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Reading for Lent

Still time to pick up a book for Lent. Here's three recommendations - all available I think on kindle.

1. The Shape of Living by David Ford. This was the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent book way back in 1997, but has been recently reprinted by SCM with a new preface. (In the Preface, Ford says he writing a sequel of sorts called The Drama of Living). This is the book I am using for our Lent series at church. Ford explores our we cope with being overwhelmed - whether it is by people, desire, goodness, secrets, work, suffering or joy. He writes well, interacting all the way through with the poetry of his friend Michael O'Siadhail and scripture. He is trained as a theologian (Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge), but a theologian interested in how life is shaped by faith. My favourite bit in the book is his discussion of vocation - fantastic!

2. Barefoot Disciple by Stephen Cherry. This was the Archbishop of Canterbury' Lent book in 2011. These Lent books are sometimes hit and miss, but this is one of the hits. The whole book is an exploration of humility as a central virtue of the Christian life. Each chapter is shaped by narrative and reflection covering pride, grumbling, being childlike, becoming a stranger, generous living, a bodily spirituality.

3. Abiding by Ben Quash. This is this year's Archbishop of Canterbury' Lent book (the last chosen by Rowan Williams). It may not get the attention it deserves, because things like the Big Read (which are reading Rowan Williams' book on Narnia) and LoveLifeLiveLent, seem to have a higher profile. Taking the image of 'abiding' found in the Bible, and especially John's gospel, Quash, in conversation with culture (art, music, film, novel) and St. Benedict (amongst others), looks at what it means to abide in the body, in the mind, through care, in relationships, in exile, through wounds and the peace of God. It is a more demanding read than the other books above, but well worth the effort.

Of course other books would include Maggi Dawn's Giving It Up, Sam Wells, Power and Passion, and Rowan Williams' Christ on Trial.

A reading list on theology and homosexuality

1. Theology and Sexuality: Classic and Contemporary Readings edited by Eugene Rogers (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001) with contemporary essays by Robert Jenson, Stanley Hauerwas, David Matzko McCarthy, Rowan Williams, Marilyn McCord Adams and James Alison and others

2. A Conversation Waiting to Begin by Oliver O'Donovan (SCM, 2009)

3. The Way Forward? Christian Voices on Homosexuality and the Church edited by Timothy Bradshaw (SCM, 2003 [1997]) with essays by Jeffrey John, Oliver O'Donovan, Anthony Thistleton and Rowan Williams and others

4. More Than a Single Issue edited by Murray Rae and Graham Redding (ATF, 2000) with essays by Douglas Campbell, Ray Anderson, Alan Torrance and Murray Rae and others

5. An Acceptable Sacrifice? edited by Duncan Dormor and Jeremy Morris (SPCK, 2007) 

6. The Bible, Homosexuality and the Church edited by Nicholas Coulton (DLT, 2005) with essays by Christopher Rowland, Marilyn McCord Adams and Jane Shaw and others

7. Homosexuality in the Church edited by Jeffrey Siker (Westminster John Knox, 1994) with essays by Richard B. Hays, Victor Paul Furnish, Lisa Sowle Cahill and others

8. Welcoming but not Affirming by Stanley Grenz (Westminister John Knox, 1998)

9. Homosexuality, Science and the 'Plain Sense' of Scripture edited by David L. Balch (Eerdmans, 2000) with essays by Robert Jewett, Phyllis A. Bird, Christopher Seitz and others

10. Sexuality and the Christian Body by Eugene Rogers (Wiley-Blackwell, 1999)

10. Creation and Covenant: The Significance of Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage by Christopher C. Roberts (T & T Clark, 2007) 

11. Queer Theology: Rethinking the Western Body edited by Gerald Loughlin (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007) with essays by James Alison, Graham Ward, David Matzko McCarthy, Linda Woodhead, Gavin D'Costa and Tina Beattie and others

12. 'Permanent, Stable, Faithful': Christian Same-Sex Partnerships by Jeffrey John (2012, [2000])

13. God, Sex and Gender: An Introduction by Adrain Thatcher (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)

Grounded in Grace: Essays to Honour Ian M. Randall

I wasn't there last Friday, but Ian Randall, former Tutor in Church History and Spirituality (and also at different times Chaplain, Vice-Principal, and Director of Research) at Spurgeon's College, London was honoured with a festschfrit representing his contribution to Baptist studies (British and European), church history, Evangelicalism and particularly Evangelical spirituality. Ian Randall is one of the leading Baptist historians of his generation (see also David Bebbington), who has given much of his life teaching, supervising, encouraging and nurturing a generation of Baptist ministers and scholars at both Spurgeon's College, the International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague (moving to Amsterdam in 2014) and beyond. 

