Driggers arguesthat the final discipleship move of the womenat the tomb (their fear and silence; 16:8) is auniformly negative characterization. Everydisciple character in Mark fails by the end ofthe narrative. Yet the ending also indicates the

300 Copyright © 2009 by Word & World, Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota. All rights reserved.

good news that Jesus is raised and will awaithis followers in Galilee (16:6–7). This affirma-tion, coupled with Jesus’ earlier promisesabout the disciples’ future ministry, provideshope. Driggers centers that hope upon theaudience of Mark, who are beckoned to “finishthe discipleship story” in line with Jesus’ min-istry and by proclaiming and enacting thereign of God (95). The openness of Mark’s end-ing (16:8), for Driggers, also points to God’smercy and power as the impetus for disciple-ship. Driggers interprets the ending of Mark asdrawing attention to God’s invasive action (inwhich the audience is to participate) and God’stranscendent action of power and mercy. Thistension highlights the mystery of God and ofdiscipleship in Mark.

Driggers’s study of God’s character inMark’s gospel is an early offering in an impor-tant conversation. His work provides a holisticreading of Mark from the vantage points oftheology and discipleship. As such, it offerspastors and teachers a good example of a nar-rative, thematic reading that addresses thewhole plot of Mark.

Driggers raises two areas of tension inMark’s theology and discipleship. First is thetension between God’s work as embodied inJesus’ person and ministry and God’s workdistinct from Jesus. Second is the tension be-tween human and divine agency. Both tensionpairs are discussed within the categories ofGod’s invasive and transcendent actions,which results in some lack of clarity of the lat-ter categories. Since the tension between hu-man and divine agencies is not unique toMark, but emerges from the Old Testament(e.g., Isa 6:9–13; 63:17), a greater emphasis onthe biblical theme of covenant could help toelucidate this issue. While not dispelling thetension, the covenantal nature of God’s rela-tionship to humanity could provide a storiedand relational context for discerning Mark’stheological tension and its resulting mystery.

I appreciate that Driggers avoids mutingthe tension of Mark’s portrait of God. He re-

sists reading a single meaning into a single storyof the narrative (avoiding the less than helpfulassumption that interpreters should read shortnarrative passages and simply compute theirmeanings together). Instead, Driggers reads thenarrative coherently and thematically, thoughnot simplistically nor devoid of appropriate ten-sion. This reading strategy results in a narrativetheology of Mark complex enough to accountfor the text’s nuances.

Jeannine K. BrownBethel SeminarySaint Paul, Minnesota

WE HAVE HEARD THAT GOD ISWITH YOU: PREACHING THE OLDTESTAMENT,by Rein Bos.Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 2008. Pp. 384. $28.00 (paper).

The author begins by telling about an agedchurch-going Scottish woman who read herBible every day. She used to complain aboutthe difficulties of understanding the KingJames Version. Her children bought her a copyof the Living Bible and she started readingthrough Genesis. A few weeks later she wentback to her King James. She told her childrenthat “some of the things the Old Testamenttalked about she was much happier not under-standing.”

Or what do we do, asks the author, aboutwords such as these from Zeph 1: “I will utterlysweep away everything from the face of theearth, says the LORD. I will sweep away humansand animals. I will sweep away the birds of theair and the fish of the sea.”

Does the church need an old Testamentwhen we have a new Testament? How shouldwe handle all those texts depicting question-able morality as well as violence? These are thekinds of questions this protestant pastor andprofessor of preaching in the Netherlands isaddressing in this book.

Part one reviews the Old Testament in thetheory and practice of preaching. Bos offers a

301

Reviews

clear and interesting survey of major ap-proaches to the OT in the history of the church.Allegory makes it possible to find Christ allover the OT, and has the virtue of finding rele-vance all over the place as well. The story ofDavid and Goliath, for example, demonstrateshow the Lord will help us conquer the “giants”we face in our lives, such as worry, fear, anxi-ety, and insecurity (24). Typology sees in per-sons, places, and events prefigurations of theministry of Jesus Christ. This method workswith some texts, but the OT remains only the“starter” for the “main course” of the New Tes-tament (41). The problem with the promise-and-fulfillment approach is that the only partsof the OT that are of interest are those that con-tain promises fulfilled in the NT.

Bos’s description of the salvation historyapproach, with its D-Day and V-Day analogiesand focus on the “mighty acts of God,” soundslike what my generation learned in our semi-nary education. One of the problems with thisapproach is that Israel is seen as having de-fected from its calling, and after the appear-ance of the church disappears from furtherconsideration. The section on Karl Barth is ap-preciative, but says that for Barth the MagnaliaDei have become the Magnalia Christi. Theauthor summarizes by concluding that none ofthese methods provides the needed interpre-tive key for unlocking the meaning of the OTfor the Christian. The final section is thus enti-tled: “Wanted: A Bunch of Keys.”

Part two offers the ingredients of a newmodel for understanding the Old Testament asChristian Scripture. Kirkegaard’s familiar “let-ter from a lover” analogy was on target: the OTmust be read as something addressed to me.The author then offers a lucid discussion of the“world behind the text” (authorship, date, set-tings, etc.), the “world of the text as part ofScripture as a whole” (the canonical context),and the “worlds in front of the text” (the“reader response” enterprise). In connectionwith evaluating these approaches he cites acomment from David Buttrick:

Frequently biblical preaching has told abiblical story replete with oodles of bibli-cal background, a holy history, but has notpermitted God to step out of the biblicalworld into human history. The God of bib-lical preaching has been a past-tense Godof past-tense God-events whose past-tense truth (original meaning) may be ap-plied to the world, while God remains hid-den within a gilt-edged book. (163)

Bos proposes that each OT text should beconsidered from four angles: (1) the sensus Is-raeliticus: What does this text mean for biblicalIsrael and for modern Judaism? What haveJewish commentators said about it? (2) theChristological sense: Does this text connectwith the life, death, and resurrection of JesusChrist? (3) the ecclesiological sense: Whatword does the text have for the church today?and (4) the eschatological sense: What does thetext say about “life in the world to come”?These are the “four keys” on the key ring of thebiblical interpreter.

