Disaster Area

The Laziest Book Ever Sold

I was intrigued by the blurb about Rising From The Ashes: Rethinking Church by Becky Garrison. A book about the potential synergy between the emerging church movement and mainstream churches? Sounded like just my thing. So I ordered it and started reading it as soon as it arrived – just jumped right in at Chapter 1 – Where Are We Now?

Well, Where We Are Now? didn't do much to answer the question, unfortunately. A rambling, incoherent picture emerged from the assortment of phone, in-person and IM chat interviews that failed to reveal any clear or even vaguely discernible picture. "Never mind," I thought. "All will become clear when Becky sums up the recurring themes…"

Except Becky never does sum up the themes. "Never mind," I thought. "All will become clear when we move on to chapter two and find out what Becky thinks…"

Except chapter two is The Gospel of the Kingdom, with exactly the same format. A quick skim through the rest of the book confirmed my worst fear at this point: it's all a collection of random interview snippets. This must have sounded like a really cool, "emergent" concept at the publishing house. It doesn't, however, make it a good book. Somehow, the words "book" and "author" imply a certain amount of care and, dare I say, "writing". "Transcribing" doesn't quite cut it.

Now, none of this need be the kiss of death if the content is fabulous. But, to be blunt, it isn't. The majority of it is more pretentious than The Matrix and less disciplined than Amy Winehouse. The cast of interviewees is not without merit, but the twee self-descriptions in the front of the book often fail to give any meaningful reason for the person's inclusion. Sometimes their role or place in the grand pantheon of Emergent becomes evident in the interviews, but far too often it doesn't. There are vague references to some possible relevance in there, but it's never made clear. More often than not you would have to know what obscure emergent community the interviewees are members of just make sense of what they say. So quite a bit of the book is people you don't know, whose role in the church is unclear, rambling about stuff that makes no sense. Maybe that's what postmodern is all about…

There are some good comments, but they are lost in a sea of randomness, with occasional icebergs of "wha?" One particular interview that stunned me (and not in a good way) was that of Tony Jones, the National Coordinator of Emergent Village, no less. In a mere page and a half Jones turns in an astonishingly belligerent phone interview, rife with testosterone fueled masculinity and potshots at the mainline churches (Anglicans quite specifically). I thought I was reading Mark Driscoll for a minute.

Not that the book is without merit. There's a long section by Karen Ward of Church of the Apostles here in Seattle that makes a lot of sense. And unlike Jones' rant against mainliners in general and Anglicans in particular, Cheryl Lawrie (Uniting Church in Australia) has a nice comment near the end:

How do you define church in the 21st century? 
At its core the church is a community of people who are being faithful. The church has been around for over two thousand years and millions of people who have given their lives to changing the world and being faithful to the kingdom.I want to honor that.

To wrap up, the book is a carelessly slapped together collection of ideas and thoughts that may or may not (likely not) result in moving "the conversation" forward. As a mainliner interested in helping my denomination move forward in an "emerging" manner, I found the book singularly unhelpful.

One of my criteria for church related books especially is – would I recommend it or even give a copy to a friend? Sadly, this is not something I could do with this book.  Something could have been salvaged with an index of contributors with real descriptions of what made them worthy enough to be included, cleaning up the writing (I mean, why include even the random breaks in IM chats? IM purity?) and perhaps even a brief synopsis of the ideas from each chapter.   

In the self-congratulatory world that has become emergent, maybe it's time for somebody to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

Beginnings and Endings

I got hold of a couple of copies of this book early because I just knew there would be some useful material for the alt-worship Advent service at my church, and I was right. The specific idea that I used was one that Maggi herself had used - the Eat, Drink, Sleep story of Elijah (December 12 meditation.) It helps when you can consult the author... But this book has been so much more than a worship resource. Maggi weaves a fairly comprehensive look at the gospel story through thirty seven readings and meditations, working from the beginning to the end and back again.

Some highlights for me:

From December 30th, The Man Who is God, she explores the perpetual conundrum of Jesus as both human and divine. I found the following excerpt particularly helpful:

"But sometimes the desire to find a logical answer to the puzzle of the human and divine nature of Christ has become so intense that the purpose of the incarnation - for God to make himself known to us in Christ - has got somewhat lost in the mix. Surely God did not send his Son in order that we should have more practice at logic problems but in order that we might have life."

