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Revelations by Mary Sharratt
4.25
Summary: A novel about the English mystic Margery Kempe, the author of what is usually considered the first autobiography written in English.
I have been intentionally trying to read fiction every day and this has led to me reading a lot more fiction this year. Revelations is about Margery Kempe (c1373-1438?). This is a novel based on her life, roughly from her autobiography, The Book of Margery Kempe.
In that autobiography she details her many visions of Jesus or other members of the trinity as she went on various pilgrimages, including to the Holy Land. But that autobiography also details her many pregnancies and children and the abuse (and rape) from her husband. She suffered what we would now label postpartum depression and has the first of her visions of Jesus after the birth of her first child. And it is believed that she has 14-15 pregnancies with multiple children dying in infancy or still births.
She negotiated a "chaste marriage" and soon after left her husband (and children) when she was about 43. She meets Julian of Norwich and has extended conversations with her. Julian was also a mystic and author and the novel expands on that connection.
Obviously, while there is source material, much of the book is fictionalized. Unintentionally, this is another book on the Love of God that is a connection between Greg Boyle's Cherished Belonging and the novel Sensible Shoes and John Armstrong's The Transforming Fire of Divine Love: My Long, Slow Journey into the Love of God (which I am still reading.) This unintentional theme of God's love throughout my reading this spring has made me think more about how the mystical experience of God's love matters to the church and to those who never have a mystical experience of God's love.
There are, of course, people who disbelieve in or oppose mystical experiences. (One of the reviews of Sensible Shoes that I read opposed spiritual disciples which used imagination or contemplative prayer because that could lead to mystical experiences.) But I think in the history of Christianity, there is a level of mysticism that is assumed even if it is clear that not everyone has a mystical experience. I do not have an explanation for why some have mystical experiences and others do not. From my reading it is clear that some who have mystical experiences would prefer not to have them and that many who do not have mystical experiences desire them.
Margery is known both for her mystical visions and for her public displays of tears. She would regularly cry in public either while having a mystical experience or in remembering those experiences. Margery was not a nun or in a convent. She, as an individual, traveled on pilgrimages but also spoke regularly about the love of God to others. That was considered preaching, which was illegal for a woman to do, and she was tried for heresy multiple times, but never found guilty of being a heretic.
Historical fiction, even if fiction, is a helpful way to learn about the saints. In addition to Revelations, Mary Sharratt also wrote Illuminations, a novel about Hildegard von Bingen, which I read last year. I am often disappointed or frustrated with non-fiction writing about the mystics. And while, there are also limitations to fictional writing about the mystics, it fills a gap in a way that is hard to do with non-fiction writing. I still think my favorite novel about a mystic is Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin.
This was originally published on my blog at https://bookwi.se/revelations/
I have been intentionally trying to read fiction every day and this has led to me reading a lot more fiction this year. Revelations is about Margery Kempe (c1373-1438?). This is a novel based on her life, roughly from her autobiography, The Book of Margery Kempe.
In that autobiography she details her many visions of Jesus or other members of the trinity as she went on various pilgrimages, including to the Holy Land. But that autobiography also details her many pregnancies and children and the abuse (and rape) from her husband. She suffered what we would now label postpartum depression and has the first of her visions of Jesus after the birth of her first child. And it is believed that she has 14-15 pregnancies with multiple children dying in infancy or still births.
She negotiated a "chaste marriage" and soon after left her husband (and children) when she was about 43. She meets Julian of Norwich and has extended conversations with her. Julian was also a mystic and author and the novel expands on that connection.
Obviously, while there is source material, much of the book is fictionalized. Unintentionally, this is another book on the Love of God that is a connection between Greg Boyle's Cherished Belonging and the novel Sensible Shoes and John Armstrong's The Transforming Fire of Divine Love: My Long, Slow Journey into the Love of God (which I am still reading.) This unintentional theme of God's love throughout my reading this spring has made me think more about how the mystical experience of God's love matters to the church and to those who never have a mystical experience of God's love.
There are, of course, people who disbelieve in or oppose mystical experiences. (One of the reviews of Sensible Shoes that I read opposed spiritual disciples which used imagination or contemplative prayer because that could lead to mystical experiences.) But I think in the history of Christianity, there is a level of mysticism that is assumed even if it is clear that not everyone has a mystical experience. I do not have an explanation for why some have mystical experiences and others do not. From my reading it is clear that some who have mystical experiences would prefer not to have them and that many who do not have mystical experiences desire them.
Margery is known both for her mystical visions and for her public displays of tears. She would regularly cry in public either while having a mystical experience or in remembering those experiences. Margery was not a nun or in a convent. She, as an individual, traveled on pilgrimages but also spoke regularly about the love of God to others. That was considered preaching, which was illegal for a woman to do, and she was tried for heresy multiple times, but never found guilty of being a heretic.
Historical fiction, even if fiction, is a helpful way to learn about the saints. In addition to Revelations, Mary Sharratt also wrote Illuminations, a novel about Hildegard von Bingen, which I read last year. I am often disappointed or frustrated with non-fiction writing about the mystics. And while, there are also limitations to fictional writing about the mystics, it fills a gap in a way that is hard to do with non-fiction writing. I still think my favorite novel about a mystic is Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin.
This was originally published on my blog at https://bookwi.se/revelations/
Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times by Gregory Boyle
Boyle believes (rightly I think) that the way that we best heal those who have been harmed through traumatic abuse, neglect, and other social harms by radical belonging and love. That does not mean that we ignore bad behavior, but that we show that our love is rooted in their value as a creation of God, not in their good behavior, and that we seek to find places that people can be in deep congratulated.
Generally, I agree with most of the book, but stylistically, Boyle is not my kind of writer. I know many people in the group I was in were deeply moved by his stories and method. But I felt a lot of his storytelling was too superficial and quick. He regularly shared three brief stories per page. He frequently drew meaning from stories that I think were strained.
But again, I was convicted regularly throughout the book. I do not love as much as I should. I do judge harshly at times I should not.
When the group first started reading the book was the start of President Trump's time in office. I am a Wheaton College alumni and Wheaton congratulated Russ Vought for his role as OMB Director. That led to significant controversy because many Wheaton alum are international aid workers or in other areas of social ministry. Vought was the primary architect of Project 2025, much of which is designed to remove international aid, social safety-net systems, public education and protections for women, minorities and the disabled. Another very large group of Wheaton alum are politically conservative and supporters of Trump and Vought's policies. As that controversy played out, I was convicted that I needed to be regularly praying for Vought. I didn't know him when I was at Wheaton, but we overlapped I believe. He was several years younger than I am. We just do not have the same theological convictions. Vought is a vocal Christian nationalist who does not believe that the constitution is valid any longer and who does not believe in the separation of church and state. He believes that Christians should have sole authority of control government and he has indicated that he does not think women should have the right to vote. He has celebrates looking forward to a time when federal workers would be too traumatized to come to work.
But I was convicted that I need to pray for him daily. I am not praying for him to succeed in his plans, I find his plans reprehensible and far from Christianity as I understand it. I am praying that he will accept God's love for him and find a community that loves him.
But as much as I was convicted by the book, I think part of the problem of the book is that is often is framed as loving others as a type of ministry and when connected with race and class this can become a type of paternalism. I don't think that Boyle is paternalistic, but I do think that the book doesn't spend enough time helping the reader to take the principles that are in use by Boyle in his context and move that to other contexts.
