Kara Kush:

...And perhaps information...

...In contrast, Webber strongly afthe clarification of points of view on the firms the sacramental reality of the THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD relation of the church to the world...

...concluding with .evaluations of Roman so central to an evangelical identity...

...Mirzai, the proper civil servant nounced our boycott of the Moscow who must execute his kinsman's KGB Olympics to protest the Russian inva- a basis for cooperation, a centralized in- murderer...

...Especially, perhaps, thing," that even a small force can hurt tive that one might almost call a sophisti- the crucial presence in the story of the the Russians, who are not invincible if largest hoard of gold the world has ever the Afghans fight in the historical Afghan, seen, worth over $200 billion...

...This is a cold-war ditional curiosities to wonder about in the Afghans that "everyone can do some- thriller assuming a long human perspec- this "first novel...

...Council, the teachings of the Catholic Another element of the book which Furthermore, many of these churches church and decrees of the Second Vati- will be of interest to readers from whatexist because of class prejudice in the can Council, the World Evangelical Fel- ever tradition, is the treatment of history...

...of the novel, at least in the usual sense...

...awakened to its history of never submit- cannot defect without endangering his Yet this onesided struggle has lasted ting to foreign occupation...

...Idries Shah A particular glory of Kara Kush is its There has been a dull sameness about the Stein & Day, $17.95, 575 pp...

...Books: A NOVEL OF THE AFGHAN WAR I T is not surprising that people have a KARA RUSH cated variant of sub specie aeternitatis...

...Among the more impor- integrity of the former three com- evenhanded and balanced treatment of tant developments in this community is munities...

...the real- fers a brief and clear recounting of the numbers have increased and their schol- ity of structural as well as personal evil in church's relationship to the world, highars have also grown in number and the world, and the inseparability of lighting the subapostolic and patristic sophistication...

...Occupied Afghanistan The Eagle is a national hero (he deliberrected, with abundant, fresh, informed is not a nation divided, wavering be- ately cultivates the role in order to detail in Idries Shah's novelized account, tween collaboration and resistance, or catalyze the resistance) he is not the hero Kara Kush...

...evangelical audience, who may well This time Shah is writing as an Af- By the story's end, the reader has ef- have formed a social ethics in the past ghan, though one who has lived most of fortlessly absorbed an abundance of this without a great deal of attention to tradi, his life abroad, in England since the fif information, about Afghanistan's moun- tion...

...its religious and moral herit- evangelical approach, the emphasis on firsthand reports and testimonials into a age animated by a non-fanatical spiritual- the biblical doctrine of the church and its scholarly or journalistic account, Shah ity...

...Pluralism on public pol- evangelism from social action...

...Catholic, World Council of Churches, Catholic and mainline Protestant Jeffrey Gros and World Evangelical Fellowship per- readers may be puzzled by the amount of spectives, and critical comments about time and energy devoted to Satan and I N RECENT years, largely because of the some other points of view on the subject...

...gaged in a futile attempt to stop the Rus- and soon a whole nation is galvanized, Azambai, the Soviet army captain (who sian juggernaut with outmoded weapons...

...The informa- family back home, so must contrive to be longer than World War II, with the Rus- tion net providing links to The Eagle and "killed in action...

...Compared to the usual Rather than put his vast collection of of empires...

...read...

...And there is the lingering memory of implications for social ethics comes as a apparently expects to have a wider influ- that fabulous treasure, buried in this welcome surprise...

...These points of remarkable ally nineteenth-century) of the Scripture peace position...

...enemies...

...which circles...

...death, is here dispensed with...

...A later attention to military hardware...

...more historic Protestant churches, as a lowship, and the Lausanne Committee Historically, evangelicals have not result of their stand against slavery in the on World Evangelism give a common weighed the data of Christian history as nineteenth century or, coming out of an witness to certain key points of biblical heavily as particular interpretations (usuAnabaptist tradition, because of their social ethics...

...also assesses such figures as J. Richard gustine...

...confines of their own bases and patrolled widely that anyone stirred to "join the These numerous "other" figures are stretches of main highway, and unable to resistance" quickly finds the way...

...Time and again in the Kush" in their Turki dialect, and he enemy uniform, KGB spies and torture book, proverbs, folk tales, phrases from came close to being bullied for it on the chambers, assaults by small bands on the Koran and "the classics" occur to playground until it inspired him to resist massively armed opponents, the detailed ordinary people in moments requiring rethe bully and rally his comrades...

...its long history as frustrator (powers...

...Webber periods with particular emphasis on Auicy questions has also grown apace...

...One feels this of the Russians as thirty books on the subject, will find adEagle aims to provide exploits, to show well as the Afghans...

...ghan with remarkable access to reports The book exerts an effect on the reader The attention usually given to a central from all parts of the country, even from quite beyond a Shogun, or a Ken Follett character's psychological processes or inside the Soviet Union, Shah has told novel (the latest itself about Afghanis- love life, or even his narrow escape from the story of the epic resistance with all the tan), not to mention a Robert Ludlum...

