PENTECOST 2006 SPECIAL EDITION

ISSUE 7 - ISSN 1448 - 6326

Being Religious Interreligiously Asian Perspectives on Interreligious Dialogue New York: Orbis, Maryknoll, 2004   Peter C. Phan

This is an important book. Its author, Professor Peter Phan of Georgetown University, although purporting to be an “accidental theologian”, has a distinguished teaching and writing record in the field of systematic theology. This work is the third of a trilogy inspired by Asian bishops’ and theologians’ proposal for a new way of being Church through triple dialogue with Asia’s poor (liberation), its cultural diversity (inculturation) and its multi-faceted religious reality (interfaith dialogue). The former two dialogues are the foci of his earlier works of the trilogy, namely, Christianity with an Asian Face (Orbis, Maryknoll, 2003) and In Our Own Tongues (Orbis, Maryknoll, 2003).

This book is helpfully divided into three parts. The first, “Doing Theology Interreligiously in the Postmodern Age”, indicates the importance of the work beyond Asian shores. Not only is theology today shaped by a new consciousness of history, culture and the world in which we live, it also needs to recognize the contemporary critique of modernity in which reason, technology and individual freedoms are appropriately disclosed for their vested interests, ecological degradation and silencing of the voices of the powerless. While this should not lead us to skepticism, agnosticism or relativism, it acknowledges the importance of what Phan calls an “epistemological modesty” and calls us to “humble conversation” with the other in our shared “love of truth”. Part one deals with other important issues such as the Trinity in Christian faith and exegesis, Catholic identity in a postmodern world and multiple religious belonging.

Part two, “Christianity in Dialogue with Other Religions”, tackles important theological ideas and practical realities which Christians need to take into account in the context of dialogue. These include issues of the Christian claim to the uniqueness and universality of Christ, the understanding of God as Holy Mystery, Jesus (or Buddha) as the Enlightened One, Jesus as Universal Saviour in light of the Jewish Covenant, and the tendency of religious traditions to espouse war and violence in the name of “Holy War”. Particular reflection on the Christian attitude to Jewish people, especially in light of the Holocaust, is provided from the perspective of Asian liberation theology. Themes of peace-building, reconciliation, liberation of the poor and the very naming of God are intertwined throughout these chapters.

Throughout the book, it becomes clear that Phan supports those Asian voices who call for triple dialogue—with the poor, cultures and religions—to be undertaken together. In this vein, part two emphasizes the congruence of interfaith dialogue and liberation. Part three, “Worship in the Postmodern World”, stresses the intimate relationship between dialogue and inculturation, especially in the liturgy. Phan shows how the postmodern sensibility brings a new urgency to the old debate between unity and uniformity. Furthermore, the development of a truly local liturgy is a necessary counterbalance to the globalizing trend of postmodernity. Accommodation or adaptation of Roman/European forms of worship to Asian cultures is simply inadequate. This raises issues of power and control in the way the universal Church relates to local churches. In turn, according to Phan, popular religiosity needs the space and freedom to function as a parallel symbolization of the liturgy of life.  

In his Preface, Phan states he is building bridges between East and West—a challenge he is uniquely qualified to face—but, on a note of humility, says he is sure Asian theologians of the next generation will take to another level. The book demonstrates that a viable Christianity for today’s and tomorrow’s world needs to be committed to the triple dialogue occasioned by critical awareness of cultural diversity, economic globalization and religious pluralism. In particular, Christian theology can approach religious pluralism with renewed confidence in the postmodern age on the basis of the divine self-communication of the Trinitarian God present throughout creation and history as well as in the multiple religious traditions of the world. This is why Christians, even  above others, are called to interfaith dialogue as the very expression of their Christian faith.

Reviewer: Gerard Hall SM

Gerard Hall is a senior lecturer teaching theology at McAuley Campus, Banyo, Australian Catholic University. He is also the Editor, Australian Ejournal of Theology.