It is clear from the stories that Boyle isn't perfect, he does get frustrated with people he works with, he has limits, but I do think there can be a perception of super spiritualness in the book. He doesn't talk about his habits of rest or renewal or what he does to remind himself of his calling. That is a different book, but I do think it is part of what it takes to move toward the type of "cherished belonging" that he is calling the reader to. (The group I was discussing this with talked about this and several were getting together to write him about those practices to better understand his own spiritual work.)
I think this can be a valuable book to understand how belonging and love practically do work to bring about healing. I do think that this is helpful is teaching that we are not just called to love those who are easy to love, but also to love those who are hard to love. Boyle writes from his experience and setting. That experience is not a common experience and that setting is one that can by mythologized like other "missionary" books. Most people who read this are going to try to put it into practice is a standard suburban setting and they will likely need help in translation.
One minor note, Boyle uses a lot of Spanish that he leaves untranslated. Most of the time you get the basic meaning from context. But one advantage to reading on a kindle is that you can translate it in the kindle as long as you have an internet connection. I used that feature a lot in this book.
This was originall posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/cherished-belonging/
3.5
Summary: Exploration of the role of love, community and belonging.
I have known of Greg Boyle for a while, but I have not previously read his books. I thought I had a good idea of his perspective and approach and I just didn't think I needed to read him. But Cherished Belonging was the book chosen for the book club that I love and so I picked the book up and read it. I think I had a pretty good understanding of Boyle and that my impressions were largely correct. But I was challenged by the book.
Boyle starts early in the book telling the reader that there are two principles that frame his ministry and approach. "1) Everyone is unshakably good (no exceptions) and 2) We belong to each other (no exceptions)." (p2) While there is a bit of fluidity to how he uses "good" in the first part, mostly what he means is inherent worth and value, not moral goodness. I think if you understand him to mean, everyone is made in the image of God and therefore has value, that will be the rough meaning in most situations throughout the book. The stories he shares make it clear that he does not mean that everyone makes good choices or that they always will do the right thing at important points.
With that caveat about how he seems to mean good, I do think that the book is helpful especially in a time when basic Christian values are being questioned. Boyle is remaindering the reader that not only are we called to love, but we are call to love all, even those who are not particularly lovable. He reminds us that those who are most hard to love, generally have been the victims of abuse and harm. Those who have abused and harmed, will often harm others. And as he repeatedly illustrates in his stories, our systems of "justice" often perpetuate more harm instead of healing to those who are at the bottom rungs of our society.
I have known of Greg Boyle for a while, but I have not previously read his books. I thought I had a good idea of his perspective and approach and I just didn't think I needed to read him. But Cherished Belonging was the book chosen for the book club that I love and so I picked the book up and read it. I think I had a pretty good understanding of Boyle and that my impressions were largely correct. But I was challenged by the book.
Boyle starts early in the book telling the reader that there are two principles that frame his ministry and approach. "1) Everyone is unshakably good (no exceptions) and 2) We belong to each other (no exceptions)." (p2) While there is a bit of fluidity to how he uses "good" in the first part, mostly what he means is inherent worth and value, not moral goodness. I think if you understand him to mean, everyone is made in the image of God and therefore has value, that will be the rough meaning in most situations throughout the book. The stories he shares make it clear that he does not mean that everyone makes good choices or that they always will do the right thing at important points.
With that caveat about how he seems to mean good, I do think that the book is helpful especially in a time when basic Christian values are being questioned. Boyle is remaindering the reader that not only are we called to love, but we are call to love all, even those who are not particularly lovable. He reminds us that those who are most hard to love, generally have been the victims of abuse and harm. Those who have abused and harmed, will often harm others. And as he repeatedly illustrates in his stories, our systems of "justice" often perpetuate more harm instead of healing to those who are at the bottom rungs of our society.
"What if we didn’t punish the wounded but, rather, sought to heal them? In American society, we are faced with broken people, and we have chosen to build prisons to accommodate them. What if we did the reverse? We want to commit to creating a culture and community of cherished belonging. I’m not suggesting that Homeboy is the answer, but we might have stumbled upon the question. As Daniel Berrigan says, “Know where to stand and stand there.” Homeboy just wants to keep standing there." (p5)
Boyle believes (rightly I think) that the way that we best heal those who have been harmed through traumatic abuse, neglect, and other social harms by radical belonging and love. That does not mean that we ignore bad behavior, but that we show that our love is rooted in their value as a creation of God, not in their good behavior, and that we seek to find places that people can be in deep congratulated.
Generally, I agree with most of the book, but stylistically, Boyle is not my kind of writer. I know many people in the group I was in were deeply moved by his stories and method. But I felt a lot of his storytelling was too superficial and quick. He regularly shared three brief stories per page. He frequently drew meaning from stories that I think were strained.
But again, I was convicted regularly throughout the book. I do not love as much as I should. I do judge harshly at times I should not.
When the group first started reading the book was the start of President Trump's time in office. I am a Wheaton College alumni and Wheaton congratulated Russ Vought for his role as OMB Director. That led to significant controversy because many Wheaton alum are international aid workers or in other areas of social ministry. Vought was the primary architect of Project 2025, much of which is designed to remove international aid, social safety-net systems, public education and protections for women, minorities and the disabled. Another very large group of Wheaton alum are politically conservative and supporters of Trump and Vought's policies. As that controversy played out, I was convicted that I needed to be regularly praying for Vought. I didn't know him when I was at Wheaton, but we overlapped I believe. He was several years younger than I am. We just do not have the same theological convictions. Vought is a vocal Christian nationalist who does not believe that the constitution is valid any longer and who does not believe in the separation of church and state. He believes that Christians should have sole authority of control government and he has indicated that he does not think women should have the right to vote. He has celebrates looking forward to a time when federal workers would be too traumatized to come to work.
But I was convicted that I need to pray for him daily. I am not praying for him to succeed in his plans, I find his plans reprehensible and far from Christianity as I understand it. I am praying that he will accept God's love for him and find a community that loves him.
But as much as I was convicted by the book, I think part of the problem of the book is that is often is framed as loving others as a type of ministry and when connected with race and class this can become a type of paternalism. I don't think that Boyle is paternalistic, but I do think that the book doesn't spend enough time helping the reader to take the principles that are in use by Boyle in his context and move that to other contexts.
It is clear from the stories that Boyle isn't perfect, he does get frustrated with people he works with, he has limits, but I do think there can be a perception of super spiritualness in the book. He doesn't talk about his habits of rest or renewal or what he does to remind himself of his calling. That is a different book, but I do think it is part of what it takes to move toward the type of "cherished belonging" that he is calling the reader to. (The group I was discussing this with talked about this and several were getting together to write him about those practices to better understand his own spiritual work.)
I think this can be a valuable book to understand how belonging and love practically do work to bring about healing. I do think that this is helpful is teaching that we are not just called to love those who are easy to love, but also to love those who are hard to love. Boyle writes from his experience and setting. That experience is not a common experience and that setting is one that can by mythologized like other "missionary" books. Most people who read this are going to try to put it into practice is a standard suburban setting and they will likely need help in translation.