Part three, a four-voiced choir, illustratesthe use of these four keys, with examples froma variety of sermons. The author concludeswith his own sermonizing on Exod 3, the Ser-vant Songs, and Ps 22. He also offers com-ments on sermon preparation and providesdetailed bibliography, including resources onthe internet.

I found this to be an exceptionally helpfulstudy, fully informed by older and also morerecent biblical and homiletical scholarship andwritten with admirable clarity, imagination,and good judgment. Especially valuable is theauthor’s concern for Jewish-Christian matters.To illustrate the attitude of the church in thepast, he refers to a pair of sculptures to be seenat the entrance of the Cathedral of Strasbourg.There is Ecclesia, symbolizing the church, aproud and victorious young queen, holding across and a chalice. Next to her is Synagoga,representing Judaism, blindfolded, with herhead bowed down, the tablets of the law in herhands cracked, and her crown fallen onto the

302

Word & World 29/3 • Summer 2009

ground. The message is clear: the Jews and Ju-daism are spiritually and morally “blind”(185).

Here is the book for classes dealing withpreaching the Old Testament, as well as for anypersons wishing to invigorate their preaching,teaching, and understanding of these biblicalmaterials.

James LimburgLuther SeminarySaint Paul, Minnesota

SCRIPTURE, CULTURE, AND AGRI-CULTURE: AN AGRARIAN READ-ING OF THE BIBLE, by Ellen F. Davis.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2008. Pp. ix+221. $23.99 (paper).

Professor Ellen Davis of Duke DivinitySchool has provided us with a beautifullywrought collection of essays that demon-strates her ability to interweave sharp criticalexegesis with contemporary “agrarian” per-spectives on the human place in the world.Drawing from scientists, philosophers, andagrarian writers (especially Wendell Berry),Davis casts an ethical vision of the humanplace in creation that seeks to expound onand maintain the integrity of the “triangu-lated relationship among Israel, the land,and YHWH” (40). In her words, agrarianismseeks to “re-member a way of life that hon-ors the wholeness of creation” (21). To “re-member,” in agrarian terms, is an act of theimagination that seeks to reinstate or restore athing (e.g., land) to its God-given place as agenuine “other”; this act of the imagination is,in Davis’s terms, the reweaving of a “fragileweb” (41) damaged by the human tendency toperceive the nonhuman as an object/commod-ity rather than as a genuine “other.” The agrar-ian ethical vision of the world is not only themessage of a bourgeoning counterculturalmovement; it is, she claims, fundamentallyconsonant with the thinking of the biblicalwriters themselves.

The initial chapters lay the methodologicalfoundation for the essays that follow. Davis de-scribes a crisis of perception in contemporaryculture, perpetuated by “the numbness care-fully wrought by industrial culture” (14). Thecrisis she detects involves an inability to per-ceive the moral and theological dimensions ofthe present ecological crisis. And while theecological crisis was not predicted by theprophets, the prophets can, through depic-tions of creation’s undoing, “give us lan-guage...to see what we are doing and the likelyconsequences” (20). Davis then traces the out-lines of an agrarian hermeneutic, which as-sumes that “agriculture has an ineluctablyethical dimension” (22). Agrarian concerns,she claims, intersect with biblical concerns onfour levels: (1) the treatment of the land as afellow creature; (2) the rejection of knowledgeas a tool for the bending of nature; (3) a con-cern to order life “in ways that are consonantwith God’s will and the design of the world”(36); and (4) the invaluable worth of the land.

The subsequent chapters engage specifictexts through the “theoria” (3) of agrarianism.Chapters three through five, for example, in-volve an agrarian engagement with Torah and,more specifically, with the potentially prob-lematic Priestly account of creation (P), thefood-filled pages of Leviticus, and the “wilder-ness economy” of Exod 16. Memorable mo-ments include her subtle reading of Gen1:1–2:4a, P’s “liturgical poem” (43). As poetry,this passage contains language that is multiva-lent, overflowing with meaning and potential.Davis takes up P’s insistence that “mastery”and “conquest” (her translations, 53–63) ap-propriately, and sometimes ironically, de-scribe P’s estimation of humanity. Humandominion over the created order, in her opin-ion, is not the exercise of disregard for the non-human; rather, “appreciation and enjoymentof the creatures are the hallmark of God’s do-minion and therefore the standard by whichour own attempts to exercise dominion mustbe judged” (65).

304


Davis sharply critiques contemporary andancient practices of land use that involve thecentralization of food production and the re-sulting disruption of “local farming communi-ties” (102). Chapters six and seven, forexample, draw from Kings, Amos, and Hosea,and critique a royal ideology that views land asa commodity to be sold, and not an inheritanceto be maintained. Centralization beneath thecrown, she asserts, results in “wealth flowingout of local communities, in direct contrast tothe biblical model of communities first main-taining themselves and then engaging in a mu-tually advantageous exchange with urbanpopulations” (105).

