Hearts & Minds Books

I've been wanting to write more about this guy since I've discovered him---hat tip to Caleb Stegall---a year or so ago.  Bill Kauffman's new one is called Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism (Metropolitian Books; $25.)  As the title implies, it tells the tale of the a movement and tradition, a longstanding tradition, that most of us simply haven't heard of.  In what few American history classes we've had and in the typical civics lessons we've learned, and even in the somewhat sophisticated PBS current affairs shows we watch, we are lead to believe that conservatives are hawks and liberals are doves. The cultural picture, nearly iconic, of the free-lovin' 60s counter-cultural peaceniks opposing the gray-suited businessmen of the military-minded technocracy only reinforces this simplistic and often wrong-headed perspective.  From the earliest days of our country, there were true patriots---some of the Founding Fathers, for crying out loud, who warned against foreign entanglements; today  there is serious debate and voices against the Bush administrations Iraqi war have been raging on the political right.  Conservatives have a notable history, if one can take note of it, of being against foreign wars.  Bill Kauffman, one who finds his joyful stand on his own small town front porch as he supports his local soft ball team and cares conservatively for the historic preservation of his upstate New York region, helps us take very detailed note.  Who knew?

Two other books of his that I've read, and thoroughly enjoyed, were full of historical arcana, interesting detail, and little known facts about middle American protesters against greed, big business and the ideologies of "bigger is better" progress;  the stories Kauffman tells are not about Wobblies, red diaper babies or 60s love children, let alone modern day lefties sympathetic to Chomsky or Obama.  No, these are rural folks, often, populists and isolationists who care about their traditional values in ways that neo-con "family values" advocates seem not to have a clue.  (His powerful and sad chapter about how the military damages families is important and yet would probably earn him scowls from Dr. Dobson for not being pro-Pentagon.)  He takes us on a ride across the decades, from Herbert Hoover to Wendell Berry, from James Madison to Mark Hatfield, and on to dozens of  (almost all unheard of) governors, pundits, poets, congressmen, and preachers who throughout our history have spoken up loudly against war and an expanding American empire.  Occasionally, he tells of liberal, if politically Democrat, leaders such as George McGovern, who had great sympathies for his upper mid-Western folk traditions, who at heart held the most agrarian of visions, and seemed a wholesome blend of liberal pacifistic politics rooted in old-school Americana values.  His admiration for these leaders and their "outside the beltway" integrity, is sincere and very well informed.

As Kauffman colorfully writes about this colorful array of peacenik farmers and social justice cranks who wrote poetry and stood against Bigness of all sorts, I'm struck by how different classical old-school conservative attitudes and values and principles are from what passes  as "conservative" nowadays on the political right.  It would be very helpful for our political discourse these days to remind ourselves that neo-conservatism with it's idolatry of the free market as the answer to all social concerns, is a far cry from the profound writers of the classical "paleo" cons or the older Whigs.  (Think, say, of the difference between George Bush and, say, Russell Kirk;  the difference between The Weekly Standard's "war-fighting Republican" Bill Kristol and anti-imperialists like Senator Robert Taft.)

These older brand of conservatives, unlike the subsidized bigwig neo-con think tanks, stand in the feisty patriotic linage of Daniel Webster and Benjamin Rush, of the Anti-Federalists of 1787, the critics of the War of 1812, the Mexican war, the Spanish-American War, the Louisiana Purchase, even, and worried about expanding our military reaches (opposing our violent involvements in places like the Philippines or Puerto Rico.)  Many of them, out of budgetary conservatism, opposed increased monies for wars like in Viet Nam (did you know there were conservatives who opposed the hawks who, in the early escalation of that war, recall, were Democrats!)  They opposed the Hawkish motivation for going to the moon, in part, because of the increased centralization of power, the bureaucratic mess, the militarization of technology and the reduction of human scale economies that occur in such modern schemes.  Was Lewis Mumford and his ilk a conservative or a liberal? (It was conservatives, Kauffman reminds us, that opposed the horrible social dislocation caused by the grand Inter-State Highway system, first promoted as a roadway for the Defense of the nation, and the equally bad social dislocation caused by urban renewal, all Big bad schemes of the utopian  left.)  Kauffman draws on deep sources, sorrowful of the loss of place, the derision of smallness, and highlights writers as interesting as G.K. Chesteron and the closing speech of President George Washington.

Ain't My America is detailed American history, sort of the flip side of Howard Zinn's colorful revisionist approach from the lefty side, which gives account of the poor and marginalized (the must-read A People's History of America. Wow, it would be great to have Zinn & Kauffman on a panel together, since they both are presenting a dissenting historiography.) I had little idea that there were such men and poets as these in our grand American past.  One can be sorry for the brutality of Kit Carson;  we can lament the carnage of Gettysburg and Bull Run;  we can hang our head in shame at the bombings orchestrated by McNamara and Bush I.  But we can be proud of true patriots and good Americans and caring voices who dared to insist that wars of aggression and the politics of expansion and the ideology of growth are not healthy for families and our towns and our country.  Voices like Henry Blake Fuller and William Vaughn Moody and Moorfield Storey, names I had never heard, present a richer, fuller, and, it seems to me on this day, more truly American vision.  Kauffman  presents these writers and poets and pundits and politicos in all their quirky glory.