One minor note, Boyle uses a lot of Spanish that he leaves untranslated. Most of the time you get the basic meaning from context. But one advantage to reading on a kindle is that you can translate it in the kindle as long as you have an internet connection. I used that feature a lot in this book.
This was originall posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/cherished-belonging/
When Among Crows by Veronica Roth
4.25
Summary: Urban fantasy about what the role of guilt and repair is for those who have been raised to harm.
When Among Crows is the first of Veronica Roth's books that I have read since the Divergent series. I read the Divergent series soon after they were released in the 2011-13 era. I think I read all of the series at least twice and I saw the movies. But since then, while Roth has written a number of additional books, I just haven't bothers to pick them up.
I saw When Among Crows was on sale for kindle and I picked it up because it was short and because it was a modern urban fantasy based in Chicago (similar to Desden Files) and it was loosely based on Slavic folktales. I also picked up The Witch and the Tsar at the same time and it will be my next fiction book. Both books use the folktale character of Baba Yaga and I picked them up together to see how different authors handle the retelling of similar stories.
Similar to other urban fantasy, there are more creatures than just humans living in our world, but not everyone can see them. Dymitr opens the books. He is human and on a quest, but the object of that quest is not fully revealed until very close to the end of the book. Along the way, Dymitr seeks out help from various creatures that feed on human fear or pain or sadness.
This is not a young adult book like Percy Jackson or The Carver and the Queen Emma C. Fox or KB Hoyle's fairytale series, this is more like Dresden Files' level of violence and dark fantasy themes, but with less humor than Dresden Files. There isn't any sex, but there are a few kisses between a gay couple and that doesn't go any further.
This is a bit between a long novella and a short novel at 175 pages. I read it in three brief reading sessions. I was facinated by the main theme of the book, revenge, guilt and atonement. It takes a while to get into who is guilty for what, but all the characters have killed or harmed others. Some have killed or harmed out of self defense. Some have killed or harmed because they were taught to fear others or that others were trying to harm them and so you needed to kill or be killed.
It isn't fully revealed until later and it would be a spoiler to discuss, but relationship across boundries is the cause of coming to see a different perspective. And once you see a different perspective, your guilt and the role you have in repair of harm does matter.
Urban fantasy does not tend to take a light view of magic. Magic can be well used or badly used, but regardless, there is always a cost. This book continues that general genre trend.
I lived in Chicago for years. This book uses the polish immigrant story to explore how old world fairytale creatures came to the new world. But the city was not as much of a character to the book as I would have hoped. The next book in the series comes out later this year and by advance page count (which can be wrong) the next book is closer to 300 pages, or nearly twice as long. I look forward to picking it up when it is released.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/when-among-crows/
When Among Crows is the first of Veronica Roth's books that I have read since the Divergent series. I read the Divergent series soon after they were released in the 2011-13 era. I think I read all of the series at least twice and I saw the movies. But since then, while Roth has written a number of additional books, I just haven't bothers to pick them up.
I saw When Among Crows was on sale for kindle and I picked it up because it was short and because it was a modern urban fantasy based in Chicago (similar to Desden Files) and it was loosely based on Slavic folktales. I also picked up The Witch and the Tsar at the same time and it will be my next fiction book. Both books use the folktale character of Baba Yaga and I picked them up together to see how different authors handle the retelling of similar stories.
Similar to other urban fantasy, there are more creatures than just humans living in our world, but not everyone can see them. Dymitr opens the books. He is human and on a quest, but the object of that quest is not fully revealed until very close to the end of the book. Along the way, Dymitr seeks out help from various creatures that feed on human fear or pain or sadness.
This is not a young adult book like Percy Jackson or The Carver and the Queen Emma C. Fox or KB Hoyle's fairytale series, this is more like Dresden Files' level of violence and dark fantasy themes, but with less humor than Dresden Files. There isn't any sex, but there are a few kisses between a gay couple and that doesn't go any further.
This is a bit between a long novella and a short novel at 175 pages. I read it in three brief reading sessions. I was facinated by the main theme of the book, revenge, guilt and atonement. It takes a while to get into who is guilty for what, but all the characters have killed or harmed others. Some have killed or harmed out of self defense. Some have killed or harmed because they were taught to fear others or that others were trying to harm them and so you needed to kill or be killed.
It isn't fully revealed until later and it would be a spoiler to discuss, but relationship across boundries is the cause of coming to see a different perspective. And once you see a different perspective, your guilt and the role you have in repair of harm does matter.
Urban fantasy does not tend to take a light view of magic. Magic can be well used or badly used, but regardless, there is always a cost. This book continues that general genre trend.
I lived in Chicago for years. This book uses the polish immigrant story to explore how old world fairytale creatures came to the new world. But the city was not as much of a character to the book as I would have hoped. The next book in the series comes out later this year and by advance page count (which can be wrong) the next book is closer to 300 pages, or nearly twice as long. I look forward to picking it up when it is released.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/when-among-crows/
Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan
3.75
Summary: Percy Jackson and gang's latest project is pet sitting.
Wrath of the Tripple Goddess is the second of a subtrilogy within the larger Percy Jackson series. This subtrilogy is set during Percy Jackson's senior year of high school and the background is that he has to get three letters of recommendation from gods to get into the demigod college, New Rome University, where Percy and Annabeth want to go to college. Percy Jackson was able to get his first letter of recommendation, and this is about getting his second. Because gods only give boons as a result of some quest or challege done for them by a human or demigod, Percy, Annabeth and Grover have to accomplish something for a god. In the last book, they found a stolen challice. In the Wrath of the Triple Goddess, they have to pet sit for some magical creatures at the home of one of the gods.
Thematically, this is a halloween book, so it is a bit spookier than some, although it isn't very spooky. Generally, I think this subtrilogy has walked a good balance of writing about Percy when he is 5-6 years older than the intiial series, but keeping it oriented toward younger readers so that its content is not too old, but it engages readers who are now older than they were when the initial series came out.
There is good character development here. I am happy to learn more about Grover and Annabeth and Percy and there are characters from earlier books that come up along the way that show that there are ramifications for previous actions.
I have been intentionally reading more fiction and as much as I have enjoyed reading some young adult fiction, I am ready to read something with more depth. If the third book in the subtrilogy were already out I would probably gone straight to it, but it will not come out until fall 2025.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/wrath-of-the-triple...
Wrath of the Tripple Goddess is the second of a subtrilogy within the larger Percy Jackson series. This subtrilogy is set during Percy Jackson's senior year of high school and the background is that he has to get three letters of recommendation from gods to get into the demigod college, New Rome University, where Percy and Annabeth want to go to college. Percy Jackson was able to get his first letter of recommendation, and this is about getting his second. Because gods only give boons as a result of some quest or challege done for them by a human or demigod, Percy, Annabeth and Grover have to accomplish something for a god. In the last book, they found a stolen challice. In the Wrath of the Triple Goddess, they have to pet sit for some magical creatures at the home of one of the gods.
Thematically, this is a halloween book, so it is a bit spookier than some, although it isn't very spooky. Generally, I think this subtrilogy has walked a good balance of writing about Percy when he is 5-6 years older than the intiial series, but keeping it oriented toward younger readers so that its content is not too old, but it engages readers who are now older than they were when the initial series came out.