The final chapters are constructive in na-ture, painting portraits of faithful humanwork and faithful human cities. With Barth asa starting point, Davis highlights the often ne-glected matter of sloth and good (i.e., “wise”)work. Wise work has nothing to do with theamount of activity undertaken, but ratherdeals with the presence or absence of “love forthe life of the community” (142). The con-struction of the portable sanctuary (Exod25–31; 35–40) and the proverbial poem of the“valorous woman” (Prov 31:10–31) providethe textual moorings for her discussion. Re-garding the faithful city, Davis asserts thatsince cities are loci of power, faithfulness ismanifested there when “those who have somechoice about how power is exercised remem-ber those who have little or no choice” (156).To imagine our cities anew, argues Davis,“we need fresh counterimages on which todwell” (163). Images of graceful Zion, the iconof God’s eschatological reign, provide such“counterimages” (163).

Davis helpfully utilizes the Zion images asicons of hope for a new tomorrow. I wonder,however, if her agrarian hermeneutic hasmuted the voices in Israel that understoodZion in terms of YHWH’s new imperial capital,to which all the tribute of the nations wouldflow (Isa 60:5ff.; 66:12). Do these images notdepict a centralized “royal” economical the-

ory, clothed in eschatological accoutrement?While Zion is a helpful icon, it must be qualifi-edly adopted, since the cultural baggage at-tached to the Zion image may in factundermine the very agrarian worldview forwhich Davis has so effectively argued.

Just as contemporary feminist readingshave contributed to the development of a“feminist consciousness,” Davis’s book, like-wise, pioneers the development of an “agrar-ian consciousness.” And, if Davis is correct,the adoption of an agrarian consciousnessbrings us one step closer to a consciousnessmore closely aligned to that of many (thoughnot all) biblical writers. The accessibility ofDavis’s book, and its engagement with con-temporary social issues, makes her book anideal study for adults—urban, rural, and sub-urban. Additionally, the book’s engagementwith secular thinkers and scientists makes it anideal platform for conversation with non-Christians, who may share her environmentalor agrarian concerns.

Michael ChanLuther SeminarySaint Paul, Minnesota

THE WORD OF THE CROSS IN AWORLD OF GLORY, by Philip Ruge-Jones. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress,2008. Pp. 96. $10.99 (paper).

On January 30, 2009, Garrison Keillor’sPrairie Home Companion included a tribute tothe late John Updike. In his writings, Updikewas known to throw barbs at the religious andtheir institutions, and Keillor quotes him de-scribing an experience of church:

There was a time when I wondered whymore people did not go to church. Takenpurely as a human recreation, what couldbe more delightful, more unexpected thanto enter a venerable and lavishly scaledbuilding kept warm and clean for us oneor two hours a week and to sit and stand in

305

Reviews

unison and sing and recite creeds and pe-titions that are like paths worn smooth inthe raw terrain of our hearts? To listen, ornot listen, as a poorly paid but resplen-dently robed man strives to console uswith scraps of ancient epistles and haltingaccounts, hopelessly compromised bywords, of those intimations of divine joythat are like pain in that, their instantgone, the mind cannot remember or be-lieve them. (Pigeon Feathers and OtherStories, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962).

It is this very description of the community ofbelievers Philip Ruge-Jones takes to task in hisbook, The Word of the Cross in a World of Glory.

Ruge-Jones’s little book offers a very bigproposal. While perhaps many go to church, asin Updike’s mind, to experience quiet splen-dors of tradition, Ruge-Jones believes Jesus’own cry is on the tongues of those gathered:“My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”(30). This is perhaps the polite way of askingthe demoniac’s crass question of Luke 8,“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of theMost High God?” What does God have to dowith a world that looks more like it has beenleft to the powers of sin, death, and the devil?If God’s response is as lame as a “poorly paidbut resplendently robed man [striving] to con-sole us with scraps of ancient epistles and halt-ing accounts,” we are most to be pitied.However, Ruge-Jones believes that it is themessage of cross theology, the living God whocomes in the person and work of Jesus Christ toconquer the work of pain and death in thisworld, that responds to the cries of humanity.

In this creative volume, Ruge-Jones intro-duces more than a theological proposition. Heintroduces God’s Son, Jesus Christ, workingpower in the weakness of the cross to make thedead and dying alive. From the very beginning,when God speaks, things happen (17). Notonly does creation spring up at the sounds ofGod’s voice, but faith in the hearts of humanityas well. Ruge-Jones draws on the ApostlePaul’s announcement in his letter to the Ro-

mans, “Faith comes from what is heard” (Rom1:17). Words have the power not only to in-form, but to transform the hearer. Ruge-Jonesgoes on to write a series of creative storiesabout the power of Jesus’ cross in a variety ofsettings. He explains, “I write not so much toinform you of the way it was, but to invite youto feel the force of the words in order that yourcommunity of faith might be transformed bythe word of the cross” (19). For example, hewrites a fictional dialogue between a Germancouple during the Reformation and how theymay have processed Martin Luther’s preach-ing and teaching. In discussing the angry reac-tion of others to Luther’s message, the coupleseeks more information, and their continuingdiscussion finally brings the message of thecross to one another, locating their faith out-side of institutions and fear and in Jesus Christalone. Other experiences of the cross are lo-cated in Ruge-Jones’s depictions of biblicalcharacters hearing the gospel for the first time,and his own work in ministry. He also includesstories from Latin America that draw thereader into recognizing the ubiquity of thecross’s power across nations, race, and gender.

This book is particularly helpful for small-group study, useful in its brevity and accessi-bility. Ruge-Jones includes a series of ques-tions at the end of each chapter, encouragingreflection about the text and then drawing onpersonal experience. Group discussion is in-tended to mirror the stories in the book, as in-dividuals share the power of the cross in theirlives, oftentimes recognizing God anew in thevery telling of those stories. Ruge-Jones’s over-all purpose is to encourage the reader both tograsp the power of Jesus’ cross and to noticethe cruciform nature of one’s own life whendrawn into faith. “What has made you alivebecause of this Word?” is the bottom line.

