Book Review: Second Choice - Embracing life as it is

In ‘Second Choice: Embracing life as it is,’ author Viv Thomas examines how modern society teaches us to live our lives. Thomas challenges the popular assumption that only people who are famous, rich or outwardly successful are counted as being significant. He says that this unhealthy obsession of ours means that we live with idealized versions of how life should be. So whenever our life hits tough times, or things don’t work out as smoothly as we initially imagined, we are left feeling insignificant and as if we have somehow failed. We stop living to the full because our first choice world is no longer open to us and we lose much hope and meaning as a result. We live with a sense of disappointment and growing bitterness.

Yet, Thomas insists, second choice events are part and parcel of all life, they are by no means an indication of a lack of significance. Our lives can have tremendous impact and meaning even if all our first choice dreams crumble around us. To illustrate this possibility, Thomas uses the book of Daniel to throw light on the ‘second choices’ all of us inevitably face. Daniel’s first choice world was thrown into turmoil by his exile and translocation into a new country and vastly different culture that made it extremely difficult for him to live a faithful and God-honouring life. Using Daniel’s experiences as he was forced to operate in this ‘second-choice’ scenario, Thomas explains how wonderful things can still happen if our own lives are dislocated by unfortunate circumstances.

“Second Choice” is well-written and absolutely littered with wisdom. It is by no means a long book, and is easy enough to read, but Thomas’ reflections on Daniel’s experiences, which he intersperses with contemporary stories and personal experiences, is more than enough to leave you thinking for a long time after you finish it. Thomas’s own personal depth, and his experiences as a leader of long standing is clearly evident throughout and if you take the time to grapple with his words you will definitely be enriched as a result.

Whatever you ‘second choice’ circumstances may be - sickness, redundancy, relationship difficulties and more – reading this book will help you to face these realities more maturely and negotiate their difficulties more wisely. God’s intention for us is life in all its fullness and our second choice situations can become places of “grace, community, imagination and maturity if we learn to embrace life as it is.”

Book Review: Searching for God Knows What

Donald Miller, whose best known book is the New York times bestseller Blue Like Jazz, is one of the more popular young Christian writers at the moment. He has been compared with Phillip Yancey, but in many ways is an entirely different writer. Miller has a far more conversational-type style, is less structured, and is not as well researched as Yancey. However, Miller does bring some fantastic thinking to his works, which with his casual style, excellent stories and entertaining humour is probably the reason he is so well received, particularly in the young ‘Emergent church’ set.

Searching for God Knows What is by no means a perfect book, but it is challenging, humourous and very authentic. Miller believes that the greatest desire of every person is the desire for redemption. Every person is continually searching for redemption (or at least the semblance or feeling of it) in his or her life, believing countless gospels that promise to fix the brokenness, but cannot always fulfill that promise. Typically their pursuits include the desire for fulfilling relationships, successful careers, satisfying religious systems, status, and escape, and all of these are part of humanity’s fall.

Miller believes that the inability to find redemption through these ‘gospels’ leads to chaotic relationships, self-hatred, the accumulation of meaningless material possessions, and a lack of inner peace. He outlines how the gospel of Jesus, while the true gospel and the only way to find meaning in life and real redemption, has often been presented in a false way leading people to miss out.

Miller uses his great strength in writing – a very personable and likeable narrative style – to describe how he became an atheist at age 18 because he encountered a version of Jesus’ gospel which he found deeply unsatisfying, and in fact now believes was idolatrous. Miller believes that Christianity as a religion should never be presented as a formula, its tenets broken down into bullets or step-by-step points to fit modern Western thought patterns. Miller also believes that our competitive and materialistic dog-eat-dog world has entered Christianity, and we have become far too quick to judge others based upon pre-decided rules and tenets, instead of viewing them (and ourselves) through the lens of our relationship with Jesus.

At its very core, and Miller argues this again and again, Christianity is relationship and seekers should be presented with biblical stories rather than steps to salvation. Miller talks in detail throughout the book about Jesus, and his role in the salvation of humanity, and how relationship with Jesus is the most important part of the message, and not any rules or guidelines setup by organizations and institutions. Miller argues effectively throughout the book that this relationship with Jesus should affect the way we live, how we view others and ourselves, and promote justice, compassion and care for the poor.

