Resurrection Life

Jesus Died For This? by Becky Garrison a review

Politics has long been an avenue for satire: the biting critique of observed behavior. Religion has also gone in for a fair turn from satirists (Dante anyone?), but it's interesting to note how religious folks really don't bear well under criticism. For those who proclaim that Christ died one and for all, we sure do take ourselves seriously and that seriousness and good American/Calvinist back-to-the-plough earnestness leaves religious folks open to all kinds of hucksters, shim sham artists, and just plain 'ol wackamoles.

Becky Garrison was a contributor to the now-defunct Wittenburg Door, the last good Christian satire magazine. She, however, trods on and in this book takes us along on a truly once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage, of sorts, between the Holy Land, comic con, a book convention or two, and Joel Osteen's Lakewood empire.

But the real gems in Garrison's book are the folks who are operating "under-the-radar", the "ordinary radicals" as she likes to call them. These are the people who aren't seeking the glitz and glamour of the American relgious scene, these are the folks doing the simple things of God, usually on a shoe-string or worse budget. It is for the discovery of these still, small voices that God calls reporters like Garrison to the field.

Pick up this book to check in on the state of the Church in America and in the world. There are some truly shining examples of Christ at work and Garrison's satire will help you know that you are not alone when shaking your head at something you see on TV or hear on the radio.

One final word on the Prosperity Gospel, it is fitting to note that Garrison piles on to the prosperity preachers with customary vigor but, in light of what is happening in that world at this moment, rather than see it as old news it is good to read these words as prophecies from a wondering sojournor who reminds us to be asking ourselves when writing a sermon, going to church, walking forth into the world, "Did Jesus really have to die for *this*?"

Technorati Tags: Becky Garrison, Book review, Jesus Died for this?, satire

Crashing the Idols: the Vocation of Will D. Campbell (and any other Christian for that matter) by Will D. Campbell and Richard C. Goode

Order this title here: Crashing the Idols at checkout enter the coupon code "crashing" to save 40% for a limited time only. Thanks to Cascade Books for the review love!

Reviewed by Christopher B. Enstad

The word "prophet" has come to be overused in our time and place. I'm watching two "prophets" on my local cable access channel as I write this review. Every generation or so, however, a figure comes into our lives from the desert of real life. Iconoclastic, not fitting any certain institutional mold, wise, trenchant, and speaking the Truth, in an undeniable way, into present reality. Will Campbell is just such a person.

Born in 1924, in southern Mississippi, Campbell came of age in one of the most racially divided parts of the most racially divided state in the Union. In 1925 the KKK donated a leather bound Bible to Campbell's church. The letters "KKK" were embossed on the cover. One day, Campbell would preach from that same Bible.

Campbell is an ordained Southern Baptist minister but, like most iconoclasts and prophets, no institution could find a good use for him, nor could he for them. At one time he was the campus pastor at Ole Miss and soon ran afoul of the Southeran taste and styles which, even during the heated debates surrounding integration, had no stomach for truth-telling. He served the newly formed National Council of Churches, which used him as a sort of mobile trouble-shooter for all things Southern and racial. He refused to demonized the "other" side in the race debates. He made the most of his newly formed, inchoately described, position to make himself present everywhere race matters were approaching the boiling point.

Campbell's undergraduate degree is from Wake Forest, he studied a further year at Tulane, and received the M.Div from Yale. He returned to the South, married, and proceeded to upturn the expectations on all sides of the racial debate.

The focus of Will Campbell's entire life and ministry has not been himself, or gathering power or prestige to himself in order to force change, but one of living and preaching that the world is *already reconciled* to God through Jesus Christ. Using 2 Corinthians 5 as a touchstone, Campbell's presence at the intersection of nearly every racial skirmish and battle of the 50's and 60's exasperated both sides. You see, Will preaches and teaches that one must be hospitable to both sides in that and nearly every debate. Campbell hung out with Klansmen and liberal theologians. He continues, to this day, to live a life of reconciliation. When the Church resorted to pointing at the recently passed laws regarding race to sort of force the issue of integration on churches around the South, it was Campbell who wrote a searingly accurate essay titled "Race and Renewal in the Church"... included in this volume one cannot help but flash forward to 2010 and the current debates regarding sexuality in how we are called to be present for and with each other to seek to understand each side in the debate clearly and then, regardless of personal opinions, live in a state of reconciliation with each other.