Kaufmann's other books I've mentioned in these pages before, and are less systematic history.  Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists is a collection of vignettes, great stories of various small town folk who resist the secular left and religious right, who seem to live their lives in ways that call forth alternative, "third way" dreams and values. (In that volume he tells of Dorothy Day and contemporary novelist Carolyn Chute; of "American Gothic" painter Grant Wood and President Millard Fillmore.)  I loved those stories, each historically rich and well written.  For sheer enjoyment, I loved his tremendous, inspiring  memoir,  Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette: A Mostly Affectionate Account of a Small Town's Fight to Survive, an example of somebody who "went far" to make something of himself, as the odd metaphors go, and eventually came home to his small town to root for the minor league ball team, the Muckdogs.  That one was truly wonderful, a tremendous memoir which is a must-read for those who appreciate James Howard Kunstler, say, or the rural novels of Wendell Berry.  He's long-winded, which, in this setting, for those with ears to hear, is a good 'ol compliment.  Sit back with some sweet tea or a cold beer and let this storyteller teach you some important civic lessons.  Let him tell you the long, noble history of antiwar conservatism and middle-American Anti-Imperialism.

Anti War Radio has a fascinating interview with him here.  Enjoy. 

I want to wax rhapsodic in giving a big old salt-water shout-out to my new friends at this year's Ocean City Beach Project, an intentional living/learning community across the street from the Ocean City NJ Presbyterian Church, sponsored as a leadership development and discipleship summer experience for college students sponsored by the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO.)  OCBP brings together a gang of collegians who read books together, attend several three hour lectures a week, learn Bible study skills and prayerfully consider how to offer their gifts and abilities for God's work on campus, in churches, and of course in the world.  I and my daughter, Marissa and her friend Natalie, had the great privilege to hang out with the '08 OCBP crew, and had the chance to deliver some lectures, lead some discussions, show a film, talk about Christ's reign and explain why book-buying is a good habit for serious Christians who care about such stuff. And I didn't get a sunburn in the hot south Jersey seashore.

My main presentations were on the development of a Christian worldview prepping them on their reading, especially, Derek Melleby and Donald Opitz's excellent The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness (Brazos; $13.99), a book that is ideal for that setting, mature and yet light, serious and joyful. (Please, if you know any college students, make sure they know about this one-of-a-kind resource!)  To invite students to meet God as clearly in their academic work as they might in a church service, to explore the relationship between faith and cultural engagement, to invite radical commitment to Christ's ways, even in science, sports or sexualtiy, to think through a Biblically-grounded view of citizenship and politics, well, it is all very exciting.   (Why is it that middle age folk like most of my peers are nearly dull to the radical implications for this large vision of making a difference in God's hurting world?)  Derek and Don's book helps students explore their sense of calling, their studies, their future work, and I gave a broad a hopefully exiting foundation and framework for thinking about this perspective of whole-life discipleship, this Kingdom vision, this reformational worldview out of which the CCO approaches their work with students and college staff.  We spent considerable time diagnosing the problems of a half-baked and legalistic or rationalistic faith, as we hoped to learn to discern ways to avoid, even as we keep ourselves well rooted in the historic Christian orthodoxies applied in fresh and formative ways.  I even got to tell them a bit about Abraham Kuyper!

As a very small part of one of my talks, I showed this provocative youtube clip of Brian McLaren, called "Domesticated Jesus." (Time didn't permit a showing of "Rethink Everything" or "The Societal Machine" two other good clips in this series of brief DeepShift presentations.)  This first great clip laments the increasingly troubled view of faith, the disconnect, the way Christ is domesticated and distracts us from the purposes of God.  This is a view where we do not submit to the grand story of the gospel, but rather, have Jesus as a "hood ornament" on the car we are already driving to our own destination.  Seeing Jesus as a mere accessory to our own autonomy seemed to be a helpful image for these students, and I invite you to ponder this short clip, too, and wonder about how we might rethink the faith in meaningful ways that can equip us to live in the ways of Christ in the contemporary world.  Notice Brian suggests we've lost the plot of the gospel message, we've somehow gotten confused about the Story.

To counter this kind of loss of story, and to offer a reliably Biblical foundation for this "everything must change" rethink,  I cited one of the most amazing books I've read in a while, a really fast-paced book packed with amazing information and really fantastic inspiration.  In a season of tremendous books that help us recapture the whole vision of God's work---these students watched N.T. Wright on the Colbert Report the week before talking about Surprised by Hope and were quite taken with his insistence on the notion that the final end of the Story is re-creation of creation, a healing of the planet and a reunion of heaven & earth---the new book, the last, by the late Robert Webber, is a must read.  It is called Who Narrates the
World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals (IVP; $15) and it argues that if Christians do not recapture the full story of a creation restored, other faiths or ideologies (think of radical Islam) will win the hearts and minds of the world's peoples, capturing their institutions and cultures.  Insofar as Islam presents an all encompassing vision, a coherent way of life and vision of history, they do, indeed, intend to narrate the meaning of life for the 21st century.  And, insofar as Christianity is presented as merely private, personalized and sentimental, spiritual and churchy, we will fail at the Kingdom call to disciple the nations.  If we do not narrate the meaning of life as purposeful and the nature of history as a response to God's sovereign unfolding of His rule, if we do not hold out a hope for the restoration of all things and the reality of the Kingdom, we will see other worldviews and ideological rivals to the God of the Bible win the day.  (For more about the excellent AEF statement that gave rise to this book, visit their website here.)

