Religion booknotes
Cunningham, Lawrence S.
O wen Chadwick's history of
Christianity is an old-fash
ioned, straightforward nar
rative, but it is never a lock
step chronological series of Great Events
and Great Persons. To be sure,...
...Many of these illustrations are in full color and placed so as to shed light on the text...
...1311 ( 'Cl IoN...
...She sniffs at the brevity of Presbyterian Easter services...
...Drawing on a wide range of scholarship, Hilkert urges a kind of triangulation that involves coordinating the story of salvation with one's own story and the story of the world in which we live...
...Along with "problems," however, comes Hilkert's affirmation that the sacramental imagination is still vigorous and that preaching can thrust forward "images of hope...
...This book is a theological delight, especially because the author effortlessly links preaching to sacramental theology and ecclesiology...
...Bibliophiles will delight in both the rarity of the volumes and the splendid typefaces produced in this period of great art...
...Perhaps someone, using Louth's excellent book as a kind of traditional model, will do another book with the title The Wilderness without God...
...The Reformation of the Bible is not a book I would have spontaneously pur The Reformation of the Bible/The Bible of the Reformation by Jaroslav Pelikan Yale University Press, $45, 197 pp...
...Such a project would be one small way of fulfilling Pope John Paul's intention to compile, for the millennial celebrations, a martyrology of twentieth-century Christians...
...Mathewes-Green's book tells of her conversion and that of her spouse from the Episcopal church to the Orthodox church...
...In a section on saints, for example, he explains how the nimbus (the halo or corona) evolves in Christian art...
...Fellows will pursue research projects that recognize religious beliefs and practices as important elements in the current debate about civil society and the renewal of public life...
...The Bible, of course, is not meant only to be read...
...4:4-6) that Christ came in the "fullness of time" born "of a woman, born under the Law," to provide us with the spirit of adoption as children of God...
...l .i.A./"11.:\" ("c of \Sr t roc...
...One of the great resources of contemporary spirituality is to mine the memoirs and reflections of those who have lived through the deserts of postindustrial urban life or the darkly demonic deserts of this century's gulags, death lagers, and refugee camps...
...Pelikan's introductory essay is exactly what one would expect from this prolific scholar: deeply learned, unfailingly interesting, and written with clarity and ease...
...These chapters, well-researched and crisply narrated, provide us with permutations of a biblical theme as it is received and "performed" in the history of the spiritual tradition...
...A1.E1...
...DEGREES CERTIFICATES CONTINUING EDUCATION D.MIN SPIRITUALITY ISRAEL STUDY TRIPS M.DIV...
...its not infrequent lapses into theological jargon...
...There are wonderful treats to be enjoyed here (even if the use of a magnifying glass is needed to see some details), ranging from polyglot typefaces on a single page to wonderful examples of Diirer's woodcuts from his 1511 "Large Passion...
...To receive an application cover sheet, please contact: The Center for the Study of Values in Public Life, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (telephone: 617-496-3586...
...kSSf\I.\( F .\f7 (.R.UC .CF 'I L I)F\'f I lot I...
...That is a shame since this book, despite some pedagogical shortcomings and a committee-derived clunkiness, does provide an example of how the lumpily unwieldy Catechism of the Catholic Church can be translated into something approaching manageable readability...
...When I got this modestly priced volume, I spent a rainy Saturday morning just turning the pages and looking at the art, pausing now and again to read one of his brief essays on this or that topic...
...The desert is more than a theme in the Bible...
...This catechesis sees Jesus Christ as the center of history and the center of time...
...Chicago, IL 60615 TEL 7731753.5316 FAX 7731324.3414 Catholic THEOLOGICAL UNION Commonweal 42 September 12, 1997 lence, as well as locus for finding God...
...Chapter 6 (with perhaps a little too much apoloBOOKMOTES It's Your Call A MASTER OF DIVINITY DEGREE at the Jesuit School of Theology- at Berkelet A place to explore intellectually A community of adult students excited about theology Hundreds of courses to choose from in an ecumenical setting Integration of studs, spirituality and experience ta1.11 us at I-S1]ti-S 2-t-0122 or S 10-811 .#SO-t or 1XHiTE for information to Director of Admissions Jesuit School of TheoIogy at Be rkeIm I-3S IeRoV k%vnue Ikrkele...
...concrete flesh-and-blood community of believers...
...As the title indicates, the commission focuses on the mystery of the Incarnation...
...The author alludes in passing to her own journey from a Roman Catholic youth through a Hindu phase to the charismatics to the Anglicans to Orthodoxy...
...its overemphasis on papal documents...
