John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father Peggy Noonan Viking, 256 pages, $24.95
A Life Well Lived
This warm tribute to Pope John Paul II by The Wall Street Journal contributing editor Peggy Noonan (When Character Was King) has the feel of someone reminiscing over the loss of a good friend—”Let me tell you my John Paul stories.”
Noonan reflects on her personal encounters with the pope and recounts incidents from his life and election to the papacy. She explores his views on faith, prayer, sexuality, and human rights. Most moving are her accounts of his influence on her, which prompted Noonan to become serious about her Catholic faith.
Though she tends toward hagiography, she also notes John Paul’s shortcomings in handling the American sex-abuse scandals. Those unfamiliar with John Paul might first want to read a chronological biography, since Noonan’s observations sometimes lack context. She is at her best when urging us forward with the words and attitude of John Paul, “Be not afraid.”
Only Human: Christian Reflections on the Journey Toward Wholeness David P. Gushee Jossey-Bass, 256 pages, $22.95
What It Means to Be Human
In this book, David Gushee, a ct columnist and professor of moral philosophy at Union University, tackles eight questions about human nature, including: Why do relationships matter? How do we become morally good? What should be our ultimate goal for life’s journey?
The Bible assumes that all people share the same human nature and the same potential journey, from creation to sin to redemption, writes Gushee.
“In Christian thought,” he writes, “we are left with the unshakable conviction that a Jeffrey Dahmer and a Mother Teresa are in fact both human beings created according to God’s design, stained by sin, and objects of God’s redemptive love in Jesus Christ.”
Gushee explores the differences between body, soul, and spirit, and relates this three-in-one aspect of human nature to the Trinitarian nature of God. He also examines the role of relationships and community: God models relationship through the Trinity, and we are designed for relationship (although our relationships may be fragile or broken due to sin).
Gushee offers brief sketches of the lives of Martin Luther King Jr., Florence Nightingale, William Wilberforce, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer as examples of moral greatness.
This is a thoughtful, scholarly treatise on a multifaceted topic, rendered accessible by Gushee’s lucid writing.
The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? David Bentley Hart Eerdmans, 108 pages, $14
When Bad Things Happen
The meaning of suffering and natural disaster is at the heart of this expanded Wall Street Journal essay by Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart. That essay was written in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed nearly a quarter of a million people. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, the book remains relevant.
Hart looks at various responses to tragedy, including the tirades of secular moralists who see disasters as proof for atheism. With this in mind, he explores Voltaire’s Poéme sur le désastre de Lisbonne and passages from Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.
Suffering, especially of innocent children, is not part of divine will, Hart argues. “When I see the death of a child,” he writes, “I do not see the face of God, but the face of his enemy.”
Hart also takes aim at theologies that argue that suffering reveals divine attributes and allows us to share in Christ’s afflictions. He denounces those who say that people deservedly receive punishment or reward and that the suffering of innocents will bear spiritual fruit.
He is unnecessarily obtuse in places. However, Hart compellingly argues that this world is only a shadow of a more glorious creation that God intends, a “shattered mirror of divine beauty.”
Talking the Walk: Letting Christian Language Live Again Marva Dawn Brazos, 219 pages, $22.99
Rethinking Our Words
Author and Regent College teaching fellow Marva Dawn (Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God) attempts to reclaim “corrupted” words in this collection of short essays. Her goal, she writes, is to “ask what might be good about the original words.”
Dawn tackles a wide-ranging vocabulary. “I love the word Behold! It is a ‘grab you by the shirt collar and shake you up a little’ word,” she writes in one essay, decrying new Bible translations that render it see or something equally innocuous. She makes a good case for keeping some gender-exclusive language (Father, Son), while tactfully acknowledging the baggage associated with gender-specific words.
Dawn works in some political asides about the Iraq conflict and draws comparisons between theology and her physical disabilities, both with mixed results.
In these short essays (from two paragraphs on word to four pages on Trinity), Dawn’s quotations from Scripture and other authors sometimes overpower her own musings. The book might be best digested as short devotional meditations.
Cindy Crosby is the author of By Willoway Brook (Paraclete).
Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.
More information is available from Ignatius Press.
CT has collected its full coverage of John Paul II and Benedict XIV.
Only Human: Christian Reflections on the Journey Toward Wholeness is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.
More information is available from John Wiley & Sons.
The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.
More information is available from Eerdmans.
CT’s February 2005 cover story was on the tsunami.
Our full coverage is collected online.
Talking the Walk: Letting Christian Language Live Again is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.
More information is available from Brazos Press.
For book lovers, our 2005 CT book awards are available online, along with our book awards for 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, and 1997, as well as our Books of the Twentieth Century. For other coverage or reviews, see our Books archive and the weekly Books & Culture Corner.
