andygoodliff

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).

 

Missionary God and Missionary Church

On the basis of others who have been praising John Flett's The Witness of God: The Trinity, Missio Dei, Karl Barth and the Nature of Christian Community (Eerdmans, 2010), I got myself a copy. It is well worth a read, by ministers and those involved in mission agencies alike. Flett establishes why its theologically right to say the triune God is a missionary God and the church is a missionary community. The major theme running the book is mission is not a second step, whether in a doctrine of God or a doctrine of the church. The church cannot be anything other than missionary. It is not an add on or an optional extra, because mission is an integral par tof God's being, not a secondary characteristic. For British Baptists, one of its 5 Core Values is being a missionary community. Steve Holmes in an article on trinitarian missiology, which Flett cites at various points, has already demonstrated why we claim God is a missionary God, and Flett goes further in developing this. Flett, alongside Nate Kerr and others, is critical of Hauerwas and co. and their commitment to practices (especially within worship as means of learning Christian character) as being too inward-looking and 'conceiving them without reference to the missionary act' (p.280). I'll be interest to see where this conversation goes and how Hauerwas and Wells will respond. (I think Hauerwas has delivered a paper this year in response to Kerr's criticisms in Christ, History and Apocalyptic).

Why Have You Forsaken Me? by John Colwell now available

John Colwell's new book Why Have You Forsaken Me? was due out last December, but got caught up in the problems Paternoster were then facing. It is now finally available. It has eight chapters reflecting both on Psalm 22 and his own struggles with manic depression.

1. Into the Darkness

2. Reflecting on the Darkness

3.Darkness and the Psalmist

4. Darkness and Israel

5. Christ's Human Darkness

6. Christ's Unique Darkness

7. Darkness and God

8. Darkness and Presence

The book is Colwell's most personal so far - the book opens with the story of his experience of manic depression whilst being a church minister and college tutor. The bulk of the book them explores how we trust God in his absence. Through the book Colwell argues for the importance of lament in worship over against worship that operates only as praise. He is critical of contemporary worship scene. In later chapters he also argues against a understanding of atonement in terms of penal substitution, the doing away with the doctrine of impassibility and a distorted gospel that sees miracles as everyday (and so not they cannot be described as 'miraculous') and healing as a right. The book is a departure from his earlier books on ethics, the sacraments and Christian doctrine. It is a 'Personal Reflection' as the subtitle indicates. Although exploring not an easy subject matter - illness and the absence of God - it is written in the usual Colwell style: the occasional anecdote, the helpful and clear engagement with theological questions (here most notably the doctrines of atonement and impassibility) and a readership that always seem to keep the pastor and interested Christian in mind (that is, the so what question is always near the surface). While there are other books that deal with the absence of God and illness (I can think of several Philip Yancey ones), John provides a theological exploration with honest reflection that I think will be helpful to many.

 
   

Reading the Theology of Colin Gunton

  Thanks to T & T Clark Kirsten and I have been enjoying an excellent collection of essays on the theology of Colin Gunton edited by Lincoln Harvey. I think we're reading John Webster's chapter on Gunton and Barth in this picture, which includes a great quote (see below). In my opinion theology doesn't get much better than Gunton and its great to see the likes of Webster, Robert Jenson, Steve Holmes, John Colwell, Christoph Schwoebel and others engaging positively with this British theologian. They demonstrate together that Gunton is a voice that cannot be, and should not be, ignored.

'... Gunton's self-conception as a theologian: he valued openness, freedom, range; he listened unusually carefully but not too long to his masters and then made up his own mind; he never evaded theological responsibility by hiding in the skirts of the tradition. Barth would have enjoyed that kind of feisty Christian independence.'

New festschrift for Hauerwas on 70th birthday

A third festschrift for Hauerwas is just out ... the first was on his 60th birthday - Faithfulness and Fortitude edited by Sam Wells and Mark Thissen Nation (T & T Clark, 2000) and was made of mainly UK contributors (including Colin Gunton, John Milbank, Nigel Biggar and Duncan Forrester); the second was on his 65th birthday - God, Truth and Witness edited by Greg Jones, Reinhard Hutter and C. Rosalee Velloso Ewell (Brazos, 2005) and contributors included Robert Jenson, George Linbeck, Robert Bellah, David Burrell and Bernd Wannenwetsch.

Unsettling Arguments: A Festschrift on the Occasion of Stanley Hauerwas's 70th Birthday
Edited by Charles R. Pinches, Kelly S. Johnson, Charles M. Collier (Cascade, 2010)

Contributers are all former Hauerwas students:

Scott Bader-Saye
Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt
Michael Baxter
Daniel M. Bell Jr.
Jana Marguerite Bennett
Michael G. Cartwright
William T. Cavanaugh
Peter Dula
Chris K. Huebner
Kelly S. Johnson
D. Stephen Long
M. Therese Lysaught
David Matzko McCarthy
Joel James Shuman
J. Alexander Sider
Jonathan Tran
Paul J. Wadell
Theodore Walker Jr.

"Stanley Hauerwas is a public provocateur, a ravenous reader, a restless wrestler with the truth, and an eccentric devotee of baseball, murder mysteries, and liturgically-shaped discipleship. But most of all is he is a devoted, demanding, and dogged academic father to dozens of doctoral students. The breadth of his character takes a community to display. Here, more than ever before, that community of character does in public what Hauerwas and his students do best: tussle, and refine, and introduce new interlocutors, and dismiss out of hand, and rephrase more charitably, and rediscover ancient wisdom, and go back to Aquinas, and quote Barth, and dismantle platitudes, and unsentimentally face the gift and demands of Christ for church, academy, and politics today. This is a work of love turned into a call to renewal, a family reunion transformed into a symposium, a tribute in the guise of a challenge. Admirers and critics of Hauerwas will be enriched by these compelling essays, an ordered array of disagreements in love."
—Sam Wells