This book is amazing but I have to warn the reader: it may wreck your present vocation. Preachers and teachers are "kept" individuals... part of systems and institutions that don't have much time to give to someone asking the question, "Wait, are we going about this social justice thing all wrong?" Is it the church's job to enforce laws or preach the Gospel, which, in itself, does the transforming work of God?

Richard Goode compiled this volume, which includes a brief history of Campbell's life until now, the aforementioned essay by Campbell himself, and a third section on looking forward in consideration of Campbell's contributions, as a book that can be accessed by small groups and individuals as well. There are many questions for discussion and some good good pull-out quotes or questions for reflection. Campbell's challenge to the once and future church really is Paul's, and the Gospels as well for that matter. Do we create community by dividing using the law or, rather, do we set about cultivating community in recognition that the bigot and the pastor, the bishop and the schismatic congregation, are already living in the Good News of reconciliation?

A friend of mine made a pilgrimage to Tennessee to visit Campbell at his farm outside of Nashville. There he saw for himself the bathtub next to the wood cabin where Campbell has baptized Christian, Jew and heathen. He partook in the Eucharist using the most available substitute for wine, homemade whisky in a mason jar. He was reminded of why Campbell decided to name his theological journal _Katallagete_ or "Be Reconciled!" for that is the message Campbell preaches to this day, and perhaps should give us pause in our own preaching and teaching and living.

Technorati Tags: Baptist, Book review, Chris Enstad, Race, small group, theology, vocation, Will Campbell

Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions: Engaging the Mystery of Friendship Between Men and Women by Dan Brennan

Watch this interview and pick up Dan Brennan's new book on friendships between men and women. Since _When Harry Met Sally_ we have, unfortunately, walled off the possibility that, yes, men and women can and SHOULD be just friends. In fact, for the kinds of authentic kinds of Christian community that are being built today these relationships are even more important and vital especially for that community to carry the title, "authentic".

Technorati Tags: Book review, puppy

Antwerp: A novel by Roberto Bonaño: A Review

Roberto Bolaño was born in Chile in 1953.  He moved to Mexico City in 1968 but returned to Chile in 1973 one month before Pinochet’s coup.  He was arrested as a political dissident.  When he was released he moved first to Mexico and then to Barcelona.  His 10 novels and two short stories  were produced before his untimely death at the age of 50, in 2003.  The novels are just now beginning to appear in English.  2666, is a sweeping, majestic novel that is a result of the “big bang” that Antwerp, at only 78 pages, represented.  2666 is considered by many, including me, to be the first great piece of literature of the 21st century.  The back of the little book contains a quote from Bolaño, “The only novel that doesn’t embarrass me is Antwerp.”
Of the 54 chapters that occur in such a small package one is bumped hither and thither.  You will meet victims of crime, crooked cops, drifters, and misfits.  You will be confronted with poetry and visions of warped time and reality.  This novel will challenge the average reader but is a primer to the methods that Bolaño used in his later career and, whereas, 2666 requires a briefcase to move it from one place to the other, Antwerp will fit in your back pocket.
Antwerp represents a microcosm of not only what the author more fully developed later in his career, but, within its pages lies a microcosm of the human condition.  Crime, aesthetics, poetry, love, constant threats of violence, youth, the aged, in short, reality for the vast majority of humanity are gathered by Bolaño’s pen and we become guests at, literally, the event horizon of existence.
In a foreword added to the book 22 years after it first appeared, Bolaño writes, “I wrote this book for myself, and even that I can’t be sure of.”  This is the end product, it seems, of many days spent in a semi-delirium, convinced that an anarchic end was coming in the revolution of Salvador Allende.  Bolaño describes this novel in organic, living terms and despite the frantic nature of it’s layout and the intense requirement for concentration it demands of its readers, we can be thankful that regardless of for whom this book was written, we are able to read it today.

Technorati Tags: Roberto Bonaño, Book review

As Is: Unearthing Commonplace Glory by Krista Finch A Review

I picked up a copy of Krista Finch's book unsure of what to expect. This is a book of short reflections, poems, memories and even homilies that Finch, a writer living in Nashville, has collected and shared with us. I thought, at first, that this might be like a blog in book form... things of interest to people who were interested in Krista Finch, but of little use to me up here in Minneapolis.

