Donald Bloesch, A Theology of Word and Spirit

A Theology of Word and Spirit is the first volume in Bloesch's Christian Foundations series, a seven-volume systematic theology. In it he outlines the methodology behind his theology, looking at a umber of important issues in the way theology is done.

Bloesch takes on some very important theological issues in this opening volume of his series, such as the role of rationality and the mind in faith and the place of natural theology. His discussions are much too comprehensive to simply summarize here, but we can at least illumine a few of his main themes. One of the most important is his understanding of the role of the mind in faith, what he calls "fedeistic revelationalism," a position that intentionally stands between "fedeism" (faith is an act of the will apart from rational thought, or in fact an irrational decision) and "rationalism" (faith is a reasoned decision based on the evidence). For Bloesch, both of these positions preserve important facets of how we believe, but also distort the truth of the gospel. Bloesch emphasizes that faith is a response to God's revelation, not simply a summing up of the evidence, nor a decision that is made completely without warrant. God's Spirit plays a key role in this whole process. This points to another important theme in Bloesch's theology, that it is a theology "of Word and Spirit." He is committed to a theology that is anchored to God's Word, Jesus Christ, revealed in Scripture, and always gives full credit to the moving of God's Spirit, who illumines God's words and guides God's people. This makes for a theology that is Christ-centered, Scripture-based, and always sensitive to God's Spirit.

Bloesch is a "mediating theologian," an evangelical that finds himself in between the progressive theology of liberalism and the conservatism of much evangelical theology. In his irenic theology, he dialogues with both, but points out extremes and misunderstandings in both systems of theologizing. His theology shows much evidence of the stamp of Karl Barth, and in many ways it is an "evangelical" morphing of Barth's theology, especially as it is an outworking of Barth's threefold doctrine of the Word of God. In many ways, I think this is a profound strength, in carrying out a profoundly evangelical theology that is based on God and his revelation found in his Word, instead of based primarily on a rationalistic doctrine of Scripture. Bloesch can uphold the importance of Scripture as a locus of God's revelation and the norm for theology without flirting with bibliolotry. How successful he is will have to be decided after a more careful look at the second volume of his Christian Foundations on Holy Scripture.

Over all, Bloesch's A Theology of Word and Spirit is a very worth-while exercise in theology. It gives evidence of a lifetime of prayerful reflection on these things, and is truly a mature theology that is aware of the great thinkers of theology through the centuries.

Ted Bell, Hawke

Ted Bell's Hawke is an adventure-filled novel of espionage and intrigue. Bell writes very much in the mold of Clive Cussler, with a wealthy, world-traveling hero fighting crime as a hobby. The story involves a plot by three Cuban brothers to seize Cuba from Castro and then, with the help of a secret Russian sub, to hold the world at bay. It turns out that these three brothers are the same people who killed Hawke's parents when he was a child, while he looked on from a secret cabinet in their family's yacht. So Hawke's defeat of the plot is also a personal vindication.

The book was a fun read, with many ups and downs and lots of adventure, though it was often pretty far fetched, again, in the mold of Clive Cussler. But an enjoyable romp, none the less.

Scot McKnight, Jesus and His Death

In Jesus and His Death, Scot McKnight undertakes a historical look at how Jesus understood his own death. He begins with a study of the "historiography" of Jesus studies, looking at the historical methods currently in use, often in the background, in studies about Jesus and the New Testament, broadly categorizing them as modernist or postmodernist in orientation. After surveying this turf, he goes on to investigate how Jesus' death has been understood in modern studies of Jesus, largely concluding that in many cases Jesus' death is a neglected or at least under-emphasized facet of his life. (Which, this seems odd considering it's prominence in Paul's theology; though on the other had that might partly explain it, considering the orientation of many of the Jesus studies these days.) He then goes on in chapter three to "reclaim" Jesus death as an important focus of study.

Part two of his book is an initial investigation into the role Jesus' death played in h is life. He begins by looking at the question of whether Jesus expected a premature death, concluding minimally that after John the baptizer's death, it couldn't have been far from Jesus mind; that is, his own death was a possibility. But he begins building from that point by moving on to consider whether Jesus considered it more than mere possibility, but also a probability; was it something he expected? To investigate this question, McKnight surveys many strands of the Gospel narratives, making the argument that though Jesus didn't want to die, he came to see it as a likely outcome of his ministry, and that he expressed this as having a "temporary presence" with his disciples, and further, that he saw his likely death as part of the Final Ordeal, infusing it with eschatological significance, even to the point of seeing his death as representative for his followers.

Part three of McKnight's study focuses more specifically on how Jesus understood his own death as atoning, and specifically if he understood it as a ransom. This focuses the discussion on Mark 10:45, the saying about Jesus' death being a ransom for many. In this investigation he looks at allusions to Isaiah, the context of the saying, and many other factors in evaluating the authenticity of the saying. And the verdict isn't clear. The possibility that it is a later addition is strong. So this leads McKnight to investigate the remainder of the Jesus tradition to see if the saying gains support from other places as something Jesus would have said. This includes looking at how Jesus understood his own role (was it like Isaiah's servant, a role that would point toward "ransom" language or more like a son of man or some other mold?), concluding that servant imagery didn't play a prominent role in Jesus' self-understanding, but that son-of-man imagery was prominent. His investigation continues, with studies of other "scripture prophets" to whom Jesus can be compared, and with the passion predictions. Then, in part four, he undertakes an in-depth study of the last supper traditions, to shed some light on how Jesus understood his life and death.

Ultimately, McKnight concludes that the ransom saying in Mark 10:45 is likely a Markan gloss, and that Mark indeed understood Jesus' death as a ransom for many, paying the price to liberate Jesus' followers from a hostile power. So what of Jesus and his death? His first emphasis is that "Jesus' mission is more than a 'mission to die'" (336). Though it indeed turned out to also be that. Jesus called on God to avoid his upcoming death, but ultimately saw it as his own role in God's providence. So what of atonement? Jesus saw his death as a representative death, having value for his followers, and probably even as vicarious, taking the place of others. This is intimately caught up with the fact that his death was part of the "Final Ordeal," the inbreaking of God's kingdom into the present and the fulfillment of God's plans for the world.

But more must be said. The early church didn't confine it's reflection of Jesus' death to these themes, but plumbed the depths of Scripture and reflected on Jesus' life and death to come up with deep, rich, and varied expressions of the significance of Jesus death. And McKnight finishes up his book surveying these developments. In the end, he points beyond the "how" of atonement to the "whereunto": "the design of the atonement," he writes, "is to create a community, an ecclesia, a koinonia, a zoe, a new creation" (371). That is where he sees the center of the New Testament's message about Jesus and his death, a message that goes back to Jesus himself. Jesus death "would protect them, liberate them, and usher them into the kingdom of God" (372). That's a pretty robust place to start in reflecting on the atonement.

Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book

In Eat This Book, Peterson continues the work he began in his masterful Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places to construct a "spiritual theology." And in this book, he takes up "spiritual reading." Peterson guides into an intentional encounter with the Bible by focusing not just on the fact that we read the Bible, but in focusing on how.

Peterson's focus can be summed up by the guiding metaphor that gives the book its title: eat this book. The metaphor comes from the book of Revelation, where an angel tells John the Seer to eat the scroll he gives him containing God's word. Peterson molds this rather cryptic command into a well-shaped image of how we should take the Bible in when we read it. Scripture isn't for external study, for quantifying or disecting, but it is first and foremost for taking in, digesting, and living.

