Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

Book Reviews

The Execution of God

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The Execution of God is a disturbing book—and rightly so: any meaningful discussion of the death penalty should be profoundly unsettling. It should cause us to reassess our values and our ethics. It should press us to reevaluate our actions—or inactions—regarding what continues to be one of the most divisive and troubling issues in modern America. The Execution of God succeeds on all these counts, and its potent message lingers, disturbingly, long after the final page.

In The Execution of God, Baptist pastor, theologian, and activist Jeff Hood provides a deeply personal reflection on the death penalty. He recounts the pervasive acceptance (and even glorification) of capital punishment during his fundamentalist Christian upbringing:
Throughout my upbringing, I heard about the death penalty. My family lived in a state that had the death penalty. We went to a church that was for the death penalty. We didn’t really know anybody opposed to the death penalty. Though it might sound strange, I thought that following Jesus included being for the death penalty. Every so often, an upcoming execution would get attention and everybody would start talking about the case until the person was executed. Occasionally slipping in and out conversation, the death penalty was a way of life.
—The Execution of God, p28

Hood goes on to describe his questioning of that de facto dogma, and his eventual transition to undertaking… [Read more…] about The Execution of God

Discovering “Biblical Truths”

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Over the years that this blog has been running, we’ve devoted a great deal of space to countering the dominant theological propositions of fundamentalist Christianity. But this inevitably leads to questions about alternatives: If a literal, “plain-text” reading of the Bible, especially as informed by modern evangelical theology, isn’t the “right” way to read the text, then what is?

How are we — Christians who reject limited, self-serving conceptions of God, who reject the absolute authority of an inerrant Bible, who reject the misogyny and homophobia of the modern Church, who, indeed, reject much of the “modern” part of church in general — how are we to think about our faith? How can we thoughtfully — and faithfully — wrestle with the theological issues at the heart of Christianity?

In response to such questions, I can now enthusiastically recommend Yale theologian Dale Martin’s new book, Biblical Truths: The Meaning of Scripture in the Twenty-first Century.

This 408 page volume (including a bibliography and subject, author, and scriptural indices), offers nothing less than a “nonfoundationalist, postmodern, Marxist, orthodox, ecumenical, and provisional theological interpretation of the New Testament” (32), in which Martin explains “why and how I continue to find traditional Christian doctrines and confessions ‘true,’ why I’m willing to confess the creeds, even though I am a critical scholar who knows much of the Bible is not ‘true’ when taken… [Read more…] about Discovering “Biblical Truths”

Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby

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If you have even a passing interest in jewelry making or holiday decor, then you’re probably familiar with Hobby Lobby. And if you have even a passing interest in biblical manuscripts or the modern antiquities market, then you’re probably familiar with the Green family, who just so happen to own Hobby Lobby.

The Greens possess both strong business acumen and steadfast evangelical Christian faith, and it is the meeting of those two seemingly disparate fields that is explored in the new book Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida Moss and Joel Baden. Their timely and eye-opening book is “an exploration of the unusual intersection of faith and business, biblical worldview and academic scholarship, religion and the public sphere–all of which are brought together in the Bible-focused initiatives of the Green family, Hobby Lobby, and MOTB [Museum of the Bible]” (12).

Moss and Baden examine the establishment of the vast antiquities collection of the Green family, the scholarly study (or lack thereof) of that collection, the Bible curriculum that the Greens are promoting for use in public schools, and the Museum of the Bible, a Green initiative dedicated to the book they seem intent to promote at virtually any cost.

In describing and explaining how the Greens are seeking to bring their “biblical” worldview to America, Moss and Baden raise difficult questions and cast light on countless questionable decisions surrounding the various… [Read more…] about Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby

What’s So Confusing About Grace?

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The answer to the question posed by the title of Randal Rauser’s new book, What’s So Confusing About Grace? is “just about everything,” especially if you grew up, as Rauser did, in the North American evangelical subculture of the 80s and 90s.

Rauser’s spiritual memoir recounts his lifelong struggle to understand both the foundational and the superficial issues of Christian faith (the two are easily confused, as is made amply evident throughout the book).

Beginning with his conversion to Christianity at the age of five, Rauser takes us through seasons of certainty and doubt as he examines issues like salvation, hell, grace, good works, the Bible, the Church, and Christian doctrine. He “tells that story of moving from the naive innocence of a child’s faith, on through layers of doctrinal and ethical complexity, wrestling with the fear of ultimate failure, and finally arriving at an abiding trust in the God who is infinitely greater, wiser, more merciful, and more loving than I could ever be” (xii).

