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        Boyd invites evangelical Christians to look carefully at how they make political choices and invites us to return to the love of Calvary and the way of the cross for life in our pluralistic society. ‘If we are to take our society back for G-d, it must have once belonged to G-d, but it’s not all clear where this golden Christian age was’ (p 98). ‘America as a nation has never looked remotely like Jesus’ (p 90).

        The way this nation was discovered, conquered and governed was a rather typical barbarian, violent, kingdom of the world affair. The Doctrine of Discovery and its applications had its origin in the Enlightenment, not in scripture.

        The concept of power is key to understand the political options; ‘power over’ marks the kingdom of the world, and ‘power under’ marks the kingdom of G-d (lion power versus lamb power).

        The Jesus way of ‘power under’ reveals the humble character of a servant: to become like children (‘there is no place for evaluating how important someone is on the basis of their power, possessions, money or social respect. Children have none of these’ (p 36), to wash feet, to heal an enemy, to live in love not because it works but because this is what G-d is doing). The two kingdoms are in contrast to each other: contrast of trust, of aims, of scope, of response, of battles (pp 47,48)—demonizing one’s enemies, whether from the right or from the left.

        A final chapter deals with five questions about how this applies to issues such as personal and public safety questions, and to the military complex in our society.

        A good treatment of the Jesus way of ‘power under’.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        Wright takes a fresh look at Paul, based on his Jewish roots, his Hellenistic environment, his attitude to the Roman empire and his reinterpretation of Jewish symbols and theology. The two major topics of this interpretation are Paul and the empire, and Paul’s eschatology.

        The traditional approach to apocalypticism held to G-d’s action in the demolition of this world and the establishment of something totally different. Eg the created order is divided into two, earth and heaven, in which the present wicked world is left to stew in its own juice while the saints are snatched to heaven to watch Armageddon from a ringside seat (p 141).

        In opposition to ‘rapture theology’, Wright carefully explicates 1 Thessalonians 4. The parousia is a court term. ‘It is what happens when a king is making a state visit to a city and he is thus ‘present’. As he approaches, the citizens come out to meet him, not to hold a meeting there but to escort him into the city (p 55). And the citizens welcome the king into their city—‘rapture theology’ has the people leaving the city, Wright’s exegesis sees a continuum of heaven and earth, not a dualism.

        Wright also points out the claim of Jesus, not Caesar, as Lord. ‘The symbol which had spoken of Caesar’s naked might now spoke of G-d’s naked love’ (p 73). And in all this, Wright keeps reminding the reader of the Hebrew theology speaking to these same issues.

        A wonderful look at major Pauline themes.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        State and church! Two entities in which we seek security. But Kavanagh is not so confident of that trust. The state has colonized the political imagination of Christians; we find it easy to assume that the nation-state promotes the common good, expecting salvation from that perspective and resorting to violence to defend them, thereby obscuring our identities as members of a different body, the body of Christ. The nation state is but relatively recent way of organizing bodies in space. What we need is a radical pluralism that allows for a plurality of states.

        And to keep our resources identifiable. The easiest option, eg in dealing with poverty, is for the church to mobilize new lobbying initiatives in the state legislature, rather than modeling Christians in a program of involvement, bypassing the people of G-d. The common good could mean the creation by the church itself of relationship in the community as opposed to advising the state on technocratic solutions to poverty.

        Cavanagh develops powerful metaphors to focus in the contribution of individuals: migrant, tourist, pilgrim, monk, and points out how easily we write people off as illegals; ‘the identity of the universal Christ is found in the one lonely migrant who knocks at the door, looking for rest (p 87).

        He pleads that we need an ecclesiology that is robust enough the counter the powers that be, but humble enough not to reproduce the exclusion and pride of those powers.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        The Judaeo-Christian bible has wonderful material: G-d as caring shepherd, erotic love poems. But it also has blessing for those who would seize Babylonian children and smash their skulls against the rocks (Psalm 137).

        The Qur'an, sacred scripture of Islam, urges believers to kill non-believers, but also commands that enemies should be shown mercy if they surrender. In contrast, some portions of the bible order the total extermination of enemies—of men, women and children and even the livestock, with no survivors. Or lauds a suicide attack by Samson (Judges 26).

        The problem of G-d and the presence of suffering asks, ‘how could G-d let such terrible things take place eg the holocaust. But the virtuous listing of ethnic cleansing demanded by G-d is not an example of ‘why do bad things happen to good people?’ but rather ‘why does G-d drive his people to do worse and worse things to selected groups?’ (p 8)

        Jenkins makes no attempt to see whether across the centuries more aggression and destruction have been undertaken in the name of Islam than of Christianity. But in terms of the violent focus of the fundamental scriptures, differences between the faiths are minimal (p 12). Those who see the bible as the authoritative book to follow omit major sections in an attempt to deal with unpalatable texts (the practise of ‘holy amnesia’).