For me, this gets to the heart of some of the great disputes in the church. There are those who do want the answer to all the logic puzzles, and will go to great lengths to "prove" that there are answers for everything.

And it's not as if Maggi eschews logic and a proper academic perspective - far from it. From Jan 2nd, Shepherds and Wise Men, she takes a look at the contrast between the experiences of the shepherds (very experiential) and the magi (academic). There's a tension between an academic theology and an experiential one, but for most of us we need an integrated whole. One without the other is unsatisfying. I started out life with a mostly agnostic perspective, and came to the church initially through a little bit of an experience of community, developed my faith primarily at an intellectual level for quite a time and eventually found experiences of God that complemented all I knew to that point. I can't imagine being where I am without both kinds of spiritual development.

"Isn't it true, in the end, that there is more than one way to find our way to Jesus? It may be be study, enquiry and a steady route through reading and debate, or it may be an experience that grabs us by the heart and won't let go. I think it's probably true that most of us need a mixture of both, but it doesn't matter which route we take and which gifts we bring."

Obviously this book is meant to be read through Advent and the Christmas season, and I thoroughly recommend picking up a copy for next year if you haven't already done so. But really, it's a pretty good read any time of the year when you might need thirty seven thought provoking and insightful devotions. You don't even have to take my word for it, the book is endorsed by a real live Church of England bishop. Copies have been hard to come by in the US, so it may be easier to order it from the UK, but order it now and get the pipeline flowing...

Review: A Handbook for Widowers

I'm finally getting around to reading some of the material on grief and grieving sent by Lifecenter. One of the books is a slim tome entitled A Handbook for Widowers. I intended to skim it, but ended up reading all of it in about half an hour. I didn't agree with the critical tone of the one (two star) review on Amazon, so I just added  my own, and I'll post it here too:

This is not an in-depth treatise on grief for widowers, so the title may be a bit misleading. It's not a step by step guide with multiple options for how to deal with your grief. What it is is one man's account of how he dealt with the loss of his wife, sprinkled with mostly helpful suggestions.

Ames writes about the things he did poorly and the things he did well and invites his readers to avoid the mistakes he feels he made. Some sections are eminently practical and will no doubt help some men who just didn't see one thing or the other coming. The section on what to do with one's wife's belongings is especially useful, I think.

I think one of the biggest positives in the book is that Ames points ultimately to hope and the future. One of the positive things he mentions about being single (and yes, he is looking for the ray of hope amidst so much gloom and darkness) is this:

"If I did not before, I now know how precious life is; I must not forget that.I am more mindful, more aware of everything in my life - persons, things, actions, impulses. Now, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but now, in this moment."

Another thought I liked:

"One of the perils of grief is that it is so self-centered. An integral segment of your personal history has been wrenched from you, and you need time to allow the wound to heal. No one can predict the length of time your grief should take, but after a time, you need to get out of yourself and rejoin the world outside."

Well worth the brief time it takes to read it.

An Acceptable Sacrifice? - The Full Story

I just finished reading An Acceptable Sacrifice? It's an intriguing book in many ways. I'll write more of an in-depth review soon, but for now, here's a few first thoughts.

First, it's the kind of intelligent inquiry into the "gays in the church" debate that should have been initiated years ago - more specifically in the US long before Gene Robinson's episcopacy was a gleam in anyone's eye. And given that Gene was an unsuccessful (but close) candidate for two episcopacies in the late 90's, sooner would have been better.

Still, on to the book at hand. Kudos to the authors for taking this on. Now, undoubtedly, they come from the sympathetic side of the great gay debate, yet they do it with a great deal of humility. Much of the content is framed as a question or situation to be explored, rather than territory to be defended.  That's refreshing in its own right.

That said, the book is written by high falutin' Cambridge bred theologians for the most part, so it can be heavy going in parts.  Apparently they don't  have a "writing theology for the mass market" class in the UK (Now there's another opportunity for Brian McLaren), so you have to gear up your brain pretty tight. 

