Beyond the Trump Stump and onto the Root of Jesse.

We are in an election year, and we are reminded that four years ago, 81% of White Evangelicals through their lot in with Donald J. Trump, a serial liar who bragged on a recording of being able to sexual assault women just because he was famous, mocked physically disabled reporters, and stoked racism and xenophobia. Many of those evangelicals did so because they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hilary Clinton, some because they worried about the growing trend toward secularism in the democrat party, others because their commitment to socially conservative values.

Four years later, the divide between Right and Left has calcified and Evangelical supporters of Trump often march in lock-step with their commander in chief, even when that means ignoring Jesus’ call for justice, and love for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned and the oppressed.

David Moore is  is an ecumenical teacher, contemplative anddefender of the defenseless. With degrees from UC Santa Barbara St. Stephen’s University in New Brunswick, Canada and a Doctorate in Theology from the University of South Africa.  He has been a pastor (Pentecostal) and an academic (he is currently an adjunct professor at St Stephen’s). In Making America Great Again: A Challenge to the Christian Community, Moore challenges us as Christians to examine our commitment to Jesus in our political life.

The book tells his own story of the racism he experiences as an African American, the tone deaf theological responses he has experienced from (many) white evangelicals, and the ways that he has come to see how Jesus challenges empire, goes to the margins and identifies with the victims.

Moore shares his own personal journey with these realities, addressing particularly racism. While the title frames this as a challenge to Trumpism, what Moore is addressing is more the way evangelicals emphasis personal responsibility and are often unaware of the ways they cooperate with a status quo that oppresses others. Moore paints a picture of Jesus that is liberationist. He blends political observations with theological and personal reflection and evocative readings of the gospels.

This book was a good read. I am sure that Moore answers Trumpism, or if that is really his point. Trump is a symptom of our bigger problem of failing to walk the ways of Jesus in our compassion and care for those on the margins. But Moore also comes across more invitational than judgmental. He wants us to get and to move toward justice and mercy and away from injustice, privilege and the status quo.

I received a copy of this book via Speakeasy and here have provided my honest review.

This is Your Brain on the Enneagram

I kind of have a love/hate thing going on with the Enneagram. I have appreciated it as a tool of self discovery, and my pinned Tweet for awhile on Twitter was, “I am a 7 on the Enneagram, and my wings are buffalo and honey barbeque.” This really sounds like a 7 joke but honestly, eights are buffalos who will mow you down and honey barbeque is always a safe choice (sixes, I see you). But I have been less enamored with how people use the Enneagram as a profile prescription for navigating life. (e.g. “I’m a ___ so I do x), as though each enneagram is a box that encapsulates our whole way of being in the world.

So when I picked up Whole-identity™: A Brain-Based Enneagram Model for (W)holistic Human Thriving by Dr. Jerome Lubbe, I was both interested and skeptical about what, if anything, it had to offer. Lubbe proports to look at the Enneagram through the lens of neuroscience. Since the Ennagram, is sort of a tradition without much scientific basis, this intrigued me. The book is a white paper, exploring the ennagram and how each type relates to what we know about the brain and how humans use them. Mike Morrell and John Luckovich also right a brief section describing the history of the Enneagram and it’s influences, which provides a nice overview of where the Enneagram came from and its growth in popularity.

One thing I really appreciated, is that Lubbe never puts people into the box of whatever number they are most proficient in:

You are not one thing, you are complex and multifaced; you are interconnected. This is a vital paradigm shift. When you consider having access to all nine numbers simultaneously, you increase and expand your capacity for thriving. (31).

This seems, to me, to be a vital insight. People are never one thing. Nevertheless we do have a core competency and a strategy for navigating the world, that is kind of our go to (which number we resonate most with). Lubbe has a system for helping us understand what our number is (based on the RHETI) and what our wings are. Lubbe also offers an at-a-glance view of the values of each type, and brain-based applications for each type.

I feel like Lubbe spends much of the book, trying to relate the Enneagram to science, rather than providing the ‘science of the Enneagram (repeatable, measurable data). I felt like this was more ‘sciency’ than science. Lubbe spends some time talking about the brain make-up—our brain stem, our limbic system, and the two hemispheres, and then relates each of the the types to things neuroscience tells us about the brain (i.e. which hemisphere each type/wing utilizes and what are the areas of cognitive growth for each type).