        We need to be aware of the biblical tales of mandated atrocities, and to appreciate the different strategies Christians have used to deal with these stories. The more honestly believers comprehend their faith, including its most unsettling components, the better we can engage constructively with other religions, especially Islam and the Koran.

        A good book encouraging a careful look even at unsavoury sections in the bible and other faith depositories.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        ‘The ecological crisis is a spiritual crisis. It comes as a result of our alienation from nature…. Most of us no longer have a sense belonging to the earth, an experience of solidarity with plants and animals…. We have reduced nature to things’ (xiv).

        From this perspective comes Rhoads publication, with contributors writing from a spirituality rooted in creation. Eg the seminary where he teaches is designated a ‘green zone’, that attempts to identify what it means for his community and space to be ‘earth friendly in worship life, the educational program, the care for property, the personal commitment of the community members, and the responsibility to bring this concern before the wider public (xvii).

        Earth and Word contains 36 sermons on ‘Saving the Planet’. All of these are eminently worth reading (as they were worth listening to initially) and are faithfully exegetical (drawing heavily on Genesis, Psalms, the gospels, John. Far too large a range to deal with in a review, but a range that will provide resources for the pastor to be read as devotional literature, theological reflection, sermon projection, building worship material, and citing further resources.

        Among the most evocative of the best are James Cone (“Whose Earth is it, Anyway”), Ted Hiebert (“First Things First”), Ched Myers (“The Cedar Has Fallen: the Prophetic Word versus Imperial Clear Cutting”), Larry Rasmussen (“First and Everlasting Covenant”), George Tinker ( “Creation as Kin: an American Indian View”).

        But all helpful in focusing a theology of the created order and our part in it.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        Crossan starts by talking nicely and safely about parables, sharing little stories telling us to be nice. He identifies riddle parables (allegories) (Mark 4:23-27), example parables (practical, moral, religious)(Luke 15), and challenge parables. Challenge parables reverse the expectation and judgements, the presuppositions and prejudices of conventional hierarchically driven society, where ‘best people’ act badly and ‘worst people; act well.

        Crossan examines how the gospel writers often changed the material presented by Jesus, so that challenge parables become example parables (eg the Good Samaritan, Luke 10). A challenge parable challenges the normalcy of audience expectations, hierarchical prejudices and ethnic presuppositions (p 59).

        We find it difficult to hear the challenge. Eg the phrase ‘good Samaritan’ has become a redundant cliché, a simple term for somebody who helps another. We do not hear it as first century Jewish ears would have—as a cultural paradox, a social contradiction (p 60). ‘It is a story that challenges its listeners to think long and hard about their social prejudices, their cultural presumptions and even their most sacred religious traditions (p 62).

        Of particular interest to me was his treatment of Ruth, Jonah and Job as old testament book length challenge parables. ‘Ruth challenges a part of the Bible, Jonah challenges the whole of the Bible, and Job challenges the G-d of the Bible’ (p 67).

        Of exegetical interest is Crossan’s treatment of the gospel of John. John’s gospel speaks so readily against the Jews because it comes not from a Jew converted to Christianity, but from a Samaritan converted to Christianity. And the challenge is to both ‘the Jews’ and to the Roman Empire (p 242). ‘The power of Jesus’ parables challenged his followers to co-create with G-d a world of justice and love, peace and non-violence’ (p 257).

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        I find this older book continually useful in my current seminary teaching as we look at biblical themes in the 21st century. Grant sketches early Christianity and provides historical data about other religions and their theological ideas. This results in a lively summary of what the concept of G-d was in the first two centuries of the church, the concept of G-d and of Jesus as the early church sought to articulate the defining elements of G-d and of the nature of Jesus.

        Acts provides a wide geographical range of the material and the process that throughout the eastern Mediterranean world dealt with the picture of paganism in conflict with Christianity. (Grant could have given a little more detail of the conversation of faith in terms of the content of the sermons.)

        Grant writes clearly of the attraction Paul’s readers have of the gods of paganism, and sketches what ordinary people thought the gods did to humans (p 57). Gods had specialized functions (Athena taught the arts, Apollo taught divination (in fact, divination) predicting the future, was a key characteristic of the gods.

        Two chapters are given to the philosophical doctrines of G-d (in the pagan and in the Jewish-Christian writings). And Grant looks at early Christian theology (the questions), at the beginnings of Christology, at the contributions of Paul, at the contribution of other early theologians. One chapter treats the Holy Spirit.