...Despite this rather high Christological affirmation, the text not only pays sincere attention to the popular faith of the church, but insists that we note how other cultures (nonWestern ones) have attempted to "name" Christ by drawing on both revered titles (Christ as Guru) as well as hallowed virtues (Jesus as teacher of ahimsa-nonviolence...
...Each illustration has a long explanatory note and a short bibliography...
...Deadline date for receipt of applications is December 19, 1997...
...Boston College Far ilhrntaHaFr...
...The Bible is both performed in the sacramental, liturgical, charitable, and prophetic work of the church as well as being proclaimed and preached...
...That humanist conviction also coincided with the newer printing technologies developed after the pioneering work of Gutenberg, and was a decisive factor in the spread of Reformation ideas...
...The Eastern Christian tradition is unfathomably rich, and some of those riches become clear on the pages of this book...
...In each of these chapters Louth weaves together both narrative and a close reading of texts...
...This work, then, may be a harbinger of others to come...
...California 94 09.1193 FAX SIG-}c11.8530 131-111: Ad missions@lSTB.edu Commonweal 40 September 12, 1997 getical fretting) sets out the faith of Christians in the Resurrection and the implications of that great culminating reality of Jesus' earthly life...
...I r:1,1)1 kS1111° 1\11 I I I L.'Rta' L:F"k I ]Flt .ITS M. \., \t...
...her husband, in fact, is the priest in their small community which, like that of our Melkite parish, is made up mainly of converts from other Christian denominations...
...Pelikan emphasizes that the Renaissance humanists, especially those in the North, passionately believed that philology could be used as an instrument of Christian reform...
...Eliot...
...Thus, by extension, it is a source for our own spiritual journey...
...faults the Catholics for seeking salvation through works (on what basis I'm not sure) while, at the same time, urging mildly dubious claims about the antiquity of certain Orthodox practices...
...But whether this Christological catechesis will attract a wide readership remains to be seen...
...ituality...
...The Bible insists that the desert is both a place of evil powers (Louth has an interesting chapter on the demonic displays at Loudun in seventeenth-century France) and vioOur Faculty writes the gooks Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, prepares women and men for service to the Church...
...lair Introduction to New Testament Ancienl and Contemporary Chrislokgies Mentoring Youth tar Tomorrow's Churth Liturgical Theology Christian Social Ethics Counseling Families la a Time of Change I' \k11 111\I, I I l t R1,1( .1 SESSION Two: July 13-July 24 '\11 uK t I IWl'(1kII YrfTFS ( o,11,1 I...
...The fifth and sixth chapters of the book are most impressive in their description of Jesus as preacher, healer, forgiver of sins, friend of the emarginated, companion of women, and prophet of peace and reconciliation...
...and convene a student working group around a central issue in one's area of expertise...
...Against that, however, there are wonderful pages on the gospel message of Jesus coupled with the text's urgent sense of what salvation really means and how this message is at the core of the teaching of the church...
...In that way, the reader learns some history but, more important, comes to understand the fecundity of the desert symbol...
...This is not a perfect book...
...Learn with the best...
...The publisher's blurb describes the move toward Orthodoxy as one of the "hottest trends in American Christianity...
...If I had been working on this manuscript, I would have made it more "user friendly," adding some short prayers, providing a few well-chosen illustrations, avoiding the intrusive patches of Latinate Vaticanese, and, most of all, supplying an index...
...At CTU you can study with leading theologians, ethicists and thinkers who write cutting edge books and still take time to mentor students...
...That task, in turn, raises powerful issues: Should preaching teach or should it proclaim...
...Facing East: A Pilgrim's Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy by Frederica Mathewes-Green HarperSan Francisco, $20, 245 pp...
...participate in an interdisciplinary seminar involving senior scholars and practitioners...
...FELLOWSHIPS AT THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF VALUES IN PUBLIC LIFE HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL, 1998-99 The Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at Harvard Divinity School invites applications from scholars and practitioners to be in residence for one semester or one academic year...
...terrupt his narrative for excursuses on small but lively points about the Christian tradition...
...Baumcr and Fred Baumcr Cheryl F.xum Colleen Griffith 'l'hcsmas Croome Lectionory Based lilulgicol Preaching Women cad the Bible Theology, SPiriwaliry, and the Body Sharing Faith in Religious Education and Pastoral Miaislry Q %I R1K FI\.\c f.Al...
...he comments on the rise of the confessional box...
...Martin's, $35, 304 pp...
...Any lover of the Bible or books in general would be glad to receive this handsome book as a gift...
...My own prayer is that it will be read not by theologians alone...
...I have a goodly number of friends who, from their roots in Protestant fundamentalism or Roman Catholicism, have joined one or other of the branches of Eastern Christianity...
