ben's blog

Enough Already!! A book review, sort of

This is a semi-review of a book I got in the mail recently.

The book is Enough: Contentment in an Age of Excess, and in it, Will Samson adds his voice to an ever-growing number of books addressing the issue of consumerism in Western society. It seems to be the topic du jour, and probably for good reason. It is a good thing when Christians begin to think theologically and critically about the cultural milieu they find themselves in, and more and more people are realizing that consumerism is the predominant cultural force in the Western world today. Samson's topic is also of personal interest to me, in that I recently wrote an essay on consumerism for the Master's degree I'm working on.

Toward a blurred mine/yours line

"When we consume the Eucharist, we become one with others and share their fate."
- William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed, 95.

 It is tempting in our culture to see most of what happens in churches as "spiritual commodities" that are served to individuals seeking some kind of spiritual need met. They need to be a better parent, so they go to a church that's doing a series on parenting. They need some spice in their love life, so they go to one of the churches that's doing a series on sex for married couples. Even the Eucharist can be thought of as a kind of spiritual resource we offer for the benefit of individuals.

But the truth is actually much more liberating and disturbing, in that what seems to be happening is the the line between what's mine and what's yours is blurred, and possibly even destroyed, when I consume the Eucharist with you. As we eat the bread and drink the wine we are not only fed, but "taken up into Christ," and we become food for others. We are the body of Christ at the table, different parts, but one body.

When you eat lunch, the food you consume benefits your whole body. You do not take individual bites for different body parts ("Half a sandwich for the right leg, bite of tuna salad for the brain..."), but the whole meal benefits the whole body - there are no lines between what belongs to the eye and what belongs to the ear.

Likewise when we worship together and consume the Eucharist together, there are no lines between what belongs to me and what belongs to you. This seems to me to have radical implications for how we think about and use our money and possessions, don't you think?

"If we are identified with Christ, who identifies himself with the suffering of all, then what is called for is more than just charity. The very distinction between what is mine and what is yours breaks down in the body of Christ. We are not to consider ourselves as absolute owners of our stuff, who then occasionally graciously bestow charity on the less fortunate. In the body of Christ, your pain is my pain, and my stuff is available to be communicated to you in your need."

- William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed, 56.

Getting saved is easy

"Getting saved is easy; becoming a community is difficult - damnably difficult."
- Eugene Peterson

I really love Eugene Peterson's recent writings (the above quote was in an old journal of mine, so I don't know what book it's from). He has really come into his own. He is either a sharp-eyed prophet or a crotchety old man, but either way I love to read his stuff.

A few pages later in the journal I found these words, perhaps inspired by whatever Eugene Peterson book I was reading at the time:

Community is not what happens to a group when they finally feel warm fuzzies toward each other. Community doesn't "happen" at all, but rather is, or is not. Community is a noun, and nouns don't happen, they are.

If I am in community with you, I may feel warmly toward you or I may be exasperated with you, but it does not change the fact of community. It seems to follow then, that we can never really "cultivate" community. We can only decide to be one, or not. Community is a question of ontology, not phenomenology.

Now what kind of community we become, that's where the cultivation comes in..

What do you think about The Shack?

I've had a number of people ask me what I think about William Young's book The Shack. I've had to tell them I don't know because I've never read it. I do not plan to in the near future either, so I offer instead Michael Spencer's one-paragraph review of Roger Olson's Finding God in the Shack, which analyzes The Shack (how's that for a few steps removed from actually reading the book?):

Finding God in the Shack by Roger Olson (IVP). Olson is one of the most vigorous theological authors willing to take on the reformed intelligensia, as can be seen in his books Arminian Theology and Reformed and Always Reforming. In this book, Olson takes a measured, but overall positive view of William Young’s theological novel. Olson’s book is already garnering negative reviews from those who are convinced The Shack is a theological threat to Christians who aren’t paying sufficient attention to the Bible’s prohibitions on creative writing. (I assume C.S. Lewis’s Great Divorce is in for a beat down in the near future.) Where does Olson come out? A balanced, moderate, intelligent, appreciative and overall positive view. Don’t start a ministry on it. Don’t confuse imagery with heresy. Appreciate the personal core of the story that is touching so many. (Olson collates Young’s story of Mack with his own struggles with a pastor father.) Use it as a discussion starter. Be fair and realistic about the overall effect of the book. A fine response to the three-alarm fires that have dominated the internet.

Review: Coffeehouse Theology, by Ed Cyzewski

 I am participating in a blog tour for Ed Cyzewski's book Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life, and today's my day to post a review.

I'm not sure if this is shallow or not, but I have to say that while I thought Ed Cyzewski had a lot of insightful and important things to say in this book (the rest of the review will bear this out), the cover design leaves a bit to be desired. I know: "Don't judge a book by its cover,"  but the truth is everyone does. Who manages to avoid this? You walk into a Barnes and Noble and you pick up stuff that catches your eye. So it's a bit of a shame that Ed's very fine words got put into such dull and uninteresting packaging, in my opinion.

But this is a side point. Onward now to the review of the actual words...

As I said above, I give this book high marks. Ed writes with an easy-to-read voice and has a knack for distilling large amounts of complex information into bite-sized packages of clarity and understandableness (not a word, but it should be), all without ever sounding condescending. Through a number of great examples, Ed shows the reader how theology is relevant to "normal" life, and quite convincingly re-frames how the reader thinks about theology:

"Theology isn't a one-shot deal, a test that we either pass or fail. Rather, theology is something we take with us into our everyday lives and constantly reconsider and revise - an ongoing process that evolves through an interactive relationship with God, the Bible, the traditions of the church, and the global church." (p.47)

One of the things that has always annoyed me about theological writing is that the books that are easy to understand are often woefully under-informed about their subject of inquiry, and the books that are well-informed are often woefully difficult for most people to comprehend. This is one reason I really appreciated Ed's book: it's easy to read and understand, but Ed is no hack. Some serious theological research went into this book, but it still manages to stay readable for people who aren't theology students.