We unpacked Colossians 1 a bit, one of my favorite passages for decades, now, and of course, Romans 12:1-2. I showed a portion of the edgy and hard-hitting critique of hyper-reality and consumerism, The Trouble With Paris (a book and DVD curriculum I raved about in a post a few weeks back.)  We explored the implications of being "in but not of the world" and how other Christian traditions---liberal Protestantism's accommodation to culture and radical fundamentalism's world-flight avoidance of culture---fail at that mandated approach of Jesus.  Ahh, and then there is the cultural resistance of the new monastics and Shane Claiborne, who suggest it isn't proper to truly engage the institutions of power, and want to only elect Jesus for President.  Weeeee, what a great conversation that was: what does Shane and friends think of Christian citizenship action for the poor, like, say, the lobbying efforts of Bread for the World, or the Kuyperian vision of redemptive engagement within institutions as expressed by the Center for Public Justice?  Does the Colossians insistence that Christ made the powers and that they "hold together" in him, and that they are for him, mean that somehow we can be "in but not of" a traditional political party?  Can Walsh & Keesmaat's Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire help us here?

The very ecumenical and balanced Robert Webber has seen it all, and tells in great prose and astute lectures just how the church has and hasn't walked that faithful balanced of "in not of" the culture over the long years of church history.  His explanation of how we have sold out due to our unhelpful synthesis with pagan dualism, how we've yet maintain some efforts to be redemptive within non-Christian contexts, how the Enlightenment befuddled us so, how the modern era present new opportunities, all of this is really insightful.  I wish Who Gets to Narrate the World? would have been an assigned reading, too, for OCBP, as it frames their passionate desire for relevant and faithful Kingdom discipleship with a good historical perspective, and offers hope for serious, global renewal as we relearn the proper Biblical narrative.  That is, as in the McLaren clip, we learn to regain the plot and story.  For Mr. Webber, rather than the "creation-fall-redemption-consummation" flow I taught, it is simply "creation-incarnation-recreation."  God is honored in all things, through creation and incarnation, the cosmos is reckoned redeemable, and Christ is seen as Savior of the whole world, the one who restores the Kingdom "on Earth as it is in Heaven" thereby giving hope within history.

I cannot recommend Who Gets to Narrate the World? enough. I wish I would have cited it more in my talks at OCBP because it really does offer a fabulous foundation for the development of a viable Christian worldview, and offers a helpful bit of insight about how we have gone wrong, and how we might, in God's grace, regain a fuller appreciation for the whole counsel of God, and present a view of faith that is compelling, coherent, and consistent.  Such a narration of the story of our lives is just what we need if Christ is going to be more than a bobble head doll hood ornament.

Since the much-discussed and controversial memoir Crazy for God by Frank Schaeffer, son of Francis and Edith, there has been a bit of renewed interest in the evangelical cultural critic, theologian, philosopher and founder of L'Abri, a drop in study center Christian community in Switzerland that ministered to questioning, often disaffected youth in the late 60s early 70s--and exits in several cities throughout the world yet today.  In what seemed to be light years ahead of his time, he talked about worldviews, about presuppositions, the consequences of ideas, the zeitgeist of the times and the flow of history--all as important matters for Christian witness and mission and daily discipleship.  He organized their Swiss hostel (and inspired other intentional communities) as folks bonded together to live out the implications of a Christian view of life in the teeth of a modernistic and secularized cultural ethos.  He assured us that there were "no little people" and that God wanted to use us for Christ's cosmic purposes, to share grace and thoughtfulness and beauty in such a fallen world that God surely loves.

As evangelicals, especially, discover the grand flow of the Bible as a worldview-shaping Story there is a new passion to explore God's interest in social and cultural engagement, and seek to honor Christ in all of life---from the arts to the sciences, from local business practices to global justice, from pop culture to environmental studies, from race relations to the contours of our workplaces.  Thank goodness.  Reading folks from Jim Wallis to Leslie Newbegin, from Marva Dawn to N.T. Wright, we search for profound resources to "fund" such a broad vision of Kingdom reformation and many are now using the language of worldview, and this wholistic, imaginative move to embody a new, integrated, way of life. We have studied from those who have popularized and explored the vast implications of that phrase and that move.  (Both James Sire and Nancy Pearcey, who are vital voices in worldview studies, have L'Abri connections. So does Fabric of Faithfulness author Steve Garber. The annual Jubilee conference in Pittsburgh is one huge example of fruit born from conversations around L'Abri themes;  Charles Colson's exemplary involvement in prison reform is another fruit of Schaeffer's evangelical yet worldviewish thinking about societal transformation.  And on and on, some of my favorite contemporary authors and very best friends...) 

 We've learned that to be "radical" means not to be far left or way out, but to get to the "root" of things, to look at the deepest questions in the most profound ways.  It may be that  "neo-Calvinists" took up that banner most vocally in the past 25 years, influenced by their "radical" hero, Dutch statesman and public theologian Abraham Kuyper, who called for such deep rethinking of everything and it is clear that Kuyper and his rejection of dualism and personalism rubbed off in some ways on Schaeffer and his L'Abri movement.  Nowadays, although neo-Calvinism is on the lips (and keyboards) of places like Comment and Catapult and Richard Mouw's blog, many others are just glad for reforming possibilities and intellectually serious faith traditions other than old-school liberal Protestantism and right-wing conservative fundamentalism. (I have written elsewhere that even the postmodern emergent movement has some connections to radical worldview thinkers like Brian Walsh and Jamie Smith and the late Robert Webber---who themselves have been nurtured in the Dutch neo-Cal and Kuyper tradition and L'Abri, too.)