There is good character development here. I am happy to learn more about Grover and Annabeth and Percy and there are characters from earlier books that come up along the way that show that there are ramifications for previous actions.
I have been intentionally reading more fiction and as much as I have enjoyed reading some young adult fiction, I am ready to read something with more depth. If the third book in the subtrilogy were already out I would probably gone straight to it, but it will not come out until fall 2025.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/wrath-of-the-triple...
The Way of St Benedict by Rowan Williams
3.5
Summary: A series of loosely connected essays about the influence of the rule of Benedict and Benedictine spirituality on the church.
I have read a number of Rowan Williams' short books. Most of those books were based on lectures and compiled into books later. This seems to be different in that it appears to be a series of essays that was compiled into a book and just doesn't have the same level of coherence as I tend to expect from Williams' books. That isn't to say they are bad essays, I learned a lot about the history and influence of the Benedictine order. But I think as long as you go into the book with an expectation of essays that are loosely connected and not as a more intentionally shaped book, you will be rightly primed for what the book is.
One of the reviews I skimmed through complained about the last essay, which is less about Benedictines broadly and more about a particular Benedictine author's book. I agree with the comment, but I also found that essay the most engaging of the book because it was about a book trying to grapple with mysticism in the early 20th century (about the same time that Evelyn Underhill was writing her book on mysticism.) Williams was helpful in pointing out that we tend to think of mysticism phenomenologically or sometimes epistemologically, but that isn't how all people at all times have thought about mysticism. Those are both useful ways to explore mysticism, but they do limit the concept of mysticism if those are the only methods of exploration.
The Rule of St Benedict is probably the thing most people are aware of, even if they haven't actually read it. There is a good discussion of the rule, but you probably do want to have a little familiarity with the rule before you start. I have read it all, but it has been a while ago and I probably should have stopped and read it all again before reading the book.
Most of the first section reflects on the rule and the ways that the rule shaped Benedictines to stability and obedience and virtue. These sections are all helpful but because I am not brand new to Benedictine spirituality, that was less new than the last two chapters. I have already mentioned the last chapter on mysticism as my favorite chapter. But the chapter of the history of reforms within Benedictine order was helpful because much of that was new to me. As someone that is always interested in reforming system, understanding the influence of both successful and failed reforms is helpful.
Overall, this wasn't my favorite book of Williams, and I am glad I picked it up while it was on sale. But there was value for me reading it even if I think it will be too narrow for many readers.
I posted this originally on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-way-of-st-bened...
I have read a number of Rowan Williams' short books. Most of those books were based on lectures and compiled into books later. This seems to be different in that it appears to be a series of essays that was compiled into a book and just doesn't have the same level of coherence as I tend to expect from Williams' books. That isn't to say they are bad essays, I learned a lot about the history and influence of the Benedictine order. But I think as long as you go into the book with an expectation of essays that are loosely connected and not as a more intentionally shaped book, you will be rightly primed for what the book is.
One of the reviews I skimmed through complained about the last essay, which is less about Benedictines broadly and more about a particular Benedictine author's book. I agree with the comment, but I also found that essay the most engaging of the book because it was about a book trying to grapple with mysticism in the early 20th century (about the same time that Evelyn Underhill was writing her book on mysticism.) Williams was helpful in pointing out that we tend to think of mysticism phenomenologically or sometimes epistemologically, but that isn't how all people at all times have thought about mysticism. Those are both useful ways to explore mysticism, but they do limit the concept of mysticism if those are the only methods of exploration.
The Rule of St Benedict is probably the thing most people are aware of, even if they haven't actually read it. There is a good discussion of the rule, but you probably do want to have a little familiarity with the rule before you start. I have read it all, but it has been a while ago and I probably should have stopped and read it all again before reading the book.
Most of the first section reflects on the rule and the ways that the rule shaped Benedictines to stability and obedience and virtue. These sections are all helpful but because I am not brand new to Benedictine spirituality, that was less new than the last two chapters. I have already mentioned the last chapter on mysticism as my favorite chapter. But the chapter of the history of reforms within Benedictine order was helpful because much of that was new to me. As someone that is always interested in reforming system, understanding the influence of both successful and failed reforms is helpful.
Overall, this wasn't my favorite book of Williams, and I am glad I picked it up while it was on sale. But there was value for me reading it even if I think it will be too narrow for many readers.
I posted this originally on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-way-of-st-bened...
Stop Fixing Yourself by Anthony de Mello
2.5
Summary: A book that is hard to recommend, because it needs a lot of caveating. The right person will find it helpful, most will not.
I have a ambivalent attitude toward reading the mystics. I value mystical thinking and practice, but I tend to find reading them an exercise in frustration. Mystics are often vague and contradictory. They often use language in unusual ways. But there is often still real help there.
Part of my ongoing reading about discernment is about how we apply what we learn even when there is not definitive directions. I was listening to a talk by Sean Rowe, the new presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and he said (my paraphrase) that we like to talk about discernment, and discernment is good, but the point of discernment is to eventually chose a path and follow it. That is a helpful point and one that I think DeMello needs to hear (or say).
What DeMello is doing here is not saying, "give up and stay where you are," but "acknowledge where you are and pay attention." His rough summary is that we don't change by trying to force ourselves to do hard things, but by paying attention and allowing the Holy Spirit to bring awareness to us.
A lot of the emphasis early in the book is not on changing to "get something" but to become content in all things. Again, this is both true and problematic. It is true to the extent that we should be content in all things, but not true to the extent that we simply accept injustice without complaint. I feel like this is similar to Dallas Willard's advice/comment that a mature person should be very hard to offend. And to the extent that you should not personally be offended, I agree. But to the extend that we are not offended about the things that offend God, I disagree.
The shift to part two raises a lot of concerns. In part one, his language is about beliving in yourself. He doesn't use the language of manifesting, but I think he is using some of the ideas that overlap with manifesting. I get concerned about that type of rhetoric because while there is some truth to needing to believe in yourself and be confident that something is possible, there are limits. Simply beliving that good things will happen will not make them true. But the rhetoric at the start of section two is even more problematic.
"What causes unhappiness...there is only one cause of unhappiness. The false beliefs in your head." I understand in context what he is trying to say. He isn’t explicitly denying that wrong things in the world exist. But he is framing unhappiness as how we respond. Stephen Covey’s point about our response is the space between the stimuli and our action is similar to what DeMello is trying to say. There is a need to help people see that the space between stimuli and response exists, but I don't think it is helpful to put everything on that space.
In particular now with the current administration's explicit plan to overwhelm the news media and the bureaucracy with a barrage of orders and news so that it is impossible to have an adequate response, we do need to emphasize that space between stimuli and action. But it feels like he is playing games with semantics, not unlike the “Sin of Empathy” discussion. Empathy has a common definition. But the “Sin of Empathy” crowd is redefining empathy to be sinful by defining it as a type of codependent enmeshment or abusive manipulation. It is entirely possible to have a discussion about codependent enmeshment or abusive manipulation without denigrating the virtue of empathy.
In that similar way, DeMello seems to be redefining Happiness not as an emotion or a type of joy or pleasure at the world, but solely as a divine gift of contentment. There is a God given gift of contentment that the mystics have told us about for a long time, but that isn’t usually described as “happiness” and to define it that way using that word seems to intentionally create confusion.
