The Little Friar

Nowhere to Go But Up by Kevin Ruffcorn presents a readable history of hell with a rich pastoral heart.  Ruffcorn's little book argues that not only has the doctrine of hell been used to justify the institutional church's desire to exercise control, but it has had very real, and drastic consequences for the marginalized -- particularly for the LGBTQ+ community.  The doctrine intends to create a vast chasm between "us" and "them" -- the saved vs. the unsaved, in a way that betrays the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ruffcorn is clear that the doctrine of hell has no biblical warrant and is, instead, the creation of serious misinterpretations of the biblical witness.  Ruffcorn gives a historical account of all the ways in which certain Christian leaders moved away from the Gospel of Love and toward a condemnation of one's enemies. All things being equal, Ruffcorn's book is a masterful account of why the notion of eternal punishment is forei...

In Stillness Jesus Whispers , by Linda Joy Orber, is a delightful little devotional that explores questions asked of Jesus and the soft responses heard by the author.  Each question is part of a larger set of topics that are clearly outlined in the Table of Contents.  While each of these spiritual conversations only take a page or two, there is spiritual and theological depth for each of those conversations, and Scripture passages are listed to continue that conversation. In Stillness Jesus Whispers is a beautiful little book to cherish in your spiritual life for 2021. __________________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

In the House of Friends:  Understanding and  Healing from Spiritual Abuse in Christian Churches by Kenneth Garrett is a richly-textured, even if brief exploration of the nature of spiritual abuse, how to recognize a spiritually abusive church and paths for healing for those who have experienced that abuse.  Garrett doesn't simply give an academic account, though -- this book is filled with first-person narratives.  In the House of Friends is a must-read for those who have experienced deep pain at the hands of other Christians and their Christian communities. _________________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Peter Wilcox's Walking Each Other Home:  Reflections about Living a Christian Life from an Older Dad to His Daughter is an amazing little book that brings the depth and breadth of wise reflection into conversation with a real relationship.  It explores some of the most important issues related to answering the question:  "What is the good life and how do we live it?"  And it does so with grace and humility.   Life is made up on real struggles and Wilcox has helped people deal with those struggles in his counseling practice for over thirty years.  Distilled in Walking Each Other Home are some of the lessons he has learned in those journeys. This is a must-read book. ______________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

ST Kimbrough, Jr's May She Have a Word With You:  Women as Models of How to Live in the Poems of Charles Wesley with Commentary is an important book -- particularly in the current climate where we are reclaiming the power of women's voices and influences.  In the world of Methodism, the names from Kimbrough's account are probably only known to those who study the rich textures of Methodist history.  But the Wesley brothers -- particularly Charles -- were keen to share how women's words and lives spoke to the faithful.  And in Charles' lyrical poetry of Funeral Hymns (from 1746 and 1759), we have just such faithful accounts. Kimbrough is no stranger to the theology and faith of Wesleyan poetry contained in hymns.  And under his guidance the lessons we can learn from Wesley and these women are anything but dry academic lessons.  No, this is lived theology at its best.  The stories of these women contained in May She Have a Word with You are live chang...

Looking over the posts from 2020, I see I've made only a handful of original content posts.  Every other post, without exception, has been a book review.  Even the book reviews, though, appear to take place in fits and starts (five in one day on average).  All of that to say:  I feel like this blog is most likely coming to its end.   I currently have five books to review (see the trend now?).  After that, I don't suppose I'll have many others (if any).  My energy for writing has been spent on the spate of books I wrote between 2014 and 2018 -- 13 by my count.  I'll try to get to those before Christmas, but beyond Christmas I don't think I'd expect many new book reviews. Why this paucity of posts? A goodly bit of it, I think, stems from the rather large crisis of faith I've been in since early 2019.  I can't say I no longer believe -- that simply isn't true.  What I do believe, though, is that what I believe can't be reduced to words...

Mitchell Chase’s 40 Questions about Typology and Allegory brings together a series of questions that aim to "orient Bible readers to the subjects of typology and allegory, that we might be more faithful readers of Scripture" (page 12).  This book is an invitation to a kind of reading that has been at the heart of Christian biblical exegesis from the earliest days of the Church.  Both typology and allegory have fallen out of use over the recent decades -- particularly under the joint pressures of fundamentalism and historical criticism.  But Chase is right to highlight the importance of both:  "typological exegesis discerns organic connections and development across redemptive history and through progressive revelation ...  Allegorical interpretation views the text under consideration as having a deeper meaning, understanding the text too 'say other' than what the words read" (page 197). This is an excellent collection that turns these issues over for exa...