But this isn’t to say that I don’t appreciate what is here. While reading this book, I discovered that I have mistyped myself on the Enneagram for about ten years. I had thought I was a 7 because I was jokey (and sometimes used humor to deflect what was going on with me), but as I read through Lubbe’s descriptions of each type, I discovered, I don’t actually fit the 7 profile and their value on experience, as much as I do the 4s and their value on authenticity. So Lubbe, sent me back through my Enneagram texts, and I saw myself in a whole new light (which also made the enneagram make more sense and seem more helpful to me).

Some of the assessment stuff wasn’t helpful for me, since I haven’t taken the RHETI, so don’t know my RHETI number. So I can’t really comment on how Lubbe crunches numbers here.

I am not sure that this book/white paper accomplishes it’s goal of providing a neuroscience basis for the Enneagram. It seems to me that more often assumes the wisdom of the Enneagram and looks for links to Scientific understanding (which isn’t how science works); however, I thought that Lubbe was even handed in providing an overview of what the Enneagram brings to the table and how it relates to what we know of the brain.

I received this book via the author or publisher via SpeakEasy and offer my honest review here.

Open to Every Which Way the Spirit Blows: a book review

Being open to the Spirit once meant, for me, attending a charismatic church. There the works of the Spirit were front and center—prayers for healing and deliverance, prophetic words, ecstatic utterance. It was good for me to be there, to cultivate an experiential openness and allow the winds of the Spirit to blow where they would. Unfortunately, not everything I’ve experienced and witnessed at that church was the move of the Holy Spirit. I witnessed poor discernment, unhealthy dynamics, and psychological manipulation. It took me years to sort out the difference between being open to the Spirit and just being weird.

Scot McKnight’s Open to the Spirit is a great overview of how to cultivate an openness to the Spirit’s movement, that attends to the Spirit’s purposes for us. McKnight is a New Testament scholar, and professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, author of a gazillion Christian books and is a popular blogger at Patheos. This is a popular level book designed to help ordinary readers enter into and appreciate what it means to be open to the Spirit. Nevertheless, McKnight is a New Testament scholar and he seeks throughout to root his description of the Spirit’s work in the biblical text, and where appropriate, he interacts with various other biblical scholars (notably, Gordon Fee, Jimmy Dunn, Jack Levison, NT Wright, Daniel Wallace, Monica Coleman), but this remains a non-technical book, with plenty of personal examples from  McKnight’s faith journey.

McKnight explores being open to the Spirit in five areas. In Part 1, he describes being open to the voice of the Spirit (e.g., the Spirit’s witness in pointing us to Jesus, in the written words of Scripture, in prophetic utterance, and in the Spirit’s wordless, groaning intercession for us). In Part 2, he discusses being open to the Spirit’s new creation in us (e.g., God’s presence in our lives, in the Pentecost, in a new baptism, in our transforming inner self and in giving us new power).

Part 3 talks about being open to the Spirit in Christian community, in inspiring the cruciform style of Christian leadership in the way of Jesus, and in an other-oriented spirituality of love. Part 4 explores what it means to be open to the Spirit’s sanctifying work—the assurance of life in Christ, our growth in freedom and holiness (e.g. the ‘fruit of the Spirit) and living towards the good.

Finally, part 5 explores being open to the victory the spirit brings over sin, victory in communication (e.g. tongues, prayer, and evangelism), victory over sin and death, victory over demonic powers, structural evil and victory in worshipping God.

Because McKnight focuses on the role of the Spirit in the Bible (with a special focus on the New Testament), he acknowledges and describes charismatic phenomenon without laying the emphasis on the strange and esoteric. McKnight’s emphasis is always on what the Spirit of God wants to accomplish in us if we allow ourselves to be open to the Spirit’s multifaceted work in our lives. Each chapter explores a dimension of the Spirit’s work and closes with a question asking if we are open to the Spirit’s work (e.g. “Are you open to the Spirit who speaks in the Living Word and takes you to Jesus?” – pg 27; “Are you open to the Holy Spirit who brings you new power?”- pg 95; “Are you open to the wild freedom of the Spirit?” -pg 147; “Are you open to the Spirit who grants victory in communication, sometimes in miraculous ways?” -pg 179.

Three times McKnight includes a prayer of openness to the Spirit for readers to pray as they read (in the introduction, on page 70, and on page 204):

Lord, I am open to the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, Come to me, dwell in me, speak to me

so I may become more like Christ.

Lord, give me the courage to be open,

Lord I am open to the Holy Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit

Amen.