Much of the rest of the book has similar problems of either using words oddly, or asking us to withdraw from our emotional response to adopt a type of Buddhist-like detachment. I understand that some people may find that helpful. But I think many Chrsitians have already been taught to mistrust emotions and those Christians who already mistrust emotions do not need additional instruction about the problems of emotion. Emotion is part of how we were created. Emotions can be distorted because of sin and experience. But the solution to that is healing, not continued distrust of emotion.
I originally posted this on my blog at https://bookwi.se/stop-fixing-yourself/
I have a ambivalent attitude toward reading the mystics. I value mystical thinking and practice, but I tend to find reading them an exercise in frustration. Mystics are often vague and contradictory. They often use language in unusual ways. But there is often still real help there.
Part of my ongoing reading about discernment is about how we apply what we learn even when there is not definitive directions. I was listening to a talk by Sean Rowe, the new presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and he said (my paraphrase) that we like to talk about discernment, and discernment is good, but the point of discernment is to eventually chose a path and follow it. That is a helpful point and one that I think DeMello needs to hear (or say).
What DeMello is doing here is not saying, "give up and stay where you are," but "acknowledge where you are and pay attention." His rough summary is that we don't change by trying to force ourselves to do hard things, but by paying attention and allowing the Holy Spirit to bring awareness to us.
A lot of the emphasis early in the book is not on changing to "get something" but to become content in all things. Again, this is both true and problematic. It is true to the extent that we should be content in all things, but not true to the extent that we simply accept injustice without complaint. I feel like this is similar to Dallas Willard's advice/comment that a mature person should be very hard to offend. And to the extent that you should not personally be offended, I agree. But to the extend that we are not offended about the things that offend God, I disagree.
The shift to part two raises a lot of concerns. In part one, his language is about beliving in yourself. He doesn't use the language of manifesting, but I think he is using some of the ideas that overlap with manifesting. I get concerned about that type of rhetoric because while there is some truth to needing to believe in yourself and be confident that something is possible, there are limits. Simply beliving that good things will happen will not make them true. But the rhetoric at the start of section two is even more problematic.
"What causes unhappiness...there is only one cause of unhappiness. The false beliefs in your head." I understand in context what he is trying to say. He isn’t explicitly denying that wrong things in the world exist. But he is framing unhappiness as how we respond. Stephen Covey’s point about our response is the space between the stimuli and our action is similar to what DeMello is trying to say. There is a need to help people see that the space between stimuli and response exists, but I don't think it is helpful to put everything on that space.
In particular now with the current administration's explicit plan to overwhelm the news media and the bureaucracy with a barrage of orders and news so that it is impossible to have an adequate response, we do need to emphasize that space between stimuli and action. But it feels like he is playing games with semantics, not unlike the “Sin of Empathy” discussion. Empathy has a common definition. But the “Sin of Empathy” crowd is redefining empathy to be sinful by defining it as a type of codependent enmeshment or abusive manipulation. It is entirely possible to have a discussion about codependent enmeshment or abusive manipulation without denigrating the virtue of empathy.
In that similar way, DeMello seems to be redefining Happiness not as an emotion or a type of joy or pleasure at the world, but solely as a divine gift of contentment. There is a God given gift of contentment that the mystics have told us about for a long time, but that isn’t usually described as “happiness” and to define it that way using that word seems to intentionally create confusion.
Much of the rest of the book has similar problems of either using words oddly, or asking us to withdraw from our emotional response to adopt a type of Buddhist-like detachment. I understand that some people may find that helpful. But I think many Chrsitians have already been taught to mistrust emotions and those Christians who already mistrust emotions do not need additional instruction about the problems of emotion. Emotion is part of how we were created. Emotions can be distorted because of sin and experience. But the solution to that is healing, not continued distrust of emotion.
I originally posted this on my blog at https://bookwi.se/stop-fixing-yourself/
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot
4.25
Summary: A black history textbook wrapped up in a comedic wrapper.
I am all about a good Black history book. And I also really appriciate history told by comedians because they are trying to get around the way that many people are resistant to dry dates and events presentations of history.
Black AF History is not a dry presentation. The humor mostly works to get to the heart of the presentation. I think some of the voice of his uncle sections fall a bit flat. But the vast majority works well.
I think on of the by products of the presenation is that this is not a universal Black presentation, but a particular black presentation. That should be obvious becuase there is no universal Black experience that is true of all Black peole at all times. Harriot grew up with a rural southern Black cultural experience. That experience will be differnet from an northern urban Black experience and different from a midwestern farmbelt experience and different from California suburban experience. And all of these are still stereotypical in some way which makes them also incomplete.
It is a very rare history book that doesn't give me new information or nuance that I have not heard before. There is just too much history for anyone to know it all and no book can present it all. I think this is a very good presentation, but part of the benefit of the comedy is that he can pull out little known aspects of history and focus on them, because he isn't trying to do a complete survey, but point out how the history is not known well enough.
One of those figures that was new to me here is Mary Ellen Pleasant, arguably the first Black woman to be a milionaire. And adjusted for inflation, she may be considered the first Black billionaire. But she was also an abolitionist and is reportedly the funder of John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid. If the evidence is accurate she donated more than a million dollars in today value toward the raid. She underwrote court cases around desegregation and was an active abolitionist before the civil war. But she is a figure that I didn't know existed prior to this book.
I originally posted this on my blog at https://bookwi.se/black-af-history/
I am all about a good Black history book. And I also really appriciate history told by comedians because they are trying to get around the way that many people are resistant to dry dates and events presentations of history.
Black AF History is not a dry presentation. The humor mostly works to get to the heart of the presentation. I think some of the voice of his uncle sections fall a bit flat. But the vast majority works well.
I think on of the by products of the presenation is that this is not a universal Black presentation, but a particular black presentation. That should be obvious becuase there is no universal Black experience that is true of all Black peole at all times. Harriot grew up with a rural southern Black cultural experience. That experience will be differnet from an northern urban Black experience and different from a midwestern farmbelt experience and different from California suburban experience. And all of these are still stereotypical in some way which makes them also incomplete.
It is a very rare history book that doesn't give me new information or nuance that I have not heard before. There is just too much history for anyone to know it all and no book can present it all. I think this is a very good presentation, but part of the benefit of the comedy is that he can pull out little known aspects of history and focus on them, because he isn't trying to do a complete survey, but point out how the history is not known well enough.
One of those figures that was new to me here is Mary Ellen Pleasant, arguably the first Black woman to be a milionaire. And adjusted for inflation, she may be considered the first Black billionaire. But she was also an abolitionist and is reportedly the funder of John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid. If the evidence is accurate she donated more than a million dollars in today value toward the raid. She underwrote court cases around desegregation and was an active abolitionist before the civil war. But she is a figure that I didn't know existed prior to this book.
I originally posted this on my blog at https://bookwi.se/black-af-history/
W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America by Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Britt Rusert
4.25
Summary: Short look at both the history of WEB Dubois 1900 World Fair project and how it predated much of the graphical data representation that became common later in the 20th century.
This is not a long book. There are really only a handful of essays. Those essays give context to the 1900 Paris World Exposition, WEB DuBois and his experience up until this point, and the data that was being presented. A final section discusses how innovative the presentation of the data was and how it predated later similar graphical data presentations.
