Coming Soon from Bethany House: Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites

Here's a book I'm interested in reading. Bradley R. E. Wright is associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut.

Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You've Been Told presents a more hopeful and positive look at the church in contrast to works like UnChristian. Wright is a quantitative sociologist and favors statistics that are peer-reviewed and use large sample sizes (unlike Barna, Lifeway, and other Christian researchers, who will often use surveys of only a few hundred respondents and never peer-review their work.)

You can see a 13-part review of UnChristian by Wright on his blog. I found it informative, insightful and confirmed some of my suspicions.

The catalog description follows:

"According to the media, the church is rapidly shrinking, both in numbers and in effectiveness. But the good news is, much of the bad news is wrong. Sociologist Bradley R. E. Wright uncovers what's really happening in the church: evangelicals are more respected by secular culture now than they were ten years ago; divorce rates of Christians are lower than those of nonbelievers; Christians give more to charity than others do. Wright reveals to readers why and how statistics are distorted, and shows that God is still effectively working through his people today."

This is a book that will definitely be swimming against the tide but deserves a hearing. Look for it next July. It will be a paperback with 256 pages and sell for $14.99.

Coming Soon from Baker Academic: Jesus and the Land

This past Tuesday I attended sales conference for Baker Publishing Group and was able to see the forthcoming titles for Summer 2010 (May - August). Over the next couple of weeks I will feature some of the titles I found particularly interesting.

This first title is from Gary M. Burge, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College called Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to "Holy Land" Theology. The early praise for this book is impressive. Consider this from Craig Blomberg:

"Gary Burge may be American evangelicalism's foremost expert on a biblical theology of the land of Israel. This book reintroduces sanity, common sense, and exegetical acumen into a discussion that often sadly lacks these traits. Absolutely essential reading for any Christian who wants to hold a biblically defensible position on the topic."

Klyne Snodgrass says "For many years Gary Burge has focused on issues relating to Palestinians and the land of Israel. In this careful survey of biblical material, he pulls the rug from under any Christian emphasis on a special status for the land of Israel and from under Christian Zionism. Churches and pastors need to give serious attention to this study and follow its lead."

Walter Brueggemann comments, "A valuable contribution to the ongoing matter of the 'Holy Land' so contested by Israelis and Palestinians. . . Burge's reading of Scripture is persuasive and provides a fresh way to think about 'faith and land.'"

Burge just recently published a popular treatment from Zondervan entitled The Bible and the Land. You can get a good look at it on Koinonia.

Jesus and the Land is due out April 2010. It will be a paperback with 192 pages and sell for $22.99.

Consider the "Rest of the Story" to Sin

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway wrote an article for Christianity Today which is very good. She notes how once a prominent Christian falls the media doesn't miss a beat in reporting it and "we're treated to an endless news cycle about hypocrisy." "But", she says, "hypocrisy isn't failing to practice what you preach. Hypocrisy is pretending to have beliefs that you don't actually have. Real hypocrisy is rare and difficult to discern." This is so refreshing to read because hypocrisy is a word thrown around so often today with virtually no understanding as to it real meaning.

According to Hemingway the media is confused about the issues of sin and forgiveness because the church is confused too. Once Christianity is reduced to mere moralism then the preaching is also often reduced to preaching and teaching "the importance of our own moral actions, thereby belittling the importance of what Christ has done for us." The Gospel provides the good news for the vexing problem of sin in our lives and this is the story for which the media has no part.

I cannot improve on her final two paragraphs:

"Each and every week, we are confronted with the truth that we are all poor, weak sinners who have fallen short. We confess our sins and receive absolution. We hear the beautiful gospel preached, and we receive Holy Communion. For major-league sinners like me, the good news of forgiveness gives life and strengthens faith.

The struggle with sin unfortunately continues throughout our lives. That is why Ambrose of Milan said of the Eucharist, "Because I always sin, I always need to take the medicine." It's fine for the media to shine a spotlight on Christian sin. But it would be nice if they included the rest of the story, too."

Thomas Nelson Announces New Imprint

Thomas Nelson recently announced that it is beginning a new imprint called WestBow Press which will feature self-published works. Michael Hyatt, CEO of Nelson, gives three reasons for this new vision:

1. We think there is huge growth potential in this category. Increasing numbers of people are moving from being merely consumers to being creators. They want to express themselves creatively. Just witness the phenomenal success of user-generated content sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Scribd.

2. We want to offer a legitimate alternative to traditional publishing. Why should all the power be in the hands of publishers? If prospective authors are convinced their book should be in print and are willing to fund it, they should be able to do so without the fear that they might be ripped off.

3. We want to find the new voices for tomorrow. Publishers aren’t omniscient. We miss numerous opportunities every year. Finding the next bestseller is like searching for a needle in a haystack. WestBow Press provides us with a kind of “farm team.” We intend to watch the sales of these titles carefully. We will offer traditional publishing contracts to those authors whose self-published books begin to gain traction.