 I would say that the person who stands for so much of all of this for me, is, in fact, Francis Schaeffer.  As I've written about often, I was introduced to Schaeffer's books (his early 70s work on Christian responsibilities for creation care, his cultural studies, his critiques of Protestant liberalism, his little book on the arts...) and it showed me immense new possibilities.  To see someone with historic orthodox theology (I was also reading stuff like Malcolm Boyd and Dan Berrigan at the time) who also cared about the burning issues of the day, and even the cries of the counterculture, just blew me away.

I am glad that there is now a new biography of Schaeffer, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life by Colin Duriez (Crossway; $24.95.) It is done by a very reputable biographer, and is a work which many have suggested will be the best bio yet.  It just came, and I've not seen any advanced reviews, but as I browse through it, I can tell that it will be helpful and inspiring, informative and fulfilling. Colin Duriez has done impressive biographies of C.S. Lewis and also of J.R.R. Tolkien, so he clearly is in the right orbit.  Before studying English and philosophy at University of Ulster, he spent time at L'Abri.  He is quite aware of his subject, has had the cooperation of the extended Schaeffer circle, and knows details that have been important in Fran's life (for instance, his meeting in 1950 with the famed neo-Orthodox theologian Karl Barth, and a scathing letter he got from Dr. Barth.)  Fascinating stuff.

A small matter of interest for at least a handful of BookNotes readers (yeah, you know who you are) might be the question Mr. Duriez raises about the role in Schaeffer's work, of the thought of Kuyperian philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd.  Duriez, who knew Schaeffer well, and stayed in touch for decades, corresponded with Schaeffer specifically about the influence of Dooyeweerd;  Schaeffer's intimate friend, Dooyeweerdian art critic Hans Rookmaaker, many know, insisted that he introduced Schaeffer to Dooyeweerd's philosophy which then shaped Schaeffer's famous trilogy of philosophical works.  Schaeffer  knew Van Til, another Dutch Calvinist (from Westminster Seminary) and there is a family resemblance to a number of these Reformed thinkers who called for the development of the distinctives of the Christian mind, for the sake of God-glorifying cultural witness and social change.  Of course, while this was going on, L'Abri was growing in popularity,  Eric Clapton and folk like Joan Baez were reading Escape from Reason;  Os Guinness was working on his first book The Dust of Death, and Schaeffer was chastising evangelicals in North America for not caring enough to learn about the issues being raised by the counterculture or taking seriously new art forms like film. For those whose faith was shaped in the middle or ending of the 20th century, whether you knew about this stuff then or not OR for those who are too young to have recalled these tumultuous times, and who may not think much of Schaeffer's influence,  Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life by Colin Duriez is going to be great and is highly recommended!

With endorsements from the likes of  Alister McGrath and James Sire (who says "Schaeffer, the Jeremiah of the twentieth century, walks and talks again in these pages") this surely is a very reputable and thoughtful work.  I am confident that it is.  We are very, very happy to present it to you.

I have been working on this article reporting about and reviewing three remarkable and nearly unknown CDs that we have for sale and I really, really hope you will read my reflections on them.  Even if you aren't interested in the music, the writing about them, I trust, will be inspiring and informative; they each have a very special story and some good folks behind them.  Please click on over to the monthly website column.  Pass it on to anybody else that is interested in music, any contemporary worship leaders,  folkies, activists or jazz connaisseurs.  These three releases are under the radar recordings and as an indie store, we are able to support these sorts of projects, but yet don't know how to get the word out... 

Life Is More 5n2  The spiritual-missional journey of our mail order pal, youth worker, social reformer, worship leader, guitarman Ethan Bryan from Missouri is described in my review, his journey of reading good books (like Irresistible Revolution and Colossians Remixed) and how he wrote an album full of songs, each somewhat inspired by a different cause, project or wholistic faith-based social justice ministry.  Hear songs inspired by groups such as Not for Sale, NoSweat, She Wrote Love On Her Arm, Blood:WaterMission, IJM, etc.  Low-budget, big hearted. I tell the whole story, and more...and what a story it is!  Check out the full column, please.

Songs for a Revolution of Hope  Brian McLaren, Tracey Howe, the Restoration Project
Tracey has collaborated with some pretty groovy worship leaders and acoustic new folksters, and has been outspoken about international concerns, justice and peace for some time now.  She took Brian up on his call for innovative and thoughtful new music for emerging, justice-seeking congregations, and they did this album together, with friends.  These tunes were a good part of the worship piece of the Everything Must Change tour.  Consider it a soundtrack to the book, whole-life worship stuff, with beat-poet spoken word a la Cockburn, medieval poets like Julian of Norwich or St. Francis put to country-folk, and some aggressive political awareness, placing orthodox theology next to a postmodern, socially engaged worldview.  Gentle tunes about kindness and mercy, too.  Read the whole review and order a batch of 'em.

Heaven in a Nightclub  Bill Edgar, Ruth Naomi Floyd, John Patitucci, John Salzano  Our good friends at the thoughtful Christian hang-out and collegiate study center at Cornell, the wonderfully named Chesterton House, put together a full evening of conversation, art, and jazz music one glorious summer evening a year ago in a classy club in New York City.  Edgar is a mean jazz pianist, and knows a whole, whole, lot about the relationship of jazz to older African-American spirituals. Floyd, who often sings with him, is truly one of the great jazz vocalists of our time;  Patitucci is a Grammy Award recipient for his work on the bass; Salzano is a stellar, highly-regarded session sax player.  This live double disc is a treasure, a rare live show that captured a truly extraordinary night.  Supports the thoughtful work of Karl Johnson and other sharp Chesterton House folks in Ithaca, too.  Please see my full review, and order soon.