Reading Miller is much like talking with a good (and wise) friend over a cup of coffee or in a small group setting. Due to its simple narrative style, this book can be devoured in a few sittings, but there are a few profound statements and stories that will leave you thinking for quite a while longer. This is not to say that Miller’s book is without weakness. Like any good friend or fellow Bible study member, his thoughts are there to be dialogued with and not accepted wholesale. They need to be carefully considered and chewed over, which I think, is the intention of the book. For example, I found that Miller’s understanding of how propositional truth affects relationship to be fuzzy, i.e. what we do believe about God IS important because that will affect how we relate to him, we cannot dismiss all doctrine as being an unnecessary hindrance to relationship. Miller also shares the typical Emergent church weakness in that he challenges the present systems of church really well, but seems unable to come up with compelling alternatives. Still, this book is definitely worth reading because Miller clearly IS a wise and thoughtful person who has much of value to share.

Book Review: Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament

One of the most common laments of your average Bible reader is how much they struggle with the Old Testament. Whether it is because of the violence, or the strange, almost other-worldly customs, or even just the endless lists and genealogies, the Old Testament is at best ignored by many Christians, and at worst viewed with a great deal of suspicion and anxiety.

Christopher Wright does not agree with this viewpoint at all. In fact, he believes that the Old Testament is an incredibly valuable spiritual resource for Christ-followers because it was so essential to the formation of Jesus’ identity and mission. Wright is convinced that Jesus’ own story is rooted in the story of Israel, and that understanding the story of Israel will broaden and deepen our understanding of Christ.

Wright is an acclaimed Old Testament scholar, but wears his scholar’s mantle lightly and instead writes with a good communicator’s instinct for the lack of awareness and appreciation that the average person might have in regards to a subject he is so utterly proficient in. Wright is obviously passionate about the Old Testament and the importance of studying it, but he is equally passionate about convincing his audience to agree with him on this. The result is a book that is designed to draw the average reader past the misconceptions and prejudices, and into the incredibly absorbing world of the Old Testament.

Rather than tackling the Old Testament en masse, Wright takes 5 chapters to relate Jesus to the following five themes – story, promise, identity, mission and values. Each chapter is fascinating, and will give you plenty to think about as you learn more about just how much the Old Testament can increase our appreciation of the Jesus story. In his own words, Wright sees the Old Testament as telling “the story which Jesus completes”.

My favourite part about this book is how it does succeed in deconstructing various misconceptions and prejudices about the Old Testament, and also how it lays down solid foundations for the reader in instilling excitement and lending new appreciation to the very scriptures, which shaped so much of Jesus himself. This book comes highly recommended and is well worth reading, especially if you are one of those who find the Old Testament scary, off-putting or obsolete. Read this book and I am sure that Wright will convince you otherwise.

Book Review: UnChristian - What a new generation really thinks about Christianity ... and why it matters

The president of The Barna Group, David Kinnaman, has written this controversial but immensely popular book that took American Christianity by storm. Kinnaman has focussed his research on two different generations – the Mosaics (born between 1984 and 2002) and the Busters (born between 1965 and 1983). He then deals with how Christians are generally perceived by these generations, the groups of people they should be serving and evangelising. The result is ‘UnChristian: What a new generation really thinks about Christianity ... and why it matters.”

Although this study focuses mainly on how Americans view American Christians, its findings are very applicable to all countries that have been affected by Western Christianity. This is because large sections of today’s population in the Western world, ages 16 to 29, view Christianity as "antihomosexual," "judgmental," "hypocritical," "too involved in politics," "sheltered," and "insensitive to others.” And Kinnaman doesn’t just make these statements up, because they are all derived from verifiable data compiled by The Barna Group over an extensive period. Essentially, we are told, there are huge sections of people – a majority, in fact – who find Christians unpleasant company for a variety of reasons. That would explain those glares around the staff coffee machine that you were wondering about.

This shouldn’t be surprising since the anti-Christian voice has been pretty loud in the media lately. For example, recently there was a lot of fuss made because Anne Rice (the Vampire author) decided to give up on Christianity as a direct result of Christians and the constant prejudice she was encountering in them. There is a world-wise malaise with Christianity propped up by mistakes which are made by a minority of us: like hateful, anti-gay statements; or the priest abuse cases; or the in-authenticity of some of our prosperity gospel preachers; or the fact that many Christians don’t live what they preach.

Kinnaman takes a blow-by-blow look at the descriptors, analyzes the stats, and makes suggestions for corrective action that are largely helpful, if not earth-shatteringly so. He investigates each critique in its own chapter, such as ‘Hypocritical,’ ‘Antihomosexual,’ ‘Sheltered,’ ‘Too Political,’ ‘Judgemental’ and ‘Get Saved!’ (which looks at unauthentic and fly-by-the-seat evangelism that fails to express any route to spiritual depth or indeed any real concern for the evangelical ‘targets’).

In these chapters, Kinnaman tries to outline a plan for better interaction between Christ-followers and non-Christians, and he probably nails it best in his chapter on how the world defines the church as “sheltered” when he explains that “outsiders” need to see that Christians can get involved with them in the world, while at the same time maintaining a “balance” between “proximity and purity.”