Email: g.hall@mcauley.acu.edu.au

How on Earth Did Jesus Become God? Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005 Pb: ix + 234. ISBN-10: 0-8028-2861-2.   LARRY W. HURTADO

The author is professor in NT language, literature and theology at the University of Edinburgh, and already a recognised authority on Christian origins, as his previous magisterial Lord Jesus Christ.  Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity overwhelmingly illustrates.  The somewhat provocative title of this present work—in many ways a convenient summary of the seven hundred and fifty pages of Lord Jesus Christ—is designed to highlight how, on purely historical grounds, the confession of the divine status of Jesus as Lord can be shown to belong to the earliest phase of Christian history. In this, in the company of other NT scholars (e.g., Hengel, Segal and Hay), he runs counter to the History of Religions School typified in Bousset’s Kyrios Christos (1913) which had long proposed that the attribution of a divine status to Jesus was the result of Christianity’s assimilation of religious and cultural notions from the surrounding Greco-Roman world. Hurtado powerfully contests this view, by emphasing the Jewish provenance of the Christian confession which, even though differentiating the Father and the Son within God, never seeks to be beyond the one God of Israel’s monotheism.

The first four chapters of the present collection are the inaugural lectures in the Deichmann Annual Lecture series at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, a striking testimony to the author’s standing in scholarly Jewish-Christian circles.  The remaining four chapters derive from other but related studies, so to amplify Hurtado’s basic approach.  A word on each:

Chapter one situates the author’s approach within various current historical studies of the emergence of the distinctive character of faith in Christ.  Chapter two gets closer to the heart of the matter, bringing out how this distinctive “devotion” to Jesus was an innovation within the Second Temple Jewish tradition which recognised certain kinds of plurality in the One God.  Early Christianity never departed from this original monotheism, even while asserting the divine status of Christ in a “binitarian” fashion.  The next chapter considers what it cost for the early Christian communities in adhering to this view, social ridicule and all the rest.  Chapter four is a careful case-study of the general thesis in relation to Philippians 2:6-11.

Chapter five backtracks into the character of Jewish monotheism as the matrix of emerging Christianity, resulting in a more differentiated sense of the uniqueness of the One God. The next chapter examines the reverence shown to Jesus in his earthly life as the Gospels record it, which is then surpassed in the full-blown Christian faith.  The final chapter investigates the powerful religious experiences—above all the resurrection—that led the early communities to confess Christ in such an elevated way.

The book concludes with two interesting appendices. The first is by Professor H.-H. Deichmann, in his opening remarks at the beginning of the lecture series, as he points to the extent of the common ground shared by Judaism and Christianity at the time of its origin. Roland Deines closes the book with the question: “Are there good reasons for studying early Christian literature at Ben-Gurion University?”. He is convinced that “the history and development of Judaism in the Common Era, in the same way or at least a similar way as Christianity, is not understandable without its sibling” (216): both are rooted in the Torah and the Prophets, even if the trees that have grown in that common soil are different.  Examining the similarities and differences is the task where mutual respect, friendship and scholarly collaboration merge.

This book is a most valuable collection of essays, instructive for the specialist scholar, but also accessible, in the main, to the general reader.  The title of the book reminds us that it is about purely historical investigation, not theological developments.  On the other hand, theology can surely profit from this kind of specialist history.

Reviewer: Anthony J. Kelly

Anthony Kelly is a Redemptorist priest and former Chair of Theology at Australian Catholic University. Tony currently resides at the Brisbane Campus of ACU where he is Deputy Editor of The Australian Ejournal of Theology and a member of ACU’s Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology.

Email: a.kelly@mcauley.acu.edu.au

Educating leaders for ministry: Issues and responses   Collegeville: Liturgical Press (2005) ISBN-10: 0-8146-5183-6; ISBN-13: 978-0-8146-5183-4. Pp. xvi + 200. Pb.   Klimoski, V.J., O’Neil, K.J. & Schuth, K.M.

Educating Leaders for Ministry represents the findings of six years of conferencing by the faculties of twenty Catholic seminaries and theologates in the United States . The Keystone Conferences (1995-2001) provided faculties with opportunities to reflect on and discuss issues and trends that had developed in ministry and theological education programs during the last quarter century. This volume outlines those issues and trends and proposes ways that seminaries and theologates might respond. It also presents the responses of nine people involved in ministry and theological education who address the issues outlined from various perspectives including technology, leadership, laity and religious education.