As I continue to celebrate the book I commended to you in the last post, the long-awaited and exceptionally important, yes, brilliant study by Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement, I am struck by how their themes of homelessness---as metaphor for postmodern dis-ease and a symptom of an economy that fails to appreciate the Biblical vision of home-making and creation-care---show up everywhere.  From the recent, delightful books about buying local, going organic and the joys of daily eating to the broader concerns about climate change and the price of gas, to the heart-breaking realities of refugees from political or natural disasters, the themes of exile and place and the longing for shalom are prominent.  I am convinced that Beyond Homelessness (as I will say in a large review later this month at the website column) is a book that will help us in very many ways; it is groundbreaking.  Like their very important and influential earlier works---The Transforming Vision, Colossians Remixed, For the Beauty of the Earth---this will make a major contribution to our thinking and, hopefully our living in these restless days.

Homelessness, oppression, displacement, injustice?  God's hope, real hope? Deep joy amidst great sorrow?  Few have illustrated this more than the remarkable career of Gary A. Haugen, founder of International Justice Mission.  I recall a conversation on the phone with Gary years ago;  he had returned from overseeing for the Department of State the horrors of the genocide in Rwanda and felt compelled to start a Christian ministry, in those days described as something like a faith-based Amnesty International, a spiritually-powered agency that could tap into the wisdom and on-the-ground resources of God's global people and resist the sorts of structural evils that the UN just couldn't touch.  IJM has developed in to the premier NGO fighting international slavery, particularly child sex slavery and Haugen has become one of the most influential Christian leaders worldwide.  Evangelical students, especially, flock to hear him and are blogging, starting local chapters, and donating to groups fighting international abuse. (He was just awesome at Jubilee 2007, one of the best presentations in the history of that famous Pittsburgh gathering.) His first paperback book, Good News About Injustice  and subsequent video curriculum is a balanced and thoughtful study of international injustice issues and a mature invitation for Christians to care about public policy and see what God is doing through those who work for reconciliation, justice and public goodness.  Like a modern-day Wilberforce, he's campaigned against modern day slavery (worse now than it was in the 18th and 19th centuries) and his powerful story Terrify No More documents in page-turning, heart-pounding detail the undercover rescue efforts to free child slaves from a brothel in Southeast Asia.  Maybe you saw the special on 20/20 or recall our recommendations of the book when it came out.  It is one that you can't put down!

Now, Mr. Haugen brings us his most general book, not nearly as policy oriented and serious as his first, not as specific and detailed as his second, rather, an inspirational overview of the call to stand for justice, to be faithful and courageous, to move beyond comfort and safety and rise to the call to make a difference, in small and daily ways.  Just Courage: God's Great Expedition for the Restless Christian (IVP; $18) could be his best yet, and we are thrilled that it has released a bit early.  Please don't skip over the important Eerdmans Bouma-Prediger/ Walsh book as it is a truly profound and theologically mature bit of cultural analysis.  Just Courage, though, could be a great companion book, a brief but stirring call to trusting faith, to daily discipleship, to a global vision, the hope of what Christ's followers are doing, and how we can take further steps to be agents of healing, hope and social transformation, especially for the hurting or oppressed. The chapters are very short, the readings inspiring, the discussion questions provocative, practical, usable.

Thanks to IJM, to Gary Haugen, and for publishers like IVP for doing such a fine primer on how to live out this concern that is so close to God's own heart.  This is a great little book!

Just today I was ruminating on the spectacularly thrilling bit of dramatized monologue from the point of view of an 750 BC Jerusalem priest that meets up with the "farmer from Tekoa" the prophet Amos, as envisioned in one of the many Biblical interludes in Beyond Homelessness.  Amos was one of the first Old Testament prophetic books that I studied in depth in the mid-70s and it still ripples down the decades; I'm thrilled to learn something new, to consider the implications for my feeble life.  Quite simply, Just Courage by Gary Haugen will help us hear Amos and live Amos, will help "let justice roll down."   Will it take you a bit of courage to even order such a book?   To recommend it to a friend or loved on, to suggest it as a study at your church or fellowship? 

Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement by Steven Bouma- Prediger and Brian J. Walsh (Eerdmans; $24.00)  is a book that I can safely say will be one of the most important works of the year, a major contribution to Christian social analysis and cultural reformation.  I've followed these friends a bit as they've worked out this material. I've had an early draft and have been awaiting this published copy for a year; I couldn't be more excited that it has arrived.  Thanks be to God, the ever-faithful home-making and Earth-restoring God who comes to us in Jesus not, as they ably show, to take us away to heaven only to leave behind a burning planet, but to help us image the God of creation here, now, in creation-caring stewardship, until that great day when Christ returns to consummate his covenantal ways in a new Earth.

Walsh has written widely as co-author about the shape of a Christian way of living, based on a Biblical worldview informed by the grand story of creation-fall-redemption (Transforming Vision, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be, Subversive Christianity , The Advent of Justice, and, with his wife Sylvia Keesmaat, Colossians Remixed.)  How this has transfigured---through, among other things, forming a friendship and working relationship with environmental studies scholar (and author of the brilliant For the Beauty of the Earth) Steven Bouma-Prediger, reading a lot of Walter Brueggemann and Wendell Berry and the new urbanists like James Howard Kunstler, and moving into a sustainable agricultural community farm)---to the metaphor and images of home-making/exile/home-coming, is itself quite an amazing part of the story of this book.  The grand drama of Scripture is still the heart of this book, but the new insights about land and place and the hope (in Revelation 21 and 22) of a "gardened city" are fresh and generative.  I do not say this lightly, I really don't: this is brilliant.