Hyatt explains that the name "WestBow" was chosen for a very particular reason. "West Bow Street in Edinburgh, Scotland is the place where a young, eighteen-year-old visionary named Thomas Nelson first started his publishing company in 1798. It is our hope that WestBow Press can be the place where authors with a dream to be published can also launch their writing careers."

If you have a book to publish and have not had success with traditional publishers this may be for you.

The Historical Jesus: Five Views - A Review 5 - Responses to Crossan

Today we come to the responses to the essay by John Dominic Crossan. I found them to be insightful and some came with just a sting or two. More than one response critiqued Crossan for his selective use of source material especially in the Gospels. Price notes “Time and time again amid the deliberations of the Jesus Seminar, I found myself puzzled, shaking my head at the group’s decisions to vote as red (= surely authentic) sayings that Bultmann wouldn’t have touched with a ten-foot pole in his History of the Synoptic Tradition.” (135) Johnson said it was telling “that of all the details concerning Jesus’ movement near or away from the lake are drawn precisely from those narrative portions of the Gospels that Crossan’s methodological principles-established and elaborated in his earlier writings—have already removed from the historian’s available database.” (142) And remember how Crossan said Price’s treatment of Josephus was “not acceptable scholarship?” Well, here’s what Dunn says of Crossan, “The selective acceptance of one sequence of texts, and effective dismissal or denigration of others . . . is poor scholarship.” (145)

The next big common criticism was that Crossan has an over active imagination. Price complains that Crossan creates a superstructure “from first century history and sociology connected with Herod and his motives of self-advancement—exactly none of which is set forth in the text.” (136) Johnson says the juxtapositions Crossan creates between Herod and Jesus don’t stem from the ancient actors or sources by “are entirely due to Crossan himself” and his thesis of “Romanization by urbanization for commercialization” is a product of Crossan’s imagination.” (141)

Price concludes that Crossan has “fallen into the trap of creating a liberal Jesus in his own image” and, tellingly asks, though it could have been said with less sarcasm, “can we picture Herod understanding (I’m not sure I do) what some guy organizing a soup kitchen for lepers has to do with hopes of overthrowing Roman and Herodian rule?” (136 & 137) Bock asks, “why does Jesus challenge customs associated with the Sabbath or ritual cleanliness if Rome is his central concern?” Furthermore, “Jesus is less concerned about who owned the lake than who owned the heart of the people who claimed to be God’s within Israel.” (149) Dunn concludes that Crossan leaves us with a Jesus “who is far too nice to be worth crucifying.” (147)

As insightful as the comments are I sometimes found myself wanting more. For example, Johnson says “not unlike N. T. Wright, Crossan consistently commits the historical fallacy of having ancient characters act and think in virtue of realities that can be known and named only by the present-day historian.” (139) The comparison to Wright is intriguing in its own right. But unlike some of his other comments this one stands alone without further explanation. When I first read it I wrote in the margin “good observation” but as I got to thinking about what “fallacy” is being referred to and that it is something that is “consistently” done I really wished more had been said. The same is true from the other responders. So, I’m back to wondering would the book have been even better if it were only four views and allowed more space for responses.

Larry Hurtado on How Did Jesus Become a God

Larry Hurtado is Professor of New Testament Language, Literature and Theology at Edinburgh University, Scotland and author of Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity and How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus. His research has significantly advanced the discussion on what the earliest Christians thought about Jesus. Hurtado provides solid evidence that Jesus was thought of as divine within just a few short years after Jesus death and resurrection. Indeed, in this video Hurtado says if you want to be a bit more daring you could say it perhaps happened within the earliest weeks or months after Jesus death but we don't have any evidence from that period. At the end of the video he contrasts his view with that of Maurice Casey and James (Jimmy) D. G. Dunn who hold to a more "evolutionary" view which sees the divinity of Jesus as developing over several decades after Jesus death (that discussion starts at 6:41 if you want to skip ahead). Enjoy!

What Color Should My Advent Candles Be?

I'm very excited about observing the coming Liturgical Year. But it didn't take long before I ran into a snag. What type of season is Advent?

I've discovered that historically (and here) it has been a penitential season but that in more recent times the focus has changed to anticipation and hope. The latter theme was so prominent in my own understanding of Advent that when I first read that Advent was a penitential season I thought for sure the writer didn't know what he was talking about. I was the ignorant one. As a matter of fact Advent is sometimes referred to as "little lent."

Many feel so strongly about preserving the meaning of Advent that they will refrain from singing Christmas songs during Advent. But as we know American commercialism starts "Christmas" as early as September or earlier. Advent gets pulled into the prevailing atmosphere of good tidings and joy so any thoughts of repentance would just be perceived as a bit of a kill joy.

