Rain and the Rhinoceros

Regardless of what you think of his interpretation of Barth or where you stand on the doctrine of the analogia entis, you have to admit that Hans Urs von Balthasar’s The Theology of Karl Barth is one of the greatest pieces of Catholic-Protestant ecumenical theology ever written. I realize that is kind of strong statement, but this book is just superb. I’m convinced that more of this type of careful and patient work needs to be done. Can anyone think of an ecumenical work that even compares to this masterpiece?

I want to point readers to a “symposium” over at The Church and Postmodern Culture discussing Nate Kerr’s wonderful book Christ, History, and Apocalyptic: The Politics of Christian Mission. If you haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet, stop what you’re doing and buy it now here. A good discussion is already brewing, so check it out.

I read a lot of great books in 2008, but here is my top ten list.

1. A Precarious Peace by Chris K. Huebner

2. States of Exile by Alain Epp Weaver

3. Being Consumed by William Cavanaugh

4. On Suicide Bombing by Talal Asad

5. The Truce of God by Rowan Williams

6. Story and Promise: A Brief Theology of the Gospel about Jesus by Robert W. Jenson

7. Theology, Political Theory, and Pluralism: Beyond Tolerance and Difference by Kristen Deede Johnson

8. God Still Matters by Herbert McCabe

9. Love Alone is Credible by Hans Urs von Balthasar

10. Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil by Alain Badiou

I recently returned from the annual American Academy of Religion conference held in Chicago. I had a really great time meeting and hanging out with fellow theo-bloggers, David Horstkoetter of flying.farther, and David W. Congdon of The Fire and the Rose. I also had the opportunity to spend some quality time with some of the editors of The Other Journal. All in all, the actual sessions were quite good and of course it was hard to resist the incredible book sales. Every major theological publishing company had booths with books marked way below list price.

I bought the following books:

The first book on my list of books to buy was J Kameron Carter’s Race: A Theological Account. Unfortunately, this was also on everyone’s mind–the book sold out within the first few hours of the first day.

Vinoth Ramachandra’s Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping Our World

Scott Bader-Saye’s Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear

Rowan Williams’ On Christian Theology

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Sanctorum Communio (Hardcover, Fortress Press critical edition)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics (Hardcover, Fortress Press critical edition)

Richard Church’s First Be Reconciled: Challenging Christians in the Courts

Tripp York’s The Purple Crown: The Politics of Martyrdom

Alain Epp-Weaver’s States of Exile

Douglas Harink’s Paul Among the Postliberals: Pauline Theology Beyond Christendom and Modernity

Nathan Kerr’s Christ, History, and Apocalyptic: The Politics of Christian Mission

I think that is all–though I feel like I’m missing something. Anyway, it hurt the pocketbook, but I’m pretty excited about it, particularly the Bonhoeffer books. The new Fortress editions are really superb.

Speaking of helpful secondary literature, Joseph Mangina has written a fine introduction to Karl Barth. The book is called Karl Barth: Theologian of Christian Witness. This, however, is not just one more introduction to Barth, it also brings his thought into dialogue with other (mostly) contemporary theologians, namely George Lindbeck, Robert Jenson, Henri de Lubac, Stanley Hauerwas, and Michael Wyschogrod.

The Mennonite publishing company Herald Press has already released three great books in their series Polyglossia: Radical Reformation Theologies, and it looks like they’re about to release another entitled First Be Reconciled: Challenging Christians in the Courts by Richard Church. According to Herald Press Polyglossia is

A series intended for conversation among academics, ministers and laypersons regarding knowledge, beliefs and the practices of the Christian faith. Polyglossia grows out of John Howard Yoder’s call to see radical reformation as a tone, style, or a stance, a way of thinking theologically that requires precarious attempts to speak the gospel in new idioms. It is a form of theological reflection that blends patient vulnerability and hermeneutical charity with considered judgment and informed criticism.

So far I’ve only read Chris K. Huebner’s fantastic work A Precarious Peace in which he creatively engages thinkers as diverse as John Howard Yoder, John Milbank, Karl Barth, Alistair MacIntyre, Paul Virilio, Terry Eagleton, Atom Egoyan, as well as many others. Adam Steward has written a helpful review here.