Near the end of the book, Peterson contrasts two types of readings of the Bible, when he says that instead of treating the Bible as a "thing, an impersonal authority . . . to define or damn others" we should deal "with God's word in a personal, relational, and obedient way." This means acknowledging that it contains "words that mean, that reveal, that shape the soul, that generate saved lives, that form believing and obedient lives" (139-40). This is the journey he leads us on through this book. First recognizing that the Bible reveals a "strange new world," to use Barth's idea, and that we need to enter that world and be shaped by it. So he teaches us how to do that, by being carefully attuned listeners, obedient listeners.

I highly recommend this book. It has rekindled in me a passion for reading God's word, and helped remind me of how I should be doing it and why. We read God's word to be formed by it, and Peterson helps bring this home. Do not miss this book.

John Grisham, The Innocent Man

Grisham's latest legal thriller, The Innocent Man, is a work of non-fiction. In it, Grisham brings to life the story of Ron Williamson, a troubled young baseball star who is convicted for the brutal rape and murder in Ada, Oklahoma. Grisham follows this true story of a brutal rape and murder in a small town. Progress on the investigation is slow, but finally, after a couple years, suspicion comes to rest on two men, Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz, and they are arrested for the murder. And after a closely-watched trial, are convicted, and Ron is sentenced to death. Meanwhile, the killer, whose name was in the police record from the first night, still hasn't even been interviewed by the police.

It is sometimes said that truth is stranger than fiction, and this book illustrates it. One would continually get the feeling that Grisham was stretching things too far--police wouldn't be so misguided; one person's life couldn't be so tragic--except that it is true. The crime scene investigator exhumes the victim's body a couple of years after her death to try a new match with a bloody palm print found at the scene. The first time it was compared with the victim, shortly after her death, it was ruled that it couldn't be hers. But after a couple years, the examiner decides that the smudged palm print does in fact match with the print of the exhumed body (meaning it's not the print of a suspect, which is significant since it doesn't match up with any of their suspects, including Ron or Dennis), and go on to arrest their two suspects. The miscarriage of justice continues throughout the trial phase, with hearsay and supposition leading to conviction and death sentence.

Only after many years in jail, and a very perceptive legal clerk and justice finally noticing the weakness of the case as it makes its way through the mandatory appeals process does the truth come out. And Ron, a man who has lived for years in horrible conditions on death row, is finally freed.

Grisham's book is a good one, and it can favorably stand up to comparison with is fiction. But it also raises some important questions. First, Ron wasn't able to afford the quality of defense that could counter the resources of the prosecution, especially when it came to expert witnesses and forensic evidence, so how does our legal system ensure a fair trial. Second, what do we do with people who are innocent but convicted? And, even more importantly, how do we insure that innocent people don't end up on death row (at this same time another pair from the same town ended up on death row while also innocent of their crimes)? It's some good food for thought about the death penalty itself . . . what is the price for killing innocent people? Is it too high for the state and for our society?

The Innocent Man is a great read, detailing a dramatic and often painful miscarriage of justice in a small town. It raises great issues and also helps get into the life of one troubled man in a troubled town.

Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God

What is the Bible all about? Is it a random collection of writings about people who have experienced God? Is it one story about Israel and another somehow connected story about Jesus? In this masterful work, Christopher Wright sets out to demonstrate that the Bible, from start to finish, can be read as focusing on God's mission: in both the Old and New Testaments, God is on the move.

The depth of Wright's book is too much to summarize here, beyond surveying the ground he covers and discussing a few of the high points along the way. He begins by discussing hermeneutics, that is, how we read the Bible and what we see when we do, and the argument he makes there is that instead of mining the Bible for insights about "missions," we should instead look for God's mission that permeates the pages of the Bible. It's not about searching for texts that tell us to go to the nations, but instead about being attuned to what God is doing and finding our part in it.

To flesh out this them, and to demonstrate how it is one way of showing the unity of the Bible, Wright begins with God, looking at who God revels himself to be and what God reveals himself to be doing in the world. This involves especially the fundamental notion of God's uniqueness, the foundation of biblical monotheism. The second foundational idea about God is that God wants to be known by that which he has created. God has revealed himself in many and various ways. The final investigation Wright undertakes with regard to God's identity is an extended investigation into the theme of idolatry, a major theme especially of the Old Testament, where he demonstrates that the constant prohibitions of idolatry over and over show God's desire to be known and Israel's conviction (though often forgotten) that God is the only true God.

After establishing who God has revealed himself to be, Wright goes on in part 3, the most substantial part of the book, to look carefully at "The People of Mission." This begins with the programmatic and foundational text of God's covenant with Abraham, with special focus on God's commitment to bless Abraham and bless the world through him. This statement of God's intention really sums up what God is doing, and signals a major shift after the rather dismal happenings in Genesis 3-11. After humans have broken their relationship with God and utterly messed up God's good creation, God steps in on a mission, a mission of blessing. And the way God goes about it is through Abraham. God makes a particular choice, of Abraham and his descendants, but God is not playing favorites. Instead, God chooses the particular for the sake of the universal. Abraham is a man with a mission, he is a man whom God chooses to use to begin the reconciliation of the whole world. Wright investigates these themes, and especially the two poles of universal and particular, as he goes on to discuss election and the people of Israel as God's missional people. He then goes on to investigate God's redemption of his people, through the programmatic story of the exodus, and God's model for restoration, the Jubilee year. Wright then gives special attention to the covenants of God with his people, in Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the New Covenant, showing how they trace God's mission throughout Israel's formative statements. He then concludes his discussion of God's people with a look at the ethical implications of God's mission and election, with a discussion of the role of the law as the instrument of God's purposes and blessing in the world. Each of these topics could warrant a full discussion, and some of them will probably warrant revisiting, but, in short, Wright traverses the span of the Old Testament showing that God is up to something, and Israel is where it begins, but certainly not where it ends. Through it all, there is always at least an eye to the nations (God's eye, if not always Israel's).

In the final part of the book, Wright broadens his scope to what he calls the "arena" of God's mission. Where is this mission situated, and who is involved. He begins with the whole earth, with a sustained and insightful discussion about the care of the earth, integrating creational responsibility into missional activity. He steps into what is often a sensitive issue in many evangelical camps with a clear and balanced call to take note of God's whole creation, and to care for it as part of God's mission, all the while noting that this doesn't mean a divinization of that creation. Instead he shows how care of creation is a part of our mission, how it fits with the larger picture of what God is doing in the world, and how it embodies the mission we as God's people are supposed to have to the world. He then goes on to discuss humanity as the field of God's mission, beginning with a discussion of humanity in God's image, demonstrating that we have been made for relationship with God, and that is God's intention for all people. He concludes the chapter with an insightful look at the Wisdom literature of the Bible, investigating how it incorporates the "wisdom" of other cultures (always critically) and can demonstrate how to create an international or cross-cultural bridge in our proclamation of God's truth. He also has a very insightful and important excursus in the middle of this chapter on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the mission of God's people in the world. It provides a clarion call to take note of opportunities to be part of what God is doing here on Earth and to note the opportunities to undertake God's work. Wright then concludes his discussion of the arenas of mission with a look at the "nations" in first the Old Testament and then in the New Testament. The Old Testament has a persistent eye on the nations, with Israel declared to be a nation of priests for God, but the fullness of God's plan for the full incorporation of the nations isn't fully made known until the New Testament, when this persistent vision of inclusion and universality is given God's means, in Jesus Christ. Finally, God's eschatological promises of the gathering of the nations, of the universality of God's blessing, are made known and are under way.