In light of the focus on hope and anticipation many churches have changed the colors of advent from purple to royal or bright blue as a sign of royalty or the night sky in anticipation of the announcement of the newborn king. Now I certainly don't have any credibility to weigh in on this debate but I found it an interesting one. My inclinations are to keep to the more traditional penitential theme since it does not have to exclude the themes of anticipation and hope. I can see how the latter themes could easily eclipse the notion of repentance or marginalize it at best. For now I think I'll stick with three purple and one pink (which, from my understanding, represents joy). Even here there are choices to be made. Do I light the pink candle on the third or fourth Sunday of Advent? I'm not going to lose sleep over any of this but I do want to understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I want to get as much out of it as I can. I want to grow as a result of my participation and not simply chalk it up on my "things I've done" in my life list.

I think I've found a church that I can go to without taking me away from my regular church that has a traditional liturgical service. I'll keep you posted.

In Store Now - People of the Spirit

Well, I just can't keep up with everything that is coming in. This newest title from Graham H. Twelftree is People of the Spirit: Exploring Luke's View of the Church. I've come to appreciate Twelftree as a careful scholar. I look forward to reading this latest work from him. The recommendations have already piqued my interest even higher than it already was. Here's just a few:

"A fresh and refreshing look at Luke's understanding of the church, particularly as informed by the Acts of the Apostles. The reading is challenging and often controversial but is probably closer to what Luke himself intended than most others. The book should certainly promote some lively discussion as to the present-day church's praxis, priorities, and structures of authority."--James D. G. Dunn, Emeritus Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, University of Durham

"By singling out Luke's canonical voice and reading his narrative as teaching, this book attains fresh perspective on what 'church' meant to the author of Luke-Acts and what it should mean to us. Twelftree models attention to detail, painstaking organization, and concise expression. Readers will find learning, stimulation, and challenge in every chapter. Engaged, intense, and clear!"--Robert W. Yarbrough, professor of New Testament and department chair, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

"I know of no treatment of Luke's view of the church more thorough and excellent than Graham Twelftree's. Here is perceptive historical and theological analysis that is exegetically based and logically compelling. Twelftree's book yields important, fresh, and abundant practical insights for Spirit-gifted people who desire to fulfill the church's goal of continuing the mission of Jesus."--Donald A. Hagner, George Eldon Ladd Professor emeritus of New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary

People of the Spirit is a paperback with 269 pages and sells for $24.99.

The Historical Jesus: Five Views - A Review 4 - John Dominc Crossan Essay

John Dominic Crossan is a member of Jesus Seminar, a prolific writer and an engaging speaker. I see him on almost every interview or PBS special that covers the topic of Jesus. Crossan says he begins his methodology by “trying to imagine as if Jesus had never existed—I begin with the Roman Empire and the Jewish tradition in interaction with it.” (106) He therefore begins by painting a portrait of the Roman Empire and summarizes their “theology” as “peace through violent victory.” (108) He then briefly examines Judaism and summarizes their theology as “peace through nonviolent justice.” (111) Crossan steps back into the Roman context with particular focus on Herod Antipas and asks a very particular question: “Why is Jesus so often found around the Sea of Galilee, the Lake of Tiberias, the harp-shaped Lake Kinneret.” (112) Crossan’s answer begins with an overview of the life of Herod Antipas in a “drama of acute disappointments over six sequential acts.” (113) We discover in the third act that Herod was “founding Tiberias to commercialize the lake and its fishes in the name of Rome’s empire and both John and Jesus clashed with him in the name of Israel’s God. Who owned the lake and how it was to be used was but a microcosm question to the macrocosm question of who owned the earth and how it was to be used. It was not about salted fish and fish sauce in Rome’s world but about equality and justice in God’s world.” (116)

Crossan says that John the Baptist, while he did not advocate a violent revolution, he did see the kingdom of God as involving “divine—even if exclusively divine—violence.” (117) Herod, seeing this, had John executed. Jesus, seeing John executed, “watched, learned and changed his vision of God.” (123) This change represents a paradigm shift within eschatology—from violent to nonviolent. Jesus was, however, “quite wrong and misguided” in thinking the kingdom of God was imminent and “neither special pleading nor semantic evasion can rectify that situation.” (121) Crossan says that “Jesus started accepting John’s theology of God’s imminence but, precisely because of what happened to John, he changed from that to a theology of God’s presence.” This should not be confused with the idea of an “already-present kingdom.” “The present kingdom is a collaborative or participatory eschaton, an eschatological dialectic between human and divine worlds.” (125) But this “Great Divine Clean-up” as he calls it could not happen without God and equally could not happen without believers.