For example, the two chapters that outline the cultural transition from modernity to postmodernity comprise probably the best explanation of the situation that I can remember reading. And again, they are well-researched, well-written, understandable, and show a great respect for the reader.

I also enjoyed the chapter about reading the Bible, where Ed advocates reading the Bible as God's story (which of course is something very close to my heart and passion). He has a great way of saying things sometimes: "While most Christians hold the Bible in high regard and reverence, we all too easily fall into the trap of classifying it in the reference category" (p. 142).

His chapter on the tradition of the church was well-balanced (and thankfully didn't spout the old misunderstandings about tradition and Scripture), and I found a great quote for a paper I'm writing on tradition's role in our interpretation of the Bible.

Throughout the book, but especially in the last chapter (on the global church), Ed is refreshingly personal, disarmingly honest, winningly self-effacing, broad in scope, and generous in outlook. Throughout the book Ed tells (often hilarious) stories of gradually having his eyes opened to new facets of God's character and personality by listening to people from different traditions and cultures. Especially in the politically charged climate we're going through right now, Ed is a great example of how to listen to and learn from those who are different from you, and how to respect those you disagree with.

I highly recommend Coffeehouse Theology to you, especially those who want to dive a little deeper into theology and it's ramifications for the "normal" parts of life. You can read an excerpt online, or just buy it. Ed blogs regularly on theology and writing.

A journey into infinity

Rowan Williams' beautiful description of the spirituality of St. Gregory of Nyssa:

"If the Christian life is a journey into God, it is a journey into infinity - not an abstract 'absoluteness' but an infinity of what Gregory simply calls 'goodness,' an infinite resource of mercy, help and delight. And because of its limitless nature, this journey is always marked by desire, by hope and longing, never coming to possess or control its object... Faith is always, not only in this life, a longing and trust directed away from itself towards an object to which it will never be adequate, which it will never comprehend.

"The pilgrimage must begin, then, with the stirring of desire."

(from The Wound of Knowledge, p. 65-66)

GTD / Productivity systems

I have to admit I am a bit of a geek when it comes to productivity systems, planners, etc. I got fully into the Stephen Covey stuff for awhile, and it was helpful. But for a few reasons it stopped being helpful for me, and a few months ago I found myself buried in projects and responsibilities because of a few new commitments I took on. I needed something to keep my head above water.

Enter GTD. I've been slowly reading through and implementing the principles of David Allen's book Getting Things Done, which is an intuitive productivity system that really helps me keep my head clear so I can focus on the task at hand. I am far more able to do creative work when I'm not constantly interupted by my own brain remembering that I have to do something.

I read a quote tonight that kind of sums up for me what the whole system is about:

"You should use your brain to think about stuff instead of just think of stuff."

Like I said, I'm a bit of a geek, but the whole thing has helped me take a lot of stuff to do and keep track of it so I can feel good about giving my full creative energy and concentration to what I'm doing at any given moment. Do you use some kind of system to keep track of all your stuff?

Healing and hurting

This weekend at Christ Community's Word and Sacrament worship gathering I am preaching on Jacob's wrestling with God in Genesis 32 (as well as Matthew's account of Jesus feeding the five thousand).

This quote seemed particularly appropriate, considering the strange story of Jacob experiencing Yahweh blessing him and dislocating his hip. It would seem the hurting and the healing go together most times.

"Our healing lies in obedient acceptance of God's will; but this is no bland resignation. It is a change wrought by anguish, darkness, and stripping. If we believe we can experience our healing without deepening our hurt, we have understood nothing of the roots of our faith. Jesus' obedience in the circumstances of his earthly life, in temptation and fear, 'with loud cries and tears' (Heb 5:7), is what opens the long-closed door between God and our hearts, and, although that door is now decisively open, all must still pass through it to make the reconciliation their own."

- Rowan Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 20-21.

I think I see in his passage where Jacobs overcomes God (but walks away limping) a foreshadowing of the cross, in that here we see a God who overcomes by being overcome, who wins by losing, who conquers by weakness. It seems to me this has always been the central scandal of the gospel, that Jesus didn't choose the way of violence and coercion, but chose the path of shame and weakness, patiently enduring evil in order to exhaust it of its power.

Christian spirituality, then, is always cruciform. Despite the sentimentality of much of what is called "spirituality" today, God does not transform us by being our buddy and just telling us we're not so bad after all. He transforms us by killing us and then raising us up as new creatures. We walk forward in Christian practice by going back to the cross again and again. We live by dying, we win by losing, just like our Lord.

How to be a saint

"The greatness of the Christian saint lies in their readiness to be questioned, judged, stripped naked and left speechless by that which lies at the center of their faith."

- Rowan Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 10.

In other words, saints aren't those who have more intelligence than others, or those who have more knowledge than others, or those who have scrupulous morals. It is those who simply submit to the fire of God's chaotic unmaking that He might re-make them as a "new creation."

This is usually an unpleasant, humiliating and confusing experience, so it takes some trust that ultimately God is working to bring transfiguration from glory to glory.

Wendell Berry on sustainability

I'm reading through a book of essays by Wendell Berry, which I'm finding quite provocative and humorous. In his essay called "Peaceableness Toward Enemies" he comments on the first Gulf War: the factors that led to it and its consequences. It's an alarming essay on how, in his words, war has become obsolete as a tool to bring any net good to the world. He ends the essay these words:

"The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and less wasteful."

- Wendell Berry, 1991.