...Recently, because of convergence are: the centrality of in dealing with social ethics...

...its ethnic va- basis, and includes exegetical appensimple maxim guiding so many char- riety (including the Pashtuns, who take dices on kosmos, ekklesia, stoicheia acters in the book, that each one does seriously their putative descent from the (principalities), and dunamis or exousia what he can, according to his situation...

...We are told of primitive tribesmen formation network, not a centralized rested for blurting that the ragged Afghan wearing turbans and baggy trousers, un- command...

...His gesture follows the deceptively tains, valleys, and deserts...

...Since not so much minor characters or supportcount more than three hundred Afghan ancient ethnic and tribal bonds remain ing actors in the background, as part of a Communist allies...

...host of real-life "minor" characters, reports in the media, repeated periodi- such as Karima, the Soviet general's cally since the day President Carter an- Robert Oohs cook...

...However, the vast majority of principles are so fresh, and the material speaks of itself as "evangelical," it will Protestants in this sector of American juxtaposed and evaluated so different, be apparent how significant these inChristianity - Pentecostals, Holiness, that it can serve as a ground-breaking sights are in determining Christian enand other evangelicals - while being effort leading to more critical studies...

...Webber oftheir evangelistic commitments, their Christ's victory over the world...

...church as the basis for action in the OPPOSITION, TENSION, OR TRANSFOR- This volume, by Wheaton professor world...

...For Shah way, dispersed, in small bands, using the has woven the legend of this buried treaterrain...

...Innocent III and the Catholic contribu26 September 1986: 505...

...Nampaz, the baker sians still unable to hold sway beyond the his nest in the mountains spreads so supplying the Russian fort...

...He finds all of them want- acterized as the "Thirteenth, the Greatest Sojourners community representative of ing in the christocentric and evangelical of Centuries," there is a much more their diversity...

...of The Eagle publicly, as an emblem sense of following fateful events in the Any reader aware of Shah's principal symbolizing all Afghans, this time "to lives of other people, i.e., of fellow reputation, as the leading exponent of beat the Red bully...

...The book begins with a firm biblical ties...

...the old Russian general=arsion...

...human beings who "have fates," des- contemporary Sufism and author of some Starting with a handful of men, The tinies...

...individualistic ethic growing out of a conservative Enlightenment pietism - where ecclesiology is almost reduced to A succinct & careful interpreter an optional substudy under pastoral practice...

...fighters remind him of World War II able to unite in a single command, en- Small victories engender larger ones, Ukrainian peasants resisting the Nazis...

...not consider themselves fundamentalist...

...Israelites...

...gagement in the political and economic strong on the authority of the Bible, do The author concludes• that the World order...

...blurry impression of the Afghan war...

...However, if one media focus on the religious right, the While the book is accessible to mature understands the centrality of the Evil One conservative evangelicals have been re- adult and student audiences as well as to and of the end time, in that half of the ceiving more attention, even in Catholic experts in social ethics, the interpretive Protestant world in the U.S...

...For in the past, much ence through a narrative which, as he "land where legends live," reminding of evangelical ethics has been overtold a BBC interviewer, "a person would its people that extraordinary outcomes shadowed by a personalized and even read who was not particularly interested are possible...

...eschatological themes...

...taste of having consumed packaged ghans, and with a new pride in what "Kara Kush," the title, comes from heroics, with incidents conjured up, cyn- people are capable of, especially when the pet name once given by his nurse to ically and/or sentimentally, to provide equipped with a functioning tradition of the central character, Adam Durany, an fantasy victories over imaginary magnanimity and loyalty...

...Himself an influential Af- fighting a civil war...

...This is articulated in evangelical MATION Robert Webber, gives a history of the terms, honoring the high doctrine of Robert E. Webber relationship of the church to the world, Scripture, evangelism, and conversion Zondervan, $11.95 paper, 333 pp...

...But never sourcefulness, or calm, or the generosity inspiration prompts him to take the name before in a war novel have I had such a that makes light of death...

...Though been filled in, and significantly cor- would stand out...

...Yet the familiar elements are all Afghans their truly usable past, and its She called him her little eagle, "Kara here: behind-the-line commando raids in ready availability...

...infiltrators Eagle who links them together...

...His overriding goal is to establish sure (which once existed, only to disapCommonweal: 504 pear around 1750) into the whole length in the Afghan war, who wanted a good The book is clearly written for an of his very realistic narrative...

...While his treatmeant of the Not all the evangelicals are comfort- Neuhaus, Jerry Falwell, and the tenets of Middle Ages could hardly be charable with the Moral Majority, nor is the civil religion...

...unbroken, there is little atmosphere of panoramic foreground alongside The This hitherto featureless picture has suspicion of old neighbors...

...excitement of a best-selling adventure One finishes it without the usual after- One brims with admiration for the Afthriller...

...One envies the American-educated Afghan engineer...