![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I actually forgot to post last month’s update, and almost forgot this month’s update, and considering how much reading I got done, it’s probably just as well. But you’re all here for the book reviews, I know, so here you go.
Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith by Marcus J. Borg by Marcus J. Borg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ten years ago, I read The Jesus I Never Knew, in which Christian journalist Philip Yancey revisited the Gospels to reconcile the “real” Jesus with the various versions that churches and religious leaders tend to present circa 1995 when the book was published – i.e. the perfect Anglo-Saxon one you see in paintings, or the All-American one often invoked by the Christian Coalition, etc. Recently I came across this book (published a year earlier) that covers similar ground from a different angle.
Marcus Borg was a scholar who studied Jesus from a historical, secular point of view. But he was also a Christian who, like many Christians, found that the traditional religious image of Jesus he learned as a kid didn’t make much sense as he got older. It was through his research of the historical (which is to say human) Jesus – plus a few revelatory moments – that everything fell into place for him, and he was able to connect the historical Jesus with the “Christ of faith” – which is to say, the Christian traditions that proclaim Jesus as the Son of God.
Obviously, what readers make of Borg’s portrait of Jesus will depend on who Jesus is to them and how open-minded they are to consider other POVs. For me, it adds a new dimension to the human side of Jesus, which I’ve always found more interesting, and more relatable, than the divine side. I also like Borg’s take on Jesus as a “spirit person” [i.e. someone deeply in touch with the spirit of God], subversive sage, radical social prophet and movement founder who truly understood the human condition and offered the most viable solution, albeit one that’s neither easy nor fast.
Materiality as Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World by Walter Brueggemann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I haven’t read that much of Walter Brueggemann, but I’ve gotten a lot out of what little I’ve read so far. I picked up this one along with his book Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now based mainly on the titles. And while Sabbath as Resistance focused (at the risk of oversimplifying) on the role of Sabbath as a circuit-breaker from the endless work cycles of late-stage capitalism that prevents us from loving each other as Jesus commanded, this book focuses on how materiality (not to be confused with materialism) plays a similar role, and how churches should embrace it as part of their ministry.
The problem is that the church has focused more exclusively on the spiritual at the expense of the material realities of our earthly existence since around the 6th Century (not coincidentally, around the time that wealthy people began to dominate churches) on the grounds that – from God’s POV – the material world doesn’t matter as much as the spiritual afterlife. Brueggemann contends that the material world jolly well does matter, and that the Bible makes this clear repeatedly. In essence, God created the physical world for us to live in, while Jesus took physical form on Earth and spent most of his ministry attending to the material needs of people (healing the sick, feeding the hungry, etc). So how then can the material aspect of our existence not be important to God?
Brueggemann breaks this materiality down into five categories – food, money, the body, time, and place – and shows how the Bible tells us the church should be making use of all five as the basis for moral action to reject the consumerist junk-food materialism and endless work cycles that dominate our lives today. Obviously, opinions (and interpretations) will differ, and I’m no theologian. But I found it to be a provocative work that challenges churches – especially wealthy ones – to be more active in alleviating poverty, injustice, oppression, inequality, etc, rather than just telling everyone it’ll be better in heaven. His proposed solutions may seem impractical, but only if you view them as short-term solutions than a long-term goal.
Warm Worlds and Otherwise: James Tiptree by James Tiptree Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is my second time reading James Tiptree, Jr (a.k.a. Alice Sheldon) after Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home, her debut short-story collection which duly impressed me for the scope of its imagination alone. This collection was published two years later, and seems even more experimental than the first batch, with a number stories featuring a more stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach that I usually associate with the New Wave of SF in the 1960s.
Lead-off story “All The Kinds of Yes” is a good example, in which a telepathic shape-shifting alien lands in California and canoodles with a group of hippie anti-war protesters. An even greater example is "Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death" (winner of the Nebula Award for short story in 1974), narrated by Mogadeet, some kind of alien insect trying to comprehend his own life cycle and reminiscing about his mate and their short time together while she is eating him alive.
This collection was more of a mixed bag for me than the previous one, with more stories not really making an impression on me. On the other hand, the stories that do work are as brilliantly inventive as anyone could hope for. They also happen to be the more famous stories here, such as "The Women Men Don't See", in which a govt agent is stranded on a remote island with a woman who – much to his confusion – doesn’t seem to need comforting or protecting, not even when aliens suddenly show up. Also, extra points for "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (winner of the Hugo Award for novella in 1974) more or less predicting the rise of influencer culture.
