I first was exposed to Shane Claiborne as a naive youth worker at Resurrection 2002 (a United Methodist youth conference held at Gatlinburg TN every Januray).  He came on stage with crazy hair, crazy clothes, and a crazy message - care for the poor.  It was something I had always felt was key to the Christian life, but something I had always explained away in favor of a 'mainstream faith' that prized orthodoxy over orthopraxy.  So when I heard and saw this guy living and giving credibility to a  Matthew 25 sort of life - God put a fire in my bones and has broken my heart time and time and time again (mainly because I always try to fix it) for a broken world.  Please don't assume this means I have lived this uber-selfless life - not at all.  

So, needless to say, I was excited when I heard Shane was writing a book.  Throughout college my friends and I would dream of being a 'Simple', the term for one who lives with the The Simple Way in Philadelphia.  So now that you know I am totally unbiased when it comes to this book :)  I can tell you that it is great.  There are few places where he is a little too extreme for me.  Namely, where he denounces paying ministers or church staff.  I probably don't like this part because I am a paid pastor :) - but as a paid pastor I know that this job would be nearly impossible if it required one to work full time elsewhere.

With that being said, Claiborne presents a very well reasoned treatise on radical living in the 21st century.  The best part of the book are the stories.  These aren't just a set of theological axioms pulled out of someone's head or a few greek words, they have been lived out from the inner-city of Philly to the slums of Calcutta.  These stories of a radical faith speak much clearer than most of the theology I read in seminary.  Although both are needed, this is a breath of fresh air.   Another aspect of the book that keeps you turning the pages is the love and brokeness that Claiborne exudes in each story, and each call for a deeper faith.  The dedication reads like this:

Dedicated to al the hypocrites, cowards, and fools... like me.

May we find the Way, the Truth, and the Life in a world of shortcuts, deception, and death. 

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Probably one of the most challenging and encouraging books I have read in a while. Brennan Manning has a way of speaking right into the heart of the matter. In The Signature of Jesus he reassures us that no matter what valley, darkness, or even sin we are going through Christ is pouring out His love on us. So often we place our faith in feelings and emotions that when we are stripped of those in a 'dark night of the soul' we feel that God Himself has left us, but it is rather that He is removing the 'obstacles that keep us from a deeper union with Him.'

When this love is experienced and we trust whole-heartedly in it, then we cannot judge others. Having the assurance that Christ loves us extravagantly relieves from us the need to judge others.

The flip side of this is that Christ's signature in our lives is the cross. How is the cross present in our day to day lives? How does the cross help determine our politics, our relationships, and our view of others?

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Every so often we are blessed with events in our life that begin and end as a story should. However most of the time we are left with mystery – How does it all fit together? Dennis Covington gives us a description of his sprititual and journalistic journey into the heart of snake-handling churches. This journey unfolds as one of those rare occurences where the chapters of a life are clearly marked, beginnings can be seen and closures are tangible. However, that does not mean that mystery is absent from the story. For in fact, one of the books main focal points is the mystery of snake handling and God’s Spirit in the churches.

Covington begins his journey while covering the trial of Glen Summerford, a snake handling preacher from Alabama who was accused of attempting to kill his wife with snakes. As he probes deeper into the lives of those involved he begins to become one of them – people who handle poisonous snakes, drink strychnine, speak in tongues, lay hands on the sick, cast out demons, and, some claim, raise the dead. Covington soon discovers that his relationship with snake-handlers begins before he was born, with his ancestors – people who were forgotten in his family tree, and were themselves snake-handlers. This true story covers nearly a century of snake-handling history, five states, and the rural religious customs of them.

This was a great book. Covington reads very easily, and for a documentary type of story it was very gripping.

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Kathryn Lindskoog has been described by C.S. Lewis himself as a person who knows his ideas and works thoroughly. And she demonstrates the validity of that statement in her book Mere Christian. Beginning with a fairly detailed history of Lewis’ life, Lindskoog sketches the life that made this man. She peppers the brief biographical section with quotes and ideas from Lewis’ writings. However, when the biography nears its end the role reverses and his philosophy, theology, and imagination are highlighted with relevant facts about his life.

Many of Lewis’ ideas are summarized in this book. It is somewhat like outer edge of a piece of cake where all the icing is. You wish you could eat all the way around it, but for the full effect you need the whole thing.