The Biblical studies are profound (and there are creative Bible interludes between each longer chapter that will bring the insightful and provocative reflections of Colossians Remixed to mind.) The scholarly breadth is prodigious, the cultural awareness just amazing. From the stories to the science, the cultural criticism to the theological proposals, from the song quotes to the incredible footnotes, this is one really interesting read.

It has deep integrity, too, remarkably so.  From their work in classrooms and homeless shelters, to their work in homesteading and sustainable agriculture, they have lived out faithful and creative ways of being agents of God's great homecoming.  They've studied the meanings of home and homelessness, both among the very rich (who may have houses, but not homes in any meaningful sense) and the literally homeless (who may have homes in the sense of a community of belonging, even without houses.)  They explored how the high modern culture displaces us, metaphorically and sometimes literally, from our "sense of place." They've related the cultural angst and upward mobility culture with our disregard for the creation itself, related (as has their friend Bob Goudzwaard) the relationships between some of the key social problems of our time, from climate change to global poverty.

The insight of this important work is urgently needed, and I will be exploring Beyond Homelessness in greater detail in a longer book review over at our monthly column at the website.  For now, please know of our very sincere gratitude for this remarkable work, our commitment to try to explain it well to folks so our readers purchase it, read it, discuss it, and deepen their ties to communities and places, living out the transforming vision that underlies this profound gift of insight, courage and hope.

Here's a posting to give a public thanks to the Penn Southeast Conference of the UCC for having us to their annual conference again; that hall in the Host is so gigantic! It was great (if exhausting) to set it up with such a huge display.  We are grateful for your interest in books, and glad for the freedom to stock such diverse topics and varied perspectives. From worship resources to the various theological texts, from faith-based perspectives in politics and global concerns to books on spiritual formation, from Christian ed resources and kids books to the massive amount of stuff on congregational life and parish development, like the Alban Institute books that we stock, we loved to show off so much of our wares.  Thanks for caring.

Somebody asked that I post the books I announced from the main podium, so here is the gist of my announcement from Thursday afternoon. Order any on line, or call us, and we'll offer the conference discount price of 10% off of the regular retail price shown. 


Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality Mark S. Burrows & Elizabeth Dreyer (Johns Hopkins University Press) $20.95  Keynote speaker Mark Borrows (formerly of Andover Newton and apparently a very well-loved seminary prof) did a fabulous job by all accounts in inviting us to think seriously about communicating our faith, growing deep spaces in our churches for meaningful reflection and mature, grounded discipleship.  Of course, we loved his stuff on the role of the imagination, was glad for his call to use poetry (he gets extra points for citing Mary Oliver), and found it marvelous that he called upon church leaders to read widely, to read also for themselves, including novels.  I'd add, also, creative nonfiction, memoirs and autobiographies.  (His suggestion of the Annie Dillard novel The Maytrees was very interesting; it recently came out in paperback.) Rev. Burrow's helped edit this volume, a spectacularly interesting and deep scholarly book which makes a case for studying spirituality (some of the insights from his talk had some overlap with at least one of his chapters in this collection.)  It is a rare bit of scholarship and not an common book to find.  Glad we have it!

The Invitation: A Simple Guide to the Bible  Eugene Peterson  (NavPress) $16.99  I've promoted this at several conferences this spring and folks have consistently shown great interest.  This is simply a handsome hardback casebound copy of the introductions to each book of the Bible that are found in Peterson's best-selling Bible paraphrase, The Message.  His eloquent and interesting and historically helpful overview of each Biblical book, and some other introductions (like, say, a chapter in the beginning about the big picture of the whole Scriptures, or his intro to the prophets, or to the gospels) are simply spectacular.  When a writer this good explains the Bible so well, with such gusto, insight and brevity, it is a winner. I was glad that some of our UCC friends were as excited about using it in their personal devotions or in church settings as we are.

Love The Ultimate Apologetic: The Heart of Christian Witness Art Lindsley (IVP) $15  Art is a good friend and has written other books on apologetics, rejecting the relativistic ethos of our culture, drawing on C.S. Lewis and others to offer up a solid argument for truth, for Christian orthodoxy, for a mature witness of balanced Biblical perspective in the public square.  Here, though, he reminds us how this must be accomplished: through love.  Few good books exist about this topic, and his explorations and ruminations are thoughtful and provocative, nothing mushy, always balanced and solidly Biblical. "They'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love..." the old song goes.  This helps unpack that with depth.

Jesus for President  Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw (Zondervan) $16.99  You may know that we've been big promoters of his first book, The Irresistible Revolution, and we pushed it at the conference last year.  This one is a bit deeper, but with a stunning full-color, youthful look.  I've noted before that the conservative evangelical publisher releasing this pacifist manifesto with its edgy pomo graphics and hard hitting critique of imperialism---especially of the proud US sort, government or corporations---indicates a new wind blowing through Christian publishing.  Shane exposes the bankruptcy of civil religion and calls us back to the radical implications of the Bible.  He and his co-author draw on John Howard Yoder and William Stringfellow, the Berrigan brothers, Walter Wink, Dorothy Day and other scoundrels of radical faith to call us, joyfully, to a vision of political life that is rooted in the unfolding Scriptural story about peace, justice, a sane lifestyle and a Kingdom that is supplanting all other contending reigns.  Whew. This may be our biggest selling book of the year as we recommend it everywhere we go, even if it sometimes takes some explaining.