Crossan ends with a discussion of Jesus as a healer. He distinguishes between a disease being cured and an illness being healed. He illustrates the distinction from the movie Philadelphia where Tom Hanks portrayed a man dying of AIDS. The “disease could not be cured but, his illness was being healed by the support of his partner, his family and his lawyer’s successful suit against his law firm’s illegal discrimination.” (128) He concludes, “The healing of illness by Jesus and his companions must be understood in a framework of a preventive social revolution, in Light’s terms, and in a framework of the kingdom of God’s Great Cosmic Clean-Up of the World, in their own even more radical terms.” (129) For Crossan then, “the first and most important discussion about the historical Jesus should be on his vision of collaborative eschatology—for then and now.” (131) The issue finally comes down to the difference between the eschatological kingdom of God and the imperial Kingdom of Rome or between “Jesus’ nonviolence and Pilate’s violence.” (132) Next time we’ll look at the responses.

In Store Now - God is Great, God is Good

If you're looking for a response to the New Atheism which is scholarly yet readable look no further than God is Great, God is Good: Why Believing in God is Reasonable and Responsible. In an earlier post I listed the contributors and the chapter titles. But now it's here and I really like it. I quickly read the first chapter by William Lane Craig entitled "Richard Dawkins on Arguments for God." This was fairly easy since I'm familiar with much of Craig's arguments. But the gloves came off when Craig finished up his discussion of the ontological argument with this:

"Dawkins also chorltes, 'I've forgotten the details, but I once piqued a gathering of theologians and philosophers by adapting the ontological argument to prove that pigs can fly. They felt the need to resort to Modal Logic to prove that I was wrong.' But this is just embarrassing. The ontological argument is an exercise in modal logic--the logic of the possible and the necessary. I can just imagine Dawkins making a silly ass of himself at this professional conference with his spurious parody, just as he similarly embarrassed himself at the Templeton Foundation conference in Cambridge with his flyweight objection to the teleological argument." (30)

The New Atheism gets a lot of press these days. But from most of it I see more ridicule than refutation. Nonetheless questions are raised and some objections deserve an answer. Here is a handy volume that will provide those answers. Each chapter also includes suggestions for further reading. I'll probably do a proper review at a later date.

It is a paperback with 265 pages and sells for $19.00.

The Historical Jesus: Five Views - A Review 3 - Responses to Price

We now come to the four responses to Price's essay which argued that the historical Jesus did not exist.

James D. G. Dunn's first sentence summed up my initial reaction: "Gosh! So there are still serious scholars who put forward the view that the whole account of Jesus' doings and teachings are a later myth foisted on an unknown, obscure historical figure." (94) Luke Timothy Johnson hit the nail on the head by noting that "Price gets Jesus to the vanishing point by the simple expedient of denying all the evidence that makes him visible." (89) Furthermore he said it is hard to respond to Price "due to the difficulty of demonstrating the presence of an object to someone who insists that whatever you bring forward as evidence cannot count." (91) Along the same lines Dunn said he becomes irritated with Price because "he ignores what everyone else in the business regards as primary data and his readiness to offer less plausible hypotheses to explain other data that inconveniences his thesis." (96)

Both Darrell Bock and Johnson fault Price for too quickly dismissing the evidence from Josephus. Surprisingly though his harshest critic on this score comes from Crossan. He says, "Price's comment, 'Let me leapfrog the tiresome debate over whether the Testimonium Flavianum is authentic' is not an acceptable scholarly comment as far as I am concerned." (86) Crossan further argues that the hero typology that Price points to with Jesus "no more negates his historical existence than the similar investment for Augustus negates that emperor's historical identity." (85)

All the responders raised objections based on material that Price ignores or dismisses. As Bock says, "Analogy plus dissimilarity is what is commanded, but the search for other criteria was dismissed." (100) In the hands of Price, Bock argues, the criteria has the same tone: "heads I win; tails you lose." (100) Dunn says the fatal flaw with the Jesus myth boils down to this: "the improbability of the total invention of a figure who had purportedly lived within the generation of the inventors, or the imposition of such an elaborate myth on some minor figure from Galilee. Price is content with the explanation that it all began 'with a more or less vague savior myth.' Sad, really." (95)

One of the most poignant points was made by Crossan. He asks, what is lost if Jesus is merely reduced to the level of a parable? He responds, "only the incarnation . . . Only, in other words, the heart of Christianity itself." But the apostle John did not say, "God so loved the world that God sent us a story." (86) Now Crossan does not understand the incarnation in the same way as evangelicals but his point his very well stated.

Each response was done within the span of five pages. The uniformity suggests this was a limit placed by the editors rather than this is all they could think of to say. But I will say they managed to make some very good points, and some came with quite a sting, in that limited amount of space. Each of them focused on different elements of Price's essay with minimal overlap. If the remaining essays and responses can maintain this level of interaction then this volume will be everything I expected and more.