...Pelikan develops his introductory essay along a series of fronts: critical editions of the biblical texts...
...Louth's exemplary little volume takes up, in separate chapters, figures from the history of Christian spirituality who actually lived the desert experience geographically (Charles DeFoucauld, Carlo Carretto, the Desert fathers and mothers, the Russian forest dwellers) or who "constructed" a desert metaphorically as part of the spiritual journey (John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, T.S...
...El Lawrence S. Cunningham teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame...
...The exhibit opened at Southern Methodist University and subsequently traveled to Yale, Harvard, and Columbia...
...The final chapter is on Mary but, following the lead of Lumen gentium at Vatican II, sets its course in the light of the preceding reflections on the Incarnation...
...Along with Pelikari s long essay there are over eighty illustrations of title pages, illustrated pages, woodblocks, and etch BOSTON COLLEGE The "but titute" at Bostoit College: A phice u here the rhrrrrb does its thinking...
...fax: 617-496-3668...
...and he finds time to muse on the use of bells in the Christian church...
...That conviction also undergirded their prodigious labors at producing critical texts of the Bible, fostering the study of Hebrew and Greek, their investigations into patristics, etc...
...Can one theologically locate the point where the inspired Word of God touches the Naming Grace: Preaching and the Sacramental Imagination by Mary Catherine Hilkert Continuum, $29.95, 252 pp...
...home institutions are expected to provide additional support, plus all benefits...
...Hilkert follows Sandra Schneider's lead in arguing that one can preach against a text...
...and how this new interest in the Bible fed the various arts of the sixteenth century, including the ancillary disciplines of literature, etc...
...Divided into ten chapters, it begins with an extended meditation on Paul's trope (Gal...
...Who has the right to preach...
...This is hardly to be taken as a severe criticism since, mutatis mutandis, it is a common fault of the genre...
...The fact that the publication of this Jesus Christ: Word of the Father/Savior of the World compiled by the Theological Historical Commission for the Great jubilee 2000 translated by Adrian Walker Crossroad/Herder, $12.95, 156 pp...
...it serves almost as a purificatory step for both the Children of Israel and Jesus...
...I suspect that this book will be of special interest to the many new converts to Orthodoxy who wish to make sense of their new faith and its, if you will excuse the pun, rather Byzantine usages...
...chased, but having received it I found it an admirable volume to study...
...Our local Melkite church, for example, has a core of native Melkites, but the preponderant number of the congregation are re fugees from Roman Catholic guitar Masses...
...Abingdon's has recently reissued Louth's very fine 1991 volume on the theme of the desert in Christian spir The Wilderness of God by Andrew Louth Abingdon, $14.95,171 pp...
...How does one approach biblical texts that, say, demean women...
...In the meantime, it is a book well worth the price...
...volume comes with little fanfare in this country indicates that, however feverish the preparations may be in Rome, excitement over the Jubilee seems not to be contagious...
...Mathewes-Green frames this book by following the liturgical year and its rituals while telling the story of the fledgling Orthodox congregation where her husband serves as pastor...
...Participants' stipends vary depending on individual circumstances and ordinarily do not exceed $30,000 for a full-year Fellowship (or $15,000 for a one-semester Fellowship...
...Precisely because preaching is sacramental, the preacher's task is, in Hilkert's estimation, more akin to the poet's than to the teacher's, in the sense that the preacher must bring forth words (Rahner would call them Urwortes-fundamental words) that re-call the mystery of God and the mystery of human experience...
...e-mail: csvpl@div.harvard.edu...
...Hilkert's book is about the ex ercise of preaching, but not from the perspective of technique or rhetoric...
...To be sure, there are many great events and great persons, but what saves this book from being a retelling of "one damned thing after an other" is Chadwick's graceful and vig orous prose and his willingness to in A History of Christianity by Owen Chadwick St...
...the means by which the Bible became available to people at large...
...Louth is a wellknown scholar of patristics who wears his learning lightly and his piety openly...
...I joked with Hilkert (she is a colleague) that her endnotes are almost as interesting as her text...
...I have noted its tendency toward apologetics (a tendency in reaction against the widespread publicity about the Jesus Seminar and other such extravaganzas...
...Since most non-Orthodox find that tradition somewhat exotic, her book is an insider's view of Orthodox life and practice...
...ION Patricia If...
...Prepared in Rome by the Theological Historical Commission for the Great jubilee 2000, Adrian Walker's translation of Jesus Christ is the first of four catechetical texts that will be published under the aegis of the Vatican commission...
...she does not accept Elizabeth Fiorenza's suggestion that the canon be trimmed...