Dangerous Surrender: What Happens When You Say Yes To God  Kay Warren (Zondervan) $21.99  Okay, I'll admit you may be scratching your head, since some have this view that mainline denominational folks, let alone more radical Christians like the new monasticism and resistance movement of Shane are opposed to mega-churches, and see Warren's popularity as somehow a sign of serious sell-out.

All I can say is that this book moved me to tears, that her struggle with breast cancer, her friendship with gay folks with AIDS, her risky and dynamic work in Africa are simply told and inspiring.  They are fabulous examples of following Christ into areas of great suffering, of wholistic service, of obedience to the call of God.  Kudos to the Warren's for parlaying their great fame and wealth into something like their work against AIDS and poverty in Africa.  And kudos to friends in the UCC who, knowing their different theologically perspectives, were willing to purchase some of this easy-to-read story of not just a mega-church star, but a serious follower of Jesus, who is willing to "say Yes to God.".  I hope it bears fruit in helping mainline folks and evangelicals respect one another and maybe, maybe, help readers to take steps towards such brave and effective service themselves.

Feasting on the Word Year B volume 1 Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary  edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (WJK) $39.95  I believe it was years ago at a Penn SE event where Beth and I first met Barbara Brown Taylor.  We went on to promote all of her books, every where we go.  If you read her in the Christian Century or other sources, you know she is thoughtfully engaged and deeply interested in the actual words, rhetoric, sentences, stories of Scripture.  She works hard as a preacher, thinking, praying, preparing each week.  As an elegant writer, she, along with respected New Testament professor (Columbia Theological Seminary) Dr. David Bartlett, are well positioned to offer up this extraordinary first volume of what will become a historic, extraordinary resource for lectionary preachers. 

Each week offers four perspectives on the four lectionary selections; that is, there is a brief essay which they call a pastoral, a theological, an exegetical, and an homiletical perspective.  Four columns, each running for a page or more, on each of the four weekly lections. (They are in facing columns, a very nice design option.) The writers drawn in to this project are a diverse and ecumenical bunch, delightfully interesting, it seems, and all actively involved in Christian formation, teaching, preaching or writing.  A quick glance over the contributors shows a number of folks I know, a number more I know of and trust. This is a goldmine and treasure-trove.

I raced through a book recently which I could hardly put down---it would make an ideal study for a young adult group, a culturally interested adult ed class, or a book to work through with a young person interested in popular culture.  Anyone who knows that it is important to study our social context---or, perhaps, those that don't--should be aware of this fun and interesting, alarming yet hopeful new book, The Trouble With Paris: Following Jesus in a World of Plastic Promises by Mark Sayers (Nelson; $14.99.)  It is fabulous, and that's no hype.

It might not be fully fair or adequate to describe the book as obliquely asking about the relationship between the high culture of Paris, France, and the high living of Paris Hilton; it is more generally about ultra-hip postmodern culture and the downward spiral of a life that buys into the superficial pleasures of Hollywood endings and media-promoted consumerism but ends with very little authenticity or joy. So forget Paris, it is about Yourtown, USA, Mytown, PA; it is about you and me and nearly every single young person you know.  From our obsessions with reality TV to internet addictions, from media-drenched teenage materialists to aging boomers thinking of church leadership in terms of celebrity, from the glamour of magazine ads to the impact of photo-shopping and computer-enhanced images, we are all stuck in a world that is, if I may use the old fashioned Christian word laden with negative connotations, worldly.  And, ironically, increasingly surreal, what Sayers called hyper-real. 

Mark Sayers isn't a curmudgeon or naysayer, though, nor is he an overly pious prude.  He's taken with the joys and blessings of pop culture, aware of ways modern technologies and contemporary trends have enhanced our lives.  Still, he's a cultural critic of the first order, well-read in everything from Postman to Baudrillard, citing Vincent Miller and John Kavanaugh against consumerism and David Myers and Barney Schwartz on the paradoxes of choice.  How many evangelical authors cite Jurgen Moltmann and John Piper, Jeremy Rifkin and Julian of Norwich, Ravi Zacharias and Leslie Newbigin ?  How many postmodern scholars cite Zygmunt Bauman and Abraham Heschel? 

Which is to say not only is this a culturally aware work, a well-written, interesting and fresh look at the "plastic promises" of this Paris propensity (sorry) but it is theologically rich, Biblically grounded, evangelically spirited.  It isn't just a jeremiad against 21st century forms of hot-wired worldliness, but is a sophisticated and insightful exploration of how such hyper-reality erodes real life, distorts our views of ourselves, even distorts faith itself. Sayers is Australian, friends with Alan Hirsch (The Forgotten Ways) and the Red Network.  He is missional, creative, energetic, wholisitic---the big ending to this, the last few chapters, are about living redemptively in the real world in ways that I believe are really right on, down to Earth, thank God!  It is to the books credit that its solid call for embodied whole-life discipleship is the sort that has garnered rave reviews from Gregory Laughery, a thoughtful teacher at the Swiss L'Abri (and author of the fabulous Living Spirituality), from social activist Shane Claiborne and Presbyterian pastor/writer John Ortberg.

The Trouble With Paris by Mark Sayers is a very approachable and interesting study of the false realities of our age;  indeed, it exposes how we've been ripped off by our culture's version of reality.  The reign of God, living faithfully in a human and humane way in God's good creation, under Christ's Lordship, finding spiritual presence in the midst of the ordinary real, is the Biblical antidote to the trap of the sexualized, slick version of a hyper-reality offered by Paris et al.

