Religion in Review

-- Publishers Weekly, 2/26/2009 9:33:00 AM

A Spectator’s Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth
John Dickson.  IPG/Trafalgar Sq., $12.95 paper (176p) ISBN 978-0-7459-5307-6
Contemporary views of the person and mission of Jesus Christ are as varied as the kinds of faith that attach themselves to Christianity. From the somber Calvinists to the exuberant Word-Faith movement, practitioners of the Christian religious enterprise continue to find new and innovative ways of discovering the “Man from Nazareth.”  In this exuberantly joyful meditation, Dickson, honorary associate in the department of ancient history, Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, gathers the many facets of Jesus’ life and explores each as one would study the facets of a valuable diamond.  How can one man be both friend and judge, both God and servant?  The author draws on ancient histories and Judeo-Christian religious studies to present a compelling and readable account of the complex figure millions call Savior and Lord.  There is no agenda here except to place Jesus Christ before readers in ways that inform and refresh, inspire and encourage.  This is a wonderful book, highly recommended for readers, indeed seekers, at all levels. (May)

Sneak Peeks: Two Reviews Coming in PW on Monday, March 16

Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion
Richard J. Foster & Gayle D. Beebe. InterVarsity, $25 (350p) ISBN 978-0-8308-3514-0
Coauthors Foster (Celebration of Discipline) and Beebe (A Concept to Keep) have much to say on the variety and history of Christian devotion. They develop seven ways of characterizing methods for spiritual development, and illustrate those methods by classifying major Christian figures according to these paths. The work of Augustine, for example, illustrates “the right ordering of love.” The seven paths are not equally obvious: the meaning of “action and contemplation” is more apparent than “the right ordering of love,” which is more metaphoric, but also cryptic. A better balance between the frequently scholastic-sounding treatments of the major Christian thinkers and the warm, informal “reflecting and responding” chapter conclusions—written by Foster—would have broadened the book’s appeal. Some who are strongly inclined to devotion may be taken aback by the book’s varied tables and lists. On the other hand, this is a meaty, thoughtful book that will satisfy those who want substantive prescriptions for ways to grow spiritually. One bonus is that it includes not only fathers but also mothers of the church. This book puts religion back in spirituality, a good, true home for it. (Apr.)

American Babylon:Notes of a Christian Exile
Richard John Neuhaus. Basic, $26.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-465-01367-8
Neuhaus, who died in early 2009, moved along the theological continuum during his life from liberal Protestant to conservative Catholic. Along the way, the Catholic priest who was editor-in-chief of the journal First Things never shied from controversy and continually offered provocative theological insights on the nature of American religion and politics. In some ways, his last book picks up where his early book, The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America, left off. In this sometimes repetitious but always challenging look at American Christianity, Neuhaus argues that Christians live in exile in a foreign land, for they always live with the hope of returning to the Kingdom of God. Neuhaus maps out the territory in which Christians find themselves, shaped by the liberal irony—and its shortcomings—of the late philosopher Richard Rorty as well as by the many shallow spiritualities of the self proffered by New Age religions. The final pages of this book poignantly afford a glimpse of Neuhaus’s own embrace of hope as he made his final journey toward the New Jerusalem. (Mar.)

You Saw It Here First: Original RBL Reviews

Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible
David Plotz. Harper, $26.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-137424-1
What happens when a smart, non-observant Jew with a whip-quick sense of humor but little biblical knowledge determines to read the Hebrew Bible straight through, sparing no gory details or prickly theological problems? Developed from Plotz's "Blogging the Bible" series on Slate, where he is editor,the book delivers on every promise of its subtitle. Plotz (The Genius Factory) fills Good Book with incisive observations and clever musings, for example,  God's partiality for baldness, a striking environmental sensitivity in Joel, the “romping, stomping hoedown” that concludes the book of Psalms and the tolerant room for doubters afforded by the book of Ecclesiastes. The author shares his perplexity about a God who both rebukes and rewards Job for speaking up, and marvels at the existence of a stirring combination of pragmatism and justice that shines out from turgid laws in Leviticus. Lists including “thirteen spectacular murders” and “my favorite prostitutes” entertain and educate. In the process, readers may find themselves laughing out loud and also inspired to take the Bible more seriously. (Mar. 3)