The issues and trends that emerged from the Keystone Conferences are outlined in this volume under the overarching frameworks of diversity (chapters one and two, Schuth), integration (chapter three, Klimoski) and assessment (chapter four, Klimoski). Given this context, O’Neil in chapter five advocates the development of communities of wisdom that can best respond to the challenges of diversity, integration and assessment. In chapter six, he provides a practical guide of processes and exercises for faculties to use and adopt. Vincentian priest, Thomas Esselman offers a useful chapter on how technology can be used to assist classroom teaching and parish ministry (chapter seven). This chapter could be particularly useful in the Australian parish context where lay ministry is expanding and more parishes are becoming web savvy. Jeanne McLean and Donald Senior propose principles for leading change in theological institutions in chapter eight and this is followed by shorter responses from six people in the wider Church in chapter nine.

There exists in American theology schools and seminaries a diversity of students. This diversity applies not only to race and ethnicity but also to age, heritage, education and ecclesiology. Schuth provides interesting profiles of nine typical students and research statistics to demonstrate. Amidst this diversity, a surprising and ironic trend in US seminaries and theology schools has emerged. To note that there appears to be a widening of the generational gap between students and faculty is not surprising. What is surprising and ironic is that it is the younger students, and not the older students or the faculty, who are more resistant to change and less amenable to theological difference and diversity. This resistance to change and unwillingness to consider alternate theologies is more evident in seminarians than it is in lay students. In recent times, younger seminarians have tended towards a rigid faith, a sullen and pious demeanour and a rejection of worldly and cultural forms – more akin to neo-donatists than students of the Second Vatican Council. This book seeks to equip faculties with skills and processes necessary to meet the challenge of such diversity so that staff and programs might be more effective in training future parish and ministry leaders.

Readers will be pleased with the practical orientation of the book. Six of the nine chapters proffer principles, processes or methods for meeting the challenges of diversity, integration and assessment. Chapter two offers principles for the classroom, teaching methods, ministerial identity and faculty development. Each principle is explained in one or two paragraphs and is followed by practices that could be adopted in support of each principle. The formative process of integration and the benefits of program assessment are supported with principles that faculties could use to make both of these processes beneficial and positive. In O’Neil’s two chapters on building communities of wisdom, he offers practices and processes for group engagement. The latter includes step-by-step methods with questions to be asked at each step. A case study of the instructional technology used in programs at the Aquinas Institute of Theology ( St Louis, Missouri) is presented in chapter seven. This practical orientation is a strength of the book. The practical suggestions seem appropriate for use in seminaries and theology faculties beyond the American scene to which they are addressed. Further, some could be incorporated into Australian parishes that wish to enhance their ministry and organisational programs.

The final chapter includes responses from six people representing the wider church – ‘ministers in the field’, as it were. Their responses add to the flavour of diversity in the American church and convey the importance of effective ministry training programs in seminaries and theologates.

Whilst the issues may present some reasons for despair, this book seeks to respond with clear analysis, an understanding of and vision for the broader Catholic tradition and ideas for addressing the challenges in ministry and leadership training. Whilst it has a particular American focus, it could be useful for people involved in ministry beyond those shores.

Reviewer: Michael Chambers

Michael Chambers is a lecturer in the School of Religious Education at Australian Catholic University. He works at the McAuley Campus in Brisbane.

Email: M.Chambers@mcauley.acu.edu.au

Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit   Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006. ISBN: 0802831478. Pp. 295.   EDITH M. HUMPHREY

The title refers to Christian spiritual experience which is understood as experience of God within the wider story of salvation – ‘ecstasy’ as standing outside of oneself freely in relation to/towards God and others.

Divided into triads as Humphreys describes on page 130 like the Triads of St Palamas of Mt Athos, the book is first and foremost honest in its own point of view and its reflection on those human experiences judged expressive of ‘Love’, ‘Light’ and ‘Life’, each of these groups centering, though not exclusively, on one Person of the Trinity.  Honest also is its recourse to Scripture and Tradition, notably the Church Fathers for explication and support, and in the introduction of diverse examples of contemplative experience from different Christian traditions, both past and contemporary; but above all it is honest in the author’s own struggle to harmonise and to clarify such an amazing variety of rich threads, sometimes disparate but not necessarily opposed.  This searching analysis, not devoid of ambiguity is a struggle as real for the author as Jacob’s described on page 37 to whom God gave ‘a glimpse of the great mystery.’ Such honesty is most palpable when Humphrey displays an extraordinary degree of vulnerability, using as support for her argument examples from her own family relationships, such as the tender and evocative description of the death of her father in the section on ‘Healing,’ one of the two people to whom the book is dedicated.