Christopher Wright's book, The Mission of God, is a spectacular work of theology. He achieves his goal of showing that God's mission is the underlying "grand narrative" of the Bible, from first chapter to last. Wright goes far beyond a "theology of mission" to demonstrate that "mission" itself is what God is all about, and it is God's mission that we need to take not of. Our "missions" are derivative and secondary, even as they are important.

Wright, as an Old Testament scholar, focuses especially on the Old Testament texts, but this is, I think, one of the greatest strengths of the book, for he demonstrates the broad sweep of who God is and what God is doing, painting a coherent and continuous picture from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. In fact, this book would be well used as an exercise in Old Testament Theology, as well as a book investigation the whole Bible, for he illumines most of the major themes of the Old Testament, creation, covenant, election, ethics and law, and fits them together into an elegant mosaic of God's purposes.

The Mission of God is technical at times, but still highly readable, and I recommend it enthusiastically. It helps bring to life the Old Testament, showing that it isn't just dusty literature with a few important prophecies, but that it is the very heart of God's revelation, brought to completion (not obscurity) in Jesus Christ. Wright does Christians a service, in showing what the Bible is all about, and I think he succeeds in showing that God is on a mission, and that this theme unifies the narrative of the Bible.

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

In The Divine Conspiracy, philosopher Dallas Willard paints a compelling picture of the Christian Life by investigating what God is doing in the world, and how humans can experience it.

Willard begins by laying out some of the problems he sees in our world, and in Christianity, today. These include the erosion of "truth" and abosolutes in our culture, and the loss of the depth of the meaning of the gospel message. He then sets out to reconstruct a clear picture of what it means to be a Christian, and what that type of Christ-life should look like. To do this, he gives us a prolonged reflection on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' in-depth discussion of what life in his Kingdom is like. Instead of letting the Sermon be a pie-in-the-sky ideal, Willard fleshes out the deep logic behind it, and makes it something that we live. The insight of these reflections alone, and the recovery of the power of Jesus' teaching make this book worth reading. But Willard doesn't stop there.

One of the basic insights that undergird Willard's discussion is that if Jesus was who he said he was, and who we say we believe he is, then he was and is brilliant. We should listen closely to what he says, and learn to follow it. This insight takes him through a careful reading of the Sermon on the Mount, and also leads him into an investigation of Christian discipleship. More than just being a Christian who "grows," discipleship is acknowledging Jesus as brilliant, and then resolving to really become his students. We seek to learn from Jesus about the true nature of reality and of our own existence, and then resolve to actually obey, to actually live as if these things were true. Disciples delve into the deep reality of God, and constantly strive to keep him before their minds. This results in a true knowledge of God that effects our entire lives. And it brings us deeper into the eternal life that we have been given, kingdom-life. And all throughout the book, Willard stresses that "eternal life" isn't merely a life that never ends, "fire insurance" against future judgment, but is instead true, abundant life in God's kingdom that starts here and now.

He concludes the book by discussing the "Restoration of All Things," the final coming of the kingdom in its fullness. Truly appreciating the end means acknowledging the present in its truest reality and purpose. And Willard helps us to see that as we understand God's plans and intentions, we appreciate him more and understand our own lives more fully within God's plan.

The Divine Conspiracy is one of the best books I've ever read, and one I highly recommend. When I finished reading it, I just put my bookmark back in the front and started over. There are so many deep and profound insights into what it means to live a life devoted to God. Eternal life is here already, and Willard has helped me to see and appreciate it, and helped me to pull so many threads of Christian thought together into a coherent and compelling vision of life in God, kingdom-life, a life as a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ.

C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

In this second (or fourth) book in the Chronicles of Narnia, the four kids (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) fid themselves tumbling back into Narnia. One second they are sitting on the platform of a train station waiting to go back to school, the next second they find themselves in the woods of Narnia.

As they explore, they discover the ruins of Cair Paravel, their castle from the previous visit to Narnia: this visit is unknown years later in Narnia, even though they're only a bit older by Earthly standards. After reclaiming their armor and gifts from Aslan from the buried treasure chamber of the castle, they set out. Soon after leaving, they come across a Dwarf who is being left for dead by some soldiers in the water. So they rescue him and hear his story, the story of Prince Caspian.

Prince Caspian is a Telamarine (the race of humans now inhabiting Narnia), the son of the dead king. His uncle is currently ruling the kingdom. He has been learning about the "old" Narnians from his nurse, and then from his tutor, Doctor Cornelius. Then one day, he needs to flee: his uncle has had a son, and is no longer content to let his nephew reign, even if he is the proper heir. So Caspian flees west from Telmar. And while he was riding, he hit a tree and was knocked unconscious. When he awoke, he found himself in the care of a badger and two dwarfs: he had stumbled onto old Narnia. Word sprea that the rightful king had come, but the celebration is muted when Doctor Cornelius shows up to tell everyone that King Miraz, Caspians wicked uncle, has gotten wind of Caspian's destination and that old Narnia is awakened, and he is setting out with his armies to destroy it. So as the Telamarines approached, he sounded Queen Susan's horn, which promised to bring help. And he dispatched messengers to the old centers of the kingdom to look for whatever help might come. And that is why the dwarf, Trumpkin, was in the neighborhood of Cair Paravel.

After relating these events to the kids/kings and queens, they all set out toward Aslan's How, to see what could be done about the battle. At one point, Lucy thought she had seen Aslan leading down one path, but the group chose another, which proved to be the wrong way. But once back on the right track, Aslan becomes visible to all of them, as they head off toward battle. When they arrive at the battle, they find chaos and dissention among the Narnian camps, in the face of an overwhelming force of Telamarines. Kings Peter and Edmund, along with Trumpkin, go into the camp, and meet up with Prince Caspian, while Aslan and the girls head off in other pursuits. And after careful discussion of the possibilities, it is decided that Peter will challenge Miraz to combat. During the duel, the Telamarines cry foul and charge the Narnian lines, but Aslan shows up, and awakens the Dryads and Nyads (the tree people), and they, along with the rest of the Narnians, overcome the Telamarine foes.

Caspian is crowned King by Aslan, and many other creaures are knighted and restored to their rightful places in Narnia. The Telamarines are told by Aslan that they all may either submit to King Caspian's rule, or they may return from whence they came (an island on Earth from which they had stumbled through a now-closed door between worlds). Many left, led by Peter and the kids, who returned through the door to England. And for Peter and Susan, it was especially difficult because Aslan told them it would be their last visit to Narnia. But for Edmund and Lucy, there is still hope of return.

Prince Caspian is another great chapter in teh Narnia saga. Lewis's Christian imagination weaves stories of redemption, faith, and hope so well with these interesting and likable characters. It's no wonder these are classics.

C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

The Horse and His Boy is the fifth book in the Narnia Chronicles (the third book by the newer, chronological reckoning, coming after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). It takes place while Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are reigning as kings and queens over Narnia. In a land to the south of Narnia, Calormen, a young boy, Shasta, finds himself about to be sold into slavery to a Calormene warrior by his "father," and makes a break for safety on the warrior's horse. But as he prepares to escape, he discovers that the horse, Bree, can talk. Bree is a Narnian talking horse, who was captured many years ago, and has been blending in until a time when he coud make his escape. And this is that time. So the two of them set off North through Calormen in the directin of Archenland and Narnia. While they make their way through the countryside, they are chased by lions, and in their flight meet up with another horse, Hwin, and another rider, Aravis. Aravis, like Shasta, is trying to get away from Calormen, and Hwin, like Bree, is a talking horse from Narnia. So they decide to travel together, and continue to make their way North. But they must first go through the Calormene city of Tashbaan, before they can escae the land. While they try to make their way through, they get separated, when Shasta is mistaken for one of a party of Narnians that happens to be in the city, and is brought with them to the palace where they are visiting. It turns out that Shasta looks just like Prince Corin, who had been traveling with King Edmund and Queen Susan to Tashbaan.

