Mark Noll, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

The Civil War as a Theological Crisis is The Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era, delivered at the University of North Carolina, and as a book that came out of a series of lectures, it has a relatively conversational and approachable tone. Mark Noll is an eminent historian of Christianity and specifically evangelicalism in America. In these lectures, Noll looks at the theological issues, which Noll argues in fact constituted a theological crisis, that shaped the Civil War and informed the views of politicians and the populace on both sides of the conflict. Noll begins by setting the stage with a look at the role of religion in American public life in the years leading up to the War, and especially at the role the Bible and its interpretation played. He then looks closely at "The Crisis over the Bible," the differing interpretations of various passages in the Bible, especially over the issue of slavery, that contributed so profoundly to the theological divide in the country. This chapter forms the core of the book, as he looks at competing interpretations of the Bible and the methods and assumptions that led to these conflicting interpretations. This then leads to a discussion of "the negro question," a look at the role race played in the discussions, either implicitly or explicitly. He shows that at the root, deep-seeded racism lay behind many of the defenses of slavery, and ignorance of the importance of the race issue weakened many of the opponents' arguments. It is crystal clear that the Civil War was a war with race issues at the center, though Noll emphasizes equally strongly that the picture is far more complex than a simple bifurcation of the country with the North fighting some type of righteous struggle on behalf of equality and the South fighting a bigoted battle to preserve the status quo.

Noll's discussion then turns to a look at what role providence played in the preaching and thinking about America's destiny and the racism and slavery that were at issue. He writes that "confidence in the human ability to fathom God's providential actions rose to new heights." Many on both side presumed to know God's will and intention in and for America. By the end of the war, this view was strongly chastened, and Noll points to a connection between arguments concerning providence before and during the war and the movement of religion to the "private" sphere after the war. After these substantive discussions, Noll takes an informative look at views of Protestants and Catholics abroad, and takes stock of these perspectives that give a different view point on the happenings in America.

I found Noll's book to be compelling and important reading. I think his careful appraisal of this important conflict over the role and interpretation of the Bible needs to inform evangelical approaches to Scripture today. I think one of the clearest lessons needs to be a chastening of our American and Protestant impulse to read and interpret the Bible on our own, without recourse to church or magisterium, and often without regard for history. Along with this goes a strong warning against assumptions of the simplicity of the Bible's message. Throughout the era leading up to and including the Civil War, defenses of slavery had an easier time convincing much of the American public, often largely because of the simplicity of its arguments and the fact that it drew on "plain" and surface readings of the Biblical text. Readings that opposed slavery often incorporated more nuanced and historically couched arguments. For many, this went against their protestant and American sensibilities and assumptions.

It would seem that this book, and this historic situation, has much to say to our modern-day church, and to the evangelical church in particular. Issues such as the church's stance on women in ministry or the status of homosexuals can be well informed by this discussion. That is certainly not to say that the historic move to condemn slavery should or could be directly applied to the acceptance of women in ministry or the full acceptance of homosexual activity, but this careful historical discussion provides some important context in which to judge our approaches to Scripture. It also rightly calls us to examine our assumptions that we bring to the Bible. I highly recommend it.

Jeffrey Toobin, The Nine

Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine is an inside look at the US Supreme Court. Toobin takes a careful look at the justices and the decisions that have shaped the court over the past ten or so years. He goes back to the impeachment proceedings against Clinton, looks at the Court's inner deliberations and dynamics in the Bush v. Gore decision, and looks at how the personalities and philosophies have molded the decisions coming out of the high court.
Toobin looks at each justice individually, starting with their rise to the court and also detailing their time on the court and their legal logic. Toobin then takes his account up through the stability of the Rehnquist court (which he says should better be called the O'Connor court because of her status as the perpetual swing vote deciding many of the most important cases) to the two new justices confirmed during the (George W.) Bush presidency.

Toobin's book is a great read, and makes a great primer for what the Supreme Court is all about and what decisions have been landmarks over the past decades. He has chronicled the liberalizing tendencies of the court through the nineties and into the new millenium, and the new conservative shift with the appointments of Roberts and Alito. The book is a good occasion to reflect on judicial philosophy, and certainly made me rethink how the decisions of the supreme court impact our daily lives. I highly recommend this book, and hope you enjoy it as I did.

Robin Cook, Crisis

Crisis is another in a long line of medical thrillers from author Robin Cook. I have enjoyed many of his previous books, and this one lived up to the same standard. Favorite characters Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery resurface again. Jack is a medical examiner in New York City. When he learns that his sister's husband is being tried for medical malpractice up in Boston, he heeds his sister's call for help when the trial doesn't seem to be going well and comes up to Boston. His brother-in-law, Craig Bowman, is on trial for the death of Patience Stanhope, a "problem patient" of his who died of a heart attack. The plaintiff's case is that Craig didn't respond to the threat of a heart attack with proper speed, and instead of sending Patience straight to the hospital, he made a house call, delaying her care. The motive for this house call was alleged to be that Craig wanted to make the start of the symphony concert that evening to show off his mistress, and could only do so if he made a quick stop by the house on the way to the concert. It turned out that Patience was in very serious condition, and after being rushed to the hospital she died a bit later.

Once he arrived, Jack suggested that he may be able to help by conducting an autopsy of the deceased patient, in hopes of finding some major pathology that would prove that the delay had no bearing on the patient's death, or that some other factors mitigated against medical malpractice. So he began the process of exhuming the body, first needing permission from the husband (and plaintiff in the case), and once that was secured, needing to arrange for the exhumation and autopsy to happen quickly. Along the way, he was met with much opposition, mostly in the form of intimidation from Franco, the plaintiff lawyer's rather dubious sidekick. But Jack pressed on, and finally, on the evening before the last day of the trial, he was able to conduct an autopsy. But what he found surprised him. There was no pathology suggesting heart disease, and neither was there any type of pathology indicating why the patient had declined so quickly. This created quite a mystery, but one that was finally solved by toxicology. A potent poison was found in her system that causes failure of the sodium channels of all muscles, and thus, major problems with the heart. This proved especially interesting because the poison in question is a highly controlled substance, but also a chemical that Craig himself used extensively in research. It turned out that upon inspection, traces of it were found in Craig's medical bag. He had murdered his "problem patient," much to Jack's dismay. But this evidence was turned over to the judge, who dismissed the medical malpractice case and forwarded the evidence to the district attorney for criminal charges.

Crisis is another good medical thriller from Robin Cook. There were some interesting plot twists, though the characters (and especially the villains) seemed a bit stylized, though in this case that proved to be good misdirection, as they were not ultimately behind the wrongdoing. Crisis is worth the read (or as in my case, the listen), and is a good, fast paced, and engaging mystery.