Biweekly $7.95 December 21, 2016

Thinking Critically, Living Faithfully

Welcome to Missoula Resettling refugees in a time of fear SUMMER 2017 Writing Programs at the Collegeville Institute

All workshops are located at the Collegeville Writing Theology for the Institute, Collegeville, Minnesota, on the campus of Saint John’s University and Abbey, a Benedictine General Reader institution dedicated to the values of work, community, and prayer. All expenses, including with Thomas G. Long travel, are covered by the Collegeville Institute. Theological writing for life and practice Thursday, July 6 – Wednesday, July 12

Revision, Christian Spirituality, and the Writing Life Writing Beyond the Academy with Lauren Winner A week with writing coach Michael McGregor Bringing together writing and Christian spirituality with a For academics who wish to reach a broad audience special focus on revision Monday, July 24 – Sunday, July 30 Monday, June 5 – Wednesday, June 14

A Broader Public Apart, and Yet a Part Writing for the Online Audience, with the Editors of A week with writing coach Michael McGregor Religion Dispatches Independent, unstructured work in community Entering the public conversation Tuesday, August 1 – Monday, August 7 Wednesday, June 21 – Tuesday, June 27

Visit our websiteweb for additional off-site writing workshop offerings,off application information, and to learn more about our Resident Scholars program and short-termshort-ter residencies: C!llegeville Institute

collegevilleinstitute.org. exploring faith, igniting imagination, renewing community From the publisher

Peter W. Marty

the hospital. On the way, Aleesha pulled down Orange swaddling cloths her orange jumpsuit to give birth to a baby boy in the back seat. he public elementary school across the When Aleesha showed up at the food pantry, Tstreet from our church is the poorest in the her six-day-old preemie was back in the neo- city. Chronic absences among students are natal unit. Her husband, who had walked two common given uneven home lives, regular sick- and a half hours with their three kids to join her ness, and parents wrestling with poverty. at the hospital, was living temporarily in a room Dana is the woman on our church staff there, thanks to the kindness of a hospital whose entire job is focused on that school. She administrator. runs programs that benefit school families, one Upon leaving the food pantry, Aleesha had of which is a food pantry offering everything two requests. First, would Dana, who offered to from social worker services to free haircuts. drive her back to the hospital, be willing to stop Dana met a woman shopping there named at the payday loan office so she could cash a Aleesha. check. Second, would Dana be willing to stop at Aleesha is a petite 25-year-old with a child in the Family Dollar store so she could purchase kindergarten. As she was carefully perusing the some undergarments. Both were easy requests food shelves to select certain items, Dana to honor, though the pain of observing the learned that Aleesha had taken the bus from a absurd fees of the check-cashing endeavor was hospital 20 minutes away. She wasn’t looking to difficult. And buying underwear at a Dollar bring back anything more than was convenient store is hard to do with dignity. to carry. Aleesha chattered in the car. Dana listened, “What was she doing in that hospital any- as she does so well. Aleesha poured out her way,” I asked Dana, “if her oldest kid goes to anguish. She told of contemplating adoption for this school and we have a hospital just ten her newborn, but then changing her mind. “I blocks away?” just couldn’t do it. Kids always want to locate It turns out that six days earlier, Aleesha was their biological parents. What would I say to driving to visit her sick brother in a town across him if he came back to me someday and asked the Mississippi River. Driving on a suspended why I didn’t love him as much as his sisters and license (from having no insurance) was a big brother?” mistake, which she now regrets. When a police The sadness of children of poverty giving officer pulled her over for a routine traffic stop, birth to other children of poverty is profound. he arrested her, impounded her van, and took Easy solutions do not exist. But when my ears her to jail. She tried to convince her jailers that hear the Christmas story this year, my heart is she was pregnant and now enduring labor pains. going straight to that swaddling cloth of an But no one believed her. A corrections officer orange jumpsuit, and that manger as cold as the finally put her in a squad car that headed for backseat of a squad car.

3 Christian Century December 21, 2016 Publisher Peter W. Marty December 21, 2016 Vol. 133, No. 26

Executive Editor David Heim

Senior Editor Debra Bendis

Associate Editors Amy Frykholm Steve Thorngate

News Editor Celeste Kennel-Shank

Books Editor Elizabeth Palmer

Poetry Editor 6 Letters Jill Peláez Baumgaertner Liars

Editorial Assistant Rachel Pyle 7 Resisting the spell Advertising Manager The Editors: Toward a truthful politics Heidi Baumgaertner Art Director 8 CenturyMarks Daniel Richardson Voices of 2016 Production Assistant Diane Mills 10 Pregnant with hope Director of Finance Maureen C. Gavin Carol Howard Merritt: Bearing God in Advent

Donor Relations Janet M. Milkovich 11 Planting garlic Marketing Consultant Terra Brockman: Notes from the farm Shanley & Associates

Contributing Editors 22 Welcome to Missoula John M. Buchanan Richard A. Kauffman Amy Frykholm: Resettling refugees in a time of fear Dean Peerman Trudy Bush Jason Byassee 26 A Bible for everyone? Martin E. Marty John Fea: Fifty years of the Good News translation James M. Wall Editors at Large 30 I choose, therefore I am M. Craig Barnes Walter Brueggemann Ellen Charry Martin B. Copenhaver Robert Westbrook: Lives of the existentialists Lillian Daniel William F. Fore Beverly R. Gaventa L. Gregory Jones Belden C. Lane Leo Lefebure Thomas G. Long Robin W. Lovin Thomas Lynch Bill McKibben On the cover: A refugee family and friends after a service at the Missoula Alliance Church. Kathleen Norris Stephanie Paulsell Photo © Jeremy Lurgio. Lamin Sanneh Donald Shriver Barbara Brown Taylor Miroslav Volf Grant Wacker William H. Willimon Ralph C. Wood Carol Zaleski NEWS 14 Seminary returns rare manuscript to Greek Orthodox; FBI report shows surge in anti-Muslim attacks, rise in hate crimes; The rise and fall (and rise?) of Christian nationalism

I N R E V I E W 22 36 Books Anthony B. Robinson: Strangers in Their Own Land, by Arlie Russell Hochschild Chris Herlinger: Youngblood, by Matt Gallagher; War Is Beautiful, by David Shields Elizabeth Palmer: Here I Am, by Jonathan Safran Foer Karen Saupe: Reading and Writing Cancer, by Susan Gubar

44 Media Beth Felker Jones: Wizards in New York

47 Art Lil Copan: Angel of Undevastation and Black, by Paul Solovyev (aka 0x17)

COLUMNS 3 From the publisher Peter W. Marty: Orange swaddling cloths 10 20, 21 Living by the Word Robert Saler 35 Faith Matters Stephanie Paulsell: Awake and watching 45 Notes from the Global Church Philip Jenkins: Jakarta’s Christian governor

POETRY 12 Brian Doyle: Such signal muscularity 28 Yehiel Poupko: So Job died old and full of days 26 32 Warren L. Molton: Read THE COW IS NOW said the child 33 Abigail Carroll: Make me plow blade

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The CHRISTIAN CENTURY (ISSN 0009-5281) is published biweekly at 104 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1100, Chicago IL 60603. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 1406523. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CHRISTIAN CENTURY, P.O. Box 429, Congers, NY 10920-0429. LETTERS READ. Liars SHARE. Compelling theology . . . ’m impressed with how Sarah ICoakley’s theology is grounded in prayer and embraces science (“Theo - SUPPORT logy through prayer,” Nov. 23). I also like how she puts her theology to work directly in people’s lives through her work with prisoners. Thanks for THE this compelling introduction to her work. Michael Mandsager CENTURY. christiancentury.org comment Luther’s work . . .

’m surprised the CHRISTIAN CENTURY Ieditors did not catch the error in Help us guarantee agree wholeheartedly with the need “Landmark Luther exhibits explore his for honesty and telling the truth; I technological and theological legacy” that the CENTURY Iwould even go further and suggest (Nov. 9), in which David Gibson wrote: that silence before God allows God to “There are [Luther’s] translations of the tell us the truth about ourselves. I was Bible from Latin into the German of the will reach future dismayed, however, by Peter Marty’s day.” As we all know, Luther translated “The truth about lies” (Nov. 9), which from the original Greek and Hebrew, began by stating that “professional truth- not Latin. generations. seekers are having a rough time with Robert Roser Donald Trump.” Stafford, Va. • Give a onetime gift I’ve always known that CHRISTIAN CENTURY is a liberal or progressive mag- to the CENTURY. azine, but I didn’t let that deter me from Brazil’s oligarchy . . . subscribing year after year. The line in the lead paragraph calling out Trump as a he article on the ousting of Brazil’s • Become a CENTURY liar who “lies about even his own lies” Tpresident (“A coalition to impeach,” associate. got my attention quickly. Hillary Clin - by Cláudio Carvalhaes and Raimundo ton’s name could just as well have been Barreto, Nov. 9) was a good, but thor- substituted for Trump’s and been even oughly sad, read for me. It reports on • Include the CENTURY closer to the truth. what is almost a mirror of what’s hap- in your will and I am a Republican United Methodist pening in the United States and in estate plans. minister who sided with Trump’s eco- Britain: the oligarchy on the march, and nomics when I don’t believe Clinton has with too many power-entranced evan- any, short of socialism, if she even thinks gelicals going along for the dance. For more information, contact about it. In Brazil, or anywhere for that matter, Both of them could have been men- the lessons of history are that when Janet Milkovich by e-mail at tioned if you wanted to use the presiden- frightened and unsure, people will always [email protected] tial race as an example of lies. I am offend- lean toward some form of fascism, and ed that you chose to pick Trump alone. the oligarchy loves it. or by phone at (312) 263-7510, ext. 226. Mary Beth Packard Tom Eggebeen Bartow, Fla. christiancentury.org comment

Christian Century December 21, 2016 6 December 21, 2016

Resisting the spell resident-elect Donald Trump has shown himself highly skilled at using social media to keep the nation talking about himself, with little regard Pfor how many people he offends, norms he violates, or untruths he dis- seminates. He has used his Twitter account to lash out at the cast of Hamilton for daring to advise him, and he has declared (with no basis in fact) that mil- lions of Clinton votes were counted fraudulently. The danger for critics who respond to Trump tweet by tweet is that they become so consumed with taking offense that they lose focus on more sub- stantive issues and lose the energy to engage in more helpful forms of response over the long haul. In her 1967 essay “Truth and Politics,” Hannah Arendt asked, “Is not impotent truth just as despicable as power that gives no heed to truth?” The question of the moment is how to make truth potent. Potent responses to the issues of governance likely to be raised in the months ahead include: • Protecting constitutional rights and being alert to occasions when free- dom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion are in jeopardy. • Defending stewardship of the environment. Almost all scientists agree that abandoning limits on greenhouse gas emissions and watering down envi- ronmental regulations will imperil the planet and its most vulnerable citizens. • Encouraging policies that narrow income inequalities and provide gen- uine economic opportunity to all workers—and that don’t pit one segment against another. • Keeping an eye on where the money goes. As a businessman with finan- cial dealings around the globe, Trump needs to distance himself firmly from his own business operations so as to avoid directly enriching himself in office and adjusting policies to serve his interests. • Speaking up alongside immigrants and their families, those who are targets of There is a danger in responding to hate crimes, and all those whose voices are rarely heard by decision makers. Trump tweet by tweet. • Building up diverse coalitions that work to meet the needs of people at the local level, thereby strengthening the basis for more truthful political discourse. Arendt observed that image-producing politicians try to create an alterna- tive reality with which to deceive or manipulate the public. This fictive alter- native reality has to be countered, she said, by people “who have managed to escape its spell and insist on talking about facts or events that do not fit the image.” A potent response comes, in other words, from those who know the lived realities of their neighbors and communities.

7 Christian Century December 21, 2016 VOICES of 2016 Sources: Washington Post, New York Times, Common Dreams, Reuters, Daily Mail, Atlantic, Politico, Bloomberg, Baltimore Sun, NPR, Utne, CNN

“There can be no renewal of our relationship with “Does Congress listen to the military-industrial nature without a renewal of humanity itself. There can complex [which] has never seen a war that [it] be no ecology without an adequate anthropology.” didn’t like? Or do we listen to the people —Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’: On Care for Our of this country who are hurting?” Common Home —Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, at a campaign stop in New Hampshire

“Our founders who envisioned a fair, bipartisan process must be rolling in their graves.” “We have to understand that an attack on —Senate minority leader Harry Reid, responding to the one faith is an attack on all our faiths.” Republican refusal to consider President Obama’s nominee —President Obama, speaking at a mosque outside to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of Baltimore in the wake of increased hostile actions against Muslims

“What makes an act truly patriotic and not just lip service is when it involves personal risk or sacrifice.” “I am not scared of Boko Haram— —Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, defending Colin Kaepernick, quarter- they are not my God.” back for the San Francisco 49ers, who takes a knee during —Amina Ali, one of 219 Nigerian girls the national anthem to protest racial injustice abducted by the Nigerian terrorist group in 2014, after she and her four-month-old daughter were rescued last May

“It is no secret that people of color are disproportionate victims of this type of scrutiny.” —Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing a dissent to a case in which the court defended the search of a drug defendant that the state admitted was illegal

“Get a backbone—do your job.” © DAVID SIPRESS© DAVID / THE NEW YORKER COLLECTION / WWW.CARTOONBANK.COM —Mary Salas, mayor of Chula Vista, California, calling on Congress to enact stricter gun regulation laws

Christian Century December 21, 2016 8 “We will give him a family and he will be our brother.” —Alex, a six-year-old boy from New York, who wrote a letter to President Obama offering to provide a home for Omran Daqneesh, a Syrian boy who was injured in a bombing in Syria

“Something we’re not very good at in American culture is standing with pain, letting it be . . . If you don’t deal with it, it doesn’t go away, it just comes out in other ways.” —Krista Tippett, host of On Being, on angry populism in contemporary politics

“Post-truth” —Oxford English Dictionary’s choice for Word of the Year, “If fighting for women’s health care used in reference to circumstances in which emotional appeal and paid family leave and equal pay is takes priority over factual accuracy. Its usage spiked around playing the woman card, then deal me in.” the Brexit vote and the U.S. election. —Hillary Clinton, responding to criticism on the campaign trail that she was “playing the woman card” “For those who loved him, he was the greatest. For those who hated him, there was no one worse.” —Cuban Graciela Martinez on the death of Fidel Castro “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on “Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, the White House lawn.” good manners and elegance that I’m beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit.” —Michelle Obama, speaking at the —Columnist David Brooks Democratic National Convention

“While the country’s shifting racial dynamics alone are certainly a source of apprehension for many white Americans, it is the disappearance of white Christian America that is driving their strong, sometimes apocalyptic reactions.” —Robert P. Jones, author of The End of White Christian America

“Water is life.” “You can’t drink oil.” —Chants at the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which the Standing Rock Sioux and their supporters claim could foul their drinking water and defiles sacred sites