The Narnians were in Tashbaan because the Calormene Prince, Rabadash, was courting Susan for marriage. But the Narnians quickly realized that he wasn't the sort that Susan would wish to marry. So they planned a secret escape by boat at night. But after making their plans, Corin, the boy for whom Shasta had been mistaken, returns, so Shasta takes off. Meanwhile, Aravis has also encountered some trouble, as she is recognized on the street by one of her friends. So she hides in her curtained litter and goes back with her to the palace, along with the horses. She sends the horses, with a groom, out to the tombs outside of town, the arranged meeting place for the group, and schemes to go out herself through a gate in the palace gardens and cross the river. But as she sneaks down to escape, she sees the king coming, and hides behind a couch in one of the rooms. While there, she overhears that Prince Rabadash has discovered that the Narnians have made an escape, and that he plans to make a surpirse attack on Archenland, and then move on to attack Narnia. She then escapes, and carries this news to Shasta when they all meet back up at the tombs. They immediately set out across the desert toward Archenland. It is a tough trek, but they make it to a canyon that Shasta heard about from the Narnians. And following that canyon, they made it to the river, and the edge of Archenland. They could see Rabadash and his armies making their way across the desert, and searching for a ford of the river. So they hurried toward Anvard, the capitol of Archenland. But while they made their way through the mountains, they found a lion at their heels, and they rushed forward, taking refuge in the home of a magician. He urged Shasta to take the news to Anvard, so Shasta set out. He encountered the king, and passed along the news of the impending attack. They all set out for Anvard, to sound the alarm, but Shasta got separated in the fog, and found himself alone on the road. While wandering in the fog, he met Aslan, who told him that he had been the lion they had seen the two times before, guiding and hurrying them along so they could save Archenland. He also told Shasta that he had guided the boat to the shore when he was a kid, saving his life and puttin his life on its present course.

Shasta met up with some talking creatures from Narnia, as he found himself across the pass from Archenland in Narnia after his walk in the fog, and told them of the impending attack. They quickly got word to Queen Lucy, and Narnia gathered forces to help Archenland. Shasta met up with them as they headed back toward Anvard, and joined with them. When they arrived in Anvard, they stopped Rabadash's attack, and defeated his warriors. Shasta was met with a warm recetion by King Lune of Archenland, who told him that he was his long lost son, Cor. Corin was in fact his twin brother. And Cor was the elder, and thus the heir to the throne. They invited Aravis to come live in the palace as well, and some day she would marry Cor. The two horses made their way back to Narnia, to live happily as talking horses again.

This is another great story from Lewis. He builds great characters and an interesting story line. And again, he does it with some great depth. In The Horse and His Boy, he explores the theme of God's guidance, by looking at how Aslan guides the story, from helping the boat Shasta was afloat on to shore, to scaring Shasta and Bree into meeting up with Hwin and Aravis, to scaring and urging them on to hurry toward Archenland, to meeting up with Shasta and saving him from a treacherous fall as he walked over the pass in the dark. In various and unlikely ways, Aslan had been guiding the story the whole way. He never made up anyone's mind for them, nor did he overcome their wills to do it, but he still guided and directed events to their best outcome, though even in unexpected and sometimes painful ways. It is a great exploration of God's sovereignty and guidance.

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is a tragicomedy about human existence. In the play, two tramps wait by a tree for a Mister Godot. While there, they go through a series of comedic episodes involving boots that are too tight, carrots, and other unimportant objects. While they are waiting, another pair of characters, Lucky and Pozzo, come along. Lucky is essentially a human animal, walking on all fours, whom Pozzo has on a leash and makes carry all of his things. Pozzo is an almost unfeeling taskmaster who takes pride and pleasure in torturing and abusing his slave. The two tramps don't quite know what to make of this pair, as they come along and provide some "entertainment," as Pozzo makes lucky dance, and then "think" for them. The scenes bring an unmistakeable sense of nonsense and futility. The day ends as Lucky and Pozzo head off, and no Mister Godot appears.

Day two starts rather like the first, with the two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, waiting under the same tree. They're not sure they were there the day before, but Vladimir at least has a sense that yesterday was much the same. The only change he notices is a few leaves on the tree. As they wait, the repeat many of the same comedic routines as they day before. Then Lucky and Pozzo happen by again. Though this time Pozzo claims to be blind. Again, no one is quite sure if they've met before, though Vladimir is rather certain that they had come by the day before. After more confused exchanges, Posso and Lucky finally head off stage again. And the two tramps are left to contemplate their future. They know they are waiting for Godot, but aren't quite sure why. Then a boy arrives to inform them that Mr. Godot would not be coming, but would surely come tomorrow. Despairing of the news, the two contemplate hanging them selves from the tree, but realize they don't have any rope that would work. So the play closes with them resolving to return to the tree tomorrow, and to bring along some good rope.

Beckett's play is really a fascinating and poignant statement of the seeming futitilly of life. The characters are set in an almost featureless world, and they are seemingly with out purpose, waiting, but they're not sure quite what they are waiting for. Pozzo and Lucky demonstrate exploitation and victimization, a sad state of affairs. And Vladimir and Estragon don't come across much better, lost and senseless, aimlessly making their way through life. Their conclusion is that life is really just the moment between birth and death, and paint a picture of a woman squatting over a grave to give birth. It is a picture of hopelessness and purposeless ness.

The play seems to leave a bit of room for hope, that this Mister Godot (God?) would come and put the pieces together for them. But we are far from certain, when the curtain falls, whether Godot will arrive or whether they will hang themselves, or whether the next days will continue like the last.

Beckett has captured well the tragic and comedic elements of modern life, with the searching after purpose, the waiting without a clear sense of what for, the futility of seeing life as merely a flash in the pan before death.

J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with All Your Mind

J. P. Moreland, professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, has written an absolute must-read in his book, Love Your God with All Your Mind Moreland's basic argument is a simple but profound one: modern evangelicalism in the West has become largely anti-intellectual, and has lost much of its cultural power. The church needs to revive Christian intellectualism in order to engage the world and fulfill its vocation.

Moreland starts out by making the argument that since the Enlightenment and the Awakenings, evangelicalism has become largely anti-intellectual. In response to intellectual and cultural assaults from without (philosophical critiques, higher-critical critiques on the Bible, evolution), the church largely withdrew from the arena of ideas. Instead of engaging at an intellectual level, Christians grew suspicious of the whole idea of science or philosophy, and withdrew from the conversation. This has had a number of implications for the church: the misunderstanding of how faith and reason are related, the separation of secular and sacred, a weakening of missions, a largely irrelevant gospel of felt needs, and a lack of blodness in confronting hostile or wrong ideas.

