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Christianity at the Crossroads

Nov 22, 2020 | 2018 - Spring, Book Reviews, Free Spring 2018

Christianity at the Crossroads

Author Michael Kruger
Publisher SPCK £19.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780281071319

Kruger’s absorbing study shows how the future of the worldwide Christian Church was shaped during the turbulent second century, when all those who had met Jesus were dead. Christians faced enormous challenges. Having emerged from the legal umbrella of Judaism, the early Church learned resilience in the face of frequent, severe persecution from the Roman authorities, and gradually developed leadership structures involving local bishops and presbyters. Kruger shows how the intellectual strength of Christianity was invigorated through significant new writings, and the polemical arguments – culminating in the works of Irenaeus – that were needed to combat the heresies that sprang up throughout the Mediterranean regions. He demonstrates that the New Testament scriptural canon, apart from some brief letters, was essentially in place by mid-century, and suggests that modern Christianity can learn from the prophetic voice of these times. This is a worthy and accessible academic history, with an excellent bibliography.

PETER CLOUGH

History, Patristics

 

Walking with Biblical Women of Courage

Nov 22, 2020 | 2018 - Spring, Book Reviews, Free Spring 2018

Walking with Biblical Women of Courage

Author Fiona Stratta
Publisher BRF  £7.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780857465337

Subtitled ‘Imaginative Studies for Bible Mediation’, this book is really lectio divina for those who might be put off by the term. For each of seventeen characters (or in one case a group) there are biblical passages to read followed by a reflection in the first person as if written by the character herself. Some of these are more convincing than others, and the author admits to a certain amount of licence with facts. A series of questions then prompt further reflection or conversation if used with a group. Footnotes in each chapter helpfully tell you ‘what happens in the end’ or clarify points of cultural context. This is an excellent way to meet lesser-known characters from scripture and the hidden yet pivotal role of some of these women. It is not a feminist critique, although it might provoke some wrestling with difficult contemporary issues and the courage required in our own age. Selecting a handful of characters could make up a study course. This is a useful tool to encourage us to engage with scripture in a less familiar way, and for personal study in a lighter vein.

SUSANNE MITCHELL

Biblical Analysis

 

Mystical Theologian

Nov 22, 2020 | 2018 - Spring, Book Reviews, Free Spring 2018

Mystical Theologian

Author Aidan Nichols
Publisher Gracewing  £14.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780852449042

This is a review and appraisal of the work of Vladimir Lossky, a giant of Orthodox theology in the 20th century. Nichols makes laudatory reference to Archbishop Rowan Williams and his D. Phil. thesis which focussed on Lossky’s work in the world of patristic scholarship and Russian religious thought. This study, by a leading Dominican scholar, highlights its spiritual approach and content. Lossky’s work is reviewed under a series of topic headings, including apophaticism, Meister Eckhart, fundamental theology, Trinity and Creation and Christology. Within each, Lossky’s writings are examined to understand the origins of the thinking and analysed with reference to the writings of the Fathers and other authorities. The comments are detailed and often technical. Though Orthodox theology and tradition have much to contribute to our understanding and practice of Christian life, this book is written by an academic primarily for other specialists. To appreciate and benefit from it fully readers may need a good familiarity with Lossky’s work, that of the early Fathers and of St. Thomas Aquinas.

JOHN NICHOLLS

Trinity, Eastern Orthodox

 

Why Interfaith?

Nov 22, 2020 | 2018 - Spring, Book Reviews, Free Spring 2018

Why Interfaith?

Authors Andrew Wingate and Pernilla Myrelid
Publisher DLT  £12.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780232532340  2016

For anyone who is interested, or already involved in, interfaith encounters, or who feel they should be, this book is an immense treasure trove of people’s stories, experiments, thoughts, triumphs and failures from all around Northern Europe. The editors – Andrew Wingate, Canon Theologian of Leicester Cathedral and Honorary Interfaith Advisor in the Diocese of Chichester, and Pernilla Myrelid, a parish priest and Interfaith Co-ordinator in the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden – believe that interfaith relations are a crucial topic for our time. Patterns of enforced migration and resettlement are in an unprecedented state of change in Northern Europe, leading to new encounters with people of other faiths, a phenomenon which is forcing Christians to rethink their theology and practice. These 40 short and easily accessible essays cover an amazing range of starting points and journeys of individuals and communities as they struggle with these issues. This book is a great starting point for Readers wanting to explore this subject.

CLAIRE DISBREY

Interfaith

 

Becoming Friends of Time

Nov 22, 2020 | 2017 - Winter, Book Reviews, Free Winter 2017

Becoming Friends
of Time

Author John Swinton
Publisher SCM £19.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780334055570

Swinton offers us profound reflections on some foundational issues – time, memory, disability, normality, identity, vocation – and how they are linked. I am not likely to think of any of these issues in the same way as before. Running through the book is a plea to be ‘timeful’; I loved the notion that love has a speed: 3mph, i.e. walking pace. Swinton deeply challenges the way our perception of time affects our view of disability, with special reference to dementia and acquired brain injury; the implications for Christian communities and how they view and integrate people with disabilities are far-reaching. The book finishes with a liturgy for a ‘lived funeral’, a ceremony for a person who has had a life-changing injury and wishes to mark the transition from themselves as before the injury to the person they have become afterwards. While not many Readers may have an opportunity to use this, there is much in this book which has relevance for our practice as ministers.

GERTRUD SOLLARS

Disability, Christian Identity

 

Protestants

Nov 22, 2020 | 2017 - Winter, Book Reviews, Free Winter 2017

Protestants

Author Alec Ryrie
Publisher Collins £25
Format hbk
ISBN 9780007465033

This major work is a majestic and engrossing account of the history and development of our Protestant tradition – a real page-turner. Ryrie claims ‘Protestantism is about the…reckless pursuit of an unmeditated love affair with God’. He covers the peaks and pitfalls of the affair, from Luther onwards. The book comprises three parts: ‘The Reformation Age’, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; ‘The Modern Age’, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as Protestantism spreads from the Empire; and ‘The Global Age’ describes Protestantism in South Africa, Korea, China, ending with the worldwide spread of Pentecostalism. An epilogue reflects on the present worldwide situation. To quote Ryrie again – ‘my argument throughout this book has been that Protestants are best treated as family: a sprawling, diverse, extremely quarrelsome family, to be sure, but one that is tied together by more than an accident of birth’. His lively style will engage the reader – and what better way to become better acquainted with our relatives than with this enthralling book.

ROGER THORNINGTON

History

 

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