I didn't realize until this evening that it's been well over two months since my last post.  Life seems to shuffle right along -- and so many other obligations take the place of blogging these days. That said, here's what's been running through my mind this week. The American presidential election is finally, and graciously, upon us.  That means so many of my social justice friends have been posting social justice things all over social media. And they wonder why I don't join in the chorus. One of my struggles with Christian social justice warriors is how they relate social justice to the gospel.  This is a difficult issue to raise, as 99% of the time I'm in agreement with the public calls for social justice on a variety of issues.  What concerns me, however, is the path we walk in the church toward those calls. One of my I'm-not-a-progressive-Christian-for-just-this-reason criticisms of progressive Christianity is how it equates social justice with th...

Gary Bell's The Good Book of Mental Hygiene brings the discussion of mental health inside the church out into the clear open -- with all the compassion and empathy of one steeped in the apostolic tradition of pastor and priest, but with the training of a mental health professional.  He brings several different disorders to the forefront in their own respective chapters, mirroring Paul's New Testament letters to those who suffer from such disorders as depression, addiction, grief, ADHD, along with many other disorders.  Bell brings that pastoral tradition of writing letters to the suffering, focusing on readers by beginning with a clear description of the major issues and the symptoms that may affect those readers' daily lives. It's a gracious little book that makes a first step in the conversation about the nature of mental hygiene in the church. _______________________________ I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

Reading David Watts' Authentic Christianity: Why It Matters for Following Jesus has been a refreshing discipline in the midst of the pandemic.  Watts has given us a delightful, readable and thoughtful account of what it means to follow Jesus in a world where such discipleship is often seen to be hypocrisy.  Watts is quick to point out that "Authentic Christianity" doesn't pretend all is right in our lives or the world.  It doesn't seek to smooth the rough edges off.  Instead, it lives in the real world of doubt and struggle and darkness and brokenness. Watts gives us a picture in this book of what it's like to live as a wise, humble, kind disciple of Jesus.  One who doesn't have to agree on everything with everyone, and still love in a way that takes up the cross.  It's the sort of book I would recommend to atheist or agnostic friends who are still not quite sure they want to jettison religion altogether.  There are few books out there that can tal...

Dale Fredrickson's spoken-word album, Blessed is the Man , is the audio recording of Fredrickson's inner dialogue on one of the most timely topics for the church these days:  Toxic masculinity.  Alternating between traditional musical pieces, purely spoken-word and a mix in-between, the album depicts a man very much wrestling with the question of how to be a Christian example in our current imperial patriarchy.  Some songs are immediately personal -- recounting the displays of love between the artist and his father, and how Fredrickson displays love to his own son.  Other songs are equally intimate but told from the perspective of biblical men like Joseph and Peter. The collection is thoughtful and well-written.  And thankfully, Fredrickson aims more to give us fodder for contemplation than ideas for solutions.  The music probably won't stand up alone, so this isn't an album for entertainment, but the instrumentals will help the hearer dig deep into t...

The roads to Zion softly mourn, her women raped beside; within the sanguine city square the dandled infant dies. In streets the ruthless sword unties the husband from his wife; in every house and every home it strips away all life. With fury and with burning wrath the Lord became our foe, to ruin every standing wall and render every woe until the sabbaths come to end, and all the feasts have failed, and law as coward flees away before the whip and flail, and prophet's visions surely cease (their lies the Lord detests), and babies' blood pours gushing out upon their mothers' breasts. The joy of all the endless earth has vanished in the flame. Completion of all beauty's life became a jeering name. A gnawing, biting, hungry void a ruthless need now gives as mothers boil bonny babes that other babes might live, and women eat their children sweet, the ones for whom they care, for none the aching famine leaves, and none the famine spares. On holy temple precin...

2020 has been a strange year.  Especially for those in ministry.  And doubly so for those just setting out in ministry.  You've written your exams, you've survived your psychologicals and every other interview before committee after committee.  Seminary is just behind you.  So now you face the daunting task of discerning who and Whose you are in ministry on the ground.  Where do you turn?  Here's my recommendation of those books you should read every year.  I'm listing a sort of book-of-the-month club for new clergy, but seasoned clergy might well consider this an annual tradition.  These are those books to which I personally turn year in and year out.  In the past, I've made the list assuming an simple annual rotation.  This time, I'm making a two-year rotation (year A and year B) Gregory the Great's Pastoral Rule (Year A) and George Herbert's Country Parson (Year B) Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline (Year A) and his The Humanit...

T. Wilson Dickinson's The Green Good News: Christ's Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life tells the story of the Gospel that is focused on firmly on Jesus, and told in a way that includes the entire world.  Reading this book in the middle of a global pandemic has been a balm, precisely because the world is in so much pain and groans for its own redemption in ways Dickinson has learned to hear.  He admits, quite early on, that he hasn't always had an ear for this "green" Gospel.  The damage we have already done to the earth -- at least from the perspective of scientists -- is already irreparable in so many ways.  With rising temperatures, water levels, weather extremes, carbon emissions and resource consumption, there has been very little good about the world's news.  But Wilkinson invites us to hear Jesus again, learning to listen to the Gospel -- the good news -- that is told in such a way that the world will hear its own redemption. Dickinson divides the boo...