The question of the title has different connotations depending on geographic location. To what extent are we sacrificing the gay community? In reality, the debate is about honesty. "Don't ask, don't tell" prevails in much of the west, while "don't even breathe a word because you might get killed" is the model that prevails in much of the global south. The debate in the west is not really about whether gay people should be in the church, but how far up its leadership ranks they can be permitted to go. This is the Gene Robinson/Jeffrey John question. What happens in Nigeria is something I can't even fathom.

The book is divided into four major sections:  The Use of Scripture  (could have been titled  "or misuse"), History and Tradition,  Reason and Personhood, and The Wider Horizon.

The first section, the use of scripture, covers how we read and interpret scripture, and delves into the old and new testament perspectives on homosexuality.

The second section, history and tradition, is fairly broad ranging, covering sexual, economic and political mores through the ages. It points out, as many have, just how modern a thing is the modern marriage. Marriage through the ages has been much more about maneuvering for political and economic advantage than it has been about companionship and relationship. So "tradition" isn't always what one expects.

The third section, reason and personhood, covers the physiological and psychological aspects of being.  The chapter on intersexuality is very thought provoking as we  contemplate the "not quite binary" nature of male and female.

Finally, the section on the wider horizon gets into global economics and its  role in gender politics and economics. I disagree on many levels with Malcolm Brown's chapter on globalization, but it was still an interesting and thought-provoking read - surely the litmus test of good writing? Michael Beasley's chapter on the global threat of AIDS and the response to it is also excellent. I also have some issues with that chapter, but I'm glad he wrote it.

So, for this go-around, I give the book full marks for intent and effort, slightly less for accessibility, and I commend it to you heartily if the subject is of interest to you.      

Free Book

If you're interested in a free copy of Going to Heaven, the biography of Bishop Gene Robinson I reviewed in this post, let me know by email (a shipping address would be helpful).

I finished the book and will be posting a wrap up review soon.

Read This Book!

The book in question is this: Going To Heaven, The Life and Election of Bishop Gene Robinson. (Amazon Canada, Amazon UK)

With all the furore over Anglican Communion goings on of late, it is very timely that I could get around to reading Going to Heaven, a biography of Bishop Gene Robinson with particular emphasis on his election as Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. My post on Women in the Church apparently caught the eye of the publishers and they asked if I'd like a copy to read. Well, what did I have to lose, so they sent it along and I put it into the reading pile.

The last week I've been alternating that with An Acceptable Sacrifice. The two complement each other quite well. Acceptable Sacrifice is more on the theory side (well, so far as I've read), while Going to Heaven is more on the practical side.

I'll admit I'm only two thirds through Going to Heaven, but there's no way this book can fail to keep my attention the rest of the way. The first forty pages or so, devoted to Robinson's life growing up in a dirt poor fundamentalist family in West Virginia, and his subsequent escape to college and the Episcopal Church are a bit slow. And, while I don't really want the prurient details, there is precious little about the experiences that shaped his sexual identity. Apart from a few oblique allusions here and there, you'd be hard pushed to tell this was the story of the most famous gay bishop in history.

Still, once we move on to his ordination to the priesthood and his marriage, the pace picks up a little. His first taste of parish ministry was, um, interesting. The narrative glosses over the details of his thirteen year marriage, although ti seems fairly idyllic, blessed with two kids, and there's precious little explanation about what triggered his decision to divorce. Still, it's amusing the way Adams describes the way he starts cruising the gay dad's scene, and in mid-winter, picks up a copy of the Advocate and signs himself up for a solo vacation in St Croix, where he met the guy who would be his partner for life. It's a bit jarring, really.

The narrative really picks up as we find out about Robinson's career in the Diocese of New Hampshire after the divorce as he starts working for Bishop Doug Theuner. It's easy to see why New Hampshire, after twenty years of service in the diocese, thought he was the right person for to succeed Bishop Theuner. Adams does a nice job weaving the different stories and themes leading up to the New Hampshire election, General Convention 2003 and on to the consecration. As a window on Episcopal polity it's without equal. Of course, books on Episcopal polity are pretty few and far between (with good reason, for the most part.) The General Convention chapter is gripping and brilliantly written - it alone is worth the price of the book.

