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        ‘Something isn’t working in the way we’re Christianity anymore’ (p 9), and here is McLaren’s attempt to identify both what isn’t working now’ and what is needed to make religious faith relevant, based on ten questions.

        The questions probe the nature and authority of the bible: is G-d? Who is Jesus? Can we talk about human sexuality? How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions? McLaren tries to identify a passage out of our conventional paradigm and a passage into new possibilities. He points out the extent to which the church functions in a Greco-Roman fashion; ‘what would we call the biblical story line isn’t the shape of the story of Adam and Abraham; it’s the shape of the Greek cultural narrative that Plato taught’ (p 37).

        This Greco-Roman perspective is marked by anxiety (the need to keep on top of things), by vulnerability to paranoia (‘theirs’ and ‘us’), hope for the future (‘they are gone’ and our group is normative’), life is an unending all-out war.

        Religious affiliation is dropping, and yet interest in spirituality is on the rose. Bass offers a fresh interpretation of the ‘spiritual but not religious’ trend. Some commentators say we are undergoing yet another revival; others say Christian belief and practice are being replaced by new ethical and religious choices.

        But Bass claims we are in a new spiritual awakening, a new kind of post-religious faith. She references the episodic American religious ‘awakenings’ (the first in 1740; the second, 1800-1830; the third, 1890-1920). The first marked the end of European styles of church organization; the second ended
        Calvinistic dominance and introduced new perspectives on free will; the third was marked by the social gospel movement and by Pentecostalism. She believes the fourth is marked by the end of Christian dominance in the United States, as emerging forms of pluralistic religions emerge and new institutions embody the new spirit.

        Citing pollsters’ analyses, she sees American faith as having undergone profound extensive reorientation away from internalized religion toward internalized spiritual experience; the Unites states is caught up with the throes of a spiritual awakening, a period of ‘religious and political transformation’ (p 5).

        Barthal and Edling work with Peacemaker Ministries, immersing themselves with the conflict and distress of entire congregations, becoming channels of G-d’s reconciling grace. Their model for redeeming church conflict is based on Acts 15, a recounting of the conflict in the early church; the model articulates four core principles: perspective, discernment, leadership, biblical response (p 19).

        Getting help by involving others outside the immediate problem areas is not always done; conflict tends to isolate people; many times we need to ‘get help’ by involving ‘assisted peacemaking responses’ (mediation, arbitration, accountability); they present a suggested four-step process: glorify G-d, get the log out of your own eye, gently restore, be reconciled. Dealing with conflicts in the life of the congregation is not so much about resolving specific problems as about seeing conflict as a means by which G-d is growing us into true children of G-d.

        Key to dealing with conflict is to recognize that the presenting issue is seldom the real issue: understand not only what people want but why. The writers give helpful suggestions about how to determine the best/real question in the situation (p 92). Essential in dealing with conflict is the need for congregational leaders to model shepherd leadership (p 138) and developing a caring/serving community (p 158).

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

        Brian McLaren identifies five themes in Hardin’s book: who is Jesus? What is the message of the bible? What is a relevant atonement theory? Is there an approach to violence and peacemaking? What kind of G-d do we believe in? (xiii) Hardin treats these themes, drawing especially on the work of Rene Girard (p 160); it is violence done to an innocent victim that is the key for interpreting the Bible!

        Hardin comments on the Emmaus bible study (Lk 24:13-33); it was the forgiveness expressed by G-d in this resurrected Jesus that collapsed all the previous theological ideas and assumptions. Their theologies dictated a violent or retributive response by G-d (p 28). We need to read the bible from the perspective of Jesus, Hardin pleads, and Jesus talks of a relational G-d, not a retributive G-d: relation to Abraham, to Israel, to Jesus.

        Corinthian Christians did not automatically abandon the culturally accepted ways of doing things in Corinth. Paul was in Corinth for about eighteen months; why didn’t he respond to many initial issues only after they were raised by letter or verbally, from Corinth?  He had shared instructions (‘traditions’, 11:23, 15:1-4, and commended the Corinthians for following them (11:2).  Yet the Corinthians found it necessary to write Paul about six matters on which they lacked clarity (7:1,25; 8:1; 14:1; 16:1,12).

        These are basic issues readily faced after conversion to Christianity. Winter’s book reflects his convictions that Paul did not deal with many of the issues reflected in 1 Corinthians because they had not risen during his time there, or they had done so in a way different from that in which they were now encountering them.

        As a Roman colony, Corinth was highly susceptible to changes or trends in Rome itself.  Three major changes took place in the CE 50’s that had consequences for the social life after Paul left Corinth:  the creation of a federal imperial cult, the Isthmian Games (with the temptation to join in the eating festivities in pagan settings), severe grain shortages.  These changes occurred after Paul left Corinth.

        This is an incredibly rich collection of perspectives of the church and its relation to society, the relationship of Christian faith to politics. For some, ‘America is the New Empire, an incarnation of the empire of the apocalypse, the whore that deceives. For others, especially for those who take a Constantinian approach, the American Empire is salvation (p 12).

        This book reaction will touch on a few of the insightful perspectives given by the 14 contributors. Constantinianism is the commitment to the conviction that the state appropriately holds a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, that Christians should work within the structures of their legitimately violent states, taking up arms when called upon to do so and that history is best read through the eyes of people in power.

        Craig Carter writes about liberalism in the new Constantinianism characterized by four central concepts (freedom but from, not for, as Bonhoeffer develops it in Creation and Fall), desire (the quest for more), consumption (work as a necessary evil), progress.

        Martin Luther claims both scripture and ‘clear reason’ as the foundation of Christian faith (LW 32:112-113). Hearing the Word is an attempt to foster healthy conversation as it comments on the meaning and authority of scripture for Christian life and discipleship.

        Scripture is the living word which seeks to bring together in conversation both past and present (perhaps future, too!); it is not only a historical record of personal beliefs, but a record of G-d’s intent that ‘circumscribes us’ (p 9). Scripture brings together the experience of the writer and of the reader; experience reflected on is both the content and intent.

        Luther’s concept of the orders embedded in creation (priest, civil body, church and marriage) called for legitimation of the sword (LW 48:261-262).  (This is an issue I don’t follow: his use of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 are not legitimation of the state but of the basis of civic order.  But this illustrates the need to clarify our concepts of hermeneutics.)

        Raised Lutheran, Borg has been a professor theology both at the university level and as an Episcopalian theologian. Convictions reflects on the convictions that have shaped him, encouraging us to become more deeply rooted in the spiritual conviction that leads both us and our world to transformation and renewal.

        Borg sketches the church’s story, shaped both by Paul’s radical social insights, as well as an acquiescent approach to the dominant culture (patriarchy, slavery). He mentions the great schism, that in 1054 separated east from west (Orthodox from Catholic), and the changes in the 1500’s (the Reformation). Today the differences are not between denominations but between world views:  conservative, conventional, uncertain, former, progressive (p 8-14), world views held by groups that cross denominational lines.

        Borg identifies three kinds of changes (conversions) he has gone through (pp 31-35): intellectual, political and religious, and sketches the changes for him of different aspects of Christian faith: Easter (p 127), atonement (p 131), justice and violence (p 147), war (p 194).  A final chapter details what it means to love G-d (paying attention to G-d, loving what G-d loves, centering in G-d, compassion, freedom and courage, gratitude (p 209-231).