God's Call in the World

Considering call in our relationship with God, I have three books to offer. While they are diverse in character, they all have the common theme of people struggling to be true to their encounter, their lifelong engagement with God. All three authors have a wide vista upon which to paint their experiences and all three end up in different places. I can imagine, however, they would enjoy an evening discoursing together and even if they didn’t, listening in would be a great pleasure.

Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (Riverside; 2005; $24.95) is the latest work of Harold Bloom (Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human and The Book of J among others) and he focuses his great intellect, extensive learning and razor sharp literary criticism on the figures of Jesus and Yahweh as presented in the pages of the Hebrew and Christian Testaments. He asks us to and instructs us in careful reading of the texts stripped of their historically and culturally imposed theological layers. Raised in the Orthodox Jewish tradition, he is especially cognizant of the anti-Jewish content of the text and the commentary which by his example appears even in such scholarly works as the New Oxford Annotated Bible of the Revised Standard Version. Whether or not you agree with where he ends up (he essentially stands with Marcion, the second century Christian who was declared a heretic by the church, in determining that the God of the Hebrew Testament and the God of the Christian Testament can not be one in the same) he will challenge you to think carefully and read carefully about what the scripture really says and what it means to our faith. I found this modestly sized volume incredibly engaging and a splendid antidote to the overly casual and too literalist treatment of scripture that seems to pervade much writing of the entire religious spectrum.

Loaves, Fishes and Leftovers: Sharing Faith’s Deep Questions by Ted Loder (Augsburg; 2005; $13.99) is based on ‘question and answer sermons’ that Dr. Loder offered a couple of times a year near the end of his tenure at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, PA. As one might guess, this is not a systematic presentation, but rather overhearing a group discussion in which people in the pew are given a chance to seek answers to the questions that are meaningful to them from a man who, as one would expect of clergy, has spent his life studying and searching for such answers. The context of these people’s lives is always present to the reader, with questions on death surrounding the death of a church member in the war in Iraq, questions on marriage coming from a parent whose son is getting married, questions on sin and healing from a person who is a therapist. In the Wesleyan tradition, it is assumed that faith is informed by scripture, history, experience and reason and Loder brings all of these into play as he works to be honest and forthright in his responses, even if sometimes in humility, the answer is, “I don’t know.”

Jesus, Our Spiritual Director: A Pilgrimage Through the Gospels by Wendy J. Miller (Upper Room Books; 2004; $17.00) is a book of a different stripe though also based on the long career of Rev. Miller as a campus pastor, professor and retreat leader. This is an interactive book set up with exercises to guide the reader’s personal exploration either alone or in a group. I would encourage its group use especially, not only because of its excellent group discussion guides, but also because faith formation is not an isolated enterprise. Miller uses scripture as the source of imagined conversations between Jesus and his scriptural disciples, especially Peter, but also between Jesus and us, his present-day disciples. Miller introduces and then uses throughout the book the discipline known as lectio divina as a tool for uncovering the meaning of scripture for us. If I were to quibble, I found her tendency to mix and pair readings from different gospels distracting — a discomfort undoubtedly heightened by reading Bloom’s book at the same time. The analogy I would draw is that this practice is like listening to one person sharing their faith experience with you and overlaying it with what someone else has shared. The intermingling distracts us from hearing and responding distinctly to what either has said. Fortunately she doesn’t do it often and regardless, this is a book I think many, especially those who feel called to ministry (in the broad definition) as Jesus’ disciples, will find encouraging.

David Davies is co-owner of Soul Desires bookstore in Omaha NE with his wife, the Rev. Susan Davies.