A Review of Walter Brueggemann’s “Money and Possessions”

30th September, 2016

Money and possessions matter. They might not always come up explicitly in our ordinary, everyday conversations, but when Jesus tells His disciples to sell their possessions because “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,”¹Luke 12:34, NRSV. or bluntly says, “You cannot serve God and wealth,”²Luke 16:13, NRSV. His words are especially challenging for many of us because they ring deeply true, even if we usually avoid thinking about them. Nevertheless, we often try to keep faith and money in separate spheres of life. In his new volume, Money and Possessions, Walter Brueggemann insists that this is both unsustainable and undesirable: “We live in a society that would like to bracket out money and possessions (politics and economics) from ultimate questions. The Bible insists otherwise.”³p.12.

References [ + ]

1.	↑	Luke 12:34, NRSV.
2.	↑	Luke 16:13, NRSV.
3.	↑	p.12.

Grappling With Grief: A Review of “What Does the Bible Say About Suffering?”

Joe Johnson

7th September, 2016

Theology

The problem of pain and suffering is one of the more vexing – and universally experienced – mysteries in the Christian life. It’s an important subject that should always be approached with gentleness and respect. Thankfully, Brian Han Gregg, who teaches biblical studies at the University of Sioux Falls, manages to faithfully embody both of these traits in his new book, What Does the Bible Say About Suffering?. Gregg thinks that believers trying to make sense of suffering should do so in deep conversation with Scripture. After all, he writes, “Christians are people of the Word. We are convinced that God has disclosed important truths to us through the Scripture.”¹pp.13-14.

Therefore, it only makes sense that followers of Jesus should turn to the poems, narratives, and letters of Scripture to help understand the world’s brokenness and brutality. Despite wholeheartedly agreeing that Christians should seek out the Bible for its wisdom, he differs with those who think that Scripture contains a single, straightforward explanation to the problem of suffering. For Gregg, “The Bible includes a number of different approaches [to suffering]… and we do ourselves and the Bible a great disservice by adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.”²p.14.

References [ + ]

1.	↑	pp.13-14.
2.	↑	p.14.

Getting to Know Gregory of Nazianzus

Joe Johnson

26th August, 2016

Church

The history of Christianity is filled with important turning points. One of most far-reaching of these was the Arian controversy, which culminated in the councils of Nicaea (325 AD) and Constantinople (381 AD). In the introduction to his exceptional book on the development of trinitarian theology during and after this period, Khaled Anatolios encourages contemporary Christians to look not only at the specific creedal formulations produced by these councils, but also at “how such formulations were interpreted in the immediate aftermath” of them.¹Khaled Anatolios, Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011), 1.

Among the various church fathers involved in the development of Nicene Christianity, many people know about Athanasius, the Alexandrian bishop who went into exile five times and probably did more than anyone else to ensure that orthodox Christian thought successfully resisted the Arian heresy.²John Behr, The Nicene Faith: Formation of Christian Theology, Volume 2 (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004), 163,167. However, Athanasius was not alone. Fewer people are probably familiar with the group of theologians known collectively as the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus). Nevertheless, they also played an important role in interpreting and defending Nicene orthodoxy.³Bryan M. Litfin, Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction. 2nd Ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), 155. Today, we’re going to spend some time getting to know one of them.

References [ + ]

1.	↑	Khaled Anatolios, Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011), 1.
2.	↑	John Behr, The Nicene Faith: Formation of Christian Theology, Volume 2 (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004), 163,167.
3.	↑	Bryan M. Litfin, Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction. 2nd Ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), 155.

Reviving the Church’s Imagination: A Review of Kevin Vanhoozer’s “Pictures at a Theological Exhibition”

Joe Johnson

12th August, 2016

Church

In the eyes of a fair number of Christians today, the imagination doesn’t seem to count for very much—or at least that’s how Kevin Vanhoozer describes things in the introduction to his new essay collection Pictures at a Theological Exhibition. He believes that many evangelicals unfortunately view the imagination essentially as “a factory for producing images of things that are not there” (p.18). “Maybe it’s important for telling good stories at night or writing gripping novels, but it’s not that important for theology,” they might say.

When the imagination isn’t considered theologically useful, it seems like the value of analytic activities like systematic theology tend to get over-emphasized while artistic expressions like poetry get marginalized. For Vanhoozer, though, both systematic theology and poetry have important roles to play in the Christian life. He writes, “We need both the clarity of crisp concepts and the intricacy of lush metaphors in order to get sound, life-giving doctrine” (p.13). His overall indictment is that many contemporary believers don’t think having a developed biblical imagination matters. In a world where “many Christians are [simultaneously] suffering from malnourished imaginations, captive to culturally conditioned pictures of the good life,” this is a sadly ironic state of affairs (p.20).

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