Ruge-Jones tells stories that may resonatewith our own life circumstances. These storiesdo not skip over the painful or frighteningparts, and because of this honesty, the storiesdraw the reader into God’s purpose: to arrive

306


into the midst of the unholy and chaotic partsof life through God’s cross. While many seekout self-help and personal perfection projectsfor comfort and escape in a world of pain anddeath, attempts to clean up the chaos by thosemeans is futile in this life. God’s church is de-signed to be a place that is more than “a vener-able and lavishly scaled building kept warmand clean for us one or two hours a week and tosit and stand in unison and sing and recitecreeds and petitions.” God’s church is its peo-ple, who are drawn into faith by the cross of Je-sus Christ, who boldly answers what he has todo with you. God has not forsaken this world,but instead comes in the surprising power ofthe cross. God chooses to be revealed this way,and humanity hears these promises in faith.Ruge-Jones shares the story of God’s continu-ing work in the world throughout history andthe broader world. Cross theology is not a mereproposition. Cross theology is Jesus Christbreaking into the world as promise-giver: trueGod and true human, made graspable in faith.Cross theology is not the thing itself, but itpoints to the thing, which is Jesus Christ andhis cross making new life and hope where therewas none before.

Natalie GessertLuther SeminarySaint Paul, Minnesota

NATURE’S WITNESS: HOW EVOLU-TION CAN INSPIRE FAITH,by DanielM. Harrell. Nashville: Abingdon, 2008. Pp.165. $18.00 (paper).

There is no shortage of books on the topic ofreligion and science these days. Some of themare amazingly popular, like Richard Dawkins’sThe God Delusion, but are hardly helpful forthe interested first-time reader. Spotting theerrors in Dawkins takes a trained eye! Otherbooks are quite helpful and informative, butare highly technical and academic volumespenned by real experts like Ian Barbour in Re-

ligion and Science. There are not that manyreadable, clear, and reliable books on religionand science that one could give to a friend whois new to the discussion. Polkinghorne’s booksfor laypeople come to mind as exceptions. Thisnew book by Harrell is another.

Harrell’s volume comes to us in a series en-titled “Living Theology,” edited by Tony Jones,one of a cluster of emergent church gurus. Myexperience with emergent church folks is thatthey like to talk about big issues and think hardabout interesting questions. They abhor pre-conceived answers, or worse, boring academiclectures. The series is meant to provide ap-proachable, readable books on “hot” theologi-cal topics that may even be a bit of fun. Thislatest book in the series fits the bill. Harrell is apastor with a Ph.D. in developmental psychol-ogy. He knows how to communicate to regularfolks, and writes to the family of faith. Yet hisknowledge of science is also pretty good, andhe is clearly passionate about his topic. Thebook is written in a lively, fun, and entertainingstyle that does not detract from substance. Onthe contrary, this book does get at meaty ques-tions for thoughtful Christians but also foranyone who wants to think about the broadimplications of biological evolution.

Of course, as someone writing from anemergent perspective, Harrell has to beginwith the bedrock of all truth: a personal story.Chapter one tells the story of his involvementin an interdisciplinary science conference inthe Boston area, where he is a pastor. He tellsus that he was to be “a religious voice” in amostly secular context. He confesses to not be-ing very good at natural science, and so thisinvitation got him interested in what sciencewas saying these days about human nature,and how this connected with religious faith.He became interested in the dialogue betweenscience and religion, as have so many intellec-tuals in our time. Harrell was especially inter-ested in thinking through the basics of theChristian faith (including the Bible) and themodern scientific view of reality. The book he

308


wrote assumes the truth of evolution and asks:What does this mean for Christian faith?

Two of his chapters are well written, imagi-native dialogues between himself and a closefriend, with differing viewpoints. His AuntBeatrice represents something like fundamen-talism, while his friend David is an open-minded believer who does not think scienceand religion should mix. Why should he careabout evolution? Both ask him hard questions,and this allows him the freedom to explain hisperspective without having to sound like he islecturing. He throws in lots of personal asidesand humorous remarks, which keep the readerengaged. Chapter two presents the evidencefor evolution pretty well, especially given theaudience and style of the book (and his toughAunt Beatrice!). Chapter three is a collection oftheological musings based upon what wastaught in chapter two. He covers issues such aspurpose, randomness, faith and reason, andthe image of God. In chapter four he presents adialogue with David, arguing that, yes, scien-tific discoveries should influence our theologi-cal faith. I think he repeats the mantra “alltruth is God’s truth” (and just where does thatidea come from?), but overall he presents anengaging, thoughtful argument against bothpure independence (David) and conflict (AuntBeatrice).

Chapters five and six are the theologicalheart of the book. Harrell wants us to read na-ture and the Bible together, to allow both Scrip-ture and science to inform what we believeabout God. Chapter five presents an extendedreflection on both the Genesis account andevolutionary theory. The author seems tocome out of a conservative-evangelical back-ground. I was a little surprised to see him goso far as to make the following statement:“[W]e could take the easy out and label Adamand Eve or the garden as obviously figurative.That’s too easy, I think, and doesn’t take Scrip-ture as seriously as it deserves” (86). My replywould be: but of course it is obviously figura-tive. A man called “Man” (adam) and his wife

“Life” (eve) in a garden of “delight” (eden)with a tree of life and a talking snake? Please! Ofcourse this is symbolic or figurative, and a lit-eral reading is always a misreading of thesechapters. What should trouble any theologi-cally trained reader is the assertion that a figu-rative reading does not take Scripture seriously.Nonsense. Is a literalist hermeneutic thatforces the Bible into modernist categories andfalsifies its true message the way to take Scrip-ture seriously? I certainly hope not. In the pagesof this book, Harrell is often seen strugglingwith outmoded ideas left over from fundamen-talist readings of Genesis, and he’s not afraid todrag them out and talk about them. That mightjust be one of the strengths of this book, just be-cause evolution is often opposed by people onthe basis of their (mis)reading of the Bible.