9 Christian Century December 21, 2016 Bearing God in Advent Pregnant with hope by Carol Howard Merritt

THE FIRST parish I served was in for God bears God and gives birth to hard. I could barely contain my laughter southern Louisiana. The denomination God. as I continued: “Every time you eat this considered our congregation a “mainte- I thought about Eckhart’s words as bread and drink this cup, you proclaim nance church.” Basically, it was waiting the months went on and my stomach the saving death of our risen Lord, until until the doors closed. Standing in front stretched. Then I experienced a moment he comes.” I stood there breathing of the communion table, I felt like a very that forever changed my view of myself deeply while this great and wonderful young woman. I am short, and I swam in as a Christian and of God and salvation. pain stretched me and transformed me, my preaching robe and the tassels on the I was in my third trimester, repeating the and with each jolt, a tremendous sense of end of my stole dragged on the ground. ancient words of institution during com- creative power flooded me. The area was stringently Roman Catholic. When I wore my clergy collar, people looked at me with visceral dis- gust. I once heard someone say, “Look at As I held up the communion cup, the baby her. She thinks she’s a priest.” I struggled, yet somehow the tiny inside me began to play soccer church grew. For the first time in decades, the service filled with the with my internal organs. sounds of children singing, talking, and disrupting my sermon. It was wonderful. munion, when my belly began shifting Suddenly, this thought of Jesus com- After a couple of years, I became around with those smooth oceanic move- ing again, which had always filled me pregnant and was terrified to tell the ments. I looked down and even under with anxiety and fear, gave me hope. In congregation. I, personally, had never that giant black robe I could see it mov- that moment, as I spoke of Advent seen a pregnant pastor. I had only read ing, transforming into those alien shapes. dreams—with Jesus coming again, my about one in a John Irving novel. My baby was just waking up and stretch- belly stretched—and broke the bread During Advent we turned to Mary’s ing. I smiled and thought, Oh no. Not and poured the wine, I was filled with story. She was a poor young woman who now. Please, go back to sleep! joy and longing instead of fear or found herself pregnant. A messenger I continued to look down, but this vengeance. The yearning was deeper came and gave her two important pieces time my eyes searched for the lines in my than what I’d felt growing up as a child of information: she would bear the son of prayer book, and I began reading the and waiting for Christmas, because it God, and her cousin Elizabeth was also liturgy. I was afraid that I would become encompassed the pain and sorrows as pregnant, even though she was too old to so distracted that I would lose my way if well as the anticipation, like moving be giving birth. Nothing was too wonder- I tried to say the words from memory, from the taste of a cloying soda to the ful for God. Mary responded, “Let it be and so I lifted up the cup and resumed. complex bitterness and sweetness of a done according to your word.” “This cup is the new covenant sealed in fine wine. Meister Eckhart, a medieval philoso- my blood, shed for you for the forgive- The deep yearning was emotional, but pher and mystic, saw Mary’s assent as a ness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do crucial moment. Eckhart wrote that we this in remembrance of me.” Carol Howard Merritt is author of Tribal Church. flow out of God our Creator. God is per- The movement was no longer a gentle This article is excerpted from her book Healing petually creating us; we are living in the rolling. I felt jabs, right under my rib Spiritual Wounds: Reconnecting with a Loving mind of God and always being stretched cage. As I held the cup up, I gasped as God after Experiencing a Hurtful Church. and formed and molded. Mary gives spir- the baby began to play soccer with my © 2017 by Carol Howard Merritt. Published itual birth to God, and now God is eter- internal organs. My eyes widened, and I by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins nally borne. Every good soul that longs almost spilled the wine as she kicked me, Publishers, and used by permission.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 10 PHOTO © TRAMONT_ANA / THINKSTOCK / TRAMONT_ANA © PHOTO it was physical too. I was a pregnant host kick-ass move of final vengeance. Christ at that table, and hope came alive in my would not appear to bring death and very marrow as I felt a full-bodied long- destruction. ing. My muscles and bones adjusted in Christ returned here in our hope and anticipation for the new life that was to work to make things on earth as they come. were in heaven. Christ appeared in our I felt at home for the first time in my caring for the earth and for one another body and behind that table, as I also as we broke bread and drank wine understood the longing for Christ to be together. Christ came in new life and among us. I understood that it was a fecundity. He came again as we served hope for the world as it ought to be—one the world, striving to make the earth into that lifted the lowly and filled the hun- the dream of God. gry. I knew that just as I longed to pro- As I delivered the bread and the wine vide for the child forming inside of me, to the congregation, I remembered Mary God longed to provide for me. and those mysterious words of Eckhart. I Jesus wasn’t going to arrive on a was blessed. I was pregnant with hope mushroom cloud with a double-edged and bursting with new life. And I was sword coming out of his mouth in a bearing God.

Notes from the farm Planting garlic by Terra Brockman

HEADS BENT to the task at week of November, on a day when the part of the field set aside for next year’s hand, my brother Henry and his farm - soil is dry enough to work, and when all garlic patch. He does this by grabbing a hands, interns, and their families kneel in hands join in to get some 40,000 cloves harvest knife and jabbing three or four the soft soil and breathe in both the of garlic into the ground. That day inches into the soil near the west side of yeasty aromas rising up from the freshly marks a caesura, a break in the normal the field where the sun has been hitting tilled earth and the sweet woodsy smells rhythms of autumn on our diverse the longest. Then he picks up a handful descending from the forests surrounding organic vegetable farm. Those rhythms of loosened earth and crumbles it the field. They also breathe in pungent usually include frenetic scrambling to through his fingers, feeling for stickiness. garlic of many varieties, including get all the greens and roots harvested When it falls apart easily, he moves to German Extra Hardy, New York White, for the final markets even as each day the center of the field and uses the knife Korean Red Hot, Georgia Crystal, and gives us fewer minutes of sunlight than to loosen more soil. He rubs a handful Italian, German, French, and Russian the one before. between his palms to see if it will form a Reds. This year there have been quite a few ball that breaks apart easily. When it Garlic planting takes place at the autumn rains, and one nearly disastrous cusp of the seasons—ideally, just after flooding of the stream that runs along Terra Brockman is the author of The Seasons on the warmth of Indian summer fades, and the fertile bottomland field, so Henry Henry’s Farm (Agate Surrey). She farms with just before the snow flies. In central watches the weather each day, and her brother and family in the Mackinaw River Illinois, that usually means the first checks the condition of the soil in the Valley of central Illinois.

11 Christian Century December 21, 2016 thighs with satisfaction and tells the farmhands and interns that today is the day for garlic planting. The task is a choreographed team effort. First Henry rough-tills the beds to open them up and let more moisture escape. Meanwhile, the interns take the old pickup to the barn where garlic from the July harvest has been hanging to cure. Each strand of garlic consists of five bunches, and each bunch has 20 garlic plants. Each bunch is tied to another bunch so that they cascade down in ver- tical curtains of repeating garlic. To begin the process, one person scrambles up the rickety ladder to cut a strand loose while another person waits below to gently lower the long, heavy strand of 100 garlic heads to the ground, and then into the bed of the waiting truck. When the truck bed is full, the workers drive the load of garlic down to the field. It’s a bookend moment, equal and opposite to the moment when the garlic made its early summer trip from field to truck to rafters.

PHOTO BY TERRA BROCKMAN Soon we will break these 3,000 heads USEFUL BEAUTY: These braids of soft-neck garlic are made to adorn kitchen walls. of garlic into some 40,000 individual cloves. And except for the very small does, he moves on to the east side of the when dry, so he loosens yet another cloves and any that may have gotten field where the sun has just started to patch of earth with the knife, and makes moldy over the humid summer, each warm and dry the soil. He needs to be it into a ball between his palms. Then he clove will go into the ground to become sure that working the moist soil here and opens his palms. When the ball holds for a full head of garlic for next year’s garlic elsewhere will not turn it into lumpy just a moment before crumbling back to crop. mud, which would then turn hard as rock earth, Henry swipes his hands along his Down in the field, Henry has been tilling each bed four inches deep. He attaches three clamps to the back of the tiller and lets it draw three straight lines Such signal muscularity over the smooth bed to guide us in our planting. As soon as the truck reaches I got to listening to a calm burly young man this morning the field, everyone grabs a strand and And when I asked him how he had achieved such a signal walks down a row, laying garlic stems Muscularity he said quietly, well, carrying my kid brother. every few feet so that one will always be He’s got some engineering issues and he wears out easily. within easy reach. We then fall to our I mean he can walk and run and everything but he doesn’t knees, breaking apart bulbs and plung- Last real long. We developed signals early on. Real subtle. ing each clove an inch down into the You wouldn’t know unless you know. He doesn’t like any yielding earth, blunt end down and Other people carrying him. He and I just fit is the best way pointy end up. To explain it. It was huge when I went to college. But I am Normally Henry waits for the first Here partly because it’s only an hour away. I get home lots. week of November so that a late Usually twice a week. We go for a wander when I get home. October warm spell won’t encourage the There’s a workout. Our record is more than half a mile, but garlic to send up its green shoots only to Our goal is to do a solid mile before I graduate. My major? be killed off by the winter cold. This year, Engineering. I’m fascinated by how things that don’t seem however, we’ve had unseasonable To work actually do work sometimes if you spend the time. warmth clear into November. Even as each day shortened, and the angle of the Brian Doyle sun’s rays fell lower in the southern sky,

Christian Century December 21, 2016 12 PHOTO BY TERRA BROCKMAN TERRA BY PHOTO

IN PROCESS: Garlic for late fall planting is hung in long strands from the rafters of the barn to cure. the temperatures still rose to the 60s and ing for a moment when some are cycling grunt of effort as someone breaks open 70s, creating cognitive dissonance. in and others cycling out. yet another head. When my dad helped While Henry would have liked to Back in the present, minute after us plant garlic, he used a screwdriver to wait for cooler weather, another rain is minute, hour after hour, the repetitive help his arthritic hands do the task, sure to come before then, and our win- actions become automatic—reaching for wedging the tool into the center of each dow of opportunity will close. So while a head, breaking it apart, placing each head to force the cloves apart. the unseasonable warmth makes things clove into the ground five inches from Then the sun begins to sink toward a bit dicey for the garlic, it’s a perfect the previous one. As the afternoon sun the lip of the hill at the western edge of the natural bowl that cradles our fields. Chill air rolls down the hillside, seeping Garlic planting takes place at the cusp into the soil and into our skin and bones. Layers of clothing slowly go back on as of the seasons, before the snow flies. the team finishes the last tilled bed. The horizon suddenly gulps the sun, but a day to include the children of the two warms the field and us, layers of clothing tangerine glow lingers in the sky as interns who have spent this season with are shed—first jackets, then sweatshirts, workers young and old make their way us. Their presence accentuates the then long-sleeved shirts—and suddenly home, smelling of freshly tilled soil and moment when one season meets anoth- we are in short sleeves for the last time freshly planted garlic. er, as the last of this year’s crops come this season. With just the barest light still hang- out of the ground, and the first of next In five-inch increments we move ing in the sky, I look back to see the year’s crops goes in. And if you squint down one long bed and up the next, white confetti of garlic husks and stems slightly and look from a distance, you planting row after row, working our way scattered over the black earth. The first see that the generations present in the through the different varieties of garlic. crop of the next season is in the ground, field—my brother in his fifties, his twenty- Most of the garlic heads are tightly and to celebrate, the earth is decked and thirtysomething interns, and their wrapped with layers of paper skin strong out for the evening in black tuxedo and young children—are seasons too, meet- as super glue. Every so often you hear a white tie.

13 Christian Century December 21, 2016 Seminary returns rare manuscript to Greek Orthodox

t was an “act of ecumenism” and a question, it was a moral question,” At the ceremony LSTC hosted on true gift—since the giver could not Nieman said. “What do we do with some- November 15 to begin the manuscript’s Ireceive anything of equal value in thing that is obviously ill-got gains? We journey from Chicago back to Kosinitza return. didn’t gain it illegally, but somebody did. Monastery, Nieman spoke of giving this That’s how Archbishop Demetrios, What do you do when you have the true gift to the Orthodox, “knowing the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in opportunity to set that right?” joy it brings you, our friends in Christ.” America, and James Nieman, president Nieman checked with the school’s Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of of the Lutheran School of Theology at various stakeholders and found consen- the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago, described the school’s decision sus supporting the return of the docu- America, spoke of the history of to send a ninth-century New Testament ment—but also sadness. Orthodox dialogues with the Lutheran manuscript back to the Greek monastery Codex 1424 was “the crown jewel of World Federation. where it resided for centuries. our collection, far and away the most “This is an important step toward rec- A scribe in Constantinople wrote the important and valuable document out of onciliation,” she said of returning the scriptures on sheepskin in minuscule cur- all of our rare books,” Nieman said. “It’s manuscript. sive script. It is the oldest complete New painful to do this.” Demetrios crossed himself, bowed to Testament manuscript in that style. In He noted that most gifts are actually a kiss the book, and crossed himself again as the 12th century the codex joined a delayed exchange. he received the codex in its protective box. repository of more than 400 documents “A true gift is one that is costly to the The document has particular signifi- near Drama, Greece. person who is the giver and cannot pos- cance in that it features a different order to During the Balkan Wars, as the sibly be reciprocated,” Nieman said. the New Testament, with the Pauline epis-

Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early KONING TRICIA BY PHOTO 20th century, the area became contested. Soldiers raided Kosinitza Monastery in 1917 and took many of its precious man- uscripts as spoils of war. Levi Franklin Gruber, later president of one of LSTC’s predecessor institu- tions, purchased Codex 1424 from a European book dealer in 1920. A year ago, a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, head of the global Orthodox churches, asked LSTC to consider returning the manuscript, which forms the basis of the official version of the New Testament used by the Greek Orthodox Church. “It’s a cultural and religious lodestone for the Greek church,” Nieman said. After receiving the letter from the Orthodox church, LSTC checked with attorneys and learned that Gruber’s pur- ACT OF REVERENCE: Archbishop Demetrios, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in chase of Codex 1424 was permissible America, bows to kiss a rare New Testament manuscript before receiving it from under international antiquities law then President James Nieman and the faculty of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and now, Nieman said. on November 15. Demetrios and Nieman traveled to Greece a few weeks later to return “We realized this was not a legal Codex 1424 to the monastery from which it was taken a century ago.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 14 FBI report shows surge in anti-Muslim attacks, rise in hate crimes

ALTHOUGH Jewish people remain our nation’s leaders, beginning with the most frequent victims in America of President-elect Donald Trump,” Mc - Caw said.

PHOTO BY CELESTE KENNEL-SHANK hate crimes based on religion, the num- ber of incidents against Muslims surged The new FBI data confirm CAIR’s COMMENTARY UPON COMMENTARY: in 2015, according to newly released data own report of an unprecedented num- Codex 1424, a complete, ninth-century Greek from the FBI. ber of incidents targeting mosques in New Testament manuscript, includes in its Hate crimes against Muslims spiked 2015. margins excerpts from church fathers such 67 percent from 2014 to 2015, with 257 Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the as John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, and anti-Muslim incidents. Anti-Defamation League, and other Gregory of Nyssa, added in later centuries Robert McCaw, government affairs experts on bigotry noted that the FBI by monks, as well as comments on those director at the Council on American- report, though it represents the best data excerpts. Islamic Relations, said the increase in available on hate crimes, underestimates anti-Muslim incidents accelerated after the problem. tles coming after Revelation. It also omits the election. “Despite the extraordinary outreach some New Testament passages—and not The FBI data show 664 incidents and enforcement work by the Justice by accident, Demetrios said. Notations in against Jewish people and institutions, Department, it is disturbing that at least the text indicate that it was to be used in motivated by anti-Semitism—a rise of 85 police agencies in cities over 100,000 worship as a lectionary. The manuscript about 9 percent. in population did not participate in this also includes commentary in the margins. “We are troubled that the FBI’s annu- report—or affirmatively reported that “This volume has comments from the al hate crimes report revealed an they had zero hate crimes,” he said. fathers of the church, and comments on increase in the number of reported hate “Data drives policy. . . . And the FBI’s the comments,” he said. “This text offers crimes—including an increase in the annual report is the most important to scholars the opportunity for a multi- number of race-based crimes, crimes national snapshot of the hate crime level study.” directed against Jews, and against the problem in America.” Codex 1424 is one of 60 complete Greek LGBT communities—and a significant The largest group of hate crimes— New Testament manuscripts extant and is increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes,” nearly 60 percent—were motivated by included in the Nestle-Aland Greek New said Marvin D. Nathan, national chair of racial or ethnic hatred, the report shows. Testament used by scholars. It is fully digi- the Anti-Defamation League. “It is Of those, more than half targeted black tized and available through the Center for essential not to just assume a direct con- Americans. the Study of New Testament Manuscripts at nection between these reported hate [In one incident a week before the csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_1424. crimes and the inflammatory and divi- election, the building of the predomi- Demetrios noted that there are many sive presidential election campaign. nantly black Hopewell Missionary Bap - other similar texts that were taken from However, community climate matters tist Church in Greenville, Missis sippi, was their original place and are now in uni- and we have documented an unprece- burned and vandalized with “Vote versities, museums, and private collec- dented amount of bigotry and intoler- Trump” spray painted on its outside wall. tions. He hopes they will follow LSTC’s ance on the campaign trail.” In the three weeks following the incident, example in voluntarily returning those The FBI, which collects data on hate donors contributed more than $260,000 documents. crimes leveled at victims because of their on a GoFundMe page set up with an ini- “This constitutes an act of generosity race, religion, ethnicity, gender, disability, tial goal of $10,000. of immense proportion,” he said. “‘Given sexual orientation, or gender identity, The predominantly white First Bap- back by free will’ is not an adequate reported 5,818 incidents in 2015 overall, tist Church of Greenville, part of the description.” an increase of more than 6 percent from Southern Baptist Convention, offered its He spoke of the return of the codex as the previous year. chapel for the Hopewell congregation to a d’var, Hebrew for both “word” and Of those crimes, about 20 percent hold services while it rebuilds, the “matter about which one speaks.” were categorized as crimes rooted in reli- Associated Press reported. “We are familiar with dialogues; they gious bias. In the previous year, such “They opened their doors to us to stay are productive, interesting,” Demetrios crimes accounted for about 17 percent of as long as we want,” Clarence Green, the said. “They take plenty of time, patience, the total hate crimes. bishop who serves Hope well, told AP. “A tolerance, doubts. But here is a plain, clear “This unprecedented increase in wall of hatred is being torn down through act of ecumenism.” —Celeste Kennel- bigotry of all kinds must be repudiated the spirit of love.”] —Lauren Markoe, Shank, the CHRISTIAN CENTURY in the strongest terms possible by all Religion News Service