The other books include Tripp York’s The Purple Crown (review here) and Alain Epp Weaver’s States of Exile (introduction here).

Out of all the new theology book releases this year, one of the most promising works is Gary Dorrien’s Social Ethics in the Making. Dorrien is the world’s leading expert on the American liberal theological tradition. He is a wonderfully balanced and insightful historian of modern theology and this book will almost certainly become the history of modern Christian social ethics.

Here’s a glimpse at the table of contents:
Introduction
1 Inventing Social Ethics: Francis Greenwood Peabody, William Jewett Tucker, and Graham Taylor
2 The Social Gospel: Washington Gladden, Josiah Strong, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Harry F. Ward
3 Lift Every Voice: Reverdy C. Ransom, Jane Addams, and John A. Ryan
4 Christian Realism: Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, John C. Bennett, and Paul Ramsey
5 Social Christianity as Public Theology: Walter G. Muelder, James Luther Adams, John Courtney Murray, and Dorothy Day
6 Liberationist Disruptions: Martin Luther King Jr., James H. Cone, Mary Daly, and Beverly W. Harrison
7 Disputing and Expanding the Tradition: Carl F. H. Henry, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, Michael Novak, and Jim Wallis
8 Dealing With Modernity and Postmodernity: Charles Curran, James M. Gustafson, Gibson Winter, Cornel West, Katie G. Cannon, and Victor Anderson
9 Economy, Sexuality, Ecology, Difference: Max L. Stackhouse, Dennis P. McCann, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Marvin M. Ellison, 10 John B. Cobb, Jr., Larry Rasmussen, Daniel C. Maguire, Sharon Welch, Emilie M. Townes, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, María Pilar Aquino, and David Hollenbach
11 Borders of Possibility: The Necessity of “Discredited” Social Gospel Ideas
Index

This may prove to be a most difficult question, but if you could name one book that dramatically changed your life what would it be? For me, this is a difficult question because a number of books have changed me in a variety of ways. And as I look back I realize that certain books have helped prepare the way for the impact of others. The most important book for my personal and theological development has to be Rowan Williams’ book Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel. In all honesty, this book more than any other was fundamentally integral to my faith journey. Reading this (after four years of heavy doses of biblical criticism) I began to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus again. Runners up include William Cavanaugh’s Theopolitical Imagination and Stanley Hauerwas’ The Peaceable Kingdom. Again, I’m not limiting this to theology books, so let’s hear it. What is the one book that dramatically changed your life? Why and in what ways?

This past week the theology library at St. Thomas was selling some books. For seven dollars I scored John Howard Yoder’s The Priestly Kingdom, Schillebeeckx’s Jesus, Käsemann’s The Testament of Jesus, Hengel’s Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity, Perrin’s Jesus and the Language of the Kingdom, and Gerd Theissen’s The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity. So, you’re probably wondering what the big deal is and why I’m devoting an entire post to telling you this news. Okay, here’s why. So, there was also a “silent auction” which included a number of rare books and multivolume sets. Well, the silent auction included 12 volumes of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics in hardcover in almost perfect condition. I had conceded a while back that I’d probably never own any of the Dogmatics because it is one of those things that is just plain difficult to justify spending money on. Not that I wouldn’t love to have it, but just that it is expensive and I will probably never specialize in Barth. Well, when I saw these volumes sitting there I realized that this could be a rare opportunity to score a set of the Dogmatics for really cheap. I attend one of the most Thomist seminaries in the country and usually (not always), but usually, Thomists aren’t so keen on Barth. Good news for me! I bought the whole set for $175!

Over at Fors Clavigera James K.A. Smith notifies us of the fascinating Guardian series of photographs of Writer’s Rooms and Night Visions.

Personally I’ve never been able to create a space of my own to read and write. I guess when I was at SSU my roommate Zach and I did have a good set up. We had what we called the “corner chair” which was located right next to our window located on the third story of Park Hall. I also had a huge oak desk that I loved and we managed to have nice lighting. Since moving to Minneapolis I do most of my work at coffee shops. Although we’ve set up a nice work area for me, I have difficultly getting stuff done there.

What about you? What does your work area look like? Are you happy with it?