I have known about this book since it came out but just hadn’t gotten around to reading it. I have an undergrad degree in sociology and part of an early job was using GIS demographics to help churches and church plants with planning. So I have a fair amount of background to know how important this event was in regard to data presentation.
But this matters in part because of what WEB DuBois and the others who participated were trying to do. 1900 was 35 years after the end of slavery. Contextually, 35 yeas ago was 1990, and the first Iraq War hadn’t happened yet. George HW Bush was president and the http protocol was being developed but the first real web browser would not be released widely until 1994. In other words, slavery was recent. It wasn’t just that slavery was recent but that there was widespread perception that Black Americans (and all from African decent) were “less than” those from European decent. The presentation, and WEB DuBois himself, were proof of the falsity of that belief.
This is a fairly niche book, but in a time where there less celebration of minority accomplishments, this is just another datapoint that needs to be widely known. If you want to see some of the graphics from the presentation, the Museum of African American History and Culture has a good webpage about it.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/visualizing-black-a...
This is not a long book. There are really only a handful of essays. Those essays give context to the 1900 Paris World Exposition, WEB DuBois and his experience up until this point, and the data that was being presented. A final section discusses how innovative the presentation of the data was and how it predated later similar graphical data presentations.
I have known about this book since it came out but just hadn’t gotten around to reading it. I have an undergrad degree in sociology and part of an early job was using GIS demographics to help churches and church plants with planning. So I have a fair amount of background to know how important this event was in regard to data presentation.
But this matters in part because of what WEB DuBois and the others who participated were trying to do. 1900 was 35 years after the end of slavery. Contextually, 35 yeas ago was 1990, and the first Iraq War hadn’t happened yet. George HW Bush was president and the http protocol was being developed but the first real web browser would not be released widely until 1994. In other words, slavery was recent. It wasn’t just that slavery was recent but that there was widespread perception that Black Americans (and all from African decent) were “less than” those from European decent. The presentation, and WEB DuBois himself, were proof of the falsity of that belief.
This is a fairly niche book, but in a time where there less celebration of minority accomplishments, this is just another datapoint that needs to be widely known. If you want to see some of the graphics from the presentation, the Museum of African American History and Culture has a good webpage about it.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/visualizing-black-a...
Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams
4.5
Summary: An orphan who aged out of foster care breaks his (chosen, not biological) brother out of an abusive foster care family, and that starts his discovery of his magical roots, a family he didn't know he had, and a magical HBCU.
I have been trying to intentionally read more fiction this year. That has mostly been young adult fiction because it is what has drawn me in so far.
Blood At the Root was published last year and I have seen it on the shelves of a few friends on Goodreads or seen social media posts about it. As I try to generally do, I avoided reading anything about it other than seeing that people I trusted recommended it.
Malik is 17 and petitioned to be released from the foster care system. His mother died when he was seven and people around him, blamed him for her death. He doesn't really understand what happened. But he knows it has to do with his magic. Since the day of her death, he has magic. But it is mostly uncontrolled and comes out when he is angry or emotional. So he tries to repress his emotions to stay in control. (He is not always in control.)
The book opens with Malik stealing a car so that he can break his (chosen, not biological) 12 year old foster brother out of an abusive foster home. They have grown up in a small predominately Black Alabama town and they dream of going to California to get away from everything. I won't give away too much more than spoilers from opening chapters, but in the midst of running away, they run into trouble and that leads them to find Malik's grandmother who he didn't know he had. She and all those around her also have magic and Malik finds an underground world of magic and Black community which he is not sure he can trust. He has been on his own for 10 years without anyone watching out for him. And it is hard to trust that there could be family that is trustworthy if they had not come for him earlier.
Part of what is revealed is that there is an HBCU which is designed to train students like him to use their magic. Almost immediately after finding his family, he is invited to go to a summer program to prepare him to enter the school in the fall. And that sets up the rest of the book.
Part of what I love about young adult novels is that they are explorations of what it means to grow up. Part of what I hate about young adult novels is the angst and mistrust of family and mentors that are trying to help those young adult grow up. The angst may be cliché, but it is based on a common reality. I very much remember going to a pretty angry phase. And Malik both has some reason for anger, but also quite a bit of developmental trauma. That is openly discussed in the novel and I think the normalization of the discussion of trauma in realistic terms is a good trend in young adult literature.
Blood at the Root is a very consciously culturally Black book. The magic system is rooted in Black culture and history. The HBCU makes complete sense with the magic system and history of the story. The geography of Alabama and Louisiana matters to the book's development. This is not Harry Potter with a culturally Black gloss. The book is pitched to a late teen audience. There is language and some violence and sexuality, but it is appropriate to a late teen audience that matches the age of the characters.
I was disappointed to learn that the sequel will not be released until late July 2025. But I will pre-order it and wait expectantly for it.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/blood-at-the-root-2/
I have been trying to intentionally read more fiction this year. That has mostly been young adult fiction because it is what has drawn me in so far.
Blood At the Root was published last year and I have seen it on the shelves of a few friends on Goodreads or seen social media posts about it. As I try to generally do, I avoided reading anything about it other than seeing that people I trusted recommended it.
Malik is 17 and petitioned to be released from the foster care system. His mother died when he was seven and people around him, blamed him for her death. He doesn't really understand what happened. But he knows it has to do with his magic. Since the day of her death, he has magic. But it is mostly uncontrolled and comes out when he is angry or emotional. So he tries to repress his emotions to stay in control. (He is not always in control.)
The book opens with Malik stealing a car so that he can break his (chosen, not biological) 12 year old foster brother out of an abusive foster home. They have grown up in a small predominately Black Alabama town and they dream of going to California to get away from everything. I won't give away too much more than spoilers from opening chapters, but in the midst of running away, they run into trouble and that leads them to find Malik's grandmother who he didn't know he had. She and all those around her also have magic and Malik finds an underground world of magic and Black community which he is not sure he can trust. He has been on his own for 10 years without anyone watching out for him. And it is hard to trust that there could be family that is trustworthy if they had not come for him earlier.
Part of what is revealed is that there is an HBCU which is designed to train students like him to use their magic. Almost immediately after finding his family, he is invited to go to a summer program to prepare him to enter the school in the fall. And that sets up the rest of the book.
Part of what I love about young adult novels is that they are explorations of what it means to grow up. Part of what I hate about young adult novels is the angst and mistrust of family and mentors that are trying to help those young adult grow up. The angst may be cliché, but it is based on a common reality. I very much remember going to a pretty angry phase. And Malik both has some reason for anger, but also quite a bit of developmental trauma. That is openly discussed in the novel and I think the normalization of the discussion of trauma in realistic terms is a good trend in young adult literature.
Blood at the Root is a very consciously culturally Black book. The magic system is rooted in Black culture and history. The HBCU makes complete sense with the magic system and history of the story. The geography of Alabama and Louisiana matters to the book's development. This is not Harry Potter with a culturally Black gloss. The book is pitched to a late teen audience. There is language and some violence and sexuality, but it is appropriate to a late teen audience that matches the age of the characters.