15 Christian Century December 21, 2016 PHOTO BY DSB NOLA / DEREK BRIDGES VIA CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE COMMONS CREATIVE VIA BRIDGES DEREK / NOLA DSB BY PHOTO they termed ardent or restrictive nation- The rise and fall (and rise?) alists. Respondents in both of those groups also were more likely to say of Christian nationalism immigrants increase crime rates and take jobs from Americans. Did the 2016 election portend the rise “Disagreement about the importance of Christian nationalism? of Christianity as a criterion of national Only two years ago, the percentage of membership is a central axis of division,” Americans who identified being a researchers from Harvard University and Christian with being an American had New York University reported in the cur- dropped precipitously from its post- rent issue of the American Sociological September 11 hike. Review. Just one-third of Americans in 2014 So how did we go from the relative said being Christian was very important trust of 2014 to having a substantial part to being a “true American.” That was of the electorate receptive to anti- down from the nearly half of Americans immigrant and anti-Islam appeals in who felt that way in 2004, the General 2016? Social Survey found. Fear appears to be one major reason. Two new studies shed light on the This could be attributed in part to conditions that predict support for RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: A church sign recent terrorist events, such as the Christian nationalism and on how in Jack son, Mississippi, declares that bombings in Brussels and Paris and the Donald Trump’s presidential run may “Amer i ca is still a Christian nation.” tensions in many European nations have played a substantial role in its Recent studies have investigated the rela- over waves of refugees fleeing violence revival. tionship between Christian nationalism in nations such as Syria, Afghanistan, It didn’t matter if the fears articu- and political events in the past 20 years. and Iraq. lated by Trump were real, said Clem - But many signs also point to the son Univer sity researcher Andrew otism from the 1996, 2004, and 2014 president-elect, researchers indicate. White head, lead investigator in one General Social Surveys. When religious groups feel directly study. They presented their findings at the threatened, there can be an inclination “Whether there was really a threat . . . recent joint annual meeting of the to close ranks against outsiders, research he was trying to say there was a threat,” Society for the Scientific Study of Reli - has found. Whitehead said. “A certain section of gion and the Religious Research Asso - In a climate of fear, political appeals America felt it really resonated.” ciation in Atlanta. “based on populist rhetoric coupled with What is real are the consequences of The ties between religion and nation- nativist and racist claims” may be suc- defining America as a Christian nation, alism can change dramatically in differ- cessful, researchers in the Harvard study Whitehead said. ent time periods: suggested. It can matter, Whitehead noted, in • In 1996, some 38 percent of respon- “Trump’s campaign has used a partic- determining “who gets what, who is a dents said being a Christian was very ular vision of the nation that emphasizes part of, and who can take part” in important to being an American. the superiority of the American people, American life. • In 2004 nearly half, or 48 percent, of the moral corruption of elites, and dire The United States from its founding Americans, attributed the same signifi- threats posed by immigrants and ethnic, has dealt with the tension of seeing itself cance to being a Christian. racial, and religious minorities,” they both as having a special covenantal rela- • In 2014, a period of relative calm, wrote. tionship with God and as a home for the the percentage dropped to one-third. The consequences of a renewed Chris - free exercise of religion. The importance of other markers of tian nationalism may be considerable. For example, Trump’s rhetoric attack- being American—being able to speak A great deal of research finds that ing Muslims and immigrants, and even English and being born in the United limits on religious freedom, both legal proposing a religious test for immigra- States—also rose from 1996 to 2004, and social, can lead to a downward cycle tion, has parallels in the 19th-century but reverted back to 1996 levels in of violence and distrust. nativist movement deriding Catholic 2014. The apparent revival of Christian immigrants as a threat to the American In a separate study, researchers exam- nationalism, the research suggests, way of life. ining varieties of American popular appears to have brought the nation to In their study, Whitehead and nationalism with data from the 2004 another critical crossroad in defining researcher Christopher Scheitle of West General Social Survey found that indi- what it means to be an American. Virginia University analyzed more than viduals who believed being a Christian —David Briggs, theARDA.com 3,000 responses to questions on the qual- was very important to being a true Reprinted with permission of the ities of being an American and of patri- American were more likely to be what Association of Religion Data Archives

Christian Century December 21, 2016 16 ers to burn down Jews’ homes and syna- “The secret of God’s revelation in - German Protestant church gogues and confiscate their money. cludes both the expectation of the return The move to renounce the Juden - of Christ in splendor and the confidence renounces mission aiming mission was part of the EKD’s drive to that God will save his first-called peo- deal with this strain of anti-Semitism in ple,” the resolution said. to convert Jewish people its history so that the Reformation Some participants felt the declaration anniversary events could focus on should have renounced the Messianic Germany’s main Protestant church Luther’s other legacies. Jews and worried that the failure to mostly gave up efforts to convert Jews in The EKD last year denounced the men tion them meant the EKD was the decades following the Holocaust, and “undisguised hatred of Jews” in Luther’s keeping a door open to encourage Jews closing that chapter should have been a writings and acknowledged that his anti- to convert. formality. Semitism had inspired the Nazis cen- Schuster, the Jewish leader, said he But the Evangelical Church in Ger - turies later. understood the renunciation of evange- many, or EKD, made up of 20 regional In fact, the EKD broke with tradition- lization “also applies to the so-called Lutheran, Reformed, and United church- al theological anti-Semitism in 1950 by Messianic Jews, who are not Jews.” es, did not officially abandon the Juden- declaring that God’s covenant with the Detlef Klahr, a senior church official, mission, or mission to the Jews. And small Jews was still valid. But it wasn’t until the told journalists that evangelization of Jews groups of evangelicals in a few member 1990s that most member churches came was clearly ruled out by the resolution. churches have long opposed an official out clearly against evangelization efforts. —Tom Heneghan, Religion News Service statement against conversion, despite The EKD wasn’t alone in changing its calls from Jewish groups to issue one. approach slowly. The Roman Catholic Now the 23-million-member EKD Church renounced its theological anti- has officially renounced its mission to Semitism in 1965 with the pioneering doc- Germany cracks down convert Jews to Christianity. At its annu- ument Nostra aetate at the Second Vatican al meeting in November in Magdeburg, a Council. It took another 50 years before on groups accused of resolution passed unanimously saying the Vatican issued a clear statement last that Christians “are not called to show December that it “neither conducts nor recruiting terrorists Israel the path to God and his salvation.” supports any specific institutional mission Since God never renounced the work directed towards Jews.” German police raided nearly 200 covenant with the Jewish people, they do In Germany, internal debates leading mosques, apartments, and offices con- not need to embrace the new Christian up to the recent resolution focused on nected to a Muslim group in mid- covenant to be saved, the resolution said. how clear the renunciation of the November after receiving information “All efforts to convert Jews contradict Judenmission should be. The final text suggesting its members were recruiting our commitment to the faithfulness of denounced efforts to convert Jews but did people for the self-described Islamic God and the election of Israel,” the reso- not specifically mention Messianic Jews, State. lution read. That Christians see Jesus as who accept Jesus as savior but who are not The sweep was part of a larger effort their savior and Jews don’t is “a fact we regarded as Jews by mainstream Judaism. by Germany over the last few months to

leave up to God,” it said. THINKSTOCK / STARMUC © PHOTO crack down on radicals as concerns of Josef Schuster, president of the Cen - homegrown terrorism in the nation and tral Council of Jews in Germany, wel- in nearby European countries grows. comed the resolution, which his group Police targeted members of the group had been urging the EKD to pass for sev- True Religion across 60 cities in the raids eral years: “This clear renunciation of the but did not make any arrests or locate Mission to the Jews means very much for the group’s leader, who they believe lives the Jewish community. With it, the EKD in Bonn. Officials announced that the recognizes the suffering that the forced group would be banned from further conversion of many Jews over the cen- operations in Germany. turies has caused.” “We are taking decisive and compre- The EKD has worked for the past de - hensive action against all efforts directed cade preparing for events to commemo- NOT SEEKING CONVERSION: The New against our freedom and our fundamen- rate the Reformation’s 500th anniversary. Synagogue in Berlin, which was built in the tal values,” German interior minister Although Martin Luther initially ex - mid-1800s and was one of few synagogues Thomas de Maizière said. pressed concern for the plight of Jews in to survive Nazi destruction on Kristallnacht True Religion is widely visible and medieval Europe and hoped to bring them in 1938, now houses a congregation and a known for running information tables and into the Christian fold, Luther changed Jewish center. The largest Protestant church distributing free copies of the Qur’an. tack later in life and in a treatise titled “On in Germany recently decided to end efforts Despite its appearance as a legitimate reli- the Jews and Their Lies” urged his follow- to convert Jewish people to Christianity. gious organization, officials say the group

17 Christian Century December 21, 2016 has recruited some 140 young people to United States from Mexico without papers well as colleges and universities, declar- fight in Syria and focuses its attention on in 1997. Since then, he has been deported ing that they will protect undocumented Muslim teenagers, glorifying terrorism and reentered several times. immigrants from deportation. and a struggle against the German consti- “Today and every day, if Javier and his Christians in today’s political climate tution in meetings and video messages. family choose to stay with us, they will are mixed on the question of immigration The ban is the second largest on an have a home with us,” said Robin reform. While some evangelical groups Islamic group in Germany’s history, follow- Hynicka, senior pastor of the Arch Street such as the Evangelical Immigration ing a 2001 decision to bar a group known church, on November 15. Table have championed immigration as the Kalifatsstaat (“caliphate state”) on During his presidential campaign, reform, their efforts have not led to grounds that their activity threatened the Donald Trump vowed to deport an esti- movement on the national level. nation’s democracy. Leaders stressed that mated 11 million undocumented immi- The major Hispanic evangelical or - the ban was not meant as an attack on grants. After his victory, he said he would ganizations have advocated for compre- Muslims or religious freedom, but as a immediately deport 2 to 3 million who hensive immigration reform but have not strong, united stance against radicalization. have been convicted of crimes. joined the sanctuary movement. “Today’s ban does not target the pro- In the wake of the election, there has “Churches need to follow their con- motion, practice, or propagation of the been an “outpouring of inquiries and science,” said Gabriel Salguero, presi- Islamic faith in general,” de Maizière said. support” from congregations across the dent of the National Latino Evangelical “Muslim life has a permanent and secure country that want to sign on as sanctuary Coalition. “If they feel they need to pro- place in Germany and in our society.” sites, said Peter Pedemonti, executive tect undocumented immigrants, they’re True Religion said that its purpose is director of the New Sanctuary Move - within their biblical and theological right to share the message of the Qur’an. The ment of Philadelphia. to do so. But the real preference is immi- group wrote on Twitter following the “Churches are saying, ‘We want to do gration reform. Sanctuary churches are a raids: “The Qur’an was banned in this. How do we get started?’” said response. It’s not the answer.” Germany. We provided Allah’s message Pedemonti, whose coalition includes 17 Tony Suarez, executive vice president to everyone. Allahu akbar.” churches and two synagogues that have of the National Hispanic Christian Lead - The ban follows the arrests of five banded together to oppose deportations er ship Conference, which with 40,118 men who authorities say aided ISIS by and offer their buildings as safe havens. participating churches is the largest His - recruiting new members. They face accu- Since 2014, 13 churches in nine cities panic evangelical association in the coun- sations of providing financial and logisti- have provided sanctuary to 15 people at try, serves on Trump’s Evan gelical Execu - cal assistance to potential fighters. risk of imminent deportation, said Noel tive Advisory Board. Officials believe that more than 800 Andersen, national grassroots coordina- “What we have been seeking is a true people in Germany have been recruited tor for Church World Service, which pro- change in the system,” Suarez said. “All by ISIS in recent years and that up to a vides legal services for immigrants. He this is a result of a broken system.” third of those may have returned to the estimated there are 400 congregations He said the advisory board has been nation since. nationwide that support the efforts or meeting with the president-elect or his “We don’t want terrorism in Germany,” are willing to open their doors to people advisers on a weekly basis and that their de Maizière said. “And we don’t want to fearing repatriation. immigration policy is “still evolving.” He export terrorism.” —Amanda Hoover, The Churches, along with schools and hos- added the National Hispanic Christian Christian Science Monitor pitals, are considered “sensitive locations” Leadership Conference will advocate for by Immigration and Customs Enforce - “justice and mercy” for all undocument- ment and U.S. Customs and Border ed people. Protection. That means federal agents Although U.S. Catholic bishops urged More congregations become avoid arresting, searching, or interviewing Trump to adopt humane policies toward people there under most circumstances. immigrants and refugees, not all bishops sanctuaries for immigrants The sanctuary tradition can be traced advocate for sanctuary churches. back to the Hebrew Bible. The book of Mainline churches, more liberal under threat of deportation Numbers cites six sanctuary cities through- Catholic churches, and Jewish syna- out biblical Israel where a person who gogues, however, are expected to join the When Javier Flores, a 40-year-old accidentally killed another could take movement and open their doors to peo- father of three, received an order to sur- refuge from anyone avenging the killing. ple seeking refuge. render to U.S. Immigration and Customs A more recent version is the American “It’s really key that people of faith be Enforcement, he fled to Arch Street sanctuary church movement of the 1980s, active, especially white America,” said United Methodist Church. He said he is in which hundreds of Central American Hynicka, of Arch Street United Methodist. determined to stay in the United States refugees sought shelter in churches to “It’s time to put your bodies, buildings, and for the sake of his children. avoid deportation. assets on the line.” —Elizabeth Evans, Yonat The north Philadelphia resident, who In the current iteration, houses of Shimron, and Kirkland An, Religion News has no criminal convictions, entered the worship are joined by urban mayors, as Service

Christian Century December 21, 2016 18 Holy Innocents’, whose name refers was essential to the victory of a candidate People to the biblical account of infanticide by she described as “representing all of the Herod the Great, took a step toward things Jesus stood against—lust for answering the call of its name beginning money, sex, and power.” in 2010 by holding an annual requiem “I don’t believe Jesus would look on mass and prayer vigil. The congregation this fear that is rising—fear and actual reads the names of all the children in assaults that have risen,” she said, “and Georgia whose deaths were “sudden, say, ‘We just need to agree to disagree unexpected, unexplained, suspicious, or and get along again.’” attributed to unusual circumstances,” In the end, Harper decided not to give according to Georgia law. up on the name evangelical, since it is a “Violence is a very broad category,” tradition that also includes William said Ashley Willcott, director of Wilberforce and Sojourner Truth. Georgia’s Office of the Child Advocate, She said Trump’s election has helped which oversees the state’s Division of her see where things have gone wrong, Family and Children Services. “The bot- and where she needed to hear the “very

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSHUA CASE tom line is, we need to know: Could it real cry from white America, particularly I When Joshua Case and parishioners at have been prevented?” rural white America.” Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church bury Willcott praised churches that are Russell Moore, president of the some of Atlanta’s youngest victims of bringing awareness to the plight of vul- Ethics and Religious Liberty Commis - violence, they often do so alone. In many nerable children and getting their con- sion of the Southern Baptist Con vention, cases, family members are absent from gregations involved. was also among those evangelical leaders

the child’s life, lack transportation to the She said Holy Innocents’ is “really who vocally opposed BANKS M. ADELLE BY PHOTO RNS cemetery, or are incarcerated. Some - leading the way in combining the Trump. The cam- times the state forbids them to attend. knowledge of ‘this is what’s happening paign reminded him For this brief, solemn service, Case, to children’ to ‘what are the next of the Vietnam War associate rector at Holy Innocents’, and steps?’” in the way it divided the others become the child’s “family in Case’s role is to lead the team taking families. mourning.” those next steps. One initiative is called He said the evan- Since April Case has conducted 16 of Caring for the Carers, which supports gelical leaders who these services, a small portion of the Family and Children Services casework- “repurposed the gos - roughly 300 indigent burials each year ers. The assistance may be providing pel itself in order to defend a political paid for by the county. As he learned emergency clothing for children re - candidate” reveal a problem bigger than more about Georgia’s young victims, moved from homes that the caseworkers a political election. Case met Cliff Dawkins, the chaplain deemed unsafe. Or it may mean listening Moore makes a distinction even among who oversees the county’s indigent buri- to the caseworkers as they recount the those who voted for Trump: there were als. Case was stunned to learn that buri- trauma of their jobs. “reluctant Trumpers,” who regarded the als of children often were taking place The ministry has had a personal effect candidate as the lesser of two evils, believ- with no family present and no witnesses on Case, 39, who has two young children. ing he was likely to appoint a Supreme other than Dawkins and cemetery staff. “I can tell you it’s reshaped me as a Court justice who was against abortion. “My first response was, ‘Not in my father,” he said. “I probably operate with Then there were “the people who county,’” Case said. a little more grace with my toddler than have actively sought to normalize” Dawkins invited Case to begin presid- I did before.” —David Paulsen, Episcopal Trump as the candidate of choice. ing over the children’s burials, and a small News Service “For me, I think the bigger issue is group from Holy Innocents’ formed to with the political activist religious right accompany Case to those services. I The day after the HARPER SHARON LISA OF COURTESY PHOTO establishment that in many cases actual- Mary Marvin Walter, 69, one of the election, Lisa Sharon ly waved away major moral problems,” parishioners who has joined Case at Harper nearly gave he said, citing the Access Hollywood some of those grave sites, volunteered up the name “evan- tape, in which the now president-elect because she was unhappy with her gelical.” talked about grabbing women by their instinct to judge those who caused such Harper, chief church genitals and forcibly kissing them. tragedies. engagement officer at Moore argues that it’s up to a new “I wanted to get beyond that, just be a Sojourners, a progres- generation of evangelicals not to disen- witness without any questions,” she said. sive Christian organi- gage from politics, but rather to create When that tiny coffin is blessed and zation, “felt betrayed” by the 81 percent of new coalitions that preserve the “best of lowered carefully into the ground, she white evangelical Christians who voted for religious conservatism.” —Emily McFarlan resists the urge to ask why. Donald Trump for president. Their vote Miller, Religion News Service