The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon
Marcus Borg & John Dominic Crossan. HarperOne, $24.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-06-143072-5
Revered as a saint of the early church or reviled as a defender of such ills as misogyny and slavery, Paul is one of the most controversial figures in Christian history—and one of the most misunderstood, say Jesus Seminar scholars Borg and Crossan. By helping readers understand the authorship debates surrounding the Pauline letters (scholarship suggests that there were three different Pauls), placing his writing in historical context and emphasizing his identity as a “Jewish Christian mystic,” Crossan and Borg recast Paul’s message as “remarkably consistent” with that of a radical Jesus. The authentic Paul was nonhierarchical, anti-imperialist and communal, they claim, and characterizations of his theology as anything else are inaccurate historical overlays. Paul’s ideas, they posit, “challenged the normalcy of civilization, then and now, with an alternative vision of how life on earth can and should be.” Some readers may find the authors’ Paul fitting too neatly into the mold of liberal Christianity, but many will be thrilled with this fresh, erudite portrait of the man. (Mar. 3)

The Real Messiah: The Throne of St. Mark and the True Origins of Christianity
Stephan Huller. Sterling, $24.95 (274p) ISBN 978-1-90678-712-7
It’s hard to imagine how the world would have evolved if Jesus of Nazareth hadn’t been proclaimed savior of the world, with the accompanying religious institutions and their impact on societies throughout history.  Huller suggests in this intriguing and challenging book that, when the true history of the period is studied, it will reveal that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah, but instead acted as a herald of the coming one, Marcus Agrippa, who, Huller argues, is the real author of the Gospel of Mark. Huller, a descendant of Jacob Frank, founder of an 18th-century religious sect that combined Judaism and Christianity, draws on extensive knowledge of ancient sources to answer the question, “[D]id Jesus build the Church or—just as likely and in some ways more so—did the Church build Jesus?” Is the entire Christian tradition a case of mistaken identity?  Huller wants us to abandon 2,000 years of worship and scholarship, a tall order and one likely to be widely challenged. (Mar.)

Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Power
Edited by Elliot N. Dorff and Louis E. Newman. Jewish Publication Society, $16 paper (160p) ISBN 978-0-8276-0862-7
This third volume in a series devoted to moral issues focuses on the use and abuse of power. A short introduction is followed by three case illustrations and citations of ancient and contemporary Jewish sources that are supposed to shed light on the problems posed by the cases, an objective that is barely met. Even further removed from the case studies are 12 unrelated and uneven essays that discuss power dilemmas in the lives of the authors, who work in such diverse fields as business, politics, government, social work and medicine. The book concludes with a chapter on the ethics and morality of power. The editors' apparent determination to offer a brief primer results in superficial treatment of a complex subject that deserves more thoughtful and thorough handling. (Mar.)

Enough: Commitment in an Age of Excess
Will Samson. David C. Cook, $14.99 paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-7814-4542-9 
Tailor-made for an age of anxiety, this volume, written particularly for Christians, attempts to address and answer the author’s question:  “What would it be like to be formed by communities consumed by God and God’s vision for the world?” The author, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Kentucky, indicts Christians for supporting a cultural obsession with consumption, a constrictive view of morality and a narrow view of God. Threading his own conservative evangelical background and his family’s present experiences as part of an intentional community throughout the book, the author also uses Scripture to delineate an alternative vision: countercultural “Eucharistic Communities” that offer their resources to the world. The first chapters of the book include cultural, sociological and theological analysis of the dilemmas of consumption and contrasts them with the writer's vision of God’s call to abundant life in Christ. In the second part, Samson offers detailed, practical ideas on how believers can make lifestyle changes aimed at embracing wholeness in connecting belief and practice as the people of God. (Mar.)

Vanity Faith: Searching for Spirituality Among the Stars
Terrance W. Klein. Liturgical, $12.95 paper (128p) ISBN 978-0-8146-3220-8
Sometimes you don’t need a gimmick to make a point. Klein is a Catholic priest and assistant professor of theology at Fordham University. These credentials alone make him an authority on matters religious, but he also happens to be an excellent writer and storyteller. The “stars” of the title are not the astronomical kind, but rather the ones from Hollywood, such as Peggy Lee, Jennifer Aniston and Audrey Hepburn. The author employs accounts from these stars’ lives in order to explicate the Christian notions of grace, suffering, prayer and the soul, among others. This is a clever idea that does not translate well. The author knows Christian doctrine inside and out and is an engaging writer; he need only use his unique voice and personal stories to grab a reader’s attention. The descriptions of his struggles as a priest and anecdotes from the classroom, however, are the most compelling. Klein’s knowledge of pop culture is impressive and his intentions are commendable, but he needs no Hollywood crutch for his prose. (Feb.)