Advertisement
Click here for General Assembly coverage
Advertisement

Sundays Down South: A Pastor’s Stories

By James O. Chatham
University Press of Mississippi.1999. 248 pp. $25. ISBN 1-57806-175-X

Reviewed by Louis Weeks, Richmond, Va.

 

"Exegete the biblical text, exegete the congregation, and exegete the community in which you serve." This profound advice for pastors and others who would lead the church I have heard constantly from seminary professors and from wise old hands in presbytery.

The Church as Moral Community: Ecclesiology and Ethics in Ecumenical Debate

By Lewis S. Mudge

Continuum. 1998. 176 pp. $19.95
ISBN 0-8264-1048-0

Reviewed by Clifton Kirkpatrick

 

Lewis Mudge, professor of systematic theology at San Francisco Seminary, is one of the greatest gifts the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) shares with the ecumenical movement. His vision and insights, matched by his gracious and generous spirit, have decisively shaped all of the major ecumenical movements in which our church has been engaged for more than a generation.

Good News in Exile: Three Pastors Offer a Hopeful Vision for the Church

By Martin B. Copenhaver, Anthony B. Robinson
and William H. Willimon

Eerdmans. 1999. 116 pp. Pb. $12. ISBN 0-8028-4604-1

Reviewed by Angela L. Ying, Seattle, Wash.

 

In a word, it is a gift. Martin B. Copenhaver, Anthony B. Robinson and William H. Willimon's book, Good News in Exile: Three Pastors Offer a Hopeful Vision for the Church, is a genuine gift to the church. Unlike other "gifts" where we get exactly what we ask for, where there are no surprises, and where we know what to expect, Good News in Exile offers the church -- and thus offers us, as people of faith -- one of those rare gifts.

Creation and Reality

By Michael Welker

Fortress. 1999. 102 pp. Pb. $13.
ISBN 0-8006-2628-1

Reviewed by Walter Brueggemann

 

Michael Welker, Heidelberg University, is only now becoming known and visible in the United States, both through his publications and his extended residency at Princeton Seminary. He is emerging as a major force in Reformed theology, perhaps destined to be the dominant German figure in Reformed theology as was JŸrgen Moltmann before him.

Rachel’s Cry: Prayer of Lament and Rebirth of Hope

By Kathleen D. Billman and Daniel L. Migliore
United Church. 1999. 174 pp. Pb. $18.95. ISBN 0-8298-1353-5

Reviewed by Fane Downs
Midland, Texas

 

We live in a time of increased interest in things spiritual -- practices, techniques and theologies -- many sincere, some shallow. Our days are marked, moreover, by suffering and awareness of evil in our midst -- manifested in ethnic cleansing, wars, school shootings, family violence, etc.

Being There: Culture and Formation in Two Theological Schools

By Daniel O. Aleshire, Jackson W. Carroll, Penny Long Marler
and Barbara G. Wheeler.

Oxford . 1997. 299 pp. $35. ISBN 0-19-511493-0

Reviewed by David Steele

 

The book has a snappy title: Being There. I wanted to read it because one of the four authors is Barbara G. Wheeler, president of Auburn Seminary, and I think she has one of the best minds in Christendom.

Home By Another Way

By Barbara Brown Taylor
Cowley. 1999. Pb. 212 pp. $ 11.95. ISBN 1-56101-167-3

Reviewed by Elisabeth Lunz

 

When I first met Barbara Brown Taylor more than 20 years ago, she was becoming a writer. We were both at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where Barbara worked in administration during her postulancy for the Episcopal priesthood.

Genes, Genesis and God: Values and Their Origins in Natural and Human History

By Holmes Rolston III

Cambridge. 1999. 400 pp. $18.95.
ISBN 0-521-64674-x

Reviewed by Donald L. Mykles

 

As a molecular biologist, I have grown to appreciate the complexity of genetic mechanisms underlying biological processes. No one doubts that molecular biology has revolutionized the biological sciences in the 20th century. We know a great deal about how genes are expressed, replicated and transmitted.

The Millennium Myth: Hope for a Postmodern World

By N. T. Wright
WJKP. 1999. 128 pp. $12.95. ISBN 0-664-25841-7

Reviewed by Michael D. Bush

 

While too much of the Christian world is coming off the rails in expectation of a divine cataclysm on Jan. 1, 2000, N. T. Wright offers us a challenge to celebrate the millennium as a Christian festival, rather than standing by passively or ex-citedly, waiting to see if the world will end. He issues the challenge in few words, with the clarity and good sense we have learned to expect from him in his New Testament scholarship.

Heart of Flesh: A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men

By Joan D. Chittister

Eerdmans. 1998. 187 pp. $20
ISBN 0-8028-4282-8

Reviewed by Freda Gardner

 

If you are a feminist, female or male, you will find convictions and new insights resonating deep in your being. You will also be challenged to think through again the broader and deeper dimensions of life lived on the basis of feminism rather than the patriarchy that has so long dominated the culture of much of the world.

LATEST STORIES

Advertisement