The end of the book is a Sunday lunch atAunt Beatrice’s, with David and lots of goodfood and good talk. Things are left rather openand tentative, just as any good postmodern-ist would want it to be. The book itself is bestas a conversation opener. It has problems, ofcourse. It is too breezy at many points, getssome things just plain wrong, and trips lightlyover deep matters. But it makes for a goodread, and opens up the dialog in helpful ways,especially for those in a literalist frame of mindabout Genesis. I like it. I might even give it tomy Aunt Beatrice.

Alan G. PadgettLuther SeminarySaint Paul, Minnesota

THE FIDELITY OF BETRAYAL: TO-WARDS A CHURCH BEYOND BE-LIEF, by Peter Rollins. Brewster, MA:Paraclete, 2008. Pp. 196. $19.95 (paper).

Peter Rollins, academically trained phi-losopher and founder of an alternative Chris-tian collective in Ireland called Ikon, haspresented a thoughtful and provocative piecein his second book, The Fidelity of Betrayal: To-

310


wards a Church Beyond Belief. Rollins pos-sesses a unique gift, which is shown on almostevery page of this book: he has a way of takingdeeply philosophical ideas and making themunderstandable and engaging without lessen-ing their richness. This book, like his first(How [Not] to Speak of God), focuses on issuesof our conceptions of God, truth, and church.But here, using philosophical expositions ofbiblical texts and constructed parables thatconnect to Western philosophical perspec-tives, Rollins takes a radical step, by calling thereader to see that the most faithful way to beChristian and church is to deny or betray God.Rollins means for his thesis to be shocking andprovocative, forcing the reader to really dwellon what he is presenting. Ultimately, what Rol-lins means by this thesis is that we have oftentaken on philosophical and cultural baggagein our conceptions of the Christian God. Wehave built frameworks and perspectives thatdeceive us into believing that abstract thingslike “truth” matter. We use these abstract,culturally-constructed understandings ofChristianity to actually escape God and theworld. Rollins believes, then, that we can onlybe faithful to God if we will betray our artificialconceptions of God to encounter God anew. Hebelieves that within the very tradition of Chris-tianity there is this understanding of the neces-sity to betray God (or the idea of God) in orderto encounter the living God.

The book comprises three parts. In partone, Rollins seeks to show how betrayal itself isessential to our faith. This part, while engagingand thought-provoking, may be the weakest.Its struggle lies in his use of biblical narrativesto drive home this point of needed betrayal. Inchapter one, he reexamines Judas, lookingdeeply at the nuances of the narrative. Rollinsexplores interesting, and at times odd, asser-tions about whether Jesus somehow gave Ju-das orders to betray him, making Judas’s act ofbetrayal an act of fidelity. While at times histhesis seems simply weird, it nevertheless mi-raculously leads the reader to think deeply

about whether Christianity may call us to befaithful to it by betraying it, so that Christianitymay not get stuck in stale cultural religion andinstead might be a faith in a living God.

In chapter two, the author explores thesepoints by turning to Abraham and the earlychapters of Genesis. Rollins shows in thischapter how struggle and doubt are central forChristianity. This is, in many ways, the topic ofchapter three as well, where Rollins closes partone by discussing the Bible as a whole, movingus away from a rational inerrancy to our seeingthe Bible through an eschatological lens, see-ing the text itself as the invitation to wrestlewith it.

While part one has an odd kind of flavor,Rollins is really at his best in parts two andthree. Here Rollins stops philosophically inter-preting biblical texts and instead writes fromhis real expertise, articulating philosophicalconcepts that provoke deep thought about thelife and action of the church. While biblical ex-position is not absent from this section (hemakes Moses’ burning bush narrative cen-tral), Rollins nevertheless turns to discussionsof truth and how we should talk about God.Here he uses a number of engaging parables,and articulates the thought of Nietzsche todrive his point home. He argues, both throughhis discussion of the burning bush and hisphilosophical musings, that God is beyond aname, that God is not to be made into an object.God is rather to be experienced as an event ofblessing. This allows the author to reveal howChristianity and the ministry of the churchhave often made God into an object, giving Godnames that allow us to “consume” God. Thecentral point of the chapters of part two is theneed to betray the names we have given God inorder to experience God as an encounter.

Part three moves in the spirit of Kierke-gaard, Barth, and Bonhoeffer, though Rollinscontinues to dialogue more with philosophicalperspectives than theological ones. Neverthe-less, in this part Rollins follows these past theo-logians by pushing the reader to contemplate

312


how Christianity is a religion without religion,a religion that is willing to even betray its prac-tices to encounter God. Rollins works withthese paradoxes throughout the whole of thebook. This is his real strength as an author:he is able to take paradoxical concepts andkeep them from dying away in esoteric articu-lations.

The book concludes with a final chapterthat examines how the church might live intothis fidelity of betrayal. Here Rollins drawsfrom the practices of his own community. It isa relatively short chapter that leaves the readerwanting much more. It is fascinating to hearhim discuss practices like the evangelism proj-ect, where his community does not seek toevangelize others, but invites others into thecommunity to evangelize the members, allwith the idea that we can only know what webelieve through conversation with others andother perspectives. We can only really hold onto our faith if we are willing to continue tosearch. In this chapter he also discusses hiscommunity’s (or “collective” as he calls it)practice of atheism for Lent: during Lent theyread Feuerbach, Marx, and Nietzsche, lettinggo of religious concepts of God in order to en-counter God at Easter.