This is the state of the christian mind into which Moreland comes. And his book is basicaly an argument for and proposal toward the deepening and reawakening of the Christian mind. He starts by making a case that Scripture basically mandates the development of the Christian mind. As his title indicates, we love God with our whole beings, and that especially includes the mind. For God is a God with reason (omniscient, wise, etc.), and God created reason. Truth is highly valued in Christianity, for we believe in a God of Truth. So study should be a natural result.
He closes the first part of the book by arguing that transforming the mind (as Romans 12:2 says) is absolutely fundamental to spiritual transformation. For our understanding of God and the world is directly related to our relationship with God and our attitudes toward God, ourselves, and the world around us. He further argues that the mind is an integraded and fundamental part of the soul, and thus its transformation is necessary to any deepening of the soul-life.

In the second part of the book (chs 4 and 5), Moreland starts to point the way forward toward the transformation of the Christian mind. He first begins by describing what he terms the "empty self," a set of values, thoughts, and behaviors that typifies much of the modern American mind. This empty self is inordinately individualistic, infantile (seeking to avoid boredom with amusement), narcissistic, passive, sensate, without interior life, and hurried and busy. This type of self is common in Western society, and in the church as well. So much of what he asserts as the solution to the problem of the Christian mind could be said to be a solution to precisely this problem of empty selves. He then goes on to begin outlining a solution, involving developing skills, abilities, habits, and attitudes that build the mind and push out the emptiness. This includes things as simple as knowing and using proper grammar and as life-long as developing and excercising philosophical powers of reasoning.

Part three of the book is a developing picture of what this new Christian mind can look like. He focuses on the theme of apologetics, asserting that rational defense for the faith is essential to Christian witness. He also demonstrates how the Christian mind should be intimately tied to our vocations. This includes painting a picture of how our faith and knowledge of God can and should permeate all areas of our lives, not just he "sacred" space on Sunday morning.

The final part of Moreland's book is a straight-forward proposal for how church could look different if it truly tried to foster the Christian intellectual life. This includes things as simple as uplifting and comissioning our Christian university and graduate students and professors, and things as straight-forward as broadening and deepening the church library. He also proposes the need for the church to be an education center. Sunday school is one possible point where this could occur, but churches can be creative in how they offer courses, and serious in their content (including readings, discussions, papers, etc.). The sermon is also another important piece. Sermons should be applicable, but they should also be educational, challenging the congregation to think and learn more as the basis for this new attitude or action. And occasionally, sermons should shoot for the upper third of the audience, instead of weekly dumbing down the message so that everyone can follow all of the points. Sermons could also be accompanied by weekly studies, questions to ponder, detailed outlines or additional reading, and bibliographies for further study. Last, he advocates a change in the way the church thinks about "senior pastors." Moreland asserts that this role has become a detriment to the church, as many people see the pastor as the "minister" (that is, the one doing ministry) in the congregation. Instead, he proposes that no one person should preach more than half of the Sundays in a year, and that a group of elders should be the functional and spiritual leaders of the congregation, jointly going before God and leading the congregation. This models to the church an attitude of discipleship, openness to God, and enabling of others to praticipate in ministry.

Moreland has presented a strong, integrated, and absolutely necessary call for a reinvigoration of the evangelical mind. As a rather intellectual person myself, I continually found myself agreeing with him, but I also found strong encouragement to grow much further in a number of areas. Apologetics will especially be an area of study I renew with fresh vigor. All churches and believers need to take the message of this book seriously. Because if we don't foster the evangelical mind, we are giving over "reality" to those who don't believe in God, instead of claiming all truth as God's truth.

Thomas Oden, Systematic Theology, vol. 3

Thomas Oden, a professor of Theology, as written a great three-volume systematic theology. It is very consciously an orthodox and historical look at the broad consensus of the Christian faith. Oden's strength is that he draws extensively on the Church fathers and major theologians from the past, as well as the biblical material, to cite the important developments and aspects of theology. He divides the doctrines up in a useful way that helps to illumine the important facets and discussions. This book is a great textbook that provides important background and helps to teach the basics in a thorough yet straightforward way.
I've not yet read all three volumes cover to cover, though I've been through a good bit of this third volume and his discussion on salvation. He starts off with a great discussion of repentance and its character and importance in salvation, and then moves to a thorough discussion of justification by grace through faith, outining the major developments of the doctrine. He espouses a carefully-reasoned Arminian-leaning position, and defends it very well both biblically and historically. His work is in no way a polemic against Calvinism, but it does show the importance of many aspects of Arminianism to the historic faith.
I have enjoyed delving into Oden's exploration and exposition of the faith, and look forward to going deeper and further into this work. I highly recommend it, and have found it usefull for teaching as well as reading and edification.

Robin Cook, Marker

With his latest novel, Cook continues his string of stories about Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, medical examiners in New York City. In Marker, the mystery begins when Laurie posts two bodies on consecutive days that have no obvious pathology. Both were young and seemingly healthy, the only strange circumstance being they were recovering from routine surgeries at Manhattan General Hospital. Laurie puts these two cases together with a couple other cases that had come in the week before, and this gets here interest up. When two more cases come in, she is totally convinced that there is homicide at the root of these mysterious deaths.
Meanwhile, Laurie and Jack's personal relationship has come to a standstill. Jack is unable to commit, and Laurie breaks things off. Into the void left by Jack, she puts a relationship with Roger Rousseau, the chief of medicine at Manhattan General. They met while Laurie was filling him in on the series of suspicious deaths, in hopes that Manhattan General may be able to do something to identify the problem, or at least take some action to prevent future deaths. But things don't get too far before she discovers that she is pregnant with Jack's baby.
The case heats up when another group of suspicious cases comes in to the medical examiner's office. Laure has been able to connect the deaths to a group of six cases from the previous fall at another AmeriCare (managed care) hospital across town. None of the deaths had any obvious cause, and none had any sign of foul play on the toxicology screens. Laurie talks Roger into checking into personell reports from Manhattan General and the other AmeriCare hospital to see about personell that overlap with the two time frames, and who worked the night shift, when all of the deaths occurred. Roger is able to work up a list of possible suspects, but after leaving Laurie a message about some of his findings, he meets a sudden death at the hand of the killer.
Laurie is working hard to put all of the pieces together to come up with a cause of death and also a common thread that may establish motive. And though she continues to have no luck on cause, she notices that all of the patients had a genetics screening test along with their admit labs, and though the results had been removed from the paper records, all had some type of positive result in their electronic files. But just as she is putting some of the key ideas together, she begins suffering from serious obdominal pain, and a quick phone call to her doctor confirms that her pregnancy is in serious trouble, and suspecting a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, she is rushed to the emergency room at Manhattan General. But Laurie is now concerned that she may be the next victim in her own series, as she fits the profile: a young, healthy, post-operative patient, who is positive for a marker, a gene mutation that marks a predisposition to serious health issues (she has found out she has the BRCA1 marker, for the mutated gene that increases risk of breast cancer). Jack rushes over to be with her, and her surgery to repair the ruptured ectopic pregnancy goes routinely. And her recovery starts off routinely, but a rush of patients means she is moved from the recovery floor to a regular floor, where many of the deaths occur. Jack meanwhile has left to run down some leads, and figures out the mode behind the killings, the administration of a lethal does of potassium, a naturally occuring ion in the body. Potassium causes an imbalance of chemicals in the muscles and causes immediate cardiac arrest, but it is difficult to detect on autopsy because it naturally occurs in the body and is naturally released from the muscles upon death, meaning the level is usually elevated after death, therefore masking the lethal injection.
Jack returns to the hospital and rushes to Laurie's room, to discover a nurse (named Jazz) standing over her, and her vital signs rapidly declining. He calls a code, and informs the attending cardiologist that she has high potassium level, allowing them to administer a counteragent and bring her back from cardiac arrest. Jack follows Jazz out after her shift to confront her, since she is one of the suspects already and her presence in the room just confirms his suspicion. But when he gets to her car, she is shot by someone lurking in her back seat.
Detective Lou Soldano, a police detective and friend of Jack and Laurie, helps to piece the details together. Jazz was one of a number of operatives across the country for a group that was working in conjunction with AmeriCare (a managed care company) to eliminate patients who tested positive for gene mutations linked to expensive diseases, such as cancer. The company had realized that Jazz was in danger of being discovered, and wanted to tie up their loose ends, but Jack and Laurie got there first.
As he often does, Cook has woven a good story together with some thoughtful issues that deserve attention. What does the mapping of the human genome mean for the future of medical care. Obviously it holds great promise for identifying causes and possible solutions for many genetically influenced dieseases, but there is also great danger, reminiscent of the movie Gattica, in misusing this knowledge. These are issues we must face in the coming years as we come to terms with new technologies and their ethical implications.