I was wrong.

This book is beautiful. It is sublime. Finch (why do I want to refer to her as Krista instead?) has given us a midrash on life by diving us deep into the cracks and dust and up into the mountains of a life lived observing. No, make that a *faithful* life lived observing. No, make that a *normal*, *faithful* life lived observing God in the big and the small and in a way that resonates with how I think most people of faith truly are. Not quite perfect, not quite imperfect, not always putting the word "God" or "Jesus" on things, yet striving to figure out what life is all about, and unsatisfied with what our consumer culture is feeding us both physically and spiritually.

Finch is not just a softy either. Her edges stand out in authentic ways from how she reacts to being cut off in traffic to her journey through the land of forgiveness.

By the end of this book I came to be thankful that I had come to know Krista Finch in this way. That she misses her Grandpa Arlie, loves _To Kill a Mockingbird_, strives to be a good wife and friend, and has some deep thoughts about faith and life gives us a glimpse of heaven that God brings to us in the voice of our neighbor.

Technorati Tags: Book review, Krista Finch, prayer, religion, Simple Life, spirituality

Missional Map-Making by Alan Roxburgh: A Review

Please click and read my latest review

Technorati Tags: Book review, leadership, Roxburgh

Farming as a Spiritual Discipline Post 2

In the previous post we explored Sutterfield's definition of "creation" and the 2 heresies of creation namely that creation exists for our sake on one hand and that humanity is a mistake or cancer upon creation on the other.

This post will explore Sutterfield's discussion of the "what" and the "why" of creation.

It is one of the most amazing foundations of this book that Sutterfield roots his theological understanding of creation in the doctrine of the Trinity. Follow me on this one.

First we must examine an equation that looks like this
God is love = God is Trinity
This is a simple concept and yet one that is missing from most of not all of the discussion regarding the economics of the Trinity. Without veering into one heresy or another it does behoove one to pause for a moment to recognizde that whether we understand exactly how the Three-in-one, one-in-three equation works when the committee meetings happen they *must* happen around the foundation of love, grace, and power that was revealed to us in Christ. In short, those Trinitarian meetings must be alot more fun than some of the church meetings I have been a part of!

As members of the body of Christ, we then share in the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are AT the meeting in the body of Christ!

So, as a part of that Trinitarian exchange we share in the same results that any exchange of love results in:
A widening of the circle, an opening of our circle to others. An extension and generation of even more love. We see this within the circle of our family when a child is added to it. Our friends when a new friend is added to it, etc. etc.

Creation, according to Sutterfield, is a generative extension of God's love. Only God's love could result in a creation of infinite variety and change.

Therefore, if human's are created in God's image and are back in the Trinitarian relationship with God via the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and if God is at work generating and extending the circle, then generating new life and extending the circle of our love is *exactly* what we should be about and is what differentiates us from God's other creatures.

Our role, then, is to cultivate new life and love creation. The word "till" in Hebrew means "serve". Tilling the earth means to serve it.

And this brings me to my final point for this post and that is on the role of "naming" in the Old Testament. Many a theologian and preacher has pounded in that point that man was given dominion over the earth and that this dominion was made manifest in his being allowed to name each part of it. Naming something gives someone control over that thing.

Sutterfield's question to us, and mine to you, is this:

So, where did *your* name come from? Someone who sought to have control over you? No, it was given to you in *love*. We name not just those things that we control, but what we love.

And farming, according to Sutterfield, is what has put this role to use the longest. Naming what we love, naming what we serve.

Next time we will explore the term "discipline" and why, when we look around ourselves, it is clear we live in a world that does not know what that word means at all!

But the farmers do!

Technorati Tags: Book review, farming, religion, spirituality, Sutterfield, theology

Farming as a Spiritual Discipline

Rory Sutterfield sees farming as the practice of cultivating creation. He logically extrapolates from this definition an interesting point: how we see farming deeply informs how we see creation.

If we have removed ourselves from the means of our food production then it does go to show how we have removed ourselves from our connection to creation.