19 Christian Century December 21, 2016 river, this baptism, these people, this given need for healing, January 8, Baptism of the Lord this context. This localization is the very heart of incarnation. Isaiah 42:1–9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34–43; Matthew It’s from this beating heart of particularity and deep immer- 3:13–17 sion in context that Jesus begins his ministry. He points toward the ways in which the Messiah comes—not to gather power, THE BAPTISMAL TEXT begins a pattern in but to disperse it, to empower (a ministry that begins in the Jesus’ ministry that I’m not sure is taken with enough serious- kenosis of the incarnation itself)—then continues through the ness: Jesus continually empowering the church for service scandal of the cross and moves with us into the present day, rather than limiting that power to himself. when the church seeks to stay faithful to its task of embodying In Matthew’s text it seems likely that Jesus’ baptism hear- Christ on earth. kens toward Matthew’s inclination to weave his narrative of However, lest such an ecclesiology lead the church into arro- Jesus’ ministry into the scriptural foundations of messianic gance—“We are the ones doing the greater things!”—we note expectation. When taken in concert with all four Gospels, how- that the diffusion that Jesus practices in the Gospels is more rad- ever, a subtle but powerful pattern emerges: the very crux of ical than we sometimes want to admit. Sometimes the “greater Jesus’ messianism is empowerment of the church, of all those things” are done by those into whose hands we might not be who will come after to continue God’s mission of giving life. inclined to commend such ministry: tax collectors, Roman sol- John’s protest that he should be baptized by Jesus and not the diers, or Samaritans. Those of us formed by font and table, those other way around presents in its own way a kind of foreshadow- who have heard the proclamation that we are God’s beloved and ing of what will come immediately after in Matthew’s Gospel: pledge to follow the Messiah, should expect that words of truth, the temptation in the wilderness. Now we can assume that John’s justice, and healing will be spoken outside our walls for our hear- intentions in the request for Jesus to baptize him were born out ing, and that deeds pleasing to God will be carried on by those of sincere awe and respect for what he believed Jesus to represent, and we can assume more malicious intentions from the devil that Jesus encounters in the wilder- The power to heal the world is something ness. But what unites both episodes is the temptation for Jesus to arrogate to himself Jesus intends to share with the church. a messianic authority that would be cen- tered upon consolidating power—the Messiah baptizes and not who do not make their home in our ecclesial spaces. This encom- the other way around, the Messiah rules the earth rather than passes a venerable scriptural pattern, from the chastening of Israel serving it, etc. Jesus’ demurral at his baptism is the messianic to the Syrophoenician woman who upends the disciples’ under- demurral of arrogation that will define his ministry. standing of Jesus’ ministry. Whenever we think we have estab- Throughout all four Gospels we see the remarkable insis- lished the borders of God’s empowerment to ministry, the Holy tence on the part of Jesus that the power to heal the world in and Spirit sets up camp just beyond them. through which Jesus has been sent is something that, by the In my own tradition it’s common for the Christ candle that power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus intends to share with the church, is lit prominently during baptismal services to be equally and to multiplying effect. In John, Jesus argues that, contrary to prominent in funerals—the completion of the baptismal jour- the disciples’ expectations, it’s better for them if he departs so ney. As our ministry on earth is inaugurated, so we carry that the Holy Spirit can do its work of constituting their ministry, through to the end. This is also the case with Jesus—his bap- and that of their descendants (John 16:7); he had already made tism signals and encompasses the entire sweep of what is to the claim that those coming after him would do “greater things” come in his ministry, and the shape that it will take. (John 14:12). Meanwhile, the entire sweep of Luke-Acts is If every baptized Christian is to be, as theologian Kathryn designed to demonstrate how the church recapitulates and Tanner has argued, a kind of minister of God’s unendingly gen- enhances Jesus’ ministry by undergoing the same sort of trials, erous blessing upon all creation, then we can take our bearing changes in tactics and audience, persecutions, and healing victo- and orientation from the promises made in our immersion— ries that Jesus himself endures on earth. we will be as deeply immersed in the world as Jesus is, called to Like all aspects of Jesus’ ministry, the baptism of Jesus is love it more than it loves itself and to take the opportunity to localized and indexed to a particular time and place—this empower the giving of life rather than restrain it.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 20 Reflections on the lectionary

(ELCA) argues, “You can’t follow Jesus for ten steps without January 15, Second Sunday after Epiphany bumping into questions of justice, but you can chase justice Isaiah 49:1–7; Psalm 40:1–11; 1 Corinthians 1:1–9; for 1,000 miles and still not find Jesus.” If the church rises or John 1:29–42 falls on its ability to foster justice and oppose systemic evil, then the church’s mission likely would not have survived our YOU WILL SEE greater things than these.” own transgressions. Our own failures in justice should never “You will see a public ministry that grows at incredible speed lead to complacency, but one hopes they breed humility until thousands of people are fed on a hillside because they are about what we can promise. so desperate for a word of hope from me. But you will see them Life purpose and fulfillment? The church should be skepti- depart as well, once I do not say all that they want to hear—or cal about engaging in fulfillment marketing when the terms of say more than they want to hear—about what I came to do.” that engagement are defined by a pursuit of ease and stability— “You will see healing that might strike you as downright “peace, peace when there is no peace.” A church that promises irresponsible in its profligacy—going into places of pain and loneliness that are hard to look upon, places we have found it so easy not to see, or to theologize our lack What is it we are promising when we of vision away.” “You will see scandalization of the faith invite others to discipleship? that you thought you knew, all in the name of drawing you deeper into the covenant made between the God purpose that is not cross-shaped is a church that forms people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and God’s people.” to evade the call to discipleship, not to listen for it. The life of “You will see the tears of a mother that only full humanity, discipleship is a life of purpose, but it is discipleship before it is full incarnation, can warrant.” purpose. Following Jesus might result in “your best life now,” “You will see triumph take the shape of the cross.” but not without thoroughly messing with your sense of what “You will see death and martyrdom and failure so large that “best” means. it will look like I have been leading you on a fool’s errand. But The step of inviting others to come and see is to pray for eyes you will see faithfulness and perseverance, and God’s surpris- to see what is already in the church—the God who comes to us ing healing that will take your breath away and reshape your in font and table, in Word and teaching, in the acts of service that sense of what is possible in God’s world.” we see and in those that are invisible. Fulfillment, formation in “You will see the kingdom of God, but it will not be what you justice, and a community of fidelity to God’s action in the world expected to see. And you will see the day when you will rejoice are powerful by-products of engagement with the church, but that it was so much more than you could have expected.” what God truly invites us all—inside and outside the church—to Jesus was not kidding, then or now. come and see is the way God brings life out of the places of I see a lot of evangelism strategies or inviting people to “come death in our world. and see” what is happening in church. Less clear, in many of those The confidence that invites others to discipleship in Jesus Christ instances, is the object of the seeing: What exactly is it that we are does not depend on providing a good “experience” of church. inviting people to come and see? What would inspire in us the Churches fail in discipleship, and no one should be more comfort- confidence that Jesus himself had in believing that the life to able than Christians with the idea that all who follow God’s call which he was calling his disciples—a life marked by divine specta- stand in need of God’s grace. But we can promise that the adven- cles of rent heavens and fulfilled prophecies, but also by persecu- ture of discipleship to which we invite others is ultimately not an tion, fear, and a need to trust in God’s plan for redemption adventure that we own or control. We are not the tour guides—we beyond any reasonable evidence—was one worth undertaking? are the ones led, the ones who stand in need of new eyes to see and See what? What is it that we are promising—explicitly or new ears to hear, day in and day out. The call to “come and see” is implicitly—when we invite others on the discipleship journey? a call to surprise, and to new possibilities of joy within that surprise. Community? People can find community anywhere, and besides, few honest congregations want the viability of their mission The author is Robert Saler, who is executive director of the Center for to rise and fall on their success in being welcoming communities. Pastoral Excellence at Christian Theological Seminary and author of Justice? Wayne Miller of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod Between Magisterium and Marketplace and Theologia Crucis.

21 Christian Century December 21, 2016 After living for years in a refugee camp in Tanzania, Joel Makeci Ebuela, his wife, Bikyeombe Abwe, and their five children have settled into an apartment in Missoula, Montana. Ebuela keeps in close contact with his family in Tanzania through e-mail and Facebook. Photo © Jeremy Lurgio.

RESETTLING REFUGEES IN A TIME OF FEAR Welcome to Missoula

by Amy Frykholm WHEN I ARRIVED in Missoula, I felt very

cold,” said Joel Makeci Ebuela, a refugee from the

Democratic Republic of the Congo. Before coming to

Montana in September, Ebuela had lived in a refugee

camp in Tanzania since he was 11. Ebuela, his wife,

Bikyeombe Abwe, and their five children are now set-

tling into a new life in the United States.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 22 Their journey to Missoula began more than a year ago when Just four days from retirement, Johnson agreed to help Ebuela and Abwe applied for resettlement. In August 2016 the Poole reopen the office in Missoula. Missoula is the only com- International Office of Migration, which works with govern- munity that has ever requested the opening of an IRC office mental and nongovernmental partners, sent a bus into the red on its own. In conjunction, Poole founded the organization Soft dust of the Nyarugusu refugee camp to pick up the Ebuela Landing Missoula to help welcome immigrants. family. The couple piled their children into the bus, not know- The work of the IRC and Soft Landing Missoula quickly ing where they were going. “You haven’t any choices,” said became controversial. Greg Gianforte, the Republican candi- Ebuela. When I asked him at what point he knew he was com- date for governor—who lost narrowly in November—sent out ing to Missoula, he said it was when he got off the plane. “I got a mailer showing a man in a turban carrying a Kalashnikov off the plane and asked, ‘Where am I?’” The day they arrived rifle. The text promised that Gianforte would “stand up to dan- in Missoula it was damp and rainy. “They told me that after a gerous refugee programs” and refuse entry to “unvetted month or two months, there will be snow! . . . I have never seen refugees.” After the election, it is not clear what effect this kind snow. I will see it.” of antirefugee rhetoric will have, but it is clear that many peo- The Congolese refugees have arrived at a time when the sit- ple in Montana and nationally resonated with it. uation of refugees is politically precarious. In August, President Protesters against the refugee program showed up at meet- Obama pledged before the United Nations General Assembly ings of the Missoula city council and the county commission in to increase the number of refugees admitted to the United numbers that surprised Poole. Volunteers, politicians, and cler- States—but that pledge was met with domestic rancor. An anti- gy who supported the resettlement effort have all received immigration and antirefugee wave fueled the presidential cam- death threats. paign of Donald Trump, and Trump’s election has cast uncer- tainty over refugee resettlement programs. During the campaign, Trump railed against the “flood” of refugees coming to the United States. Voicing concerns about Despite much criticism, efforts terrorism, 30 governors—including Mike Pence of Indiana, Trump’s running mate—told the federal government they to resettle refugees are on would not accept refugees from Syria. (A federal court later the increase in the U.S. determined that Indiana did not have the right to accept or reject refugees based on national origin.) In October, three men were arrested for planning to set off bombs outside an Right after the city council signed a letter of support for apartment complex in Wichita, Kansas, that is known as a Soft Landing and the IRC, councilman Jon Wilkins started to home to refugees. Their aim was for the bombs to go off the receive letters, calls, and e-mails against the proposal to bring day after the national election. The political rhetoric about refugees to the area. “It’s just fear,” he said. “People are afraid refugees has become heated and potentially violent in a way of what they don’t understand.” that will extend far beyond Election Day. Wilkins showed me a letter he had received from Ed Kugler, founder of the ACT for America chapter in Lake ut some Americans have mounted a very different County, Montana, north of Missoula. ACT for America has response to the plight of the 65 million people who are been one of the most vocal opponents of refugee resettlement. Bdisplaced worldwide. In the fall of 2015, at the same In the letter, Kugler asserted that there is insufficient vet- time that Ebuela and Abwe were submitting applications for ting of refugees, and that the Department of Homeland resettlement, newspapers, computers, and TV screens around Security cannot guarantee the identity of the people who are the globe were showing the heartbreaking image of a drowned coming to the United States. Echoing Trump, Kugler claimed three-year-old Syrian refugee, Alan Kurdi, who lost his life try- that the country is being “intentionally flooded with refugees ing to reach Turkey along with his family. One of those who saw from Muslim countries.” He called the arrival of refugees an the photo was Mary Poole, a longtime resident of Missoula. She “invasion being forced on us.” Kugler also said that there is too and her friends found themselves discussing the photo. little housing for refugees in Missoula and that the IRC is a “I didn’t even know what a refugee was,” Poole recalled. self-interested organization. “But the feeling that I needed to do something did not go In October, ACT for America sponsored a lecture in Missoula away.” Poole had recently become a new mother, and the by Shahram Hadian, an Iranian who travels around the country photo of Kurdi haunted her. She still tears up when she talks speaking about what he calls the “true face of Islam.” Linda Sauer, about it. cochair of ACT’s Lake County chapter, told those gathered for the Poole started making phone calls to organizations that lecture that the event was not a response to recently arrived immi- resettle refugees, learning far more than she ever knew there grants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, like Ebuela, was to learn about the process of resettlement. One agency she who are mostly Protestant Christians. As Sauer and Hadian held called was the International Rescue Committee in Seattle, forth inside the hotel where the event took place, Poole and others which ran an office in Missoula until 2008. The man who from Soft Landing gathered outside with members of Standing answered the phone was Bob Johnson, who had opened the Alongside America’s Muslims to offer a counter message. They IRC’s Missoula office in 1979. carried signs that said, “My Missoula includes Muslims.”