While this all sounds radical, this is thereal genius of the book, and Rollins’s veryproject. In his thoughtful and very unconven-tional arguments and practices, he leadsthose outside his community to deep thoughtand reflection about the purposes and actionsof the church in our world. Where so many ofthe emergent-church types have received ac-claim for saying very little of substance, Rol-lins is a rare exception.

Andrew RootLuther SeminarySaint Paul, Minnesota

MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY, edited byDaniel E. Bornstein. Minneapolis: Fortress,2008. Pp. xvii + 320. $35.00 (cloth).

This volume is the fourth in a series of sevenvolumes that are collectively known as “A Peo-ple’s History of Christianity.” The title of theseries indicates the approach it takes; this setfocuses on the way in which Christianity wasencountered and lived by ordinary men andwomen throughout the centuries. This volumeitself is centered on the period from the sixth tothe fourteenth century in Western Europe, be-tween the third volume on Byzantine Christi-anity and the fifth on the Reformation era.

The approach taken in this volume is not toattempt a complete survey of Western medie-val Christianity, but rather to focus on selectedtopics where the theme of “lived religion”might be best seen. The chapters themselvesfocus on such topics as the Conversion of theBarbarian West; Death and Burial; Relics, As-cetics, and Saints; the Impact of Architecture;Medieval Revivalism; Clerical Celibacy andthe Laity; Hearing Women’s Sins; Heresy andDissent; Jews, Muslims, and Christians; Do-mestic Religion; Parish Life; and the Burdensof Purgatory. These chapters are not intendedto be comprehensive; for example, the chapteron Jews, Muslims, and Christians is focusedmainly, as one might expect, on medievalSpain.

The editor of this volume acknowledgesthat the sources for this type of history of me-dieval Western Europe are “unevenly distrib-uted and far from exhaustive.” This problem iscompounded by the fact that most survivingrecords are administrative or ecclesiasticalrecords. The authors of these chapters, then,must comb through the available documentswith an eye toward the way in which people“lived” Christianity from day to day. They ex-amine the reports of missionaries and priests;the comments of secular authors; the recordsof donations, wills, and legal disputes; devo-tional and theological materials (especially

313

Reviews

those aimed at the laity); and the accounts ofparish councils and lay confraternities, allseeking a different view of Christianity duringthis period of time.

This approach to the lived religion of me-dieval Christians is a very interesting additionto our knowledge about this period of time;much of this material is available, but scatteredthroughout specialized journal articles andmonographs, and not very accessible to thegeneral reader, or even to historians of Christi-anity. In the chapter on the conversion of theWest, we see how the Christian missionariestransformed the conceptual world of both thecommon people and the ruling elites, not de-stroying their old ways but transforming theminto the Christian ethos. Another chapter, onarchitecture, focuses on implications of thechanging styles of church architecture, and onthe more mundane aspects of how clergy andlaypeople worked together to have such build-ings erected and how they were to be main-tained. A third chapter, on medievalrevivalism, shows how wandering friars andinspired lay preachers sought to deepen thefaith of the laity through impassioned and en-thusiastic preaching.

Many of the chapters concentrate on howordinary people lived out their faith on a dailybasis. One chapter concentrates on practicessurrounding death and burial, and how theywere transformed by Christianity. So there aresections on saints and relics, on the develop-ment and theology of purgatory, on how relig-ion was practiced in the Christian homes;these chapters deal with the ways in whichpeople adapted to and accommodated Chris-tian beliefs into their own personal religiosity,especially the development of more “popular”forms of religion, as opposed to the “official”religion of the priests and theologians. Somechapters examine the areas in which popularand official religion interact, such as the devel-opment of ideas and practices surroundingclerical celibacy, the question of priests hear-ing the confession of women, and the usual

rhythms of parish life. In these sections, themost interesting elements involve the ways inwhich the people and priests lived in the sameworld, but how they worked with different pa-rameters of religious meaning, often overlap-ping but never completely the same. Oneother section has chapters concerning otherboundaries, such as Heresy and Dissent, andrelations between Christians, Muslims, andJews.

This fascinating volume will be especiallyuseful to broaden a reader’s understanding ofmedieval Western Christendom. To me, thechapters on architecture, celibacy, and purga-tory were the most interesting, but all the sec-tions would have more than a little interest,especially if your education in church historywas dominated by the accounts of popes,kings, and theologians. We have tended tothink of medieval Christianity as being ratherrigid and monolithic, but this volume showsboth the internal development in this period ofChristian history as well as its very obvious di-versity and richness.

This volume is not a substitute for tradi-tional works on medieval Christianity, but avery valuable supplement to them; it would as-sist the reader to have some of the basics of thishistory in front of them (or refreshed in theirminds) before beginning to read the volume.But it is a very accessible and readable work,and in many chapters the narrative is well writ-ten and captivating. Most of all, it will trans-form your view of ordinary medieval womenand men, transformed from stock charactersto real persons, and seeming very similar to or-dinary Christians of our day.

Mark GranquistLuther SeminarySaint Paul, Minnesota

314


PRIESTHOOD, PASTORS, BISHOPS:PUBLIC MINISTRY FOR THE REF-ORMATION AND TODAY, by TimothyJ. Wengert. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008. Pp.112. $16.00 (paper).

Timothy Wengert, history professor at theELCA seminary in Philadelphia, has given us acarefully researched review of issues sur-rounding priesthood, pastors, and bishopsfrom the Reformation era and the LutheranConfessions.

