Summer Foursome:  Preaching, Paul, More Paul and American Homiletic History

Reviewed by Dr. Susan K. Hedahl

1)  Preaching from Memory to Hope by Thomas G. Long. (WJKP, 2009)  Long’s work is what I would term a series of probes – much needed – in a day of many cross-currents in proclamation and theology.  He addresses the history and changing landscape of narrative preaching and challenges its directions within the context of today’s pulpit.  Long also takes up the theme of Gnosticism by addressing the theological issues raised  and/or promoted by Spong, Pagels, Fox, Ehrman and Borg. The implications of their varied works are linked to the problems raised when such thinking is imported into the pulpit.  I found this work a refreshing corrective and realignment for the vectors of weekly proclamation.  The work would be useful not only in seminary classrooms but in parish adult education classes and pericope study groups as well.

2) The First Paul:  Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon, by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  (HarperOne, 2009) As usual, the writing of this team is beguiling and easy to read!  This work looks at the range of Paul’s writings – from the authentic to the non-Pauline - inclusive of the portrait of Paul in the Book of Acts.  The authors name three ‘Pauls’ - radical Paul, reactionary Paul and conservative Paul (post-, pseudo- and anti-).  Paul is also understood in this work as “a Jewish Christ mystic.” (19).  Using these different types of Pauls, the writers work their way through various elements of his theology. Perhaps most refreshing is a needed re-visiting of the garden variety ‘substitutionary’ theology, which fuels most American atonement theories in some fashion.  Borg and Crossan offer the needed corrective of a new look at Paul’s ‘participatory’ atonement and its implications for living a life ‘in Christ.’  This is a usable and readable book.  Arguments one wishes to have with these writers on some points should not obscure the helpfulness of the work.

3)  The Church’s Guide for Reading Paul;  The Canonical Shaping of the Pauline Corpus by Brevard S. Childs.  (Eerdmans, 2008 – posthumous).  Not for the faint of heart or those with short attention spans, this work is a beautifully wrought history and theological dialogue regarding the differences between the confessional and canonical Paul.  Childs addresses the viewpoints of such scholars as Ulrich Luz, Richard B. Hays, Frances Young, Luke T. Johnson and Wayne Meeks.  The bulk of this work is devoted to an in-depth look at the Pauline materials with the flagship  Letter to the Romans anchoring it all.  When reading this work – checked out from the library – I took voluminous notes, grumbling to myself meanwhile that I should have bought this book immediately for the privilege of marking it up and making marginal comments. This work is beyond brilliant.  Get it. Read it.

4) Desirous of a challenging read that combines American homiletical history and American religious studies?   The Word and Its Witness:  The Spiritualization of American Realism by Gregory S. Jackson. (The University of Chicago Press, 2009).  This is a superlative work by a Rutgers University teacher.  He defines a key term in this work as:  “…By “homiletic” works I mean a broad spectrum of parabiblical materials that sprang up despite the commitment of American Protestants, Calvinists in particular, to the principle of sola scriptura or “scripture alone.”  Through such materials various Protestant movements and leaders sought to train the faith in particular interpretative and reading practices, and in so doing, to orient diverse groups across a vast landscape….”  Jackson’s work ranges over an enormous amount of materials and includes such reflections on Charles Sheldon’s In His Footsteps and the work of a Danish photographer,  Jacob Riis in a chapter entitled “Cultivating Spiritual Insight:  Jacob Riis’s Virtual-Tour Narrative and the Visual Modernization of Protestant Homiletics.”  One could write pages of laudatory information on this book:  in the readings of this reviewer, a work like this happens only infrequently.  Eclectic, well-articulated and brilliant.