He says there are 2 main heresies regarding creation that human beings hold onto:
1. That creation should be seen in terms of *human* use or value. We need to get what we can out of it. Or, more bluntly, our needs come before creations needs. I see this often in the climate change debate. Whatever changes we make must take into account our needs first (so treat lightly on humanity) even if it continues to be a danger to creation.
2. The flip side of this argument is held by many on the far side of the environmental debate: humanity itself is a mistake, a plague or a virus on creation. Or, more bluntly, that the world would be better without us.

But God created us and created creation so there must be some kind of a flow between the two that a. requires a deeper understanding of our role within creation and b. a deeper understanding of who God is.

More to come.

Technorati Tags: Book review

Working a new book with you: Farming As A Spiritual Discipline by Ragan Sutterfield

Every once in awhile a book comes along that begs you to digest it slowly and with much thought and discussion. Ragan Sutterfield's new book, Farming As A Spiritual Discipline, is just that kind of book. I am reading and taking notes and will share them here as I move along. Please comment on what you read here and if you are reading, or have read, this book I would love to hear from you as well!

Technorati Tags: farming, Sutterfield, spirituality

The Future of Faith by Harvey Cox: A Book Review

There's something happening here. The words of that old song reverberate within me when I think of the events happening in our world and in the Church. Harvey Cox, recently retired from the faculty at Harvard, has delivered a seminal work on his take on where Faith Is, Has Been, and Is Going. The Future of Faith is incredibly approachable by the lay reader, yet Cox's theory on the future of faith is hard-hitting, hopeful, and ground-shaking. I highly recommend this book for the individual reader as well as a group study. Pastors, church leaders, academics, and interested non-Christians will all find places to engage Cox's discussion.

I appreciated this book because of Cox's grasp on history combined with his widespread travels and involvement in inter-faith dialogues across the spectrum. This guy has truly seen it all and his sharp mind and grasp of current events has helped him place this book not within the ivory tower but in the reality of everyday existence.

Something is changing in the sphere of faith. Cox rightly places our current location in between a second and third age of faith. The first age was the Age of the Spirit beginning with Jesus all the way through the persecutions and explosive growth of this underground movement.

The second age was the Age of Belief. This was the period following the Constantinian conversion and the melding of Church and Empire. Catechisms began to appear outlining specific "beliefs" one must hold to be considered a Christian and, upon Constantine's converting the Empire to Christianity, these beliefs also carried with them power and, soon, an elite class of leadership. The clerical class. Now, instead of living in the Faith, one must hold to teachings *about* that faith. Differing theologies were mashed together into one orthodox view and those who missed the cut were labeled heretics... some at the pain of death.

The coming age is Cox's hope and read on the future. This he is calling the Age of the Spirit. He points to many things, to numerous to lay out here, but essentially the role of women in the church has moved away from the male-centered images of Christ and even God to explore further the ways of the Spirit. Also the large numbers of people who have started to identify themselves as spiritual but not religious signals a lack of trust or concern for the institution of the Church. People are realizing that they can have fellowship with each other and God without a mediating influence such as clergy or rote belief systems.

But by and far the most interesting part of Cox's thesis for this reader was his harkening us back to a time when faith did not require one set of beliefs over another. Creeds, statements of beliefs, etc. etc. serve only to divide Christians one from the other he believes. They serve to build walls within the house and each denomination or church or community sits walled off from their brothers and sisters not because they lack a faith in Christ but because they hold different *beliefs about* that faith. Cox sees these belief systems, and their current use in hot button topics in culture, as the rear guard in a system that is fading away.

Just the other night, at a Bible study we hold in a bar in downtown Minneapolis, a young woman told me that she doesn't like going to church because she gets tired of people telling her what to *believe*. Having just read this book I was primed for the ensuing conversation. I think it was mutually edifying and it gives hope to those who are tired of the intra-mural fighting that church can be about more than fighting about whatever the moral issue of the day might be.

I cannot speak more highly of this book. Cox has placed it right in the milieu of contemporary faith issues with a simple, yet shattering, idea. What if we could set aside the arguments over *beliefs* and walk with each other in the *faith*? This is a question that invites a journey. It requires a suspension of what those of us inside the church believe are the *requirements* for membership. Above all, it calls us to be curious about what God is up to in God's world. Can we do it? In the end, it doesn't matter, these changes are coming. My prayer is that we can do this journey with grace and without inflicting more wounds on the other.

Technorati Tags: Book review, emerging church, Harvey Cox, Future of Faith, religion, theology