        Other religions had no creeds, no councils with debates over philosophical theology. Christianity took the faith traditional in the second century and then the ’logical implications of philosophy were worked out on the basis of the leading philosophers’ (p 174).

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        Rasmussen is one of our most creative thinkers, whose concern with ethics keeps religious faith relevant and forward looking. Voyager 1 was on its way out of the solar system when it photographed each planet it had passed In some of the photos a pale blue dot appeared. Carl Sagan featured that dot. ‘That’s home,’ he said; ‘That’s home for everyone you ever heard of, lived there on that mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam’ (p 3).

        On a different scale, ‘our very being was shaped by a seamless series of an ever changing ecosphere… Its ability to support humans into a distant future was not on the line…. But now it is… We’ve been burning through the five pools of relatively non-renewable energy, the first of which is soil. (Forests, coal, oil, and natural gas are others.) (p 205)

        Earth can industrialize but once in the manner and on the scale it has. ‘Not good ideas but anticipatory communities meeting adaptive challenges’ are needed (p 226), and religious communities are essential for these challenges. ‘Those who believe and humble themselves before their Lord, they will be companions of the garden.’ (Qur’an, Sutra 11:23). ‘There is no separation between what our surroundings do to us and what we do to our surroundings’ (p 19). Key is the loss of ‘fertile crescents’.

        A study of the soils of the middle east found sobering results: washed off soils, silted canals, meagre flora and fauna, ruins of dead cities (p 195). The zoo in us makes up 10% of our dry body weight; we have an inner ecosystem in which each of us is home to something like 100 trillion microbes (p 21).

        The book is a wondrously evocative treatment of us bipeds with giant dreams. ‘We need to confront the disorder that believes G-d cares only for human beings, and that people can flourish while the memberships of creation languish (p 359). We need to cultivate the empathetic mind in contrast to the reductionist, utilitarian mind (p 363).

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        The Christian’s hope, says Wright is intertwined with how we live today; Christianity’s most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death.

        If G-d intends to renew the whole creation (begun in Jesus’ resurrection), the church cannot stop at ‘saving souls’ but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working in G-d’s kingdom in the wider world. Earth is where G-d’s reign will take place, which is why the new Testament regularly speaks not of our going to be where Jesus is (going to heaven) but of his coming to where we are: earth (p 190).

        Teaching about King Jesus as Lord (G-d’s kingdom) has as its basis the resurrection—not his parable, not his healings, not even his death (p 243). ‘The power of Easter (resurrection) must be put into effect both at the macro level, in applying the gospel to the major problem of the world and to the intimate details of our daily lives’ (p 253). ‘The church that takes sacred space seriously not as a retreat from the world but as a bridge head will go straight from worshipping in the sanctuary to debating in the city council chambers’ (p 265).

        The church must learn the arts of celebration without compromise and of opposition without dualism (p 269). The new creation which Jesus brings to us (not the ‘left behind stuff’ when we leave the creation behind as we are swept into the clouds) will be characterized by justice (p 213), beauty (222) and evangelism (p 223). ‘Precisely because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, G-d’s new world has already broken in to the present’ (p 213).

        A wonderful treatment of the centrality of Jesus’ resurrection for our daily life.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

        Ehrman sketches the diverse, variegated Christian groupings in the modern world, and in the first three centuries of the church’s story, summarizing varied practices and beliefs of those who called themselves Christians.

        Most of these ancient forms of Christianity eventually came to be reformed or stamped out, and the sacred texts Christians used to support their religious perspectives have been destroyed or forgotten or lose. Ehrman sketches the wide range of writings of the early church—acts, gospels, epistles, gospels, apocalypses—and reflects on ‘what was both lose and gained when these books, and the Christian perspectives they represented, disappeared from sight’ (p 4). This process represented both gain and loss; what if some other form of Christianity had won the early struggle for dominance?

        Ehrman identifies especially three groups: Jewish-Christian Ebionites, anti-Jewish Marcionites, gnostics. And standing over against each of these groups was the form of Christianity that endorsed the beliefs and practices that eventually dominated the religion toward the middle of the third century (he calls this expression of Christianity the ‘Proto-orthodox’); out of these conflicts the New Testament being. (Significantly, these confrontations were waged on largely literary grounds, thereby shaping the canonical process.)

        Ehrman comments on the significance of this one form of Christianity over the others, and what was lost when so many forms of Christianity and the texts they espoused came to be lost to posterity—only to be found again in our time.

        He stresses that we need to recognize that alternative understandings of Christianity from the past can be cherished today; they can provide insights about our world and G-d’s actions in that world. Our own religious histories are comprised not only of the beliefs and practices that remerged as victorious (proto-Orthodox), but also ‘those that were overcome, suppressed and eventually lost’ (p257).

        A book that reminds us of the complex history of our religion.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.