Ragy Girgis's On Satan, Demons, and Psychiatry offers an in-depth analysis of one of the most neglected topics in biblical study -- the way in which mental illness is commonly associated with psychosis, and how that association often influences the way in which we read biblical narratives. The Bible is replete, according to Girgis, with narratives that speak to themes commonly associated with mental illness -- severe depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, for examples.  In Girgis' reading of the Jonah story, for one example, he finds Jonah suffering from symptoms often associated with narcissism personality disorder. Girgis is careful to see these mental disorders as part of the human story -- one that lives and breathes even in such an ancient text as the Bible.  Girgis therefore concludes by normalizing these disorders and finding support for their treatment in modern psychiatry.  It's a worthy endeavor, but I fear Girgis ends up using the biblical text for mo...

Mark Nauroth's new book, Power of the Creed: These Ancient Truths Will Change You and Your World is a deep, yet accessible guide into the baptismal pool that is early Christian faith -- and the difference that faith makes in our own world. Nauroth has been able, in just 200 pages, to skim church history for a narrative that helps Christians understand who we are -- and Whose we are. The difference in that narrative is absolutely essential in a world only too willing to tell Christians those things. And in a world where Christians don't know how to distinguish the difference between what we believe and the power that has to shape how we are in the world, the creed is not simply a set of philosophical or theological precepts. It's a powerful statement that shapes how we see God's interaction with the world and with us. In short, the creed, for Nauroth, is a spiritual statement of trust.  That's what makes Nauroth's Power of the Creed so refreshing.  And a mus...

Elizabeth Rankin Geitz's Spiritual Truth in the Age of Fake News sets the record straight on what the Bible really says regarding sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, and heterosexism.  "Fake News" about the Bible can be deadly.  It has and continues to destroy lives.  Geitz cites examples of violence from the resurgence of many "-isms" -- sexism, racism, heterosexism, anti-Semitism -- that many people support with misinterpretations of the Bible.  "It is time to set the record straight on what the Bible actually says regarding the many 'isms' alive and well today", she writes.  "It is time for the Fake News about the Bible to come to a screeching halt.  It is time for us to claim our inheritance of spiritual truth for all people." In this concise, and compelling book, that's precisely what Geitz does.  Understanding that divine images are foundational to our worldview, Geitz begins her book by countering the Fake News that the B...

Radical violence in the United States -- particularly connected to the institutionalized racism that takes place in a variety of ways (not simply with law enforcement, but certainly most visibly with law enforcement) -- has reached epidemic levels.  Our social fabric is entirely frayed, and there seems to be no real way forward. There have been, of course, certain very localized attempts to solve this racism.  For example:  But those localized efforts lack the larger vision necessary to develop a collective accounting of racism and its effects on our various social and cultural institutions. This is why so much white guilt continues unaddressed.  Younger generations, when confronted by the realities of that racism, then demand that we remove statues, ban flags, change names of military installations, etc.  Those generations don't realize that those actions really don't address the white guilt over racism and its historical constructs.  So what do we do? On ...

As I write, riots are sweeping through several American cities.  While rioting and looting are always inexcusable, they are perfectly understandable.  Those who decry the violence must first acknowledge the violence of the racist system of law-enforcement in the US.  The Brazilian educator Paolo Freire, in his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), pointed out that "Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed.  How could they be the initiators, if they themselves are the result of violence?  There would be no oppressed had there been no prior situation of violence to establish their subjugation." But he went on, in that same work, to caution:  "When people are already dehumanized, due to the oppression they suffer, the process of their liberation must not employ the methods of dehumanization." Institutional racism and police brutality against colored people long pre-date Trump, though the latter has emboldened white s...

Yohan Hwang's Reclaiming Our Political Roots:  Rethinking Church in Nationalist Times is one of the clearest calls for the Church in America to wake up -- wake up from the nightmare of trying to provide therapy or social belonging in a culture all too enthralled with both.  Reclaiming Our Political Roots is nothing less than a clarion call for the Church in America to be the Church -- "a true community ... where its members have political and economic commitments to each other". I have little doubt that this book will infuriate all sorts of folks.  But as a church leader himself, Hwang has a handle on what this change might mean.  Hwang details how the Church has fulfilled this role at various points in history and how we can learn from the past.  In a culture where Christians have become so engrossed in maintaining the status quo for American culture through political power, Hwang envisions what the Kingdom of God envisions:  An alternative to worl...