Especially in the scholarly attention to scriptural exegetical detail there are pearls to find such as on page 92 the correct translation of perichōresis ‘(with a long “o”)’ as a ‘far deeper spiritual intercommunion than a mere inter-weaving dance!’

The author samples mystical writings through the ages from better known works of Scripture and of Augustine, Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Merton and Evelyn Underhill to others which are perhaps lesser known - Maximus the Confessor, Palamas, Symeon, Julian of Norwich,Wesley and  Charles Coller…and the list continues. What one won’t find are any examples of mystical writings outside the Christian tradition. Humphrey seems to agree with the criticism that Merton sometimes ‘blurred the distinctions between Christian and other (especially Buddhist and Sufi) forms of meditation.’ Similarly, the author regards as inauthentic spirituality, Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham’s interest in ‘that mystical experiential point beyond doctrine where ‘all faiths meet’’.

However, as each chapter ends with quotations for further meditation, texts for further reading and questions for further reflection and discussion, any real or supposed tensions or anomalies can be regarded as grist to the mill.  Indeed this book invites group interactive reading and discussion in a way that not many other texts do. As such it is a valuable resource.

Discussion could centre on possible ambiguities of definition or expression. It could be argued for example that one might accept the author’s definition for Christian spirituality, ‘what happens when the Holy Spirit meets the human spirit’ as a truthful representation of ‘the common mind of Christ’s body, the Church, past and present’ if it were to encompass an understanding of humanity as ‘spirit in the world’, to use Sandra Schneiders’ definition in ‘Spirituality and the Academy’, and an appreciation that spirituality per se may or may not be religious but that it can still include the kinds of experiences described by D.H. Lawrence as expressive of human transcendence.  Christians, animated by the Spirit of Truth available through Christ’s Resurrection can therefore discern the wondrous movement of the Holy Spirit inspiring truth throughout the whole and entire journey of humanity though present in a unique historical event in and through the Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ.

In this regard one may feel that the author of the ‘Forward’ (ix) is not very helpful when he writes, ‘Countering popularized, generic spirituality, she insists and demonstrates that theology is an essential and integrated feature of all spirituality’. Humphrey is clearly speaking of a Christian spirituality and her somewhat obfuscating statement, on page 5, ‘Christians cannot, after all, call something ‘spiritual’ just because it gives us a sense of awe, because it brings us into community with others, or into touch with ourselves – though it is quite likely that those things, persons, and experiences that have such an effect upon us have a connection to God’s Spirit to which they or we may be oblivious!’ must be seen in this context.

One could also question the appropriateness of ‘conjoined’ to describe the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ for in him humanity and divinity are so inextricably united there neither is nor ever was the possibility of separation. Similarly readers may find ambiguous the expression on page 17, ‘God became a baby, in a concrete place and a particular time’.

Also open to discussion in this book is an Incarnational theology where the linear-historical emphasis tends to overshadow if not at times negate the cosmic. Statements such as,  ‘They think we are God’s “children” just because we are his creatures’, and ‘The Spirit within us, redeemed Christians interceding on behalf of their unredeemed friends,’ might at first alienate some readers who regard themselves as mainline and authentic Christians.  One finds a different theology, for example, in Foundations of Christian Faith, where on page 66, Kelly describes ‘the ‘invisible’ mission of the Word, as he indwells the soul in grace; and …his ‘visible mission’ as it occurs in the Incarnation…with the Holy Spirit (t)he eternal Love of God who dwells in our hearts as the gift and bond of love and … manifest in our world through visible signs, as at Pentecost.’ And the same theological perspective in Gaudium et Spes that speaks of the merit of life won by Christ which ‘is not for Christians only but also for all people of good will in whose hearts grace is active and visible’ one may think is far better equipped to avoid the kind of Gnostic dualism that the author takes pains to warn against.

Again, while Humphrey’s injunction to beware the application of facile and theologically shallow alternative names for God in the service of gender inclusiveness is fair, some may argue that this should not be the basis for denigration of all other speculative attempts to introduce inclusive language with reference to that wholly transcendent reality who is also named ‘Love’, the One who is ultimately beyond all names, and who lovingly and consistently calls us through the changing ages, with evolving thought forms and cultural variation to an ever deeper knowledge of the Divine-self.