The book titled Grounded in Grace is a collection of eighteen essays from former colleagues, students and friends, including Nigel Wright, Keith Jones, John Colwell, Derek Tidball, Brian Stanley, J. Andrew Kirk and Anthony R. Cross. The essays cover Ian's wide range of interests. The book boasts a great frontcover, a bibliography of Ian's numerous publications and is a joint Spurgeon's and Baptist Historical Society publication.

It costs £20 and is available through the Manna Christian Centre Bookshop, but will hopefully also be found at the Baptist Assembly and other places.

New books for 2013

2013 will see new books from

James K A Smith, How Worship Works - the sequel to Desiring the Kingdom

Oliver O'Donovan, Self, World and Time - the first of a multi-volume Christian ethics

Paul  Fiddes - Seeing the World and Knowing God - the 2005 Bampton Lectures

N T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God - the long-awaited book is rumoured to be out sometime this year

Walter Brueggemann, Psalms - a commentary in the New Cambridge Bible series

L. Gregory Jones, Living Before God: An Introduction to Christian Ethics

Maggi Dawn, Like the Wideness of the Sea: Women Bishops and the Church of England

Jeff Astley and Leslie Francis (eds.), Exploring Ordinary Theology - collection of essays expanding a new interest in theology from the 'pews' 

Books on Food and Faith

In the past I've drawn attention to the large number of books that have been published in recent years on hospitality and also martyrdom. To this can be added the number of studies around food and faith.

1. Good Eating - Stephen H. Webb (Brazos, 2001)

2. Not Bread Alone: The Uses of Food in the Old Testament - Nathan MacDonald (Oxford, 2008)

3. The Theology of Food: Eating and the Eucharist - Angel F. Méndez-Montoya (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)

4. Theology on the Menu: Asceticism, Meat and the Christian Diet - David Grumett and Rachel Muers (Routledge, 2010)

5. Eating and Believing: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vegetarianism and Theology - David Grumett and Rachel Muers (eds.) (T & T Clark, 2008, 2011)

6. Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating - Norman Wirzba (Cambridge, 2011)

7. Plus a helpful but hard to get hold of article by David Grumett, Luke Bretherton and Stephen Holmes, 'Fast Food: A Critical Theological Perspective', Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 14.3 (September 2011)

Cavanaugh's Praise for Bretherton's Christianity and Contemporary Politics

The latest edition of Studies in Christian Ethics sees a review by William Cavanaugh of Luke Bretherton's excellent Christianity and Contemporary Politics. Here's an extract:

Straw men aside, the final chapter and conclusion of the book present an attractive theological account of a Christian politics that acts in ‘ordinary time’, with ordinary means like buying Fair Trade coffee, but that is also open to God’s tranfiguration of earthly life. Such transfiguration takes place between the poles of listening to God in Scripture and listening to strangers who invite the church to seek
the welfare of all.

Notwithstanding the quibbles noted above, this is a wonderful book, perhaps the best book on contemporary Christianity and politics in liberal nation-states I have read. It is both based in concrete practices and theoretically aware. Most of all, its author exhibits the virtues necessary to undertake such a task: he is generous, faithful, and engaged with real communities of Christians and others. I will be using this book with students, and recommending it to colleagues.

If you've not get a copy, get one, this is an academic text, but a reading one, which as Cavanaugh's suggests is not all theory, but grounded in practice.

Anne Phillips on the Faith of Girls

Anne Phillips, co-principal of Northern Baptist College is publishing her recent doctorate in the Ashgate Explorations in Practical, Pastoral and Empircal Theology series:

The Faith of Girls: Children's Spirituality and Transition to Adulthood (Ashgate, August 2011)

Exploring the spirituality and faith of girls on the verge of adolescence, this book presents fresh insights into children's spirituality and their transition to adulthood. Phillips has listened to girls' voices speaking in depth on the themes of self, God, church, and world, and reflected on their experiences and understandings in the light of current psychological, philosophical and sociological thinking, all placed into dialogue with a feminist approach to contemporary theology and bible. Phillips offers 'wombing' as a metaphor for their transition to young adulthood, and suggests strategies faith communities might adopt to companion girls more effectively through the fragility of puberty. This book will appeal to all those exploring areas of youth ministry, pastoral care, Christian education, nurture and childhood studies, psychology and theology.

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Breaking the silence around girls in transition; Methods for learning from girls; Girls in transitional space; Theological reflection 1 - Lucy; Girls in Godspace; Theological reflection 2 - Rosie; Girls in nurturing space; Affirming girls through transition.

Currently it is due out only in hardback, which will put it out of most people's price range, but hopefully it will also eventually find its way into paperback.

 

2nd Edition of the Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics

Only seven years after it was first published, there is a second edition out in April 2011 (currently only hardback) of the Hauerwas and Wells Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. Table of contents below, the chapters in bold are new, others are apparently revised, and several chapters have new authors and one chapter on disability by Hans Reinder in Part IV has disappeared, with a new chapter by Brian Brock appearing in Part II. If the chapters have been revised, this second edition may well be worth getting - the first edition already on its way to becoming a classic.