Kinnaman quotes Mike Metzger of the Clapham Institute:
“Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don’t hold up both truths in tension, you invariably become useless and separated from the world God loves. For example, if you only practice purity apart from proximity to the culture, you inevitably become pietistic, separatist, and conceited. If you live in close proximity to the culture without also living in a holy manner, you become indistinguishable from fallen culture and useless in God’s kingdom.”

As you can see though, Kinnaman has not really given a clear answer, rather he just restates the same problem in another way. This in essence sums up the weakness of his book in that he does an excellent job of analysing and explaining and using the data to effectively challenge Christians, but struggles to come up with compelling answers to the questions posed. Kinnaman's clearest vision is for the church to fix its "image problem" via real, personal change – in other words to focus on journeys of greater depth. However, even in this Kinnaman fails to clarify how the church as an institution can take this journey. Or at least if he did, it wasn’t clear to me.

I would still recommend ‘UnChristian’ highly. It is a valuable diagnostic tool for the Church, and its ‘American’ focussed lessons can easily be applied to South African contexts with a bit of creative thought. If you are wondering how the ‘non-Jesus’ people in society might perceive you, then this is definitely the book to read. At the very least, reading it might help instil a greater humility within Christianity at large, and also develop greater urgency that we take seriously the need to engage more deeply with the people who live among us and who have differing faith or value systems.

Book Review: An Altar in the World - A Geography of Faith

Barbara Brown Taylor calls this book a “field guide” to spiritual practices and as such encourages her readers not to read it from cover to back, but rather to pick out and read the chapters most relevant to their lives. This actually works because Taylor examines everyday practices such as walking, working and nature, and so you tend to find there are parts of the book that are always relevant to where ever you happen to be. Taylor sees ‘mundane’ practices as means of revealing small windows into heaven and sensing God’s presence. Each chapter takes simple customs, like encountering people, getting lost and daily chores, and provides an alternate view to these routine happenings.

Taylor writes beautifully and reading her is something like an orchestral experience of the mind and soul. The mastery of her prose is enough to curl your toes in sheer delight, like seeing drizzled honey and melted butter soak into warm, freshly baked bread. She tells the most exquisite stories that leave you feeling a little breathless afterward, as if you had actually shared the whole giddy experience with her.

Each chapter is a series of reflections on the different practices of the engaged spiritual life. The 12 different chapters cover subjects as diverse as "The Practice of Paying Attention," about reverence, "The Practice of Wearing Skin," which addresses incarnation, and "The Practice of Paying Attention to God," which focuses on prayer. My favourite, however, is her chapter on "The Practice of Encountering Others." The following quote from this chapter will explain exactly why it spoke to me so powerfully:

“What we have most in common is not religion but humanity. I learned this from my religion, which also teaches us that encountering another human being is as close to God as I may ever get -- in the eye-to-eye thing, the person-to-person thing -- which is where God's Beloved has promised to show up. Paradoxically, the point is not to see him. The point is to see the person standing right in front of me, who has no substitute, who can never be replaced, whose heart holds things for which there is no language, whose life is an unsolved mystery. The moment I turn that person into a character in my own story, the encounter is over. I have stopped being a human being and have become a fiction writer instead.”

I thoroughly enjoy the writings of Barbara Brown Taylor, but she may not be everyone’s cup of tea. For example, some of her thoughts on ‘God as a lover’ may leave you blushing although she does follow in the footsteps of some of the ancient Christian mystics here. Also, while she roots her teachings in Christianity she does draw upon the wisdom and spiritual practices of other religions. What must be remembered is that she is not advocating the doctrines of these religions but merely encouraging us to learn from their spiritual disciplines.

Frankly, Taylor lost me a little when she wandered too far down anyone path - I preferred it when she kept it simple and revealed concrete ways to discover the sacred in the small things we do and see. Something as ordinary as hanging clothes on a clothesline becomes an act of devotion if we pay attention to what we are doing and take time to attend to the sights, smells, and sounds around us. In this way Taylor encourages us to question conventional distinctions between the sacred and the secular, and to learn that no physical act is too earthbound or too humble to become a signpost to God. As we incorporate these practices into our daily lives, we begin to discover altars everywhere we go, in nearly everything we do.

Book Review: Getting Involved with God - Rediscovering the Old Testament

This has to be one of the best books I have read over the last year, and it certainly managed to stir within me a deeper appreciation for the Old Testament. Author Ellen Davis is the associate professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School in the United States, and this book is based on a variety of her sermons and lectures given over a period of fourteen years.