View all my reviews
Getting warmer,
This is dF
Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith by Marcus J. Borg by Marcus J. BorgMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ten years ago, I read The Jesus I Never Knew, in which Christian journalist Philip Yancey revisited the Gospels to reconcile the “real” Jesus with the various versions that churches and religious leaders tend to present circa 1995 when the book was published – i.e. the perfect Anglo-Saxon one you see in paintings, or the All-American one often invoked by the Christian Coalition, etc. Recently I came across this book (published a year earlier) that covers similar ground from a different angle.
Marcus Borg was a scholar who studied Jesus from a historical, secular point of view. But he was also a Christian who, like many Christians, found that the traditional religious image of Jesus he learned as a kid didn’t make much sense as he got older. It was through his research of the historical (which is to say human) Jesus – plus a few revelatory moments – that everything fell into place for him, and he was able to connect the historical Jesus with the “Christ of faith” – which is to say, the Christian traditions that proclaim Jesus as the Son of God.
Obviously, what readers make of Borg’s portrait of Jesus will depend on who Jesus is to them and how open-minded they are to consider other POVs. For me, it adds a new dimension to the human side of Jesus, which I’ve always found more interesting, and more relatable, than the divine side. I also like Borg’s take on Jesus as a “spirit person” [i.e. someone deeply in touch with the spirit of God], subversive sage, radical social prophet and movement founder who truly understood the human condition and offered the most viable solution, albeit one that’s neither easy nor fast.
Materiality as Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World by Walter BrueggemannMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I haven’t read that much of Walter Brueggemann, but I’ve gotten a lot out of what little I’ve read so far. I picked up this one along with his book Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now based mainly on the titles. And while Sabbath as Resistance focused (at the risk of oversimplifying) on the role of Sabbath as a circuit-breaker from the endless work cycles of late-stage capitalism that prevents us from loving each other as Jesus commanded, this book focuses on how materiality (not to be confused with materialism) plays a similar role, and how churches should embrace it as part of their ministry.
The problem is that the church has focused more exclusively on the spiritual at the expense of the material realities of our earthly existence since around the 6th Century (not coincidentally, around the time that wealthy people began to dominate churches) on the grounds that – from God’s POV – the material world doesn’t matter as much as the spiritual afterlife. Brueggemann contends that the material world jolly well does matter, and that the Bible makes this clear repeatedly. In essence, God created the physical world for us to live in, while Jesus took physical form on Earth and spent most of his ministry attending to the material needs of people (healing the sick, feeding the hungry, etc). So how then can the material aspect of our existence not be important to God?
Brueggemann breaks this materiality down into five categories – food, money, the body, time, and place – and shows how the Bible tells us the church should be making use of all five as the basis for moral action to reject the consumerist junk-food materialism and endless work cycles that dominate our lives today. Obviously, opinions (and interpretations) will differ, and I’m no theologian. But I found it to be a provocative work that challenges churches – especially wealthy ones – to be more active in alleviating poverty, injustice, oppression, inequality, etc, rather than just telling everyone it’ll be better in heaven. His proposed solutions may seem impractical, but only if you view them as short-term solutions than a long-term goal.
Warm Worlds and Otherwise: James Tiptree by James Tiptree Jr.My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is my second time reading James Tiptree, Jr (a.k.a. Alice Sheldon) after Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home, her debut short-story collection which duly impressed me for the scope of its imagination alone. This collection was published two years later, and seems even more experimental than the first batch, with a number stories featuring a more stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach that I usually associate with the New Wave of SF in the 1960s.
Lead-off story “All The Kinds of Yes” is a good example, in which a telepathic shape-shifting alien lands in California and canoodles with a group of hippie anti-war protesters. An even greater example is "Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death" (winner of the Nebula Award for short story in 1974), narrated by Mogadeet, some kind of alien insect trying to comprehend his own life cycle and reminiscing about his mate and their short time together while she is eating him alive.
This collection was more of a mixed bag for me than the previous one, with more stories not really making an impression on me. On the other hand, the stories that do work are as brilliantly inventive as anyone could hope for. They also happen to be the more famous stories here, such as "The Women Men Don't See", in which a govt agent is stranded on a remote island with a woman who – much to his confusion – doesn’t seem to need comforting or protecting, not even when aliens suddenly show up. Also, extra points for "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (winner of the Hugo Award for novella in 1974) more or less predicting the rise of influencer culture.
View all my reviews
Getting warmer,
This is dF