I was disappointed to learn that the sequel will not be released until late July 2025. But I will pre-order it and wait expectantly for it.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/blood-at-the-root-2/
Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis: Recovering the True Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Mark Thiessen Nation
Part of what attracts people about Bonhoffer is his unwavering vision. Nation quotes Bonhoeffer as saying, "Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself.” Part of the method of ethics is standing with the vulnerable. There is a good discussion about how Bonhoeffer's understanding of four ideas, responsibility, vicarious representation, talking on guilt, and freedom, were worked out with regard to our "concrete neighbor."
These chapters again build on the earlier chapters that emphasize that Bonhoeffer was not attempting to gain power to overthrow Hitler, but to love people around him and care for justice in the face of a church that mostly ignored the injustice around them. The traditional story of the outline of his book that was compiled into Ethics is that Bonhoeffer was justifying his participation in the resistance. Nation believes this is a misreading and in fact what Bonhoeffer is doing is writing Ethics to help his former students, most of whom were drafted into the military to see how there could be resistance and how to view their Christian life in that context. Violation of the draft was an capital offense. And as Nation previously made the case, according to court records, Bonhoeffer's work in Abwehr was viewed as a violation of the draft and therefore the main reason why he was executed. The court records show that there was no connection to participation with any assassination attempts.
I think the key section of this chapter is this quote:
The final main chapter is about Bonhoeffer's prison spiritual disiplines and how he continued to think about his pacifism. I think Nation makes a lot of sense in this chapter, but Nation is also clear that he is doing a lot of speculation here because we cannot know all of the answers. The center of this chapter is using an essay from Barth scholar John Webster about Barth and applying it to Bonhoeffer. Again, another long quote and one of about a half dozen that I could choose:
The epilogue discsses the people of Le Chambon, a village of about 5000 people who worked together to save 3000-5000 refugees, mostly Jewish, that Nation suggests was largely the result of the discipleship of a pastor who also was a committed pacifist.
I am not sure that Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis will change many minds. The very concept of a "Bonhoeffer moment" seems to suggest that at some point we can no longer just follow normal Christian ethics and we are now free to do things that at other points in time would not be justifiable. I have read plenty enough Bonhoeffer to know that he was far from perfect. He was a complex man who was inconsistent but in ways that I think Nation attempts to make sense of. One of the common tactics that Nation is using is to suggest that as a teacher and spiritual guide, Bonhoeffer would take positions that were not his own, but for the purpose of helping others to work through ideas. Or as I regularly do in my work as a spiritual director I become a conversation partner for the purpose of helping to explore a topic, not because I am taking a position of my own direct beliefs. Whether that is enough to move the terms of the conversation I am not rooted enough in the academic study of Bonhoeffer to be able to speculate about.
I have about 35 published highlights that you can read here.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/discipleship-in-a-w...
4.5
Summary: An assessment of Bonhoeffer as a pacifist and how that pacifism remained unchanged throughout the 1940s, in opposition to how Bonhoeffer's story is often presented.
Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis is intentionally trying to reframe the story of Bonhoeffer. The common story is that Bonhoeffer after his time studying in NYC in 1930-31 came to see the Sermon on the Mount as the central teaching of Christianity. Bonhoeffer focused his teaching in the underground seminary on the Sermon on the Mount and that is reflected in his book Discipleship. But starting at some point in the late 1930s or early 1940s, there was a shift in Bonhoeffer and he came to see that his peace ethic was no longer a viable means of operating. This traditional version of Bonhoeffer shifts into a couple of variations, either Bonhoeffer kept his peace ethnic but violated his own teaching and particpated in the assassination attempt anyway, or he moved toward a type of Nebuhrian realism that justified his participation in the assassination attempt.
Mark Nation says that is all wrong. He directly challenges Bethge's presenation of Bonhoeffer as changing and instead suggests that Bonhoeffer remained fully and conscously a pacifist until the end. The book is essentially a collection of six main essays about different aspects of why Nation thinks this reframing best makes sense of the evidence that we have and then four appendix essays.
The first essay is summarized by this quote: "Bonhoeffer, let it be said over and over, was not arrested for participating in any assassination attempts. He was arrested for helping to save the lives of fourteen Jews and was imprisoned for subverting the military’s power to conscript him into service." Part of this discussion is about how Nation doesn't think there is much, if any, evidence that Bonhoeffer did anything other that communicate with the ecumentical church that there was a movement in Germany trying to remove Hitler from power.
The second essay is about the importance of the "Jewish question". It is nearly 40 pages and both points out how Bonheffer saw the the problem of overt antisemitism, but how Bonhoeffer was still supersessionist in his treatment of the question and how Bonhoeffer's method was primarily to talk about the ability of Jewish Christians to be part of the church. Nation suggests that this was at least in part a strategy to get the church to recognize that if Jewish people are unable to be recognized within the church then the very concept of evangelism and the universality of the church was at stake. Germany was only about 1% Jewish and of those about 1 in 6 ethnically Jewish people were Christians.
The third essay makes the argument that we should use the word pacifist to describe Bonhoeffer's beliefs. That isn't just controversial in regard to Metaxas' presentation of Bonhoeffer, but much of the consensus around Bonhoeffer, but I think that Nation shows in detail that Bonhoeffer not only used the word to describe himeself, but consistantly taught his students to be pacifists, even if most of them rejected the teaching. Part of the method here is that Nation is challenging the reader to ask if Bonhoeffer was a pacifist by the mid 1930s, then when did that change, if it did. Nation believes that he took the job with Abwehr to avoid conscription into the army, not with the express purpose of being a part of the resistance.
The fourth essay is about how Bonhoeffer understood the work of discipleship, but in his framing of his book named Discipleship but also that broader concept. I have an ongoing reading project on the concept of Christian Discernment and this essay and the next one, on Bonhoeffer's understanding of Ethics bounce around the idea of discernment. Nation quotes Bonhoeffer as saying, "Discipleship in essence never consists in a decision for this or that specific action; it is always a decision for or against Jesus Christ." That concept is essentially describing discipleship as a type of discernment process. The chapter on Ethics makes clear that Bonhoeffer rejected ethics as a set of principles, but rather viewed ethics as essentially following Christ.
Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis is intentionally trying to reframe the story of Bonhoeffer. The common story is that Bonhoeffer after his time studying in NYC in 1930-31 came to see the Sermon on the Mount as the central teaching of Christianity. Bonhoeffer focused his teaching in the underground seminary on the Sermon on the Mount and that is reflected in his book Discipleship. But starting at some point in the late 1930s or early 1940s, there was a shift in Bonhoeffer and he came to see that his peace ethic was no longer a viable means of operating. This traditional version of Bonhoeffer shifts into a couple of variations, either Bonhoeffer kept his peace ethnic but violated his own teaching and particpated in the assassination attempt anyway, or he moved toward a type of Nebuhrian realism that justified his participation in the assassination attempt.
Mark Nation says that is all wrong. He directly challenges Bethge's presenation of Bonhoeffer as changing and instead suggests that Bonhoeffer remained fully and conscously a pacifist until the end. The book is essentially a collection of six main essays about different aspects of why Nation thinks this reframing best makes sense of the evidence that we have and then four appendix essays.
The first essay is summarized by this quote: "Bonhoeffer, let it be said over and over, was not arrested for participating in any assassination attempts. He was arrested for helping to save the lives of fourteen Jews and was imprisoned for subverting the military’s power to conscript him into service." Part of this discussion is about how Nation doesn't think there is much, if any, evidence that Bonhoeffer did anything other that communicate with the ecumentical church that there was a movement in Germany trying to remove Hitler from power.