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

In my quest of thoughtful fiction, my most recent read has been Achebe's Things Fall Apart. It is an intriguing tragedy of cultural ignorance, set within a penetrating look at the colonization of Africa.

The book focuses on Okonkwo, a well-regarded warrior and leader in Unuofia, a village in the lower Niger valley. Okonkwo is a hard man who has made his way in the clan and the world through hard work. He leads his house with a heavy and unyielding hand, and is driven by the desire to be recognized and titled in his clan. He especially values the traditions of his fathers and their gods.

The people of Umuofia believe in a god above the gods who made the world, and who also made gods to interact with the people of the world. These gods are the gods of the land and sky. Umuofia has an oracle who is said to interact with one of these gods, and her word is highly valued. As part of their belief, twins are always discarded in the woods when they are born, and an entire class of people are considered outcasts because they are "set apart" to the gods.

The book opens with the murder of a woman of Umuofia by some men from a neighboring village. The men of Umuoafia gather for war and send an emisary to the neighboring village, and to avoid war, the village agrees to send a virgin and a young man as the price for the lost life. The girl is given to the man whose wife had been murdered. The boy was given to Okonkwo to keep in his house until his fate was decided. After three years, the clan decided to have the boy killed, even though he had become like a son to Okonkwo. And despite advice to the contrary, Okonkwo had a hand in his death.

Then one day, while celebrating a burial feast in the town square, Okonkwo inadvertantly killed a man when his gun exploded. As punishment for this offense against the clan and the gods, Okonkwo was banished from the clan for seven years, and he went off to the home of his mother. While there, he began to hear news of white men who were appearing the area. In one town, a white man was killed and then many white men came in and wiped out the village. And now white men had come to his mothers home and also to Umuofia.

When Okonkwo returned to Umuofia, he found that the missionaries had started a church and a school, and had also set up a District Comissioner's office and a trading post. They were bringing not only religion but also the sovereignty of the queen of England to this part of Africa. The church was growing, especially among the outcasts, but it began to gain more and more adherants. But clashes were inevitable. Some of the converts felt the need to not only accept a new faith but also to denounce and mock their old beliefs, a position that some of the missionaries shared. And when a new pastor came that believed there was no room for any accomodation or compromise, things quickly unravelled. When one man comitted what was viewed as a high abomination by unmasking a sacred dancer during a feast, the clan was deeply offended, and burned down the church building. The district comissioner responded by capturing six leaders of the clan, humiliating them, and holding them for ransom to punish the clan for their violence. After the paying of the ransom and the release of the men, the clan gathered to discuss open war with the white men. But when a messenger and guards came to break up the meeting, Okonkwo, who was set on war, murdered the messenger. But he quickly sensed that the village was not set on war, so he went out and hanged himself.

Achebe has written a vivid account of African life, and a penetrating critique of a colonial attitude toward cultures. The influence of the Western culture truly causes the fabric of Umuofia to begin to fall apart. In part, that can of course be viewed as a necessary influence of the grace and truth of the gospel, a putting off of the old wineskins for new wine. But Achebe also calls into question the enculturation that often comes with the message. Too often we attach our own cultural norms to the gospel message, when the relationship should be much more nuanced. And Achebe's book artfully brings this idea to the fore. I highly recommed it. It is a penetrating book that helps those of us in the dominant Western culture to see things from a different perspective.

The Inferno of Dante (trans. Robert Pinsky)

Dante's Inferno is definitely a classic of world literature. And since I'd never read it, I felt compelled to give it a try. I found it worth the time. This verse translation by Robert Pinsky makes it manageable and enjoyable reading. He has preserved a poetic tone and given it a vivid imagery that makes this spiraling journey an almost cinematic experience.

In the Inferno, the first book of Dante's Divine Comedy, Dante is led by the poet Virgil through the nine circles of Hell. Dante is led, the only "weighty" living soul among the shades of the dead, down into the depths of the earth. He passes through the great gate of Hell, into the realm of lost hope and eternal punishment. The first group he ecounters is the unbaptized, those like the ancient poets (of whom Virgil is one) who died ignorant of the gospel. From there, he continues to spiral down through the circles of Hell, encountering the lustful, the gluttons, the spenders, and the heretics. At each level, sinners receive a punishment that fits their crimes. For instance, as Dante reaches one of the lowest portions of hell, the ninth pouch of the eighth circle of Hell, he encounters the Schismatics, those who sought to divide the faith, and their punishment for such a crime is to be forever split open by the sword, as they march around the ring of Hell.

Along his journey, Dante encounters figures from the Greek epics and myths, such as Narcissus and Ulysses, major figures from history, such as Brutus and Cassius (who reside in the lowest pit of Hell), and quite a number of people from thirteenth-century Italy. As he encuounters sinners doomed to punishment, he often speaks with them of their crimes.

Dante has a flare for brutal punishments. He describes sinners variously imprisioned in boiling tar and picked at by vultures, buried upside down with only feet protruding above ground, or forever bombarded by a rain of fire. And in many circles, tormenters, whether demons or giants or beasts, dole out added suffering at their whim. Hell certainly isn't an inviting place.

As Virgil and Dante reach the center of the earth, the very pit of Hell, they find the betrayers, those who have betrayed family, country, or benefactors. Here Lucifer himself resides, an aweful giant creature with three faces and grotesque teeth. And in his mouth he holds the three most vile betrayers, Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius (who betrayed Julius Caesar, and apparently, to Dante's mind, therefore betrayed civilzation and also the church). These sinners are forever gnawed at by Satan's vile teeth, and scratched at by his razor-sharp claws, tormented eternally for the greatest of sins.

As Virgil and Dante pass through this pit of hell, they climb down Satan's body, and when the reach his midsection, they turn 180 degrees while still going in the same direction, and begin climbing. That is, they reach the center of the earth, the point where all gravity is centered, so their journey goes from a descent to an ascent, and the hour becomes twelve hourse earlier. They then resume their journey, climbing out of the center of the earth and emerge in the Southern Hemisphere. (It is hard to imagine a clearer image to combat the myth that Columbus was the first to really believe the Earth was round. This idea had been around a lot longer, and here, almost two hundered years before Columbus's voyages, Dante pictures a journey through the core of the planet.)

Dante's classic portrayal of Hell pictures a world of extreme punishments and eternal torment. He devises a heierarchy of sins, layering the mildest offenders near the top and relegating those most severe to the very pit of Hell itself. It is a great picture of the Medieval conception of the world and morality. I'm glad to have read it, so I'm not so much in the dark now when people make reference to this important work.