McKnight’s goal is that in reading the stories he shares (his own and others) and in reflecting on the Spirit’s movement throughout the biblical text, we will be open and the Spirit of God would move in us. This is a good book to read prayerfully and expectantly. Are you open to the Spirit? Sometimes the Spirit moves in weird ways, but always with the purpose of bringing us into a deeper experience of the Kingdom of God. McKnight names the way the Spirit directs, intercedes, inspires, renews, brings intimacy with God, knits Christian community together, and compels us to work toward healing and justice, to the glory of God.  I give this five stars. – ★★★★★

Notice of material connection: I received a copy of this book from the blogging for books program and Waterbrook Multnomah in exchange for my honest review.

 

Theology Gone Wyld: a book review

Rich Wyld is an Anglican priest with a PhD from Durham University in theology.  He is the brain behind the Theologygrams blog where he has created hundreds of ‘theology diagrams’ which describe the world of the Bible, theology, church history, ethics and life in the church. With Vin diagrams, pie charts, tables, graphs and just a bit of cheek, helps us visualize the world of theology.

Theologygrams: Theology explained in diagrams (IVP, 2017, previously published in the UK by Darton, Longman & Todd) collects a number of Wyld’s reflections on the Old Testament, the Gospels, the rest of the New Testament, the Life of the Church and Theology. Wyld has a gift for being silly without being wholly irreverent. He describes this as “quite a silly book about some quite serious stuff” and says his “intention is never to mock or belittle God, theology, the Bible or the Church” (4). So this isn’t a book making fun of faith, though Wyld does give us a fair share of good-natured ribbing.

Because it doesn’t seem fair to review a book of diagrams without sharing some of them, here are a few pictures previously published on Wyld’s blog and included in the book:

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This is a fun little book. A perfect stocking stuffer for a theology buff. Some diagrams are more serious and content heavy than others. Some are mostly silly with a side of theological reflection. I give this book four stars – ★★★★

Notice of material connection: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

A Renegade Monk and Protestantism’s First Lady: a book review

The tales of Martin Luther defacing a door and denouncing the Catholic Church’s captivity to Babylon are well known. The whole Protestant movement owes its origin to the way this cantankerous monk was gripped by the idea of saving grace. The story that many Christians don’t know, or know in far less detail, is that of his marriage to Katharina von Bora.

In Katharina & Martin, Michelle DeRusha unfolds the love story between the renegade Monk and Protestantism’s first lady. DeRusha previously authored 50 Women Every Christian Should Know.  Here she hones in on the story of a marriage. Meticulously researched, she describes the story of Martin and Katharina’s love—the events leading up to their marriage, the reaction of friends and critics, their shared life and the circumstances of their deaths. DeRusha includes cultural background of the late Medieval ideas of marriage.

Katharina was an aristocratic nun who fled the cloistered life in the midst of the sixteenth century, Protestant awakening. Luther tried in vain to marry her off, but she was not happy with her would-be suitor. Eventually, he married her, himself, albeit partly for practical and political reasons (he had already written on the sacredness of married life and against celibacy). Luther’s primary reason for marrying was wanting to be obedient to what he felt was God’s call.

Luther was not attracted to Katharina at first and there was no spark of romance. Many of Luther’s friends (including his close friend Philip Melancthon) did not approve and actively opposed their union. Yet Luther grew to love his wife and value their partnership. Katharina discussed theology with Luther, managed the household and the family finances. Luther’s would come to speak of his wife with real affection and respect (even if still self-aggrandizing), “Kate, you have a god-fearing man who loves you. You are an empress; realize it and thank God for it” (207). The two of them weathered crises together, including the grief of losing children.

This is popular level history at its best—a compelling read with enough footnotes for the reader to verify the substance. DeRusha relies on good research, referencing documentary evidence and scholarly research rather than opining on Luther and Katharina’s inner thoughts. I enjoyed this book and am happy to have it on my church history shelf. As unique as their relationship was, DeRusha places Martin and Katharina within the late Medieval context.  Martin Luther was neither an arch-Complementarian or Katharina a proto-Egalitarian. Their marriage was countercultural in lots of ways (i.e. Katharina was intelligent, industrious and independent women, but in other ways traditional and deferring to her husband). I give this book four stars and recommend it to anyone interested in church history, the Reformation era, or the history of Christian women.

Note: I received this book from Baker Books in exchange for my honest review

God’s Supernatural Agents: a book review

I was interested in Angels: God’s Supernatural Agents for two reasons. First I do not have enough authors on my reading list, or enough Christian authors from the charismatic/pentecostal stream. With this book,  I got both. Ed Rocha hails from Brazil and is immersed in the Charismatic movement (á la Randy Clark, and Bill Johnson).  Rocha has a degree from International Bible Institute, London, is the founder of Pier49 and a speaker for Global Awakening Ministries and is planting a church with the Global Awakening Network. In this book Rocha describes angels as ‘ministering agents sent to serve those who inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). He aims to demonstrate the ways angels protect us, come to lead us into worship, or in answer to prayer, and the gifts they have to offer us.