The second essay is about the importance of the "Jewish question". It is nearly 40 pages and both points out how Bonheffer saw the the problem of overt antisemitism, but how Bonhoeffer was still supersessionist in his treatment of the question and how Bonhoeffer's method was primarily to talk about the ability of Jewish Christians to be part of the church. Nation suggests that this was at least in part a strategy to get the church to recognize that if Jewish people are unable to be recognized within the church then the very concept of evangelism and the universality of the church was at stake. Germany was only about 1% Jewish and of those about 1 in 6 ethnically Jewish people were Christians.
The third essay makes the argument that we should use the word pacifist to describe Bonhoeffer's beliefs. That isn't just controversial in regard to Metaxas' presentation of Bonhoeffer, but much of the consensus around Bonhoeffer, but I think that Nation shows in detail that Bonhoeffer not only used the word to describe himeself, but consistantly taught his students to be pacifists, even if most of them rejected the teaching. Part of the method here is that Nation is challenging the reader to ask if Bonhoeffer was a pacifist by the mid 1930s, then when did that change, if it did. Nation believes that he took the job with Abwehr to avoid conscription into the army, not with the express purpose of being a part of the resistance.
The fourth essay is about how Bonhoeffer understood the work of discipleship, but in his framing of his book named Discipleship but also that broader concept. I have an ongoing reading project on the concept of Christian Discernment and this essay and the next one, on Bonhoeffer's understanding of Ethics bounce around the idea of discernment. Nation quotes Bonhoeffer as saying, "Discipleship in essence never consists in a decision for this or that specific action; it is always a decision for or against Jesus Christ." That concept is essentially describing discipleship as a type of discernment process. The chapter on Ethics makes clear that Bonhoeffer rejected ethics as a set of principles, but rather viewed ethics as essentially following Christ.
"Moral weapons of the past simply will not do, says Bonhoeffer; “we must replace rusty weapons with bright steel” (81). The central—and defining—weapon in our arsenal is “the living, creating God” (81). In fact, if we are grounded “in the reality of the world reconciled with God in Jesus Christ, the command of Jesus gains meaning and reality” (82). Then we will realize: The world will be overcome not by destruction but by reconciliation. Not ideals or programs, not conscience, duty, responsibility or virtue, but only the consummate love of God can meet and overcome reality. Again, this is accomplished not by a general idea of love, but by the love of God really lived in Jesus Christ. This love of God for the world does not withdraw from reality into noble souls detached from the world, but experiences and suffers the reality of the world at its worst. The world exhausts its rage on the body of Jesus Christ. But the martyred one forgives the world its sins. Thus reconciliation takes place."
Part of what attracts people about Bonhoffer is his unwavering vision. Nation quotes Bonhoeffer as saying, "Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself.” Part of the method of ethics is standing with the vulnerable. There is a good discussion about how Bonhoeffer's understanding of four ideas, responsibility, vicarious representation, talking on guilt, and freedom, were worked out with regard to our "concrete neighbor."
These chapters again build on the earlier chapters that emphasize that Bonhoeffer was not attempting to gain power to overthrow Hitler, but to love people around him and care for justice in the face of a church that mostly ignored the injustice around them. The traditional story of the outline of his book that was compiled into Ethics is that Bonhoeffer was justifying his participation in the resistance. Nation believes this is a misreading and in fact what Bonhoeffer is doing is writing Ethics to help his former students, most of whom were drafted into the military to see how there could be resistance and how to view their Christian life in that context. Violation of the draft was an capital offense. And as Nation previously made the case, according to court records, Bonhoeffer's work in Abwehr was viewed as a violation of the draft and therefore the main reason why he was executed. The court records show that there was no connection to participation with any assassination attempts.
I think the key section of this chapter is this quote:
Bonhoeffer follows these extraordinary claims by offering ten pages of argument for why the Sermon on the Mount is crucial for understanding our Christian actions within real human history. Toward the end of these reflections—written in 1942 Germany—he says: “The Sermon on the Mount is either valid as the word of God’s world-reconciling love everywhere and at all times, or it is not really relevant for us at all” (243). “The responsibility of Jesus Christ for all human beings has love as its content and freedom as its form. . . . The commandments of God’s righteousness are fulfilled in vicarious representation, which means in concrete, responsible action of love for all human beings” (232). Very specifically he says, “by grounding responsible action in Jesus Christ we reaffirm precisely the limits of such action” (224). We must keep such comments in mind when he says that “the essence of responsible action intrinsically involves the sinless becoming guilty.” For he begins this sentence by saying: “Because of Jesus Christ . . .” Moreover, he follows it by saying, “It is a sacrilege and an outrageous perversion to extrapolate from this statement a blanket license to commit evil acts.
The final main chapter is about Bonhoeffer's prison spiritual disiplines and how he continued to think about his pacifism. I think Nation makes a lot of sense in this chapter, but Nation is also clear that he is doing a lot of speculation here because we cannot know all of the answers. The center of this chapter is using an essay from Barth scholar John Webster about Barth and applying it to Bonhoeffer. Again, another long quote and one of about a half dozen that I could choose:
“More than anything else,” therefore, this gospel entails “a matter of disorientation.” There is an immediate consequence to be drawn here for the church’s social and cultural witness: that witness must not proceed by transmuting the gospel into a stable, measurable, quantifiable social or cultural value. We can no more do that than we can channel a volcano into a domestic heating system. The gospel is no mere “principle” which can then be “applied” to issues about forms of common life or political economy. The gospel is about death and resurrection, new creation, and it is that new order of reality, rather than any immediate social applicability, which is the burden of the church’s testimony. (27) All of this has implications for how we think about the church. “Most fundamentally, it means that the church is what it is because of the gospel” (27). If this is to have any meaning then we must be “very strict to allow the gospel to exercise in an immediate way a controlling and critical influence” within our Christian communities (28). “‘Church’ is the event of gathering around the magnetic centre of the good news of Jesus Christ” (28). But since the church is possessed by rather than itself possessing the gospel, then “it will be most basically characterized by astonishment at the good news of Jesus” (29). The church is church both in its activities of gathering together and being dispersed into its daily life beyond the gathered community.
The epilogue discsses the people of Le Chambon, a village of about 5000 people who worked together to save 3000-5000 refugees, mostly Jewish, that Nation suggests was largely the result of the discipleship of a pastor who also was a committed pacifist.
I am not sure that Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis will change many minds. The very concept of a "Bonhoeffer moment" seems to suggest that at some point we can no longer just follow normal Christian ethics and we are now free to do things that at other points in time would not be justifiable. I have read plenty enough Bonhoeffer to know that he was far from perfect. He was a complex man who was inconsistent but in ways that I think Nation attempts to make sense of. One of the common tactics that Nation is using is to suggest that as a teacher and spiritual guide, Bonhoeffer would take positions that were not his own, but for the purpose of helping others to work through ideas. Or as I regularly do in my work as a spiritual director I become a conversation partner for the purpose of helping to explore a topic, not because I am taking a position of my own direct beliefs. Whether that is enough to move the terms of the conversation I am not rooted enough in the academic study of Bonhoeffer to be able to speculate about.
I have about 35 published highlights that you can read here.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/discipleship-in-a-w...