23 Christian Century December 21, 2016 Kugler sees immigration as a battleground. “The battle Molly Short Carr heads the Missoula office of the IRC. She today is no longer Republican or Democrat, but a battle for believes that the United States takes the right approach to our nation and our great state.” refugee resettlement and that it is a process other countries Indeed, Poole and Kugler seem to have two opposite under- can learn from. Specifically, she praises the United States for its standings of what it is to be an American. ACT for America, community-oriented approach. Communities are carefully which calls itself “the NRA of national security,” was founded screened and selected for resettlement efforts. Refugee reset- in 2007 by Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese American. By 2016, it tlement relies on volunteers to help refugees make the transi- claimed to have more than 300,000 members and 1,000 chap- tion to American life, and this provides the opportunity for ters nationwide. In the season of Trump, the group found its faster and more thorough integration between refugees and voice and platform. It views all immigrants with suspicion but their communities. is especially worried about Muslims. ACT for America exists, “What we do is a measured approach that involves public- according to its website, to protect “Western civilization private partnerships, where core services are provided, but against the threat of radical Islam.” integration happens through volunteer support,” said Carr. “We can’t make refugees integrate. The community has to pro- vide that support.” Poole has started receiving phone calls about how to take Resettlement agencies in the resettlement program to other communities. Fledgling groups in Helena, Billings, and Bozeman have contacted her the United States rely asking how they might follow Missoula’s lead. on volunteer groups. “Missoula has a chance to be a leader—a national and an international leader when it comes to being a welcoming com- munity,” Poole told a class in the basement of the First United By contrast, Poole sees America as a place of abundant Methodist Church in downtown Missoula. resources and hospitable people who are willing to share what She went on to talk about the benefits of refugees in the they have. Everywhere she looks, she finds resources and ready form of economic growth, cultural literacy, and enriched volunteers. “Yes, we’ve received death threats,” she said, “but lives. “Refugees are also customers in our stores, small busi- for every one of those there are 30 volunteers.” ness owners, taxpayers.” She paused over this point. “They Soft Landing has organized teams of five volunteers to pay taxes just like the rest of us.” The group broke into coordinate help for each refugee family. It has over 400 people laughter. The day before the event, the New York Times had ready to serve on those teams, and more than 1,000 on the printed pages of Donald Trump’s tax returns that suggested mailing list of people willing to help with supplies, donations, he may not have paid income taxes in a number of years. and other forms of support. She envisions creating a communi- At four o’clock on a Monday afternoon, Joel and Bikyeombe ty center where refugees and Missoulians can cook together, are waiting for their 11-year-old son to come home from school. celebrate holidays together, and teach each other languages On the wall of the dining room in their apartment is a clock, a and traditions. calendar, and a large map of Missoula, all evidence of their struggle to orient themselves to their American environment. haun Casey, special representative of the Office of These items are also evidence of the constant flow of support Religion and Global Affairs at the U.S. State Depart - from volunteers. Sment, sees Poole’s work being replicated nationwide. As the younger children eat plates of rice and chicken, He said that even in a political environment that has turned Joel tells me that he decided to apply for resettlement negative, people at the grass roots have responded to because of his distress at the problems he faced in both his refugee resettlement with an “amazing” level of innovation home country and Tanzania. He lists them: crime, war, ethnic and collaboration. He is struck by how much of the collabo- violence, lack of education and opportunities for his chil- ration is interreligious. dren. “I asked myself, ‘How can I start to live? What can I He recalled going into the office of a resettlement center in do? How can I give my effort to my children so they may eat Jersey City, New Jersey. “This is going to sound like a bad and have a house?’ So I decided to start the process to come joke,” he said, “but sitting at the table was an imam, a pastor, here.” and a rabbi.” The three had met each other through the relief In just a few weeks, Joel will be expected to pay the $925 agency Church World Service. rent for his apartment. He expects to take a job—it will be any “Something is afoot at the grassroots level,” Casey said. Part job that he can get. Bikyeombe is starting work cleaning hotel of it is the desire to increase the amount of aid to refugees, “but rooms. Joel’s dream is to go to school and study to be a teacher there is also the ancillary benefit of a new form of interreli- or a nurse. Both he and Bikyeombe are musicians who have gious interaction.” recorded their music together, and he is eager to share these In the refugee resettlement communities that he visited last gifts in America. year, he said, reports of political vitriol would lead to an After eating, the children put on coats and go outside to increased number of calls to refugee centers saying, “How can play with six-year-old Brittany, daughter of Amy Lee, who we help?” lives in the apartment downstairs. Lee said that when she first

Christian Century December 21, 2016 24 Ava Parsons, 12, catches three-year-old Bertha Joel Makeci while playing outside their homes on a rainy day. The Congolese refugee family moved into an apartment in Missoula and within a few days had made friends with many of the kids in the neighborhood. Photo © Jeremy Lurgio. heard that refugees were coming to Missoula, she was arrived from the same camp to the same city. The two men opposed to the plan. It was hard enough, she said, to make danced in the airport. ends meet for her own family and to get access to the health The room was sparsely furnished, with just a couch and a care they need. What good would it do to bring in more needy lamp on a side table. A few days earlier, a load of furniture people? from the Holiday Inn had arrived for the family at the parking Her view changed when she met the family and heard their lot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Scores of barely story. Lee has become an important friend and ally. “I like the used tables, chairs, and other furniture were unloaded by vol- whole family,” she said on an afternoon outside their apart- unteers for use in refugees’ homes. I couldn’t help looking ment building while the children played. “But that one,” she around the room to see what else the family might need. I pointed to Joel and Bikyeombe’s three-year-old daughter noticed that the only book in the room was a Bible, open on Bertha, “I already love.” the side table. With the help of Google-translated and pieced-together he next day, I sat with another refugee family at a card English, we talked about their hopes and concerns for life in table in their apartment. Joseph Bazungu and Vanis Montana. I learned the Swahili word for worry. “My wasi- TNyiraburango and their 15-year-old daughter Sifa had wasi,” Joseph said, “is to learn English.” The couple shook arrived just three weeks before from a refugee camp in their heads at the difficulty. “English is hard,” Vanis said. Uganda. Like Joel and Bikyeombe, they were born in the What did they hope for? There was a discussion among the Democratic Republic of the Congo and spent some of their three at the table, searching for the word in English. Joseph childhood there but had lived in a refugee camp for almost two said finally, “We hope here to experience life.” decades. Also like Joel and Bikyeombe, they had no idea when When I left Vanis and Joseph’s apartment, it was again rainy they left Uganda that they were headed to Missoula. Soon and cold. I looked up at the mountains that surround Missoula after they arrived, a celebration broke out. Joseph’s cousin had and saw that they had snow.

25 Christian Century December 21, 2016 Fifty years of the Good News translation A Bible for everyone? by John Fea

FOR A BABY BOOMER named Rick, the cover of involvement with the text that a person experiences as a of Good News for Modern Man evoked a flood of wonderful result of reading the translation. memories. Responding to an online survey that I conducted on On the latter point, Nida wrote, “perhaps no better compli- the impact of this version of the Bible, Rick reported that in ment could come to a translator than to have someone say, ‘I the late 1960s he was a member of a youth group in California never knew before that God spoke my language.’” He was con- which sang folk-rock Christian songs using acoustic guitars. vinced that it was necessary at times to change the words of the Rick’s church gave out copies of Good News for Modern Man Bible. Translators seeking dynamic equivalence were willing to like candy. As youth group started each week, he and his move away from a word-for-word approach toward a meaning- friends would crowd together “and somebody would start toss- for-meaning or thought-for-thought approach. ing—literally tossing—the Testament and a brown Youth for Nida turned to Robert Bratcher, a Southern Baptist Bible Christ songbook” to everyone in attendance. Like typical ado- scholar, to produce a dynamic equivalent translation of the lescent boys, Rick and his friends got rowdy sometimes, and Bible. Bratcher and his committee developed short and simple they used the copies of Good News to beat one another over sentences, each containing “one or two ideas or statements of the head until the youth pastor calmed everyone down. Tom, another respondent to the survey, remembered that in 1972 he was a charismatic Catholic participating in an ecu- menical Jesus People prayer meeting with Pentecostals. When Within a few years, 30 million they weren’t on the ground speaking in tongues (which Tom called a “joyous babble in the Spirit”) they were playing “Bible copies of the Good News roulette” with their copies of Good News for Modern Man. Bible had been sold. Someone would randomly read a passage aloud, and one or two people in the group would comment on how the particular passage spoke to them. fact,” and they used a style Bratcher called “modern American Released by the American Bible Society in September vernacular.” He strove for clarity and refused to use archaic 1966, Good News for Modern Man—subtitled The New terms such as thee or thou, which the Revised Standard Testament and Psalms in Today’s English Version—quickly Version—produced at midcentury—still used when referring became a cultural phenomenon and one of the most success- to God. ful religious publications in American history. For the price of In the Today’s English Version, Jesus in his Sermon on the a quarter, the English-speaking public (and eventually the Mount does not say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is world) could read the Bible in a language that was (in the the kingdom of heaven” (as he does in the Revised Standard words of ABS publicity materials) “as fresh and immediate as Version) but “Happy are those who know they are spiritually the morning newspaper.” poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!” And instead of Good News for Modern Man was the brainchild of Eugene “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth,” TEV’s Nida, an ABS linguist who pioneered the “dynamic equiva- Jesus says, “Happy are those who are humble; they will receive lence” approach to Bible translation. At the heart of this theo- what God has promised!” ry is the idea that the best translation of a Bible text is one that Bratcher also wanted his translation to be “precise.” All allows readers to forget they are reading a translation at all. ambiguity was to be avoided. If there were multiple ways to Nida was one of the first Bible translation theorists to take the translate a particular Greek passage, Bratcher would choose linguistic position of the reader this seriously. A good transla- one and simply disregard the others. No alternative readings tion, he argued, would arouse in the reader the same reaction were listed in footnotes. that the writer of the text hoped to produce in his “first and immediate” readers. For Nida, the test of a translation is how John Fea teaches American history at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, well the readers understand the message of the original text, Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Bible Cause: A History of the the ease with which they can grasp this meaning, and the level American Bible Society.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 26 PSALM 9: “I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the wonderful things you have done. I will sing with joy because of you. I will sing praise to you, Almighty God.” (Illustration by Swiss artist and storyteller Annie Vallotton, as taken from the Good News Translation © 1976, 1992, 2015 American Bible Society.)

Good News for Modern Man was released after two and Vallotton. Good News for Modern Man included 378 of a half years of work. It was 608 pages long and appeared Vallotton’s line drawings, done in a style Vallotton called with a gray paperback cover filled with black lines, giving it “sparse” and “childishly naive.” the look of a newspaper page. The title was printed in bold The biblical scholar Raymond Brown, who was president of red letters in the upper left corner protruding from what the Catholic Biblical Association when the TEV was released, appears to be a tear or a hole in a newspaper. The subtitle told the New York Times that he found the “little stick men . .. was printed in smaller red letters within a similar jagged kind of catchy.” The simple style of the drawings were a perfect hole in the lower right. Scattered across the cover—both the fit for a simple translation. Vallotton hoped that they would front and the back—were the mastheads of international “open a door to the Bible” and provide “a springboard” for newspapers. The image suggests that “good news” is break- people to explore the word of God in a deeper fashion. ing through the depressing stories found in the daily news- The ABS was quick to point out that Vallotton’s drawings papers. The message of Jesus Christ is breaking news for transcended nationality, language, and race. By omitting humankind. facial details, skin color, and other cultural indicators, Vallotton hoped that every reader would see in the illustra- he response to the work was overwhelming. The United tions their own Jesus, one that was “particularly right for him Methodist Church bought 250,000 copies of the TEV or her.” The nature of these illustrations added to the ecu- TSermon on the Mount. The Sunday School Board of the menical feel of Good News for Modern Man. This was a Bible Southern Baptist Convention purchased 100,000 copies of for everyone. Good News. In the first year of publication the ABS distrib- Following Vatican II, with its renewed emphasis on biblical uted over 5.5 million copies of the new translation and by the literacy, Catholics had begun looking for readable translations end of 1967 that number had reached over 8.5 million. In May of the Bible, and many of them turned to Good News for 1971 the book blew past Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care Modern Man. Father Walter Abbott of the Vatican Secretariat (which had sold 25 million copies) as the all-time paperback for Promoting Christian Unity, a staunch defender of best seller, and by the end of 1971 it had reached the 30 million Protestant-Catholic relations based on a shared Bible, called it mark. “the best modern version for the people that I have yet seen.” Besides providing a fresh, readable translation, The New Warner Hutchinson, who was serving as Asia consultant for the Testament and Psalms in Today’s English Version included United Bible Societies, wrote to the ABS in May 1968 that appealing illustrations. Bratcher received his share of acco- Good News was being used in Catholic schools in New Guinea. lades for the TEV, but the success of his translation brought He also reported that the bishop of Chile had purchased 2,000 international attention to 50-year-old Swiss artist Annie copies for distribution among his parishes.

27 Christian Century December 21, 2016 In March 1969, Cardinal Richard Cushing, archbishop of was one of the reasons why Good News was so successful. Boston, approved the TEV for Catholic readers and gave it Billy Graham informed Holmgren that he was now using the an official imprimatur. The imprimatur edition was blue TEV in both his personal devotions and during his evangelis- with a small Maltese cross on the spine and front. ABS gen- tic crusades. eral secretary Laton Holmgren delivered Cushing’s copy In 1968, the ABS produced 1.3 million copies of a special personally. Good News for Modern Man did, in fact, do a lot version of Good News for the Baptist General Convention of to bring Catholics and Protestants together. Texas as part of its participation in the Crusade of the Some enthusiasts believed that the accessibility of Good Americas, a massive evangelistic campaign conducted through- News for Modern Man made it an ideal tool for evangelism. out the Western hemisphere. It was the largest request for Nida thought that it spoke directly to “those who have never Bibles the ABS had ever received—a “Texas-sized order.” become acquainted with the time-hallowed religious vocabu- Inside the special Testament was published a list of “steps to lary and to those who have been alienated from established becoming a Christian.” The listed encouraged readers to religious institutions.” He thought that its use in evangelism acknowledge their need for God, recognize God’s love, repent of their sins, accept Jesus Christ and his forgiveness as “the only way of encountering God,” and commit to God’s plan for their lives. The section ended with a prayer that readers could pray to receive salvation. There was a spot to write one’s name So Job died old and full of days and the date on which they accepted Jesus Christ as their per- sonal savior and Lord. Crammed and jammed Bursting with days ot everyone was enthusiastic about Good News for Job died old and full of days Modern Man. Some scholars thought Bratcher’s trans- Nlation was simplistic, pitched at too low a level of read- So full of days ing ability. Evangelical scholars worried that a thought-for- He died thought translation rather than word-for-word translation Died from days clotted with friends, amounted to a paraphrase of scripture and undermined the Eliphaz, Bildad and conviction that every single word of the Bible is inspired by Zophar God. And don’t forget Elihu In 1969, E. L. Bynum, pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Late but stuffed with wisdom too Church in Lubbock, Texas, wrote a pamphlet titled “Why We Friends certain and smug Wiseacres knowing all Everything about this life Except of course the life of Job The goal was to have readers say,

So full of days “God speaks my language.” He died Died from days God awed Reject This Version,” arguing that the TEV undermined some The heavenly court and Satan dialogue fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, including the Travel reports and near endless silence virgin birth of Jesus. He pointed out that it had used the word Lordly Master, God knowing all woman rather than virgin in translating the prophecy in Everything about the creation Isaiah 7 about a woman giving birth to “Immanuel”—a Except of course the children of Job prophecy picked up by New Testament writers when they affirmed that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin. So full of days (Bynum’s criticism resurrected a previous controversy He died regarding a similar decision made by translators of the RSV.) Died from days teeming with nature The TEV translators also removed the words blood and Treasury of snow, hems of oceans redemption from the text, playing down the traditional teach- The Venus hind birthing at dawn ing that Jesus’ death on the cross was the ultimate fulfillment The morning stars singing of the Old Testament sacrifice of animals as a means to the Nature indifferent knowing all forgiveness of sins. It is hard to know what kind of impact Everything about the world Bynum’s pamphlet had on the conservative opposition to Except of course the emptiness of Job Good News for Modern Man (he claimed that 700,000 copies of his pamphlet were in circulation), but it did not appear to Who died old and full of days hurt overall sales. Good News for Modern Man drew other complaints. Yehiel Poupko Rebecca Marchand, an ABS supporter from Fort Lauderdale,

Christian Century December 21, 2016 28 Florida, was bothered by the gender exclusive title. “Why was Good News for Modern Man ever called by that title? Especially in these days when women are trying to find equality.” The ABS responded by noting that the man in the title, “as any dictionary will convey,” was used as a generic term that does not “of necessity connote sex—male or female.” The ABS also noted that when the entire TEV Bible became available, it would be called the Good News Bible. Nida’s vision for a Bible in plain English language represented an important chapter in the post–Protestant Reformation quest to make the Bible accessible and readable to as many people as possible in the hope that their lives might be changed by its life-giving message. Good News for Modern Man set the stage for other dynamic equivalence Bibles and para- phrases such as such as The Message, The Voice, The New International Version, and The New Living Translation. It spurred a rise in Bible sales in the early 1970s, LUKE 9:15–17: “After the disciples had done so, Jesus took the five loaves and two and made the American Bible Society a household name fish, looked up to heaven, thanked God for them, broke them, and gave them to the among Christians. Today the Good News Bible (often disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and had enough, and the disciples referred to by its official name, the Good News Translation) took up twelve baskets of what was left over.” (Illustration by Swiss artist and sto- remains in print—and it remains a significant part of count- ryteller Annie Vallotton, as taken from the Good News Translation © 1976, 1992, less baby boomers’ spiritual pilgrimage. 2015 American Bible Society.)