I know what you are thinking – if it is written by an OT professor then surely it is at best dry and dusty, and at worst overly complex and out-of-touch. While Davis’ book certainly is marked by quality scholarship, it is at the same time highly accessible to the general reader. Each chapter is a fairly short spiritual reflection on an OT story or passage, which actually lends itself very well to some form of small group study.

In a nutshell, Davis seeks to reveal the story of God’s quest to have a relationship with humankind as captured in the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures). She engages the average person of faith as she challenges common misconceptions about the Old Testament and tackles some of its tougher passages such as the Binding of Isaac and the cursing Psalms.

Davis’ strength is her ability to creatively describe ways in which the Old Testament, even with its more difficult and confusing texts can speak directly and relevantly to contemporary issues such as meaningful work, sexual expression, unconstrained consumerism, and ecology. The only weakness I picked up is that Davis sometimes seems to stop short of fully engaging the extreme ethical difficulties raised by some of these texts. For example, as much as I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter on the Binding of Isaac, I found her explanation for this story, as the urgency of God to be assured of Abraham’s love, did not adequately deal with my concerns over a God who would ask for the death of a child in order to soothe his own anxiety. I felt Davis took me on a journey that she didn’t quite complete.

Ellen Davis isn’t very well known beyond students of her particular field, which is a real pity because she writes powerfully and I guarantee that reading her would be extremely helpful in terms of your own spiritual formation. This book is highly recommended.

Book Review: God on Mute

Who would have thought that a book with a core theme of God’s silence during suffering would have made me laugh so much? Pete Greig, co-founder of the 24-7 prayer movement, has tackled this immensely complex and emotive subject and produced a wonderful book that manages to confront some of life’s biggest questions head on, but does so with typically dry British wit. In his own words, Greig wanted to write a book about suffering that wasn’t a terribly complicated theological tomb, or a collection of pithy sayings and unhelpful easy answers. Instead he wanted to write an “honest, practical book” that could fit on someone’s bedside table in between a “Reader’s Digest and a cappuccino”.

Greig succeeds in this probably because ‘God on Mute’ arises out of personal experience thus making it part theology and part biography. Greig shares the terrible moment when his wife Samie was first diagnosed with a brain tumour “the size of an orange.” Although the tumour was successfully removed, Samie continues to suffer severe epileptic seizures that drastically affect her quality of life. Every night she goes to bed, Samie is not sure whether she will wake up in a hospital the next day, she still cannot drive, is continually exhausted and has lost much of her independence

Greig reveals that as the leader of an international prayer group, this experience left him feeling both helpless and useless because so many of his prayers for healing and help seemingly went unanswered. He writes with searing honesty about this period of his life: “I was scared that Samie might die if I didn't pray enough, or if I didn't have enough faith, or if I didn't fast enough, or if I didn't bind some disembodied principality, or if I didn't repent of some root sin . . . I prayed at best like a child and at worst like a charlatan looking for snake oil.”

However, it is exactly this kind of honesty that makes the rest of what Greig has to say so compelling. Anyone who has ever struggled with feelings of suffering and unanswered prayer will relate to his words. The best part of the book in my opinion is that Greig follows the structure of the Easter story, which is perhaps the single most powerful Biblical precedent for our own experiences of suffering and silence. Greig follows Jesus’ own journey through the Easter weekend from his heart wrenching experiences in Gethsemane (Oh God, please take this cup of suffering away from me), to the loneliness of the cross on Good Friday (My God, why have you forsaken me…), to the deafening silence that followed his death on Easter Saturday.

Through a combination of being courageous enough to speak out his own worst fears, and layering this into the raw honesty of the Easter story, Greig allows his readers space enough to face their own most uncomfortable questions about God. Greig never succumbs to the temptation of flippant answers, instead he provides the space and honesty required to respectfully discuss and own life’s toughest questions and therein to find our own meaning and hope. As Greig himself said in a recent interview: “I’d like God on Mute to contribute to the shaping of a culture of greater honesty in the church, whereby we can publicly echo the laments of the psalms, the despair of men like Job and even the doubts of the first disciples, without condemnation.”

Greig is a wonderful story teller and deftly weaves all sorts of anecdotes into his overall narrative, all the while managing to make comments that are guaranteed to have you smiling which is vital when dealing with such a heavy topic. Ultimately, we learn that silence doesn’t have to be terrifying and faith destroying, instead it is actually an opportunity to draw even more closely to God as we honestly and courageously journey more deeply into life’s complex yet immensely enriching realities. For as we do that we shall find that God is with us in ways that are beyond easy explanations. Greig himself sums this up the best as he writes, “Our desire is always to be airlifted out of the theater of war. But more often than not, instead of airlifting us to safety, God parachutes down to join us.”