Yet we read, towards the end of this book, the following caveat issued on page 209, ‘We need to…guard against the uncharitable assumption that truth is never found in non-Christian writings. Christians are not the only ones with insight into the human spirit and different human traditions may have wisdom to offer us on the subject.’ And again, on page 229, Christian belief that ‘the point at which the Son assumes humanity is a vital center that questions, illuminates and transforms all that came before and all that comes after.’ Ideas so relevant for inter-religious dialogue would provide an excellent basis for a sequel to Intimacy and Ecstasy for they encourage us to look more and more with increasing discernment not only into the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament and the works of Christian tradition but all human cultural endeavour in particular the holy canons of other great religions. For it is here that we may find common ground not only for dialogue through intellectual exchange and interaction in daily life, but also in worship, as God’s redeemed people.

Despite the provisos, this book as very worthwhile reading for pastoral interest, reflection, and study.  If you like the warmth, texture, freshness and originality of patch-work quilts, Edith Humphrey’s Intimacy and Ecstasy should interest you.

Reviewer: Bet Green

Bet Green lectures in Theology at the McAuley Campus of Australian Catholic University. She is currently writing her doctoral dissertation on “Images of God in Dom Bede Griffiths”.

Email: b.green@mcauley.acu.edu.au

“A Pernicious Sort of Woman” Quasi-Religious Women and Canon Lawyers in the Later Middle Ages   Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2005. Pp. xxxiii + 170.   Elizabeth Makowski

Elizabeth Makowski’s earlier study, Canon Law and Cloistered Women: Periculoso and its Commentators 1298-1545 (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1997) dealt with those women recognised in both canon and civil law as religious, a status attained through pronouncing solemn public vows of religion, analogous to solemn feudal oaths. Through this, they gained rights and responsibilities guaranteed under both legal systems and to which they could be legally held. In the above study, Makowski explores the legal situation of those women, described variously as mulieres religiosae, quasi-religious or extra-regulars. Though living celibate lives, often in community, they did not belong legally to the category of moniales or canonically recognised nuns. If they made vows (or practical promises) to observe celibacy or compliance with house rules while living in community, these vows were described as simple or private; they had no legal effects and could not be enforced by law. The person concerned was free to marry on leaving the community and to hold and inherit property while a member, rights which Makowski indicates were respected in the various legal pronouncements she traces. (These understandings held through the varying historical modes of  ‘quasi-religious’ or ‘extra-regular’ women, but became more canonically defined when the latter began to obtain Roman approbation from early in the 19^th century.)

As Makowski makes clear, their commitment and life-style could and frequently did cause confusion, especially as they usually adopted a uniform mode of dress. The best known today were the beguines, found chiefly in the Low Countries, but they had many other manifestations: beatas in Spain , bizzoche and mantelle in Italy , and the different tertiary communities attached to the new mendicant Orders such as Franciscans and Dominicans; there were also the secular canonesses and the later medieval Sisters of the Common life. Though described by one noted canonist as ‘a pernicious sort of woman’  - and some attained legal notoriety for their deviance – most were respected and valued members of medieval society as they engaged in a variety of relief work for both the  poor and the sick. Recent medieval studies show that their presence and activity, in their various local manifestations, were widespread. (See, for example, Roberta Gilchrist’s Contemplation and Action: The Other Monasticism, Leicester University Press, 1995. She uses the term ‘monasticism’ in the broad sense of a religiously committed celibate life-style.) They were to reappear in the post-Reformation era in the numerous simple-vow congregations dedicated chiefly to teaching, social care and nursing. The non-enclosure of these groups was both legally and socially understood.

Makowski’s book is essentially a study of medieval law with frequent quotation of texts and cases. What she stresses is that the scene is highly varied and that categorical statements (that, for example, all beguines were summarily condemned) are not borne out by actual legal decisions of the time. She calls for further research which, she writes, ‘embracing some of the thousands of extant legal manuscripts and printed books (not to mention local archival material), will result in a view of late-medieval religious culture that is even more highly nuanced than that now offered by the best recent scholarship’. (p.142)

Elizabeth Makowski is Associate Professor of History at Texas State University.

Reviewer: Rosa MacGinley

Dr Rosa MacGinley pbvm, is an historian specialising in the history of women's religious congregations. She is a researcher and lecturer at McAuley Campus of Australian Catholic University.