It wouldn't be a hip and user-friendly text, though, if it didn't have a multi-media component, so, happily, there is a 4-week DVD curriculum that we also stock, making it (I'm smiling a bit as I write this) a subversive use of the electronic media for saner, wiser purposes.  Check out the very active Paris website, and grab a few clips to see if it might be useful for you or your group.   It sells for $39.99 and there are extra participants guides available as well which will walk you into the trouble, and serve as a guide to a way through to the really really.  A few groups that have used it and have written on line have suggested it is a great conversation starter, stimulating reflection and well worth the cost.
 

Near the end of April, I did a blog post announcing some wonderful new books on spirituality, such as the new Richard Foster, a new Brian McLaren (the first in the Ancient Practices series), a new one on praying the daily offices by Robert Benson, and a similiar, fabulous one on being attentive to God throughout the day by Leighton Ford. There were some blog discount specials offered, too, as I recall. 

 I promised I would describe these fantastic, rich books a bit more in an upcoming monthly column, and I realize I've never directed you to that long piece, naming other books and reviewing some other new ones, too (like the new John Eldridge---betchaya want to know what I say about that, now, doncha?)  Check it all out, here. I trust it will be good for your soul.

By the way, this week, I've read more carefully the most recent Gary Thomas, called The Beautiful Fight: Surrendering to the Transforming Presence of God Every Day Your Life (Zondervan; $14.95) (the title is a nod to an Orthodox phrase, actually.) This was just fabulous and I can't recommend it strongly enough. As usual, Thomas show he is ecumenical and widely read, and yet utterly reliable theologically, pleasantly written with lots of moving, faith-filled stories.  Four stars, that one.  I read it along side good, challenging, stuff by Dallas Willard (I'm listening to Renovation of the Heart on CD, too) and the very useful and wide-ranging, really smart book that I call "spirituality as worldview formation", Metamorpha: Jesus as a Way of Life by Kyle Leeson Strobel (Baker; $14.99.)  I didn't mention these in the April column, since they aren't brand new, but they would have fit in nicely.

We had a thrilling time in Pittsburgh, selling the very thoughtful, accessible and nicely written New York Times best-seller, A Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, at the author appearance with Rev. Tim Keller.  I hope you read our last post about him, and followed some of the good links.  If you wanted to hear his presentation, here is a podcast video version of one that, I'm guessing, was very similar, done in Berkley California.

We still have some of these for sale for $20 if anybody needs to order any this week (while supplies last.) 

Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall was certainly one of the most ornate locations in which I've ever had the privilege of selling books. Even though the lecture attracted causally dressed college students and working class pastors alongside the well-heeled from Pittsburgh elite circles, it was a thoroughly classy evening, with  Keller's literate presentation a perfect fit for the thoughtful crowd in that elegant setting.  We thank the CCO for allowing us to be the bookseller, and thank the Kellers for their friendliness to us as we worked the gig.  After packing up and running some errands we eat a very late night meal with Derek & Scott, I ended up arriving home just before the sun came up Friday morning.  Whew.

What an extra thrill, then, to see that the UPS guy has just brought a big stack of a thick new book, the long-awaited and magisterial third volume in John M. Frame's "Theology of Lordship" series.  Entitled The Doctrine of the Christian Life, (P& R) this weighs in at over 1000 pages and sells for $45.95.  It is classic Frame at it's best, I'm told, with rave, rave, rave reviews from serious Reformed writers, ethicists and Biblical scholars (like Richard L. Pratt and P. Andrew Sandlin.)  As therapist David Powlison puts it, "Frame sets forth God's commandments as broad and deep, as sweetly adaptable to the varieties of human experience.  He shows how the person, promises, and actions of our redeemer God are always intrinsic to our wisdom, faith and love.  He sets forth a vision for the Christian life that, in fact, glorifies the God of glory."

Frame is a brilliant teacher of ethics, complex and fair and thorough, utterly sound and faithful to Biblical revelation.  He's aware of the disagreements within the broader Christian community, is widely read in all kinds of literature, and knows post-Reformation Reformed thinking better than most.  He is trying hard not to capitulate to secularized categories (conservative, liberal) but is holding up a standard of radical Christian perspective.

The Doctrine of the Christian Life may spend more time on methodological questions than typical readers may wish, and there will be sections some may want to skim through (skim through a full half, and you still get your money's worth!)  Still, the vast amount of material, the lucid account of how decisions are made and ethics developed, and the deeply pastoral desire to help folks address relevant contemporary topics makes this the sort of significant resource that isn't often published.  Kudos to the publisher, Presbyterian & Reformed,  for their brave commitment to such sound thinking, for vital book publishing, and for daring to release such a massive volume of such serious stuff.  May many find it worth owning, and may many learn to live out this vision of the Lordship of Christ, across every sphere of life and culture.
 
Frame unpacks all of this carefully---exploring what we mean by culture, explaining various schools of thought about spiritual maturity, teaching solid stuff about church, world, Kingdom... Sadly, not many church folk know this kind of material very well, but it is a splendid example of the renaissance of thoughtful evangelical literature, and it would be a useful resource to have in church libraries.  (His long and detailed study of the application of the Ten Commandments is itself for thorough than many lesser books on the subject. Anybody teaching on this subject will have to consult this.)  I am not using bookseller hype when I say this is magisterial;  I am aware that I disagree with the good doctor on several important matters, but that is just beside the point.  This book is an amazing contribution to the scholarly field of Christian living, ethics, and seriously Christian witness in public life. 

One need not have read the previous two, but I thought I'd name them, here.  The first was The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God and the next was The Doctrine of God.  It is in these seminal texts that he develops his thought about multi-dimensional knowing, applied, then to our relationship with God.


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