This edition is beautifully illustrated by Michael Mazur. The haunting illustrations convey the mood and setting in an effective way, without giving too much detail to detract from the imagination. Here you can see an image from the eight ring of Hell, where one lier gnaws on another. The book also includes helpful annotations and commentary in the backmatter, to give valuable insight into the many literary and historical allusions that would otherwise be opaque to modern readers.

Miroslav Volf, The End of Memory

Miroslav Volf is an evangelical theologian and professor at Yale Divinity School. He also grew up in the former Yugoslavia and its communist rule. And it is precisely his experiences in Yugoslavia during his year of mandatory military service that provide the focus for this book, a sustained reflection on the meaning of memory and grace with regard to wrongs committed against us.

Volf sets up his reflections by recounting his memory of the sustained interrogations to which he was subjected by "Captain G." during his year of military service. Because of his training in America, his background in theology, his critique of Marxism, and his marriage to an American, he was a person of suspicion. This resulted in sustained interrogations, threats of detainment, and psychological torture. This background leads him to the question, What does it mean to remember these wrongs done against us?

The first stage of his argument deals with the question of if we should remember. In today's culture, especially in the wake of the Holocaust and other attrocities of the past century, the answer seems an obvious yes. And Volf echoes this answer, marshalling the call of such people as Elie Wiesel, who rally around the cry, Remember! It is important to acknowledge wrongdoing, and to recognize both those who are wrong and those who have been wronged. But, he also turns us to wrestle with the question of how we should remember.

Memory is important, but it is also ambiguous. Memory can be put to many uses. It can help us to prevent further wrongs or atrocities, but it can also lead us to perpetrate wrongs out of self-interest (say out of the desire to not be a victim again ourselves). So the first facet of memory that Volf emphasizes is that we must remember truthfully. This means honestly seeking as complete an understanding of events as possible, admitting the points of view of others than ourselves, and acknowledging the complexities that are often inherent in these situations. It is often easy in situations where we have been wronged to make out the perpetrator as the "evil" party and ourselves as the "good" or "innocent" party. But the facts often reveal a more complex picture. While the evil can still be named as such, there is often more to it, such as the fact that Captain G. was operating within a system that condoned and encouraged his behavior toward Volf and other suspects. A second important facet of our remembering is that it is to be in service of reconciliation. We are to strive to bring a full and accurate account of events to mind so that we can fully acknowledge the situation, along with the perperatator, and then offer forgiveness and grace to that person, and, when it is received, enter into a new and reconciled relationship with them, beyond the roles of perpetrator and victim, where the wrong is forgotten.

This brings us to the third major theme of Volf's book. Beyond memory, and beyond a certain type of remembering in service of grace, comes forgetting. We should strive toward and look forward to a grace-filled world in which wrongs are fully acknowledged and then forgotten. In light of Jesus' death on the cross, a death which dealt with all evil, we look forward in hope to a time when that grace will embrace our situation. Volf is careful to remind that this forgetting is always on the other side of acknowledgement, forgiveness, and reconciliation, but it is still an end. We should (though it is not easy) long for a time when perpetrator and victim can come together without those labels, when a new and reconcilied relationship has forgotten completely those earlier roles, and draws them together as friends and companions. This is Volf's vision of the life to come, on the other side of the final judgment, a life that we can begin to experience here and now through a drive for reconciliation (as opposed to retribution).

Volf's End of Memory is an honest wrestling with the true nature of Christianity, the atonement, and grace. It helps paint a fuller picture of grace by looking beyond what grace means for me personally to a look at what grace should mean for my enemies, as well. He makes a convincing case for the importance of memory, a truthful and just type of memory, but then qualifies this memory as provisional. We instead look toward the end of memory, that time when all things will be made new, all wrongs remembered and then forgotten, and all eyes turned from past hurts to fulfillment and joy in Jesus Christ. It is a great and challenging vision of a grace-filled life. And is also a deep reflection what shapes our identity (hint: it's not our history, though that plays a role; who we are is ultimately grounded in God.)

Tom Clancy, Rainbow Six

In this next book by Tom Clancy, he departs on a tangent from the Jack Ryan saga to follow John Clark, as he did earlier in his book Without Remorse. As part of the new post–Cold War world, terrorism is rising to be a major area of threat, as evidenced from Clancy's two earlier books, and also from our world situation today. In response to this threat, Clark, with the endorsement of President Ryan (who basically doesn't figure in the book), starts a special international squad, Rainbow, of highly trained special-operations troops to be a terrorism response squad. Joining him are Chavez, another of Clancy's favorite characters, and a broad cast of troops from the US, Britain, and other NATO countries.

They are quickly put to the test. Terrorist activity first at a bank in Zurich, and then at the home of a prominent businessman in Austria give the team a chance to show what they are worth. They carefully coreograph a response and decisively put down both incidents. Their third response is to a terrorist takeover of WorldPark (a EuroDisney immitation), and again their action is impressive and decisive. Each episode is full of Clancy's vivid descriptions of tactical maneauvers, technological advances, and personal stories. Vintage Clancy.

Part of the impetus behind these terrorist attacks is coming from John Brightling, head of Horizon Corporation. Brightling and a group he calls the Project are out change the world. They want to eliminate all but a chosen few humans from the planet, in what they see as the only way to save the Earth from human destruction. To do this, they want to raise global awareness of terrorism, in order to get their guy a consulting contract for the upcoming Olympic Games in Australia. That will be their delivery point of Shiva, an engineered form of Ebola that will spread from there throughout the world. Once the outbreak is known, Horizion plans to step in with a "vaccine" that is actually a virulent form of Shiva, thereby infecting most of those who haven't yet been reached with the epidemic. Only their own people and those they deem worthy get the real vaccine.

The last terrorist attack they plan before the Olympics is a direct attack at Rainbow, which they see as a threat to the success of their plan. So they carefully set up an ambush of Clark's wife and daughter (Chavez's wife) at their place of employment, the hospital near the base. They plan to ambush the Rainbow troops as they respond. But the plans fall apart when Noonan, the Rainbow tech-guy, disables all cell-phone communications and disables their ability to act in a coordinated fashion. Wife and daughter escape unharmed as Rainbow is again able to act decisively to counter the terrorist plot, but this time taking two losses and a few injuries in the process.

Their plan is working, until Dmitry Popov, the ex-KGB agent they have enlisted to set up the terrorist attacks, gets wind of the big picture for the Project. He is horrified by Brightling's intentions, and finds his way off of the Project facility in Kansas and heads to New York. He contacts Clark, and asks for a meet, and even though he set up the hit on Clark's wife and daughter, Clark accepts. As soon as he learns of the plot, Clark informs Chavez, who is consulting at the Olympics with a few other Rainbow troopers. They stake out the fogging system room (the planned point of deliver for the virus) and nab the Project member who is going to plant the virus.

As soon as Brightling realizes that he can't reach his man, and that things are falling apart, he orders all physical and electronic evidence destroyed, and gathers up the members who know the whole story of the Project's plans and flies them off to the Project Alternate facility in Brazil. But the FBI and Air Force are able to track the plane, and Clark decides that Rainbow will follow the planes down. Because they are sure most of the evidence has been destroyed and because they fear making the details of the plot public, FBI agents aren't sure about if the group can be successfully prosecuted, and if it should be. In face of this, Clark faces them head on, sending in his troops. He gives them an opportunity to surrender, but Brightling sends out armend men to counter the force. Using an advanced people-finding gadget that Noonan has been plaing with, Clark is able to vector in the Rainbow troops to neutralize the threat from the Project defenders. Once it becomes clear that the battle is won, Brightling and his group surrender. Instead of taking them back to the States, Clark destroys all of the facilities at the Project compound and releases the members into the jungle to try fend for themselves (to commune with nature, as he puts it).