...http://divweb.harvard.edu/csvpl Commonweal 4 3 September 12, 1997...
...LITURGY SATURDAY + PM CLASSES M.A.IPASTORAL CROSS-CULTURAL MISSION SABBATICALS STUDIES PASTORAL STUDIES SUMMER INSTITUTE M.AITHEOLOGY BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY WORKSHOPS 1 or ur f?Jrmrarron coniacl: The Admissions Office...
...C:.A.F.5..NI) Pti.IJ, I. RFI.l(,Irn ~ T ill-C...
...The book is, in effect, a catalog of a museum show of Bibles and related materials produced originally in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries...
...This volume might seem a bit specialized but Pelikan's essay is accessible to the general reader and the illustrations from the catalogue section are wonderful to browse through...
...mmnloth hew* ii 111Ijsus UK" all) Pwlrrr ~y DprfIMr 1 [hr" Ill), MA 07141 NO4$1li7 ar 411.5S24I4I hFt~l~+nrrRbr,~~3Fd WiChacl I liner, and kcnncl h Iiirnc' The Church as ea Institulion in American Society OPPORTUNITY FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION: July 13-11 Coltlereace slyle: iedrding workshops, sight-seeing tours end social events Mfarvanne C(1nIor' One Week Courses: Iducoling and Ministering for life-tong Leareieg (July 13-11) Faithfulness through Apt and Stages (July 20-24) SESSION THREE: July 27-August 7 Foundations in Theology Theology and Pastoral) Practice Pastoral Cotmselrlg and Spirituality Toward Forming an Adult Church Sired and Ulrrgicol Dance Study Program: Dance: Air Invitation to the Sacred (two-week course...
...5401 S. Corn elI Ave...
...It should be studied especially carefully by everyone who has the ministry of preaching, so that they can relearn what, at times, they seem to forget: that what they do is fundamental, urgent, and always needed...
...The phrase "hottest trends" is a depressing one in its own right, but it does unwittingly state a paradox: Many people find Orthodoxy attractive precisely because it stands squarely against most "hot" trends in American life...
...the ways in which biblical exegesis developed as a result of critical work...
...The task of the preacher is to account for multiple fidelities: to the Word, to the hearer, and to the world...
...In short, the book is an excellent browse, but it could also serve as a more formal introduction to church history...
...Like most converts, the author is breathlessly uncritical about her new faith and, irritatingly, smugly critical of others...
...Chadwick's story is enhanced by illustrations drawn from the long histo RELIGION 1 r - *Elk ~ Lawrence S. Cunningham ry of Christian art...
...PsY[ IIu1 ct,s...
...Let's hope it finds a wide audience who appreciate, in the words of the gospel, bringing forth old things and new...
...In that sense, he is always instructive to read...
...One could say that her theological reflection revolves around this issue: How does the preached word take flesh...
...In the final analysis, this book does give us hope that others will attempt such catecheses in order to turn the "stuff" of the Catechism of the Catholic Church into a more readable format...
...Liturgical Dance: Farrar and Can fear (two-week warksup) Fvelyn whitchcad and ]joie~ Il hitchead Embracing Love and Work: Toward a Spirituality for Living in the World Shawn Copeland (:faire Lowery John McDargh Jane Regan Robert VerEccke - SUMMER 1998 Commonweal 4 1 September 12,1997 ings from fifteenth-, sixteenth-, and seventeenth-century books...
...In that sense, the desert dwellers of today are figures like Mandela, Wiesel, etc...
...O wen Chadwick's history of Christianity is an old-fash ioned, straightforward nar rative, but it is never a lock step chronological series of Great Events and Great Persons...
...Does the preached word actually become a sacrament in the traditional sense of that term...
...She has read everything on this topic and, as a consequence, her notes could provide a handy syllabus on particular topics along the entire theological spectrum...
...Were I to have had the chance to comment on this book before its publication, I might have suggested that he do a separate chapter (or chapters) on the man-made deserts of this century...
...A glossary at the end helps those who need assistance with the vocabulary...
...SESSION ONE: June 29-July 10 Dl,( u1I k IscSIc1\ .\II IFP.]11II( ',I%% I',(.[ %%I1 I'1 I \II1I I I'Rui.k ~%I (11'1111\, Ink "I1 115 K.(rc r1 11a rl a ficrnard ( :nnkc .\lit-hacl I1ur.cn \Iari.lrct Kelleher Srcp6cu Nnpc \(ir6,ccl St...
...This is not a book on homiletics...
...Perhaps the publisher might think of a soft-cover edition that could find some classroom usage...
...tsk-tsks the lack of fasting in other denominations...
Vol. 124 • September 1997 • No. 15