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29 Christian Century December 21, 2016

I choose, therefore I am by Robert Westbrook

At the Existentialist Café: EXISTENTIALISM, which was all the rage in Europe and America in the late ’40s, ’50s, and early ’60s, has Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails lost much discernible meaning. One rarely even hears the term By Sarah Bakewell these days. In our age of terror, one is most likely to encounter Other Press, 448 pp., $25.00 existential used in claims of “existential threats” to national security that call for the relaxation of moral scruples against torture, assassination, and the slaughter of civilians. Jean-Paul ences to existentialism butchered Sartre so cavalierly he Sartre would not be amused. should have been arrested for negligent homicide, but I In the United States, no one threw the term existential lacked the tools (i.e., powers of discrimination) to explore around in careless fashion more than Norman Mailer, the one the matter more deeply. American author who explicitly assumed the mantle of “exis- tentialist” and held a significant role in ushering existentialism Mailer, on an earlier occasion, reportedly told British writer into the twilight. When I was in college at Yale in the early ’70s, Colin Wilson that to him existentialism meant “Oh, kinda play- my friend Mark Singer (now a longtime staff writer at the New ing things by ear.” Yorker) was working on a senior thesis on Hemingway and Sarah Bakewell observes Mailer’s shaky grip on existential- Mailer as journalists. Mailer came to visit the campus, and ist philosophy in passing in her exceptionally fine book on the Mark eagerly attended a dinner in his honor, hosted at subject. She has all the tools necessary to explore the matter Calhoun College by the critic and literary biographer R. W. B. deeply and lucidly, and she makes the case to even the most Lewis. skeptical readers for giving existentialism, properly under- Here is Mark’s account of the event: stood, another look. Bakewell is a marvel. No one better writes what some might The dinner was at Lewis’s house in Calhoun. I’d been pres- call “popular intellectual history” (although I would prefer to call ent earlier in the afternoon as Mailer sat in the living room it good intellectual history). Her 2010 book How to Live, an and enraged the undergraduate women present by lobbing impressive and widely read tour of the life, thought, and influence grenades straight out of The Prisoner of Sex. As I was leav- ing, Lewis invited me to come back earlier than that evening’s dinner guests, so I could speak with Mailer one-on- There was a time when one. During the interval, I went to my room in the Berkeley North Court and smoked a joint the size of a baseball bat. existential meant something. Then, à la Mailer himself, I floated back to Lewis’s to speak with the great man about his and Hemingway’s journalism. of the late 16th-century French moralist Michel de Montaigne, (If I were ever subjected to a recording of that conversation, made her exceptional talent evident. At the Existentialist Café I’d have to be restrained from defenestrating myself.) features a much larger cast of characters, and she skillfully The other guests arrived, I was drinking Scotch, and sitting weaves together the intellectual biographies of a crowd of in on a conversation Mailer was having with I don’t recall transatlantic thinkers. Her “giants” are (rightfully so) Martin who. I do recall that I found it completely compelling, but, Heidegger and Sartre, to whom she devotes the closest attention. then, I really had to pee. I leaned over to Mailer and said But they share the stage with chief supporting actors Simone de something like, “What do you do when you’re in a conversa- Beauvoir, Albert Camus, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Among tion as thrilling as your overwhelming urge to take a leak?” others in more minor roles are Hannah Arendt, Raymond Aron, He looked at me squarely and said, “That’s existential.” I headed to the john . . . WTF did he mean? I have no Robert Westbrook teaches modern intellectual history at the University of idea, but I was too in awe to consider that Mailer might not Rochester and is the author of Democratic Hope: Pragmatism and the have had one either. In retrospect I recognize that his refer- Politics of Truth.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 30 Frantz Fanon, Edmund Husserl, Karl Jaspers, Emmanuel as precisely as possible.” In sum, Aron told them, you can make Levinas, Iris Murdoch, Jan Patocˇka, and Richard Wright. philosophy out of something as ordinary as the apricot cocktail Bakewell’s approach to these figures is both biographical on our table. and philosophical: “I think philosophy becomes more interest- Sartre was “knocked out,” and he soon departed for Ger many ing when it is cast into the form of a life.” She is right about this, to find out about phenomenology for himself. There, as Bakewell but the temptation when writing for a wide audience of non- says in one of her particularly lovely passages, he began to craft philosophers is to sacrifice the philosophical (with its careful attention to difficult texts) to the biographical and the contex- a philosophy of expectation, tiredness, apprehensiveness, tual. Bakewell makes no such sacrifices, and in this sense her excitement, a walk up a hill, the passion for a desired lover, book well outstrips most other attempts by intellectual histori- the revulsion from an unwanted one, Parisian gardens, the ans to reach general readers. cold autumn sea at Le Havre, the feeling of sitting on over- She adeptly portrays the personal lives of her protagonists, not least the unconventional partnership of Sartre and Beauvoir and the often bitter shat- RECENT BOOKS FROM EERDMANS tering of friendships such as that of Sartre and Camus. And she connects the thinking of her philosophers to their sig- CALLING IN TODAY’S WORLD nificant shaping contexts, including the Voices from Eight Faith Perspectives trauma of World War I, the rise of Kathleen A. Cahalan and Nazism and the Holocaust, the French Douglas J. Schuurman, editors defeat at the hands of the Germans in World War II, the subsequent devasta- “A rich picture of how different faith traditions positively inform tion of Germany by Allied armies, the an individual’s life in community and in the world.” political battles over communism in the — Kristin Johnston Largen ’50s and ’60s, and the dismantling of ISBN 978-0-8028-7367-5 • 256 PAGES • PAPERBACK • $25.00 French colonialism. But Bakewell also shines in describing and analyzing very difficult ideas—some- KINGDOM ETHICS times expressed in willfully difficult fash- Following Jesus in Contemporary Context ion by the likes of Heidegger, Levinas, !"#$% !%'('#$ and others—with remarkable clarity and force. She has an enviable talent for call- David P. Gushee and Glen H. Stassen ing up analogies, examples, and compar- “Updated and timely, Kingdom Ethics connects the way of Jesus to isons that illuminate the opaque corners our Christian past and present and lights our way in the ongoing of modern philosophy. struggle. An accessible masterpiece for all who would follow Jesus.” — Darryl M. Trimiew

xistentialism grew out of phe- ISBN 978-0-8028-7421-4 • 550 PAGES • HARDCOVER • $40.00 nomenology, and Bakewell be - Egins her account with the meeting in December 1932 in a Paris café of three BEING DISCIPLES young French friends who had just Essentials of the Christian Life launched academic careers: Aron, Sartre, and Beauvoir. Aron, just returned from Rowan Williams Germany, was excitedly bringing news to “Here is quite the most beautiful writing on discipleship I know.” the others of a radical new approach to —Justin Welby philosophy pioneered by Freiburg pro- “Williams ushers us more deeply into our best discernment fessor Edmund Husserl, who termed it of the Christian life.” —Walter Brueggemann phenomenology. Hus serl’s battle cry was “To the things themselves!” By this he ISBN 978-0-8028-7432-0 • 96 PAGES • PAPERBACK • $10.00 meant (in one of Bakewell’s many pithy succinct summaries), “Don’t waste time on the interpretations that accrue upon W!. B. E&'(!)*+ At your bookstore, things, and especially don’t waste time P-./0+10*2 C4. or call 800.253.7521 wondering whether the things are real. 6529-A 2140 Oak Industrial Dr NE Grand Rapids MI 49505 www.eerdmans.com Just look at this that’s presenting itself to you, whatever this may be, and describe it

31 Christian Century December 21, 2016 stuffed upholstery, the way a woman’s breasts pool as she world.” If Husserl interpreted intentionality as “an operation lies on her back, the thrill of a boxing match, a film, a jazz that pulled everything back into the mind after all,” for Sartre song, a glimpse of two strangers meeting under a street it meant, as he said, “to wrest oneself from moist, gastric inti- lamp. He made philosophy out of vertigo, voyeurism, macy and fly out over there, beyond oneself, to what is not shame, sadism, revolution, music, and sex. Lots of sex. oneself.” This ethically inflected phenomenology informed Sartre’s Phenomenologists proved able to “bracket” (epoché) inter- early fiction (Nausea) as well as his philosophical masterwork pretation for only so long before pursuing various possible Being and Nothingness. It led eventually to the stage of the meanings of their exacting descriptions of human being-in- Club Maintenant in Paris on the evening of October 28, 1945, the-world. Husserl gave his thought an inward, idealist cast by treating phenomena as confined to a mental realm. Others pushed phenomenology aggressively outward. Husserl’s rene- Authentic action grows out of gade student Martin Heidegger took an ontological turn, treating phenomenology as a means to address the question of a “situated freedom.” enfolding Being itself. Sartre turned phenomenology in an ethical direction, building on Husserl’s concept of “intention- where for an overflow crowd he laid out for the first time the ality”—the idea that thinking is always of or about some- essentials of what he had come to call existentialism. Like thing—to move toward a radical understanding of human Husserl, he had a slogan for his philosophy: “Existence pre- freedom as self-creation in “an indifferent, hostile, resistant cedes essence.” By this he meant that human beings were pecu- liar animals, blessed and cursed with the freedom to make of themselves what they will, undetermined by any prior essential selfhood granted them by God or nature. We make ourselves up as we go along. To deny this freedom for self-creation is to Read THE COW IS NOW said the child act inauthentically and in “bad faith.” Bakewell unpacks Sartre’s slogan in characteristically help- The cow is now. ful fashion: Lowing and chewing, no mewing or bowing to spring As a human I am whatever I choose to make of myself at like that upon a rat. every moment. I am free—and therefore I’m responsible for The cow’s no cat. everything I do, a dizzying fact which causes an anxiety In grass to eat inseparable from human existence itself. On the other hand, or stream to drink, I am only free within situations, which can include factors in the cow’s a statue against the sky. my own biology and psychology, as well as physical, histori- Her great head still, cal and social variables of the world into which I have been her eyes staring at you, thrown. Despite the limitations, I always want more: I am she parks. passionately involved in personal projects of all kinds. A dog remembers you, and barks, Human existence is thus ambiguous: at once boxed in by but the vacant-eyed cow is only now borders and yet transcendent and exhilarating. An existen- I mean tialist who is also phenomenological provides no easy rules she lives right now, for dealing with this condition, but instead concentrates on she’s in it this minute. describing lived experience as it presents itself. By describ- She takes a stand, ing experience well, he or she hopes to understand this exis- and wouldn’t give a fig tence and awaken us to ways of living more authentic lives. to do a jig. The cow’s no pig. What interests Bakewell most about existentialism is the Yet, some nights after milking, ambiguity she identifies here, the tension implied by its notion soon as the sun sinks and the farm sleeps, of “situated freedom” between the constraints imposed by the in the lull till dawn contingencies of our “thrownness” (Heidegger) in the world she’ll yawn, then take a great run and our freedom to act in the midst of such contingencies in and sail clear over the moon light of the (often frightening) responsibility we bear for our like a gull over a dune. actions. How? Though all those in Sartre’s circle in the late 1940s shared Who knows? this conception of “situated freedom,” they held the terms of She just says, “NOW!” this formulation in different balance. Sartre, Bakewell demon- and goes. strates, minimized the limits imposed by situations— ”Everything in him longed to be free of bonds, of impediments Warren L. Molton and limitations, and viscous clinging things.” She illustrates

Christian Century December 21, 2016 32 Sartre’s desire by way of his debate with Jean Genet over the defended by Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty, was in the eyes of genetic basis for homosexuality. Sartre would not concede any existentialism’s critics still too unhinged a conception of such innate predisposition. On the other hand, Bakewell finds human being-in-the-world. Its early adversaries, orthodox Camus inclined to undue fatalism (a reading from which I Marxists and conservative Catholics, contended not merely for would demur). contingency but for irresistible determination, whether materi- Her sympathies lie most with those such as Beauvoir and al or divine. Later opponents (including structuralists like Merleau-Ponty who kept freedom and contingency in balance, Claude Lévi-Strauss, proponents of the nouveau roman like particularly the former, who argued in her underappreciated Alain Robbe-Grillet, and poststructuralists like Jean Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) that “we have to do two near- Baudrillard) thought the existentialists gave too much cre- impossible things at once: understand ourselves as limited by dence to humans as agents in the world. They dismissed exis- circumstances, and yet continue to pursue our projects as tentialism as an unfortunate humanist hangover. They “turned though we are truly in control.” This perspective also informed philosophy back into an abstract landscape,” Bakewell com- Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949), arguably the finest master- plains, “stripped of the active, impassioned beings who occu- work of existentialism. pied it in the existential era.” Bakewell says Merleau-Ponty would be “an intellectual Intellectual history at its best sends readers back to the orig- hero” of her story, as would Beauvoir. She describes the former inal sources, and Bakewell excels at this. How to Live sent its as “the happy philosopher of things as they are.” This is a curi- readers in search of Montaigne’s essays. At the Existentialist ous choice for a book devoted to a philosophy of incessant self- Café should move readers to pull yellowing paperbacks of Nausea, The Stranger, and The Second Sex off of used book- store shelves. Some might even wade into Being and Time and “Who cares about freedom, bad Being and Nothingness. Their debt to Bakewell will thereby deepen, for all these books and others she introduces remain, faith, and authenticity today?” in every respect, stirring. “Who cares about freedom, bad faith, and authenticity to - creation and re-creation. It seems to me an unsettling charac- day?” the snarky Baudrillard asked contemptuously in 2001 in terization of the author of Humanism and Terror (1947), an an obituary for existentialism. Many still do, thank God. unabashed apology for Stalin that Bakewell slides over all too quickly. Beauvoir, Bakewell’s other hero, is a more apt choice. Her four-volume autobiography provides Bakewell with a model of the “inhabited philosophy” that she attempts to write, and she draws heavily upon it for evidence and inspiration. Make me plow blade

akewell is more circumspect in her estimate of her Make me plow blade, implement “giants.” She owns up to her attraction to Heidegger’s for the deep earth, forge me blue Bthinking, but in the end she finds him repellant. Not with heat, Lord of flame, blow only, of course, for his unapologetic Nazism and the fascist dog strong the bellows, let the bellows whistles in Being and Time, but also for the mystagogy of his sing, baptize me in song, let ring late work, with its insistence on a retreat to a passive waiting for the unveiling of Being and a thoroughgoing indictment of anvil, hammer, iron, tong, away modern technology—the siren call of which she admits to the slag, away the dull, draw me hearing. But, she concludes, “there is something of the grave in sharp as the chine of a scythe, this vegetative world.” Heidegger’s philosophy can be “exhila- sharp as sun glint, sharp as steel, rating, but in the end it is a philosophy in which I cannot find a Lord of moldboard, coulter, land- place to live.” Her verdict on Sartre is mixed, but on the whole, favorable. side, heel, temper me raw in water “Of course, he was monstrous,” she acknowledges. “He was and salt, mark me with ash, bathe self-indulgent, demanding, bad-tempered. He was a sex addict me in flux, teach me syntax of edge who didn’t even enjoy sex, a man who would walk away from and point, syntax of furrow, syntax friendships saying he felt no regret. . . . He defended a range of of stone, Lord of harvest, fit me odious regimes, and made a cult of violence.” But she says, unlike Heidegger, Sartre was “full of character. He bursts out to rend, fit my tongue to till, oh be on all sides with energy, peculiarity, generosity, and commu- not done till the yoke holds fast, nicativeness. . . . He was good—or at least he wanted to do the share proves keen, oh be not good. He was driven to it.” Here one might well disagree, but done till the ground gives way, oh to her credit Bakewell has provided every bit of evidence one Shaper of earth, of blade, of song would need in order to do so. “Situated freedom,” even of the carefully calibrated sort Abigail Carroll

33 Christian Century December 21, 2016 Looking for a little more light in your life?

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Awake and watching THIS YEAR Advent finds me already waiting. Like We might begin with how we speak to one another. The many others, I am waiting to see who the new president-elect hateful, pinched language of the campaign has had real and will appoint to key positions; waiting to see what the new gov- damaging consequences. What would happen if all of us were ernment will look like; waiting to see if he will build a wall, ban convinced that language that is honest, creative, and full of pos- Muslims from the country, or bring back manufacturing jobs. sibility, born both of what we see and what we hope for, could No matter how we voted, we’re all waiting anxiously to see if also have consequences? Would we imagine new forms of liv- Donald Trump will keep his campaign promises. ing that are spacious and inclusive? Would we cultivate new As I tune restlessly in and out of the news, refreshing my feed courage to resist what is not? for the latest analysis, Advent arrives bearing its radical promise. Advent calls us to prepare a way within us and in the world The prayers and hymns and readings of this season remind me that around us to receive the Christ-child. We remember him as a we’re not just waiting for a president to assemble a government. baby born in a stable because his laboring mother was turned We’re waiting for the eternal to break into time. We’re waiting for away from safe shelter. We remember him as a refugee whose Christ to be born in the world once more. We’re waiting for God. parents crossed the border into Egypt to protect him from vio- Advent began this year, as it always does, with the prophets lence. To prepare a way for Jesus is to create safe places for him proclaiming the fundamental religious message: wake up. I feel to live, to protect him from the violence that threatens him. them pull at my attention as I fret and worry. Now is the moment to wake from sleep, they call. Shake yourself from the dust and listen. Rise up, for everything is about to change. These words resonate both with those who despair over the In every Advent, we have the new presidency and those who greet it with excitement. The prophets, however, speak from a position outside the seat of chance to reflect on our power. Whether our candidate wins or loses, we always need to lives and commitments. wake up, to listen to prophetic voices cutting through power’s glamour and seductions. One of those seductions will be the tendency to downplay The baby for whom we wait this Advent bears his good news

the rhetoric of Donald Trump’s campaign. It was only strategi- into the world even before he can speak. We hear it in the cally hateful, we are already being told. But Trump widened lengths his parents went to protect him, the miles the Magi trav- dangerous paths when he appealed to white nationalism and eled to honor him, the awe of the shepherds who heard his birth blamed our nation’s problems on refugees and immigrants. announced by an angel, the assurance of the angel that this was These are old paths, and we know where they lead. Stay awake, good news for all people. the prophets insist. Stay focused. These are stories of reverent attention to the divine presence Martin Luther King Jr. once called our failure to remain that is shining on the margins. Advent illuminates the Christ Y awake during periods of social change “one of the great liabil- Child’s face at borders where refugees seek safe passage, in ities of history.” Advent offers an opportunity to all of us to cul- rural and urban places of poverty and despair, in prisons, in tivate a wakefulness with the power to shape the future. communities that have been demeaned and scapegoated, and We are called to wake up but also to watch. Watching is an those that have borne the brunt of white supremacist ideologies  active, layered kind of wakefulness, a way of waiting and seek- since our nation’s founding. A ing at once. We are to watch what is inside of us and outside of In every Advent there is much at stake. We have an opportuni- us, to watch the signs of the times and to extend our watching ty to enter a new year awake and alive to the presence of God in St beyond our time toward the day when swords are beaten into our midst, a chance to recalibrate our lives and our commitments

plowshares, the poor satisfied, and the powerless strengthened, in the light of God’s vision. It is one of the greatest blessings of our E E the day when all peoples gather at the Lord’s banquet and all faith that God seems never to tire of inviting us to begin again. tears are wiped away. Advent trains us to keep our eyes on the Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. ( ) horizon and let what we see in the distance shape how we respond to what we see up close. This takes practice. Stephanie Paulsell teaches at Harvard Divinity School.