Email: r.macginley@mcauley.acu.edu.au

THE WAYS OF JUDGMENT   Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005. ISBN: 080282920I. Pp. 330.   OLIVER O'DONOVAN

Oliver O'Donovan is Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, the author of "The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology" and co-editor of the "New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology."  In “The Desire of the Nations” O’Donovan explored the interface between theology and politics by an examination of the authority of God from scriptural perspectives.  In this sequel, The Ways of Judgment,  he assesses political activity and theology from a political vantage point.  He does this by tapping into a wide-ranging tradition of Christian political thought as well as theological insights of such theologians as Stanley Hauerwas.  As a Christian he muses on how contemporary political and social pluralism in the West can be illuminated in the light of Christian faith. He addresses the question whether theological analysis can give a fresh perspective to the political endeavour by a re-examination of philosophical and theological foundations that have given voice to our existing political rhetoric.

An important book, The Ways of Judgment is packed with contentious ideas and pointed judgments concerning the nature of politics and government, and exposes the significant historical and philosophical Christian contribution to our political structures.  His starting point is a realisation that in today’s pluralistic world, Christians need not bear “the burden of theirs being the whole culture's more or less official religion”.  However, he questions, whether we as Christians are to take the notion of ‘engagement in mission’ seriously?  Do we believe, profess, and actively promote the truth and value of the gospels?  Would this cause embarrassment or “should we rejoice that Christian ideas would now help to shape our political culture?”

The Ways of Judgment is a work of political theory dealing with issues of  political authority, justice, mercy, punishment, international law, political legitimacy, powers of government, and equality. It is divided into three sections systematically addressing, from a Christian perspective, the kinds of questions political theorists tackle; the first, considers ‘the political act: judgment’- where governments judge - that is, they engage in activities as diverse as passing laws to regulations relating to the waging of war. In this activity moral judgments are made that can be judged as being right or wrong.    To make such judgments representative political institutions are needed. As Christians we are bound to consider how these political entities relate to the church.  In the final section, O’Donovan looks at the tensions created when the church/Christians and political institutions find themselves in opposition and conflict.  He points out that this philosophical tension should be seen as  a positive when perceived as a search for truth. One does not have to compromise principles for power, but “a truly Christian polity would … be willing to let itself be supplanted, recognizing that political entities come and go, while only the church endures.”   He questions the assumptions that politics can “resolve the ambiguities of Christian theology”. Rather, according to O’Donovan, “it is contemporary political reflection that is an incoherent mess, and it is the gospel that offers some clear answers that could really help.”

O’Donovan presents demanding conclusions that have little patience with those that compromise gospel values.  Any compromise that sees justice only as some form of utilitarian ‘live and let live’ becomes "a measure of the deep de-Christianization of our times"  for “in attempting to dictate what is true on the basis of what is convenient, it shuts down the human calling to the knowledge of the truth."  To exercise freedom one must be able to pursue goals that are meaningful: "Without adults who demand mature behavior, the child is not free to grow up; without teachers to set standards of excellence, the scholar is not free to excel; without prophets to uphold ideals of virtue, society is not free to realize its common good. To be under authority is to be freer than to be independent."  For O’Donovan, that authority is not to be confused with power but rather as an agency that will be justice and community-building. Christianity, he says, "restrains the thrust for judgment; it points beyond the boundaries of political identity; it undermines received traditions of representation; it utters truths that question unchallenged public doctrines. It does all these things because it represents God's kingdom, before which the authorities and powers of this world must cast down their crowns, never to pick them up again."  Salutory thoughts indeed!

Reviewer: Yuri Koszarycz

Yuri Koszarycz is a senior lecturer teaching theology at McAuley Campus, Banyo, Australian Catholic University. He is also the Technical Editor for the Australian Ejournal of Theology.

Email: y.koszarycz@mcauley.acu.edu.au

A selection of recent titles in THEOLOGY chosen by HUGH McGINLAY of RAINBOW BOOKS. Available from all Christian book shops or contact Hugh directly for further information hugh@rainbowbooks.com.au

TRINITY – RETRIEVING THE WESTERN TRADITION

Neil Ormerod
$39.95             0874627257                Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 2006
Argues that the Western tradition - exemplified in the Trinitarian writings of Augustine and Aquinas - is not only still relevant but is in fact more coherent than the competing alternatives now on offer.          