Equal parts humorous, sobering, and thought-provoking, Rauser explores the big issues of Christianity by honestly recounting the often self-deprecating anecdotes of his youth. He discusses hell through the story of an ill-fated gingerbread cookie, and exposes the hypocrisy of the notion that loving Jesus requires eschewing anything “secular,” which led him to smash his Peter Gabriel cassette tapes on the pavement. But he also offers more serious fare by tackling… [Read more…] about What’s So Confusing About Grace?

Native Americans, the Mainline Church, and the Quest for Interracial Justice

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David Phillips Hansen’s new book, Native Americans, the Mainline Church, and the Quest for Interracial Justice (Chalice Press, $29.99), is a sobering and important exploration of the historical, theological, and social relationships between the church and native peoples.

Hansen’s objectives are straightforward: “first, to expose and deconstruct the causes of the church’s war on indigenous cultures; and second to identify and define key theological, political, and economic foundations for the church’s reformation that will prepare it for our multicultural future.” (3)

He more than accomplishes those goals in this meticulously footnoted volume. Structured around a framework developed by Eric K. Yamamoto, Hansen explores four “praxis dimensions” for addressing interracial injustice: recognition, responsibility, reconstruction, and reparation.

The opening section on recognition examines the history of Christianity’s tumultuous relationship with racial issues, beginning in medieval Europe and progressing through the twentieth century. Next, the chapters on responsibility discuss the interaction between theology and society, including an important reflection on the impact of the biblical story of the Exodus. A chapter on reconstruction discusses the need for repentance within the church, and the closing section on reparation discusses how our values must shape our future policies and practices.

Native Americans, the Mainline Church, and the Quest for Interracial… [Read more…] about Native Americans, the Mainline Church, and the Quest for Interracial Justice

An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar…

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Randal Rauser’s and Justin Schieber’s new book (released tomorrow), An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar…: Talking about God, the Universe, and Everything (Prometheus, $18), is a welcome entry into the field of Christian/Atheist dialogue. Formatted as a series of back and forth exchanges between the authors, An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar sets out to model productive, irenic, and substantive conversation between these two opposing worldviews.

Inspired by the format of the book and its commitment to “pursuing and knowing the truth” by means of a conversation that is “friendly, rigorous, honest, and directed at the truth,” I asked my friend Nick Bradford, an atheist and Christopher Hitchens devotee, to read the book along with me and discuss our thoughts about it.

Dan: So tell me Nick, did the airtight logic and vivid philosophical illustrations provided by Randal persuade you to jump ship and become a theist?

Nick: Well Dan, it seems we might have read two different books. I will say it was a good read, but I am not so sure “airtight” is the word I would use. “God-of-the-gaps” is really what comes to mind.

Dan: God-of-the-Gaps, huh? Care to elaborate on what you mean by that?

Nick: Sure! The chapter on morality was where this problem was most noticeable. Randal inserted the possibility of a god into every gap, nook, cranny, and blank space there was in that chapter. He did a good job of poking small holes in Justin’s arguments, but… [Read more…] about An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar…

Relig-ish: Soulful Living in a Spiritual-But-Not-Religious World

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According to data from the Pew Research Center, Americans are becoming less religious, but, simultaneously, more spiritual. Often described as “nones,” these individuals have rejected the trappings of institutional religion, yet still feel “a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being as well as a deep sense of wonder about the universe.”

But, as so many people resoundingly reject the hypocrisy, hate, homophobia, and misogyny of the Christian church, they also often leave behind the spiritually nurturing aspects of religious life and find themselves adrift in a post-church world.

For those who have left the church behind, but don’t want to entirely abandon spiritual practice, and also for those who were never a part of the church, but are still seeking to foster meaningful spiritual development, Rachelle Mee-Chapman’s new book, Relig-ish: Soulful Living in a Spiritual-But-Not-Religious World (Chalice Press, $14.99), serves as a practical guide to negotiating the waters of spirituality that lie just beyond the shores of traditional religion.