35 Christian Century December 21, 2016

Listening to Louisiana

by Anthony B. Robinson

an a self-described progressive people mourn the loss of clean water, the Strangers in Their Own Land: from Berkeley understand and destruction of fish and wildlife, and the Anger and Mourning on Ceven empathize with Tea Party death of family members due to epidem- the American Right supporters in the Deep South? Is it pos- ic levels of cancer. Yet they support By Arlie Russell Hochschild sible for any of us to connect across the politicians who want the federal govern- The New Press, 368 pp., $27.95 huge political fault lines in American ment out of their lives. What gives? society? For Arlie Russell Hochs child, an Hochschild is resolved to do more academic sociologist, these are not aca- than point out the paradox or judge But the line is no longer moving for- demic questions. They are as real as the those who embody it. She wants to climb ward. It’s stuck, or even moving in the next family reunion. Bringing the “the empathy wall” in order to see the wrong direction. Jobs have disappeared. extended family together for the holi- world through the eyes and experiences Wages have stagnated. Most frustrating days can mean confronting America’s of her subjects. This means spending time of all, people are cutting in line. And political divide over the dinner table. in people’s homes, on their land and here’s the clincher: the government is Our often conflicted efforts to com- waters, in their churches, and at their helping them do it. Immigrants, refugees, prehend those on the other side of the family and civic gatherings. Hochschild black people, Hispanics, and some divide was exponentially increased by often has to check her own biases as she women are getting ahead, while they— this year’s presidential election. Often I works to gain trust and listen deeply. As who have played by the rules—aren’t. heard people in my blue bubble of she does, she finds herself interested not Even some forms of wildlife, like the Seattle ask, “Do you actually know any just in the facts but in feelings. How do brown pelican, gets a place up ahead in Trump supporters?” (as if inquiring the people she comes to know in the the line! about a tribe somewhere deep beyond Louisiana bayous feel about themselves, When the narrative collapses, ex- contact in the Amazon). “I just don’t get their culture, and their country? plains Hochschild, “you are a stranger in it—what can they be thinking?” Reading They feel confused and betrayed, your own land.” this book might have helped them. because the rules of how the world is Hochschild, whose previous work supposed to operate have changed. The You do not recognize yourself in how focused mainly on the family and the narrative through which they’ve made others see you. It is a struggle to feel changing role of women, sets out to sense of life no longer seems to apply. seen and honored. And to feel hon- understand people on the other side of Worse, that narrative itself is discounted, ored you have to feel—and feel seen “our political divide.” And she sets out even disparaged, by much of contempo- as—moving forward. But through no literally, traveling ten times over five rary American society and its elite. fault of your own, and in ways that are years to Louisiana, where she embeds What is that narrative? The “deep hidden, you are slipping backward. herself among government-hating Tea story” Hochschild identifies is about Party supporters. patience, hard work, putting up with pain Larger shifts are at work here. Glo b - The region of Louisiana that Hochs - and difficulty, being optimistic, and being alization has meant progress in the fight child studies is an epicenter of big oil and committed to family and faith. It is a story against poverty worldwide, but with a gas—and of devastating environmental about standing in a long line that, eventu- downside for at least some American impacts caused by those industries. There ally, will lead to realizing the American workers. The move from an economy on the bayous she tries to comprehend dream of prosperity and security. The peo- based on extraction of natural resources “the great paradox.” How can people ple in line are prepared to wait patiently, who have seen their beloved wetlands doing what they’ve been told they should Anthony B. Robinson is a United Church of turned into toxic dumps nevertheless in order to realize the dream. They hate Christ minister and the author of many books oppose the federal government, the the way so many people claim to be vic- on church life and leadership, including EPA, and regulation designed to stop tims. They don’t believe in whining. Life is Changing the Conversation: A Third Way for pollution or get things cleaned up? These tough; suck it up. Congregations (Eerdmans).

Christian Century December 21, 2016 36

(logging, mining, fishing) to a service vulnerable to the seductions of political economy means fewer jobs for those figures who declare that the government who do hard physical work and more is the enemy, that free-market capitalism jobs for “knowledge workers.” Amid is their best hope, and that it’s time to these seismic shifts, there are others: “make America great again.” America is moving steadily toward being Denigrating such people, as Hillary a society where people of color are the Clinton did in her infamous “basket of majority. And Protestant Christians, once deplorables” remarks, while politically the dominant majority, are already a easy and psychically gratifying, is asking minority. for trouble. Moreover, it’s blaming the As Hochschild was concluding her victim. For even if Hochschild’s subjects work in Louisiana, Donald Trump hate the idea of being thought of as vic- emerged on the scene like a flame to dry tims, they are. They are victims of social kindling. She explains: and demographic changes, and more insidiously, victims of the manipulations Since 1980, virtually all those I talked of very wealthy conservatives like the with felt on shaky economic ground, a Koch brothers. The Kochs and those like fact that made them brace at the very them have been masterful at exploiting idea of “redistribution.” They also felt the fears and frustrations of the kinds of culturally marginalized; their views people Hochschild befriended. about abortion, gay marriage, gender These days, progressives are often roles, race, guns, and the Confederate urged to make friends across racial and flag all were held up to ridicule in the ethnic lines as a part of the work of Join your prayers national media as backward. And understanding white privilege and dis- they felt part of a demographic mantling systemic racism. Perhaps with others decline. friendships need to be pursued on other fronts as well. How about an effort to housands of individuals and One of her subjects summed it up this make friends among those on the other churches — moved by God’s way: “there are fewer and fewer white side of the political divide, among those Tgrace in Jesus Christ — have Christians like us.” who you may be tempted to dismiss or pledged to engage in ongoing It’s easy to dismiss those who hold to write off as backward and deplorable? prayer as part of Bread for the such views as racist, backward, and Jesus, after all, did not come to save World’s campaign to end hunger benighted—which is exactly how Hochs - the righteous but sinners—another by 2030. child’s subjects feel they are viewed by word, one might say, for deplorables. Inspired by the Lord’s Prayer, the larger culture and its elites. This More over, it is a category that includes this free pocket-sized resource sense of marginalization makes them us all. includes a prayer for each day of the week along with passages from scripture. You may order free copies of MISSINg AN ISSue? Daily Prayers for an End to Hunger at www.bread.org/store or call toll-free 800-822-7323

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37 Christian Century December 21, 2016 is no longer cool to make jokes about Youngblood has a meandering plot— gay people in the military. That favorite but what novel that depicts war doesn’t? Youngblood: A Novel millennial word awesome makes an In broad outline, it’s the first-person By Matt Gallagher appearance. Tanks now have iPod docks. account of Lieutenant Jack Porter, who is Simon & Schuster, 352 pp., $26.00 Americans based in Iraq use Skype to serving just as the United States is about keep in touch, and argue, with family to scale down its military footprint in War Is Beautiful: The New York back home. The narrator describes this Iraq. Porter must deal with a hardened Times Pictorial Guide to the scene at a military base: “Stumbling out and troublesome sergeant who is Glamour of Armed Conflict of the cybercafé, I passed a joe Skyping assigned to his platoon. He shares a lov- By David Shields with a khol-eyed goth lady holding a tod- ing but turbulent relationship with a war- powerHouse Books, 112 pp., $39.95 dler. The two adults were laughing hero brother who is now back in the together at the child’s burps.” United States facing his own scars and hat does a book thoroughly of its Any good war novel is part of a long lit- traumas from war. Wmoment look like? It looks a lot erary tradition that began with Homer and And he has the day-to-day worries of like Matt Gallagher’s war novel. continued in this country with Stephen an officer who tries his best to play by And what does the world of the Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Heller, the rules and work within the boundaries moment look like? Well, for one thing, Michael Herr, and Tim O’Brien. Gallagher set by the military and his own con- it’s shrinking. Iraq is now on the “edge of includes many of the well-known tropes of science. Porter, strikingly comfortable empire,” in this case, the American war literature: graphic depictions of battle; with ambiguity, hears out a commander empire. A suspected bomb on the road is characters pondering questions of honor, who reminds him that counterinsurgency “an unspooled cassette tape of Bon duty, and courage; absurd bureaucratic en - “is a complicated task. A thinking man’s Jovi’s ‘Slippery When Wet.’” A teenage tanglements; the realization (acute since war. Requires care, restraint. An appreci- Iraqi shepherd boy wears “a Guns N’ the Vietnam War) that missions that lead ation for the gray.” Porter responds: “Sir, Roses concert tee.” American soldiers to faraway lands are I am all about the gray.” Other realities of a changing and con- never as simple as civilian leaders say they Gallagher is a former U.S. Army tracting world are also on full display. It are. captain who has also written an acclaimed memoir based on his time in Iraq. The publisher states that Young - blood is “the only Iraq novel set entire- ly during the war’s contradictory, tenta- tive and unresolved final chapter,” and that this unique focus “truly distinguish- es Gallagher’s novel from those of his contemporaries.” Having read some of the other recent war literature penned by young Ameri - cans who have served in Iraq or Afghan - istan, I am not convinced that this is an important claim. If any of the war litera- ture being written now is read a hundred years from now—and I think there is a good chance it will be—I doubt that the Candler prepares real people to make a timeline of its setting will be crucial. real difference in the real world. What could distinguish Gallagher’s work, however, is the way in which it For more than a century, Candler School of Theology at Emory presents Iraqis and others who serve University has educated faithful and creative leaders for the church’s with the Americans or encounter them in ministries throughout the world. Explore how our 17 degree the strained context of “nation-building” programs can help you follow your call at candler.emory.edu. Priority admission deadlines for fall 2017: (which often involves handing over bun- dles of U.S. cash to local sheiks) as fully • January 15: Master of Divinity, Master of Theological Studies, formed, or nearly fully formed, charac- Atlanta, Georgia Master of Religious Leadership, Master of Religion and Public Life ters. Readers get to know several non- • February 15: Master of Theology American characters (like a young trans- • March 15: Doctor of Ministry Reviewed by Chris Herlinger, international corre- spondent for National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Report.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 38 lator named Qasim, nicknamed Snoop, Another thing Porter understands is A subtle religious consciousness is at who is originally from Sudan and plays that the unnamed American warriors work in the narrative. Porter and his an important role in Porter’s platoon) will not likely get much welcome or nemesis sergeant argue over St. better than many of the American “joes” regard upon their return home. “A pla- Augustine. Porter himself is the “mixed” under Porter’s charge. toon of infantrymen, young, silly, fierce product of a Catholic and Presbyterian Sometimes in war literature there is men from the country and the ghettos, marriage, a tension that arises during a an empathy gap in describing those who marching into the outposts of hell funeral service for a fallen soldier. Porter aren’t of your tribe, and Gallagher has because no one else would” will never observes: “The words ‘kingdom,’ ‘glory’ made major steps to close that gap. But get the recognition they deserve and and ‘power’ cut through the air with he never lets us forget that this is a war, only might “be lucky enough to work as Protestant severity. I wondered if [the that the Americans are occupiers, and Walmart greeters.” Catholic soldier’s] family would appreci- that from the Iraqi perspective the Americans will leave just as the Ottomans and the British did. In the end Iraqis and Americans don’t—and likely never will—fully C !"# A%&'!#(% understand each other. “Just as all Iraqis look the same to your eyes, all Americans look the same to ours,” an LIGHT WHEN IT COMES Iraqi tells Porter at one point. In turn, Trusting Joy, Facing Darkness & Seeing God in Everything Porter realizes that in his relations with Iraqis, a barrier exists based on culture !"#$!"% '( '")*+ %!(,# and language that can never be fully overcome: “He was still a them. I was still an us,” Porter reflects at one point. “No amount of chai could change that.” “A triune gift wrapped into Gallagher captures the awkwardness a whole: beautiful prose, of human encounter on both sides. A thriller-like subplot involving Porter’s pastoral experience, and (chaste) relationship with an Iraqi an authentic believing eye woman named Rana could have gone off turned to our world. This the rails in the wrong hands. Gallagher volume is a grace to be treats the relationship with just the right amount of ambiguity, sadness, respect, received with abundant and hope. thanks.” —Lawrence S. The book is also clearly of its moment Cunningham in the way Porter thinks about his coun- try. He is wise to the realities of the post- 9/11 United States. And in Iraq he is fully “Both a literary gem and aware of the problems posed by the a cup of blessing for all American occupation. Part nation build- who long to experience ing, part counterinsurgency, the United States occupation takes place in a coun- God’s presence.” try where ethnic divides sow confusion, —Paula Huston where Americans are used by locals for “side wars” to even old scores and start new ones. He also acknowledges the asymmetrical nature of war in a place like Iraq, where the all-powerful United isbn 978-0-8028-7399-6 • 181 pages • paperback • $16.99 States is tripped up by things like road- side bombings. Even to those caught up in the midst of it, the occupation is con- fusing and exasperating. “Corruption, I W!. B. E&'(!)*+ At your bookstore, thought, warm desert wind enveloping P-./0+10*2 C4. or call 800.253.7521 my face. Bribery. Gross waste of govern- 6531-A 2140 Oak Industrial Dr NE Grand Rapids MI 49505 www.eerdmans.com ment funds. Perhaps Iraq understands democracy after all,” Porter muses.

39 Christian Century December 21, 2016 ate a Cotton Belt Baptist’s supplication believe that the Times’ photos “glorified But his provocative argument comes at a for their son. It probably didn’t matter.” war through an unrelenting parade of time when the idea of the front page is At times the prose is overpolished beautiful images whose function is to itself something of an anachronism— and overburnished. But Gallagher is a sanctify the accompanying descriptions replaced by constant video streaming and gifted writer who gets most things right. of battle, death, destruction, and dis- images on our smartphones. He gives too Anyone who has experienced the deserts placement.” much power to the Times and its front of the Middle East will immediately Collecting many of these striking pages in a moment when traditional understand, even feel and smell, descrip- images into a volume that he calls a wit- media have become, like so much else in tions like this one: “The young day was ness “to a graveyard of horrendous society, loosened from their onetime insti- already overcooked and smelled of sand beauty,” Shields claims that the New tutional authority. and canal water.” York Times uses “its front-page war Longtime critics of the Times like photographs to convey that a chaotic Noam Chomsky have praised Shields’s he aesthetics of Gallagher’s prose world is ultimately under control, book. I find the ordering of photos into Tprompt an ethical question: Is an encased within amber. In doing so, the specific themes—Father, God, Pietà, aesthetic posture appropriate for war? paper of record promotes its institu- beauty, love, death—to be overly clever In reflecting on images, David Shields tional power as protector/curator of and mannered, pounding the thesis into does not think so. His strange, troubling, death-dealing democracy.” Arguing the ground. And from my journalist’s and useful photographic volume that all Americans are culpable for the eye, I regard most of the chilling photo- demonstrates how images undergird wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Shields graphs not as glorifications of war but as thinking about (and even support for) locates a collective psyche and memory the work of courageous humanistic wit- the post-9/11 U.S. wars. “inscribed in these photographs.” Be - nesses to the horrors of war in the tradi- A longtime reader of the New York hind “these sublime, destructive, illumi- tion of Goya and Robert Capa. Times, Shields found that his attraction nated images are hundreds of thou- This capacity for witness may be the to the newspaper’s front-page war pho- sands of unobserved, anonymous war strength of Shields’s work. Those who tos had become “a mixture of rapture, deaths.” wish to discuss war and peace with bafflement, and repulsion.” He came to Shields may well be right in some cases. depth, empathy, and concrete represen- tation could well use this book as a start- ing point for debate and reflection. But then again, they could also reach for their smartphones. Or they could pick up Gallagher’s novel. DOES YOUR LEADERSHIP GROUP KNOW HOW TO DISCERN THE WILL OF GOD TOGETHER4 ADVE

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Christian Century December 21, 2016 40 selves on the same side as a world war knowing he can be loyal to only one of looms. them: Here I Am: A Novel And it’s why the bat mitzvah sermon By Jonathan Safran Foer of Samanta, Sam’s computer-generated When God asks for Abraham, Abra ham Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 592 pp., $28.00 version of himself, might be read as a is wholly present for God. When Isaac hermeneutical key to the characters’ asks for Abraham, Abraham is wholly n a rare moment of vulnerability with deepest struggles. The assigned Torah por- present for his son. But how can that be Ihis teenage son Sam, Jacob describes tion for Samanta’s bat mitzvah includes possible? God is asking Abra ham to kill the time when his wife, Julia, corrected Genesis 22, and her d’var begins with Isaac, and Isaac is asking his father to him for singing the wrong lyric to a Abraham’s inner conflict as he answers protect him. How can Abra ham be two Nirvana song: “here I am” to both God and Isaac while directly opposing things at once?