 

AGENDAS FOR AUSTRALIAN ANGLICANS
Essays in honour of Bruce Kaye

Tom Frame and Geoff Treloar (eds)

$35.95             1920691669                Adelaide, ATF Press, 2006
Significant Australian and overseas theologians consider issues raised by Bruce Kaye during his time as General Secretary of the Anglican Church of Australia, identifying problems and possibilities within Australian Anglicanism.

 

THE SECRET GOSPELS OF JESUS
The definitive collection of gnostic gospels and mystical books
about Jesus of Nazareth
Marvin Meyer
$40.00             0232526184                London, DLT, 2006
New translations and introductions to every Gnostic Gospel and Jesus text, with an extensive introduction to the entire collection.

 

A JEWISH UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Rabbi Samuel Sandmel
$29.95             1594730482                Woodstock, Jewish Lights, 2005
New edition of a classic that offers an in-depth look at the Christian scriptures- from a Jewish perspective - applying scholarly criticism and providing historical background to the writings of the New Testament.

 

THE BIBLE, THE CHURCH AND HOMOSEXUALITY
Nicholas Coulton (ed.)
$34.95             0232526060                London, DLT, 2005
Essays explore a variety of fundamental Christian themes and shows that a change in the church's approach to homosexuality would be both consistent with the church's understanding of Scripture and its traditional ways of working with doctrine.

 

JESUS WHO WAS, JESUS WHO IS
Joseph O’Hanlon
$29.95             185607479X               Dublin, Columba, 2005
Suggests a blueprint for the future of the church that is prophetical, going back to the past - as all prophets do - to seek the mind of God and find there a strategy and an energy to rebuild the battered edifice so many love so despairingly.

 

THE PETRINE MINISTRY
Catholics and Orthodox in dialogue
Walter Kaspar (ed)
$45.00             0809143348                Mahwah, Newman Press, 2006
Catholic experts and delegates representing a range of Orthodox churches reflect on papers presented by eights speakers, considering the Petrine ministry  from the Catholic and Orthodox points of view.

 

EUCHARISTIC DOCTORS
A theological history
Owen Cummings
$37.95             0809142430                New York, Paulist Press, 2005
An accessible, popular introduction to people whose lives made a substantive contribution to the understanding of the Eucharist - including Hippolytus, Ambrose, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and George Herbert - who all recognised the centrality of the Eucharist to Christian faith.

 

WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED
Kenneth Leech
$30.00             0232526494                London, DLT, 2006
In an age when much Christian preaching of ‘the gospel’ has been diluted, watered down and individualised, Kenneth Leech raises some disturbing questions as a focus for prayer and study.

 

GOD WITHIN
The mystic tradition of northern Europe
Oliver Davies
$34.95             0232526265                London, DLT, 2006
An introduction to the work of Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Jan van Ruusbruce, Johannes Tauler, Henry Suso and Walter Hinton.

 

WHAT ARE THEY SAYING ABOUT JOHN (revised edition)
Gerard Sloyan
$29.95             0809143372                New York, Paulist Press, 2005
A review of contemporary scholarly writing on John, accompanied by a useful subject matter index.

 

JESUS THE MESSIAH IN THE HEBREW BIBLE
Eugene Pentiuc
$47.00             0809143461                New York, Paulist Press, 2006
Offers an accurate exegetical basis for reviewing the prophetic indicators - as well as the literary explications - of the relationship between the Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament fulfilment of Jesus the Messiah. 

 

SEEING IN THE DARK

University sermons

Nicholas Lash

$39.95             0232526192                London, DLT, 2006
A lively and thought-provoking collection of sermons by one of Britain’s most original and influential theologians.

 

BEING HUMAN

Confessions of a Christian humanist

John de Gruchy

$50.00             0334029791                London, SCM, 2006
Celebrated South African theologian suggests that Christian humanism can offer a new way of being Christian in today’s world, since it expresses Christianity’s core convictions and values.

 

JESUS IS SHALOM

A vision of peace from the gospels

Joseph Grassi

$29.95             0809143089                New York, Paulist Press, 2006
Studies the true meaning of peace found in the New Testament and asserts that the challenge presented to the world by the gospels and St Paul is the image of Jesus, a Messiah of peace and non-violence – a particular challenge in the contemporary world.