Mee-Chapman has traversed these waters herself, having spent thirty years in the Christian church, much of that time as an ordained minister, before moving on in her spiritual journey. Her pastoral sensitivity and spiritual wisdom permeate this small but potent book, and she is adamant that there is fertile ground to be found “between secularism and the religious institutions of Christianity” (1).

Relig-ish affirms… [Read more…] about Relig-ish: Soulful Living in a Spiritual-But-Not-Religious World

The Love that Will Not Let You Go

by Douglas Heidt in Book Reviews

The Love that Will Not Let You Go: Being Christian is Not What You Think (Wipf and Stock, $19), is a crystalline distillation of Douglas Heidt’s thoughts about Christianity after nearly 50 years in pastoral ministry. This slender but potent volume is packed with insight, wisdom, and challenges for individual Christians as well as the church as a whole.

Heidt’s thesis is disarmingly simple: that God and Love are one and the same and that the Christian calling is to accept, embrace, and live out this Love in the world. In explicating this understanding of Christianity, Heidt explores “the supreme vitality and power of Love in human experience” and examines “ways we can embrace the vision that God is Love itself.” (11)

He grounds this discussion in first-hand stories drawn from his ministerial experience, and persuasively shows how lived-out-love can redefine our ideas about the church, the Bible, and the broader Christian narrative.

There is no doubt that much of what passes for Christianity today has drifted far from the shores of Love, and as a result has run aground on the seemingly intractable differences that often have little to do with the true message of Christ. This disconnect results in a Christianity that, to many people, “simply doesn’t make sense; it isn’t credible, it’s complicated, it doesn’t engage, and it doesn’t excite.” (15)

Heidt calls us to move beyond this sort of hollow and lifeless faith and to discover a Christianity that is vibrant and… [Read more…] about The Love that Will Not Let You Go

Lions: A Novel by Bonnie Nadzam

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Bonnie Nadzam’s newly-released second novel, Lions (Grove Atlantic/Black Cat, $16), is a ghost story–a ghost story about the spirit of a dying Colorado town called Lions, so named “to stand in for disappointment with the wild invention and unreasonable hope by which it had been first imagined, then sought and spuriously claimed.”

It is also a story about the ghosts that haunt the town’s few remaining inhabitants: the ghosts of their ancestors, the ghosts of their hopes and ambitions, the ghosts of an uncertain future.

Lions is a bleak place, “comprised of no more than searing light and eddying dust. Nothing but wind and white sun.” Its people eke out meager lives from barren land, and are slowly but surely abandoning their homes to escape–or perhaps to chase–the ghosts that haunt them.

One person not intending to leave is John Walker, the owner of a welding shop. His family has lived in Lions for generations, and his skillful craftsmanship and stoic virtue are legendary in the county. When, in the opening chapters of Lions, a stranger and his dog wander into town, Walker unquestioningly gives him food, clothing, and money.

But in Lions, good deeds count for little. Tragedy falls upon the unnamed stranger, as well as on the Walker family. Over the course of the summer, Walker’s son, Gordon, and his son’s girlfriend, Leigh, must wrestle with these tragedies, and with life in a place that seems never able to escape its past, never able to move forward… [Read more…] about Lions: A Novel by Bonnie Nadzam

The Good Book of Human Nature

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When it comes to the Bible, negotiating the span between religious reverence and secular scorn can be a daunting task of intellectual funambulism. Too often, the faithful view the Bible solely as a divine message from God, immune to critical analysis. Likewise, the non-religious often dismiss the Bible as an irrelevant–or even dangerous–collection of outdated and ignorant writings.

In their new book, The Good Book of Human Nature, (Basic Books, $29.99), evolutionary anthropologist Carel van Schaik and historian Kai Michel capably bridge this gap, boldly defending the thesis that the Bible is the most important book in the history of humanity. Though both agnostic, they believe that the Bible offers an invaluable key to a better understanding of ourselves. Through the lenses of cognitive science, evolutionary biology, archeology, and religious history, they explore what the Bible reveals about human nature and the cultural evolution of our species:
“In the Bible we find answers to humanity’s greatest questions. We do not mean this in a religious sense. Rather, it teaches us why we fear death, how we deal with great misfortunes, and where our deep-seated desire for justice originated. The Bible shows us how we learned to survive in large, anonymous societies, why our modern lives sometimes seem so pointless, and why we are so often nagged by what we should describe as a longing for Paradise. When viewed without its halo, the Bible has something important to say to… [Read more…] about The Good Book of Human Nature