The book is an outgrowth of his 2005 essay,“The Priesthood of Believers and Other PiousMyths,” which is the first chapter of this book.Wengert argues that Luther never used theterms priesthood of all believers, or the univer-sal priesthood of all believers. These termswere coined later and then became the presup-position and basis for ordained ministry, incontrast to the intent of Luther and the Lu-theran Confessions.

The heart of Wengert’s argument appearedalready in 1970, when Arthur Carl Piepkorn as-serted in the Lutheran/Roman Catholic dialogthat the symbolical books nowhere attemptedto derive the sacred ministry from the univer-sal priesthood of the faithful. Piepkorn went astep further: “The doctrine of the universalpriesthood of believers had receded into minorimportance even for Luther himself by thetime the symbolical books were being framed”(Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue IV:Eucharist and Ministry, 1970, p. 107). Luther,however, did call all Christians priests, princi-pally in the 1520 Address to the Christian Nobil-ity, as well as in other works listed by Wengert.To emphasize the point, Luther wrote that inbaptism each of us is consecrated a priest,bishop, and pope (11, 13). So, despite Wen-gert’s label of pious myth, the phrase and con-cept of “priesthood of believers,” even“priesthood of all believers,” is here to stay.What is helpful about Wengert’s book is that

315

Reviews

he shows what Luther and the other reformersmeant by the phrase; not that all Christians arealso pastors, or that everyone is baptized, soanyone can do this (122, note 12), but that thedistinction, so deeply entrenched in the me-dieval church, between religious persons (i.e.,clergy, those in religious orders) and secularpersons is eliminated. There is no separatespiritual state of clergy. We are all Christians inthe one body of Christ.

Within this one body, however, there aredifferent offices. Wengert claims, and this re-viewer agrees, that in the Lutheran Confes-sions the office of ordained ministry is basedon the sequence of Articles 4 and 5 in the Augs-burg Confession. Article 4 establishes justifica-tion by grace through faith, and Article 5 statesthat to obtain such faith God instituted the of-fice of preaching, giving the gospel and the sac-raments...as through means. God establishedthe Predigtamt, the office of preaching, towhich people are called and ordained. Deriv-ing the pastoral office from the priesthood ofall believers leads, Wengert fears, to a practicewhere anybody can preach or administer sac-raments, such as when (in an actual example)the pastor is gone on Sunday (30). On the otherhand, Lutherans have always agreed that in anemergency a non-ordained person can pro-claim the gospel and administer the sacra-ments.

The problem is that the ELCA has no con-sistent policy or practice defining what consti-tutes an emergency. Surely people should notbe deprived of word and sacrament, whereneeded, in the absence of an ordained person.Given the urgency of word and sacrament,ELCA practice is that non-ordained personscan be authorized to provide them in the pro-longed absence or nonavailability of an or-dained person. Wengert fears people doingministry willy-nilly, but he also acknowledgesthe need for such word and sacrament wherean ordained person is not available (31). Thenthere is the curious situation in the ELCAwhere laypeople are routinely invited to preach,

but administering sacraments is closely regu-lated. Which takes more biblical knowledgeand theological training: to preach, or to readthe words for Baptism and Holy Communionout of the hymnbook? With an increasingnumber of small parishes unable to support apastor, I hope Wengert’s book kindles discus-sion on this issue.

Most of Wengert’s book concerns the officeof bishop, arguing against those who read theConfessions as a rejection of the office ofbishop. The Confessions do not reject the of-fice of bishop, or the concept and need foroversight, he asserts, but reject those bishopswho deny the gospel and abuse their authority.Melanchthon’s measure of a true bishop, aswell as pastor, was fidelity to the gospel. Hav-ing established that, without pursuing thetopic further, the conciliatory Melanchthonwas willing to accept the traditional role ofbishops.

However, Luther and Melanchthon’s viewswere more ambiguous than simply to resumethe Roman Catholic hierarchical system oncebishops became evangelical. They subsumedboth the office of pastor and of bishop undergospel: the sequence of Articles 4 and 5. Melan-chthon did not distinguish between pastorsand bishops. The office of bishop is to preach,teach, and administer the sacraments (74, 82).Luther and Melanchthon looked back to theearly church, when a bishop was the equivalentof a head pastor of a large central parish. Theywere involved in regular word and sacramentministry and ordained others to similar wordand sacrament ministry. What happened, infact, is that after the establishment of evangeli-cal churches there was a great variety of typesof oversight and processes of ordination.

Far from the Reformers’ desire that pastorsand bishops both be part of the same office, theELCA has adopted the rituals that have ele-vated the office of bishop above that of a pas-tor. Anyone who compares the ordination of apastor with the installation of a bishop cannotescape that conclusion. Supposedly the ELCA

316


does not embrace the belief in episcopal suc-cession, that is, that apostolic succession issymbolized and conveyed through the office ofbishop, a position that Wengert also disavows.But with Called to Common Mission (CCM) wehave adopted the rituals of those who do be-lieve that, and we have accordingly agreed thatpastors cannot officiate at ordinations. Appar-ently to demonstrate that we do not concurtheologically with what we have adopted litur-gically, we allow exceptional ordinations bypastors, and then make the process so formi-dable that only a few venture to request it. Allthis we have done with scant theological dis-cussion.

We owe Timothy Wengert gratitude for lay-ing the foundation for a thoroughgoing theo-logical discussion of the offices of pastorsand bishops and the practice of ordination.It is a discussion that will range from the Bi-ble, through history, to the needs of today’schurches. I hope this book will launch suchdiscussion.

Michael RognessLuther SeminarySaint Paul, Minnesota

THE AUGUSTANA STORY: SHAPINGLUTHERAN IDENTITY IN NORTHAMERICA, by Mark Granquist and MariaErling. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress,2008. Pp. 376. $29.00 (paper).