Member of a New Hampshire congregation throughout, Adams writes from a perspective sympathetic to Robinson, but she does well to describe opponents in a fair light. This is no black and white, good guys-bad guys tale. The fallout for individual parishes in New Hampshire is made pretty evident - as happened across the nation, a lot of older, conservative members left the church with a heavy financial impact. Many in my diocese pretended this wasn't the case, but after a couple of years, it has become evident the attendance and financial impact was, and remains, significant. It's nice to see it reported fairly here.

There are plenty of thoughtful moments, nuggets of wisdom and insights into the liberal/conservative differences sprinkled throughout. Here's one that's not original, but is an important one. Responding to questions about the authority of scripture, Robinson (p 158) answered:

"...as Christians we take scripture very seriously. Episcopalians have always taken scripture seriously, but never literally. Some of the critics are calling themselves traditionalists, and yet are trying to take us to a place that has never been our tradition. Ever. We've never been a denomination that literally read and believed every word of the Bible. On the other hand we take it all seriously."

Really, for anyone around the Anglican Communion that's interested in the story that has played out over the last four years or so, it really is a must read. I'll write a wrap-up review when I'm finished. Kudos to Elizabeth Adams for writing this, and I wish her well in her new home city of Montreal.

In the event you'd really like a copy, but are short of ready cash, email me and I'll gift a copy to the first three people to ask.

OMG - The Last Installment!

I guess J. K. Rowling's going to have to get a day job after this...

Only 6 months to wait...

And They're Off...

National Novel Writing Month begins...

Book to Watch (or, um, read...)

One of my favorite baseball blogs is that of Batgirl (less stats, more sass), a Minnesota Twins fan who, with her entourage of Batlings brings a refreshing twist to what is usually a dull and statistically obsessed landscape. Ms. Girl has a Close Personal Friend who has just released a new book The Shadow Thieves, which Ms. Girl recommends heartily. I just ordered a copy myself and look forward to seeing whether Ms. Girl's Close Personal Friend is as witty as Ms. Girl.

Now, this is recommended for grades 5-8 (i.e about ages 11-14) but that's what they said about Harry Potter, no? At the worst it might make a great gift for that awkward age niece or nephew, at best it could be a lot of fun, and hey, it's the first book of a trilogy, so there's more to look forward to.

Another Busy Week

Yes, believe it or not, life in the Paisley household has been insane the past week. Maybe it started with last weekend's marathon push to get the house ready to put on the market (which, by the way, appears to be going insane in a good way for us right now).

Somewhere along the way I did manage to get in some leisure time. I managed to watch the 2003 movie Thirteen, while also finishing The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things and also Saving Francesca. Now, you might ask what a fifty year old guy is doing with all this. To be honest, even at age fifty, there are things about women that guys simply don't understand. Nor may we ever want to (check out Adam's Vagina Monologues post, for example) because, well, who wants to go there? But then, for whatever reason, I seem to have formed an informal reading club with several of my female youth group members.

For the record, Thirteen is a disturbing movie, but not necessarily because it depicts all those scary things parents worry their thirteen year olds may be getting up to. Well, not unless your thirteen year old is headed directly for crack-whore as an occupation, anyway. It's one of those movies that critics earnestly proclaim as "meaningful" and "essential", while ignoring the way life really works most of the time. Just because it is "sort of" based on the writings of the once upon a time thirteen year old co-star doesn't exactly make it a documentary.

The two books are pretty much excellent. While The Earth... could easily fall into the after-school special "fat girl sees the light and loves herself despite her physical appearance" trap, it doesn't. The book explores not fitting in in a lot more complexity than that. It manages to combine its serious topic with the occasional hilarious foray into Louise Rennison territory (Georgia Nicholson series). Highly recommended. And Saving Francesca is even better. With Rennison depicting female teenage life in England, and Mackler, McCafferty et al depicting it in the US, it's nice to see an Australian slant on teen life (with Italian heritage, no less). Merlina Marchetta apparently doesn't write very quickly, going ten years between (award winning but out of print) book 1 and book 2, but hopefully she'll give up real life in favor of turning out novels more frequently.

So yeah, that's the Dave week in review...

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