PART I Studying Ethics Through Worship.

1 Christian Ethics as Informed Prayer (Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells).

2 The Gift of the Church and the Gifts God Gives It (Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells).

3 Why Christian Ethics Was Invented (Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells).

4 How the Church Managed Before There Was Ethics (Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells).

PART II Meeting God and One Another.

5 Gathering: Worship, Imagination, and Formation (Philip Kenneson).

6 Greeting: Beyond Racial Reconciliation (Emmanuel Katongole).

7 Naming the Risen Lord: Embodied Discipleship and Masculinity (Amy Laura Hall).

8 Being Reconciled: Penitence, Punishment, and Worship (John Berkman).

9 Praising in Song: Beauty and the Arts (Kevin J. Vanhoozer).

10 Collecting Praise: Global Culture Industries (Michael L. Budde).

11 Praise: The Prophetic Public Presence of the Mentally Disabled (Brian Brock).

PART III Re-Encountering the Story.

12 Reading the Scriptures: Rehearsing Identity, Practicing Character (Jim Fodor).

13 Listening: Authority and Obedience (Scott Bader-Saye).

14 Proclaiming: Naming and Describing (Charles Pinches).

15 Deliberating: Justice and Liberation (Daniel M. Bell).

16 Discerning: Politics and Reconciliation (William T. Cavanaugh).

17 Confessing the Faith: Reasoning in Tradition (Nicholas Adams).

PART IV Being Embodied.

18 Interceding: Poverty and Prayer (Kelly S. Johnson).

19 Interceding: Giving Grief to Management (Michael Hanby).

20 Interceding: Standing, Kneeling, and Gender (Lauren F. Winner).

21 Being Baptized: Race (Willie Jennings).

22 Being Baptized: Bodies and Abortion (Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt).

23 Becoming One Body: Health Care and Cloning (M. Therese Lysaught).

24 Becoming One Flesh: Marriage, Remarriage, and Sex (David Matzko McCarthy).

25 Sharing Peace: Class, Hierarchy, and Christian Social Order (Luke Bretherton).

26 Sharing Peace: Discipline and Trust (Paul J. Wadell).

PART V Re-Enacting the Story.

27 Offering: Treasuring the Creation (Ben Quash).

28 Participating: Working Toward Worship (R. R. Reno).

29 Remembering: Offering Our Gifts (D. Stephen Long and Tripp York).

30 Invoking: Globalization and Power (Timothy J. Gorringe).

31 Breaking Bread: Peace and War (Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells).

32 Receiving Communion: Euthanasia, Suicide, and Letting Die (Kathryn Greene-McCreight).

33 Sharing Communion: Hunger, Food, and Genetically Modified Foods (Robert Song).

34 Eating Together: Friendship and Homosexuality (Joel James Shuman).

35 Being Silent: Time in the Spirit (Michael S. Northcott).

36 Footwashing: Preparation for Christian Life (Mark Thiessen Nation).

PART VI Being Commissioned.

37 Being Blessed: Wealth, Property, and Theft (Stephen Fowl).

38 Bearing Fruit: Conception, Children, and the Family (Joseph L. Mangina).

39 Being Sent: Witness (Michael G. Cartwright).

Afterword.

40 The Virtue of the Liturgy (Jennifer Herdt).

41 Afterword (Rowan Williams).

Who should win the 2011 Michael Ramsey Prize?

The shortlist for the 2011 Michael Ramsey prize hs been announced:

• Thomas E. Reynolds, Vulnerable Communion (Brazos Press)
• Christopher Cocksworth, Holding Together (Canterbury)
• Richard Harries, The Re-enchantment of Morality (SPCK)
• Angel F. Montoya, The Theology of Food (Wiley-Blackwell)
• Robert Hughes, Beloved Dust (Continuum)
• David Bentley Hart, Atheist Delusions (Yale University Press)

Anyone read all the titles? Which book should be given the prize? I have a copy of Vulnerable Communion, but must admit haven't got round to reading it.

The Future of Christian Theology

Coming in February 2011 is David Ford's manifesto on the future of Christian theology. The contents indicate that this will be a very Ford approach to theology, building on his work in Christian Wisdom and Shaping Theology.

Preface.
1. A Cry for Wisdom: Theology for the Twenty-first Century.
2. Drama in Bible, Theology and Life.
3. A Dramatic Code for Twenty-first Century Theology.
4. Desire Above All.
5. Belonging: Church, Collegiality, Conversation.
6. Church and Society.
7. Inter-Faith Blessing.
8. New Theology and Religious Studies: Shaping, Teaching and Funding a Field.
9. Becoming a Theologian: The Apprentice.
10. The Bible – Creative Source of Theology.
Index.

Also coming from Wiley-Blackwell is a second edition of the Wells and Hauerwas Companion to Christian Ethics, with the promise of new and revised essays (although initially only as in hardback).