The scholarship in this is really thin. The foot notes mostly point to the Strong’s Bible lexicon (accessed via Blue-Letter Bible). Rocha does point to scriptures about Angels and discusses angels in the Bible, but for the most part account of angels is colored by his experience of signs and wonders (i.e. where he or others have witnessed ministering angels). He tells stories of angelic visitations and times when angels helped him through difficult circumstances (like getting him through customs).

I like hearing angel stories, and I am interested in seeing how a supernatural God may use such beings to intervene in people’s life. I felt challenged by Rocha to be open to the way God uses angels in our lives. Unfortunately this book strained credulity. In chapter twelve Rocha describes unusual signs which sometimes accompany angelic visitations, such as gold dust, golden teeth or hair, and gems from heaven. Golden teeth and gems sounds more pirate-like than angelic. He also describes a picture of an angel he has on his iphone. I am all for recapturing the supernatural nature of the Christian faith but this all seemed like it fell into ‘experience hunting’ rather than abundant life in Christ.

I give this book two stars (because I enjoyed some of the stories) but I can’t recommend this.

Note: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Hungry Avidity Here: a ★★★★★ book review

What makes poetry good? Is it the poem’s voice or the music of the words? Is it the use of metaphor, the poet’s intuition, or her keen observation of the world? I don’t always know what makes poetry good but I know a good poem when I read it. Regina Walton’s The Yearning Life is a wonderful collection. Her subjects range from childhood and motherhood to art, nature, Sunday worship, scripture, friendship and medieval mystics. She captures both holy longing and delight.

Walton is an Episcopal priest whose poetry has appeared in Poetry East, Asheville Poetry Review, Spiritus and Anglican Theological Review and other journals. She is also the first winner of the Phyllis Tickle Prize in Poetry for this collection.   Her poems are organized under four headings: Spirit and Marrow, Showings, Visitations and Seven O’s: Antiphons. the latter section has the seven “Great O Antiphons” (short verses before the Magnificat chanted in the monastic office through Advent). They are produced here in Latin, and translation with one of Walton’s poems accompanying each antiphon.

Sometimes religious poetry seem unearthly, tending toward the super-spiritual with more ethereality than reality.  Such poems might be luminous, but they forget the path of roots and stone. However, the  physical and spiritual embrace throughout Walton’s poetry, “So thickly knotted,/The Holy twins—/Real and ghost,/Untold apart” (from Spirit and Marrow, 17). Consider the interplay between physicality and spirituality in  Walton’s Psalm 131:

My grandma put her breasts in a drawer
And that was that—
The prosthetics, anyway, meant to fill her bra,
The originals claimed by cancer in my childhood

For all her children, her breasts had never suckled—
The doctors put her under before each birth,
Then told her
Nursing was for savages.

Ann, after the Virgin’s mother,
she prayed out loud and often to her own.

On the feast of Annunciation,
Five years gone, she visited me
And in the no-place dream space,
Our bosom-embrace renewed, I felt them—

Hesed, womb-love that moved over the abyss,
That mothered the churning darkness into life—
Her wholeness shocked me awake. (49)

I love the way Walton’s imagery draws together the psalm alluded to with her grandmother’s body and experience, Annunciation, covenant and resurrection.

There is also a spiritual hunger underlying Walton’s work. This is captured by her title poem, The Yearning Life,  which envisions Flemish mystic Jan van Ruusbroec reflecting on that space between lives active and contemplative. Walton describes Ruusbroec’s yearning, “Each holy favor, eagerly awaited, consumed,/Only melts into more craving./And satiety is the missing dish” (32).

These poems range from the ordinary to the extraordinary, the prayerful to the playful. I’m still chuckling at Walton’s Enoch’s Wife, “I wish I never said/ If you love God so much,/why don’t you go/and live with him instead” (59). Other poems give snap shots of conversations, theological and biblical musings, and observations of the world. I enjoyed reading these poems out loud to just to hear Walton’s words play on my tongue. This collection is well deserving of the accolades it received. I will be on the look out for more from Regina Walton. I give this book an enthusiastic five stars. ★★★★★

Note: I received this book from Paraclete Press in exchange for my honest review.