Why did my mother always drink just halfof her communion cup? Was it her Swedishroots or her old Augustana heritage that gaveher the freedom to see and seek God’s presencein great literature, classical music, and shortstories? Was the source of my mother’s love ofworship and the liturgy and her engagement inpolitics the Augustana Synod? Was it their im-migrant roots or Swedish ancestry or theAugustana tradition that propelled my grand-mother and her sister and brother beyond evenundergraduate study before women could

vote? Why was it that the Swedish side of myfamily voted Republican and was suspicious ofunions, while the Danish side voted anotherway? Was my mother’s love of Handel’s Mes-siah and her Holy Week trips to Lindsborg,Kansas, to hear it played on street corners partof the “Augustana story”? As we laid my motherto rest just two years ago, she was rememberedas that voice on the church council who madesure that the pastors received a just compensa-tion, that benevolence and support of thelarger church were central, and as one who,while others napped, was taking notes on thesermon, so engaged was she with that wordthat gives life. Was this part of her growing upin an old Augustana congregation in Ottumwa,Iowa?

For me, reading The Augustana Story was asearch for the answer to these questions, ajourney into the legends and myths of mychildhood to discover the roots of my Swedishand old Augustana mother, and a glimpse intopart of my own identity as a leader in the ELCA.But luckily, authors Erling and Granquist havenot written this book in order to answer thesequestions; their vision is much broader. Theywrote The Augustana Story in order to describean Augustana distinctiveness that has made asignificant contribution to the shape of Ameri-can Lutheranism today (2). The authors definethis distinctiveness as a strong sense of thebroader church, churchliness and support forthe wider church, convictions about steward-ship and support of colleges and agenciesAugustana founded, and a spirit of ecumen-ism. The authors explore factors that may haveled to why the Swedish Lutheran immigrantsstayed together for over one hundred yearswithout schisms or divisions. “The Augustanastory is a story of how church leaders taughtimmigrants that they belonged not only to anethnic group, but also to a church with a role inthe world” (4).

The Augustana Story is written in four partswith notes, an appendix, and suggestions forfurther reading. “Part 1: Through 1885: Begin-

318


nings” documents some of the faith move-ments these early immigrants brought withthem. Through correspondence, letters, anddiaries, Erling and Granquist describe theAwakening and Revival movement in Sweden,which formed an early vision of mission for theSynod. These immigrants established a semi-nary, mission societies, a newspaper, andshaped a Swedish ethnic identity. Though theywere interested in a mission among the NativeAmericans and the freed slaves, soon the needsof their own younger generation and the newlyarriving young immigrants became insteadtheir designated mission field (58). In this firstsection, stories of early leaders emerge: namessuch as Esbjorn, Hasselquist, Norelius, andCarlsson.

In “Part 2: Through 1910: 50th Anniver-sary,” the authors trace Augustana’s interest inyouth and the tensions surrounding languageand the education of their young people. Thisyoung church wondered about the leadership

of women and the teaching of science. Howwould the Synod become—or would it be-come—an American church? This sectionpays special attention to hymnody and wor-ship in Sweden and America. We meet an earlypioneering woman of mission, Emmy Evald;experience the expansion of the Synod northto Canada and west to the Pacific; and watchthe immigrant church engage issues of racerelations, other religions and denomina-tions, and labor disputes in this new coun-try. Over and over again, growth and tensionform new leaders.

“Part 3: Through 1935: 75th Anniversary”describes the growing structures of ministrywithin the Augustana Synod. Lutheran BibleInstitutes and ministries of mercy emerge, asdo educational institutions. The authors de-scribe a growing professionalization of theclergy and changes in seminary educationcaused by a maturing of this immigrantchurch. Augustana expanded its mission field

319

Reviews

around the world and renewed ties with theChurch of Sweden in these years.

“Part 4: Through 1962: Merger” exploresmore fully the ministry and leadership ofwomen in the Augustana Synod. It also docu-ments the youth organizations that had devel-oped by this time. There was a growingecumenical spirit in the years leading tomerger, and a maturing of a church body thatnever underwent traumatic leadershipchanges, but rather was served by capable andeffective leaders who had a strong, cohesivenational spirit, which Sydney Ahlstrom re-ferred to as the “Augustana ethos” (344).Granquist and Erling define that ethos as achurch “that always thought big, thought na-tional, thought of itself not only as local con-gregations, but as part of the wider church”(345).

For anyone with roots in the Augustana tra-dition, this volume pulls together the stories ofleaders, of institutions that gave vision andfaith and shaped a legacy that is part of the fab-ric of the ELCA. I longed for greater depth in al-most every chapter—to go into the homes andkitchens of those early immigrants, to heartheir faith and listen to their struggles in ordi-nary voices. And what was the documentation

for the assertion that the United NorwegianLutheran Church women patterned their fundraising and organizing after the work of EmmyEvald and the Augustan Women’s MissionarySociety (120)? At times, I found the structureof the book confusing. The headings suggesteddates and a chronology that often overlappedin chapters and sections. I wasn’t certain of thepurpose of the insertions included in each part.The authors explored the development of theAugustana Synod into an American denomi-nation, but I was unclear as to what made ituniquely American.

I am grateful to the authors for their ac-knowledgment of the failure of these Swedes toengage with Native Americans and AfricanAmericans in their early exploration of mis-sion in this new land. Unfortunately, it is a leg-acy that we inherit in the ELCA. May we learnfrom them as we live faithfully in this time. Forany church historian, or daughter or son,granddaughter or grandson of this tradition,or for those who want to learn from the past inorder to view and shape the future of the ELCA,this book is a necessary companion.

Susan TjornehojMinneapolis Area SynodMinneapolis, Minnesota

320


following god through mark: theological ... - word &...

Documents