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The Word of Life and Life in the Spirit are the second and third volumes in Oden’s systematic theology. Like the first volume of the trilogy they use the Apostle’s creed as their frame and expound upon Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

In The Word of Life Oden examines the many aspects of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Like The Living God The Word of Life does not offer any novel ideas, except the one that we should examine the historic beliefs of the church. While Oden does cover all the bases he tends to be somewhat redundant. At times I felt as if I was reading whole sections over again. Some of the major topics covered in this volume include Jesus’ divine Sonship, the Son’s pre-existence, the incarnation (including all the implications thereof as well as the mechanics of it), Christ’s dual nature, Jesus’ ministry, and the exaltation of Christ (which according to Oden occurs in four distinct stages: the descent, the resurrection, the ascent, and the session).

In Life in the Spirit Oden discusses the many aspects and functions of God the Holy Spirit. This is also where Oden discusses the life of the Church. Other major topics include: the personal identity and deity of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit in creation, in the Church, and in the Incarnation, the marks of the church, life after death, and the consummation of God’s Kingdom. This volume is by far the most varied of the three. However, Oden does an excellent job of weaving them under the title of the book, for every issue he discusses is assumed in a life in the Spirit.

For a more detailed examination of several chapters in the whole three volumes you can download my summary HERE

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Even though I am in seminary I have always been scared of picking up a systematic theology book, but Oden relieved my anxious intellect by writing a fresh and Spirit led textbook for theology. The Living God is the first of three volumes in Oden’s systematic theology. Volumes 2 and 3 are titled The Word of Life and Life in the Spirit respectively.

Oden takes as his outline the structure of the Apostles Creed. Like the Creed he divides his study, not by theological categories, but rather by the three persons of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is made clear that Oden is not setting out to blaze a new trail in theology, but instead retell the orthodoxy of the ancient church in new words.

This first volume tackles the major themes of the Godhead, such as, whether or not God can be defined, what are God’s attributes, is the Trinity plausible and why, the personhood of God, and the providence of God, as well as issues dealing directly with theological study. Oden admonishes his readers to live in step with our high calling in Christ in order to better understand theological study for he asserts that theological study requires a theological temperment encompassing many virtues.

I am looking forward to reading the remaining volumes of this work.

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Well, after two trips between Kentucky and Tennessee I finally finished C.S. Lewis’s book, Till We Have Faces, on tape! I enthusiastically recommend it. There is nothing like having someone read a book to you in a British accent! I got hooked on books-on-tape with the Harry Potter series. Jim Dale, the narrarator has an awesome accent, and chances are if you get a book-on-tape by a British author, you will get a British person reading it. Sarah and I have thought about going to England and spending a year at Oxford just so Morgan could spend her formative time around English people so she could have a cool accent and read books to us!
OK, back to the book… This was a hard book to get into and figure out. The only other Lewis fiction that I have read (heard) is the Narnia series. So all throughout this book I was looking for the parallels to the Gospel. There are some connections, however it was definately not an allegory. This hindered me from really enjoying the story until the end where everything was tied together. The ending is definately worth the slower parts of the book and sheds light on our human condition. Basically the book is a retelling of the Greek myth of the struggle between Psyche and Cupid. Lewis uses this story only as a source and not as an inspiration however. The two differ in some significant ways and Lewis does not miss a chance to include a profound story of redemption.
The story is comprised of a book written by a queen, who happened to be quite ugly and who was the sister of Psyche. This book was written as a case against the gods for stealing away the love her sister had for her. The first eighty percent of the story is filled with the queen’s bitter charges against the gods. What had happened was her sister, Psyche, was sent as a sacrifice to the gods because she was a very beautiful women who was actually worshipped as a goddess. Psyche survived the sacrifice and was betrothed to a god (Cupid) who would not allow his face to be seen. Upto this point the story is true to the myth except for historical setting. The queen then finds her sister and grows angry at the gods for toying around with humanity. The story progresses until the queen is fairly old and brings her charge against the gods. The gods’ reply to the queen was to have her read her true feelings, instead of the book she had written against them. And as we all know, our true feelings are always dirtier and darker than we let people know. Thus in seeing her true self the queen is humbled by her selfishness. I will not ruin it by going into too much detail.
The hard part to get through is trying to refrain from making the gods comparable to the one true God. Lewis is not so much worried with that however, and is willing to let us squirm a little in order for us to see the deeper lesson.
Overall I would give this book a 7. I am glad I listened to it!

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