With Rainbow Six, Clancy again demonstrates his narrative sense, as well as his ability to tell a great military story with a moderately complicated plot. He also builds some interesting and clearly flawed characters who just try to do the right thing. And the reader clearly wants to empathize with them. But there are some clear weaknesses in the book. One, a weakness that has cropped up in a few of his other novels, is torture. Clark is a character with a dark side, and torture, or the threat of it, is a necessary instrument to elicit information and serve a greater good. And at first blush, in Clancy's narrative world, that may seem true. But who should be allowed to weild this terrible sword, and decide when it's really serving a greater good. The fear that evil will win out makes it seem easy to do whatever we can, and at whatever cost, to make the good triumph. But we should never allow torture to be justified. It violates the basic humanity, of both the tortured and the torturer. And it most certainly flies in the face of our most basic Christian convictions about right and wrong, and about sin and reconciliation. Which brings up the other major flaw in Clancy's story: retribution. The one unasailable fact that seems to drive his logic as the story concludes is that the perpetrators of this ghastly plan deserve full and complete punishment for their intentions. They must be delt with, decisively. And if the law might have trouble doing that, or if we don't like all of the consequences, it's justifiable to bend the rules a bit to exact "justice" in a slightly different way. Again, the line of thinking is tempting, but it again sees retribution as good, and sees all actions toward that end as justifiable. The victims become the perpetrators in a new act of violence. Where does it end?

Randy Alcorn, Safely Home

Ben Fielding is a successful American businessman, working high up in a multinational corporation that does a lot of business in China. As a publicity stunt, his corporation sends him to China to live with a normal chinese family for six weeks, and the family they choose is the family of his former friend and roommate from college, Li Quan. Ben remembers Quan as a brilliant historian, and assumes he has gone back to China and become a respected professor, but when he arrives, he finds a different story. Quan, a Christian, was never allowed a teaching post because of his faith, and thus his lack of allegiance to the communist government and its values. So he is now a locksmith. As Ben spends time with the family, he comes to understand their underground life, attending church in the middle of the night in a near-by home, and the risk that comes with being a Christian, even in the new "open" China. Ben has assumed that all he has been hearing form the Chinese government about religious tollerance is true, but he comes to see the full picture, of government limits on what sanctioned churches can preach, where they can meet, and who can be a pastor. These limits are such that Christians are still forced to go underground, a move which makes them enemies of the state. Quan has been in prison many times, as had his father and his father's father, and endured much persecution, abuse, and harrassment.

Ben had turned from his faith, as his own life and its success took center stage. But as he is confronted with the depth of the Li family's faith, he slowly realizes his own need. Quan returns to prison, and is held for many months. Ben does all he can to get him released, but all he can successfully do is arrange a few visits. But he continues to stay with the family, and to keep working on Quan's behalf. During this time, he continues to learn more about the underground church, and the missionaries that work around China spreading God's word to a people who is hungry for it. Through all of this, he comes to realize that he has been turning his back on God, and cherishing his own view and perception of reality, and he comes to believe again and anew in God.

Despite Ben's best efforts, Quan's time in jail, though it has been fruitful in that he has been able to minister to others, finally ends in death. For him, this means joyful reunion with his family and with his Lord, and for Ben this means a return to the States, where he reenters his life with renewed vigor, working toward reconciliation with his former wife and his kids, and seeking to reenter his career with a new focus and outlook. No longer is his own advancement the goal, but instead, he works toward making their company a force of reform especially in China.

The book ends with a glimpse of heaven and with the final victory of heaven and the King over all the earth, the time when there will be no more martyrs, when God no longer stands by, but when all things are made new.

Safely Home is a worthwile story about the persecuted church in China. It gives the reader a glimpse of what faith can cost, and of what it means to stand up for Jesus in the face of opposition. In America and the West, faith is often a relatively easy road, but taking a close look at a place where that isn't the case is a powerful call to revisit our own faith, and see where it will take us. I have been encouraged and also challenged to think more about persecuted Christians around the world. It is a source of sorrow that people must endure such things for their faith, but also a source of joy that people do. It is a worthwile endeavor for us to "borrow" their faith, in a sense, to draw strength and encouragement from it, and to hope that that same faith emerges more and more within us.

Albert Wolters, Creation Regained

Understanding the Christian worldview is essential for Christians as they engage the world and be obedient to Scripture. So says Albert Wolters in Creation Regained. In this short book, Wolters sets out to explain what a worldview is, and therefore its importance, and then briefly outlines the major components of a specifically Christian worldview. He then concludes with a discussion of how this worldview can be put into action through using the categories of structure and direction to discern appropriate ways of life and action. He works from what he calls a “reformational” perspective—that is, a perspective that seeks to recognize the biblical concepts of sin and redemption as central to understanding life, as well as a perspective that recognizes the need for constant “reformation” of the Christian life as we seek to always conform more and more to God’s will.

(For a more complete review, seem my theology blog: http://developingtheology.blogspot.com/2007/01/albert-wolters-creation-regained.html.)

Wolters begins by defining worldview as “the comprehensive framework of one’s beliefs about things” (2). This careful definition points to a number of major themes that define what a worldview is: it is about things, that is, everything from politics to cosmology to God; it involves belief, that is, reasoned and committed assertions; and it is a comprehensive framework, meaning that it involves a system of interconnected beliefs that define how we see the world. Wolters goes on to assert that worldview is an essential field of study, because everyone has a worldview, whether they know it or not, and our worldview helps define how we see the world and understand ourselves in it. After laying this important groundwork, Wolters spends the next three chapters defining and elaborating on the three major components of a Christian worldview: creation, fall, redemption.

Wolters carefully investigates each of these areas, gaining important insights about how Christians should understand these central themes in our understanding of God, the world, and our place in it. He focuses especially on the assertion that all (earthly) things are God's good creation, are tainted by the fall, and are within the scope of redemption. He then puts this insight into practice through using the concepts of structure and direction. Structure is the good way in which God has created something, its essence, the way something is as part of the order of creation. Direction is the orientation of that thing, its use and development along the plane of sin and redemption. These two concepts will become the filters through which all things are seen, as Christians seek to determine what about a thing is structural, that is, what components or dimensions are part of God’s good creation, and what about a thing is directional, what is in conformity to God’s will and what is against God’s design and intention. Using this as a framework encourages Christians to see all things, from politics to social dance, as part of God's good creation, though fallen, and sees them as things Christians can seek to "redeem" through their action and reasoned participation in them.

Wolters has written an important study on what it means to be a Christian in the world. Worldview is an absolutely essential category for understanding the Christian life, and for understanding Christian interaction with all of life. His categories of structure and direction are especially illuminating as they help Christians to recognize and affirm the good that God has created in all areas of life, far beyond the church, but also help Christians to name those dimensions of reality that are distortions of God’s will and intention. It is a good introduction to these topics, written at a level that all intelligent readers will be able to appreciate and learn from. Wolters has done an admirable job of challenging Christians to be reformational Christians, God’s reforming representatives throughout all the world. It is an encouraging book that challenges us to look anew at the world around us, and how it does and doesn't conform to God's will, and how we can work to point all things toward God.