“She pointed out that you were wrong?” “Yeah.” “That’s so Mom.” “I was grateful.” “But you were singing.” “Singing wrongly.” “Still. She should have let it go.” “No, she did the right thing.”

Jacob explains that the lyric, which he had always sung as “I can see from shame” was actually “aqua seafoam shame.” Sam responds with puzzlement: “What’s that even supposed to mean?” “It doesn’t mean anything,” Jacob replies. “That was my mistake. I thought it had to mean something.” What Jacob doesn’t tell Sam is that Julia’s correction of Jacob occurred while they were in bed together, naked and stoned, after promising each other to be fully honest and withhold nothing—a conversation that culminated for Julia in thrilling sexual gratification resulting solely from the exchange of words. But from that moment on, words began to fail, and the marriage began a slow decline. Words carry tremendous power. This is why Julia felt it necessary to correct “Here is quite the most beautiful writing on discipleship I know.” Jacob’s mistaken version of the lyric. It’s —JUSTIN WELBY why the novel begins with a rabbi threat- Archbishop of Canterbury ening to cancel Sam’s bar mitzvah after finding a list of explicit racial epithets on “Williams ushers us more deeply into our best discernment of the his desk at Hebrew school. It’s why Jacob and Julia’s marriage is undone by the dis- Christian life.” —WALTER BRUEGGEMANN covery of a secret cell phone filled with sexually explicit text messages. It’s why ISBN 978-0-8028-7432-0T•T96 PAGEST•TPAPERBACKT•T$10.00 the comments of world leaders following a catastrophic earthquake in Israel lead W!. B. E&'(!)*+ At your bookstore, to unlikely alliances—Kosovo, Pakistan, P-./0+10*2 C4. or call 800.253.7521 Sierra Leone, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, the 6572B 2140 Oak Industrial Dr NE Islamic State, and Hezbollah find them- Grand Rapids MI 49505 www.eerdmans.com

Reviewed by Elizabeth Palmer.

41 Christian Century December 21, 2016 In good Jewish exegetical tradition, right, it was completely and irretrievably any deeper meaning beyond the play of Samanta doesn’t attempt to answer wrong.” He blew it up in order to re- words on a page. (The scene where Jacob every question she raises. The meaning create it. fakes a cough in order to peek surrepti- of “here I am” is never fully reconciled— The line between real life and the tiously over the urinal divider in the air- either for Abraham in the biblical story virtual world may be fuzzy to a teenage port restroom where he finds himself or for the novel’s characters as they boy addicted to his iPad, but Sam is well standing next to Steven Spielberg is clas- struggle to be present with one another aware that real life doesn’t offer the sic Foer humor—“Coughing and turning across shifting loyalties. Yet, there’s chance to re-create what is broken. The one’s head had something to do with gen- power in the way Samanta names the fate of his great-grandfather unfolds itals. The logic wasn’t airtight, but it felt issues at stake: “My bat mitzvah portion slowly, although the Holocaust sur- right. Jacob coughed and snuck a peek”— is about many things, but I think it is pri- vivor’s dilemma is articulated in the as is the surprising discovery Jacob makes marily about who we are wholly there novel’s first sentence: “When the de - when he looks.) for, and how that, more than anything struction of Israel commenced, Isaac Humor and plot aside, the narrative else, defines our identity.” Bloch was weighing whether to kill him- hints at the ethical questions that face all The d’var ends with a scathing indict- self or move to the Jewish Home.” of us as we seek to be fully present to ment of Samanta’s family (which is, of Sam’s relationship with his parents is God and one another in a fragile world. course, Sam’s family) for all the ways damaged by their response to his they fail to be present to one another. alleged writing of racial epithets, but it’s far more damaged by the circumstances My great-grandfather, who I men- around the fracturing of their marriage tioned before, has asked for help. He (of which he is, unbeknownst to them, Reading and Writing Cancer: doesn’t want to go to the Jewish appallingly aware). How Words Heal Home. But nobody in the family has Sam’s real bar mitzvah speech is less By Susan Gubar responded by saying, “Here I am.” eloquent than his virtual one, but it too Norton, 240 pp., $26.95 Instead, they have tried to convince offers insight into the novel’s underlying him that he doesn’t know what is best. questions. He tells of a classroom discus- fter rejecting “on quirky, not ration- ... I was accused of having used some sion of Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” Aal, grounds” several alternative bad language in Hebrew school this speech in which a student asks, “Isn’t forms of treatment for the suffering that morning. When my parents showed up there another option besides those two? accompanies chemotherapy, Susan Gubar to speak with Rabbi Singer, they didn’t Like, to mostly be or mostly not be, that discovered the therapeutic potential of tell me, “Here we are.” They asked, is the question.” Sam continues, “And writing about her cancer. “At the worst “What did you do?” I wish I had been that got me thinking that also maybe one times,” she observes, “writing helps us given the benefit of the doubt. doesn’t have to exactly choose. ‘To be or remember” and can lead to “reconstitu- not to be. That is the question.’ To be and tion of the self.” Samanta ends her speech, warns her not to be. That is the answer.” The activity helps writers discover guests to leave the synagogue, and blows Does Sam’s answer express fatalistic meaning, clarify ideas, and keep track of it up. Not because she’s the virtual cre- resignation? Or is it hopeful? In either details. It can, at times, liberate and ation of an angry 13-year-old boy, but case, it describes what most of the char- empower cancer survivors by distancing because “he built the synagogue with the acters in the book are doing most of the them from the disease. Writing is as hope of feeling, finally, comfortable time. Among words wisely spoken and “uplifting and inspiring for me as medi- somewhere” and “if it wasn’t exactly mistakenly unspoken, in the space be - tation is for others: a way of steadying tween meaning and meaninglessness, as myself, gaining perspective, quieting anx- a marriage falls apart alongside an ieties, and shifting my attention from my SUBMISSIONS unfolding exaggerated crisis in the ailing body to words, to sentences, and If you would like to write an article for Middle East, the characters both are and (best of all) to the experiences of other the Century, please send a query to are not present to one another. It seems people.” that this is the best they can do, and there Gubar’s own writing led her to [email protected] or is some tenderness in their recognition of explore the work of other cancer sur- to Submissions, the Christian Cen- their limitations. vivors: accordingly, her book surveys a tury, 104 S. Michigan Ave., Suite Foer’s novel takes on a lot. It’s a por- wide range of voices, genres, and 1100, Chicago, IL 60603. Allow four trait of domestic life, a fanciful geopoliti- approaches. Gubar’s primary aim is to to six weeks for a response from our cal fable, a cautionary tale about intimacy encourage people with cancer to write, and estrangement, a comedic portrayal of and she offers practical advice for doing editors. We do not consider un - Jewish life, and a study in things falling solicited manuscripts for our regular apart. It’s well written enough that it Reviewed by Karen Saupe, who teaches English columns or book reviews. would be entertaining even if, like the literature and directs the Rhetoric Center at words of the Nirvana song, it didn’t have Calvin College.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 42 so. She also introduces readers to pub- canon of cancer art. She describes mem- lished works that “instruct us on the oirs (by, for example, Barbara Creaturo physical, mental, emotional, social, and of Cosmopolitan, author Reynolds Price, economic repercussions of various can- physician Edward Rosenbaum, actor BookMarks cers and treatments” in order to “discov- Evan Handler, and comedian Gilda er multiple ways to live with the disease.” Radner); works of fiction (by Tolstoy, The Word Detective: Her discussion of these works provides a Tillie Olsen, Lorrie Moore, and J. M. Searching for the Meaning powerful overview of the emotional and Coetzee); and hybrid works (including of It All at the Oxford ethical complexities of cancer and its David Small’s Stitches and Terry Tempest English Dictionary treatment. Williams’s Refuge). These works reveal By John Simpson Each individual’s experience of can- recurring themes: “fury at the medical Basic Books, 384 pp., $27.99 cer is unique and may shift from moment establishment,” personal fear, defiance, to moment. Gubar writes as a frustrated and the liberty to take risks. This fascinating memoir about the patient, then a passionate advocate, then She shares a “patchwork” poem she editing, updating, and online debut of a gentle teacher, then a rigorous scholar. has composed using lines from several the Oxford English Dictionary gives a She can be in turn angry, funny, compas- other poems. The resulting chorus of glimpse into what the author portrays sionate, or indignant. Some sections of voices and images reinforces the com- as a living, breathing book. John the book function as catalogues, with plexity of Gubar’s project and the expe- Simpson, who worked at the estimable reviews and close readings; others serve riences it seeks to honor. She includes dictionary for most of his adult life, as a guide for inexperienced writers. visual art and graphic novels (a series of intersperses the story of his own life and Gubar shares a few personal stories to paintings called Hollis Sigler’s Breast vocation with stories of words. Along invite familiarity, but she is primarily a Cancer Journal; David Jay’s photographs the way there’s drama, sadness, and a gracious host who introduces readers to in The SCAR Project, and Robert Pope’s good deal of dry humor. “The English other voices. She intentionally avoids paintings superimposing Christian are temperamentally obsessed with the creating an “advice manual” for coping iconography on images of bedridden presence or absence of apostrophes. It with cancer; she offers possibilities rather hospital patients). Gubar often juxtapos- remains for many people a divide than prescriptions. es radically different responses or inter- between civilization and chaos.” Simp - Her practical suggestions for over- pretations, but always with respect and son covers the history of words that are coming writing anxiety include a long list dignity. fraught with meaning in today’s world— of prompts to help generate ideas: Through her exploration of many of gay, disability, and sorry—as well as more “Remember the moment of diagnosis or these works, Gubar raises ethical and mundane terms like selfie, juggernaut, of telling a sibling about it”; “celebrate or social questions. Christian Wiman’s My and balderdash. castigate a doctor or nurse”; “In my most Bright Abyss is one of the few works in snarky mood, I attribute the cause of my which she explicitly identifies the role of disease to…”; “I am not yet ready to con- religious faith and doubt. She quotes Eucharistic Prayers front….”; She mentions her own experi- Wiman: “The god that comes at such By Samuel Wells and Abigail Kocher ment writing an “Obitchuary,” an obitu- moments may not be simple at all, arises Eerdmans, 365 pp., $40.00 ary with a second layer of candid com- out of and includes the very abyss that mentary about its content. man would flee.” Wiman’s faith, Gubar This book will be refreshing for those She celebrates the privacy of diaries observes, reflects his identification with who lead lectionary-based worship with and unsent letters but also addresses the crucifixion rather than the resurrec- Holy Communion and don’t feel bound issues that emerge when one writes for a tion. She explains that compassion is cru- to denominational resources. Samuel public audience. As a blogger for the cial to Wiman’s understanding of God Wells and Abigail Kocher offer eucharis- New York Times, Gubar has struggled and human relationships. tic prayers tied to the Revised Common with the “audience effect,” the tendency In fact, the greatest value in Gubar’s Lectionary texts for every Sunday in the to self-censor in anticipation of readers’ book may be its ability to invite compas- three-year cycle, as well as feast days and comments. Her chapter on blogging is sion. Cancer survivors will undoubtedly other occasions for communal worship perhaps the most self-revelatory section find affirmation here. Those experienc- like marriage and Martin Luther King Jr. of the book. ing cancer secondhand will encounter Day. Even worship leaders who don’t use If writing is therapeutic, so too is read- some of the questions, sufferings, com- full eucharistic prayers will find here ing. Gubar quotes C. S. Lewis: “We read plaints, and victories their loved ones evocative images of salvation history, to know we are not alone.” She asserts face. Individuals with no firsthand expe- like this one from the prayer for Advent that “reading the vibrant works of others rience of cancer may benefit the most as 4, Year A: “Fearless God, who came in a eases the anxiety of cancer and clarifies they begin to consider the complex range dream to Joseph, dream through us anew what we are going through individually.” of responses to pain, suffering, and treat- today. Speak into our places of fear. Gubar cites dozens of authors and ment. All of these readers will know that Transcend and transform all that keeps reveals a surprisingly rich emerging they are not alone. us from living your dream.”

43 Christian Century December 21, 2016 Wizards in New York

he first in a series of five promised ships between the characters with plenty against friendships between wizards films that will add to J. K. Rowling’s of room for development. and ordinary people. (The parallel with THarry Potter world, Fantastic Fear is brewing in the city as some- Prohibition, as with Puritanism, is just Beasts and Where to Find Them begins thing destructive and unexplainable beneath the surface.) When Tina learns with a game of hide and seek that grows wreaks havoc, and that fear is personified about Newt’s escaped creatures and his into an epic battle. Produced and written in Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Mor - camaraderie with the nonmagical Ko- by Rowling, the film is set in New York ton), the leader of the New Salem Philan - walski, the stage is set for the game of City during the Jazz Age, between the thropic Society. Her children’s names magical hide-and-seek to become some- great wars of the 20th century, and plays on evoke Puritan virtues; daughter Modesty thing more. themes familiar to Harry Potter fans: the sings a playground chant about killing Rowling has rightly diagnosed a fear of difference and the repression of witches. While there’s nothing explicitly world in which rising fear can lead to the free expression. religious in the film, the imagery and the demonization of others. But with its anti- When British magizoologist Newt language suggest that these new witch Puritan subtext, Rowling is in danger Scamander arrives in New York with a hunters are kin to religious zealots. They of giving us a simple plea for tolerance battered suitcase chockful of illegal mag- are Puritans reduced to the puritanical. with bad guys as repressive religious ical creatures, he accidentally switches Newt’s new friend Tina works for a characters. In her Harry Potter books, bags with a baker named Jacob Kowalski magical government agency, the Magical Rowling managed to intertwine a cosmic (Dan Fogler) and magical mayhem en - Congress of the United States of America, battle between good and evil with every- sues. Newt, played by Eddie Red mayne, which is anxious to keep the wizarding day human relationships. We can hope is an animal lover who wants to show his world secret. This concern for secrecy is that in the new series she’ll honor the fellow wizards the beauty of creatures the basis for draconian American laws complexity of American religious history they disdain. He leads the hunt for his against keeping magical creatures and and not simply create a parody of it.

missing creatures with a charge “to PHOTOJAAPBY 2016 BUITENDIJK.WARNER © BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.RESERVED. RIGHTS ALL recapture my creatures before they get hurt. They’re currently in alien terrain surrounded by millions of the most vicious creatures on the planet: humans.” Newt and friends chase down a nif- fler, a cute creature with an affection for shiny things that leads it to crash into a jewelry store. There’s a giant rhinoceros- like animal that glows because it is in heat and goes crashing through the zoo, and a brightly colored, winged snake that expands and contracts. The creatures and their magical exploits represent the best of what computers can do with special effects—all the creatures are attractive in their own fantastic right. But these are not effects for their own sake; they serve the plot and the charac- ters. Rowling has shown that she can craft a beginning for a story that will lead to layers of depth and create relation-

The author is Beth Felker Jones, who teaches the- MAGIC IN AMERICA: Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) carries a suitcase of ology at Wheaton College. phantasmagoric creatures.

Christian Century December 21, 2016 44 notes from the by Philip Jenkins *GLOBAL CHURCH

he election of Sadiq Khan as mayor of Jakarta’s Christian governor TLon don created a sen- sation. A faithful Muslim and Subsequently, conditions mate of a Muslim leader, Joko would be sinful, and false the son of humble Pakistani have improved enormously, or Widodo, for the governorship rumors even charged that immigrants, Khan received rather, reverted to traditional of Jakarta. When “Jokowi” Jokowi himself was a crypto- the support of a great many norms of tolerance. Although became Indonesia’s president Christian. non-Muslim voters, making Christians must be very cau- in 2014, his Christian deputy Moderate Muslim groups his election a landmark in tious about any attempts at succeeded him in Jakarta. like NU rejected such agita- European ethnic and reli- evan gelism, congregations wor- The religious element may tion, urging that candidates gious history. It is quite possi- ship openly, and Indonesia is seem surprising. Under Dutch should be judged by their ble that he might in the future now home to some spectacular colonial rule, the lands that honesty and competence rise to national leadership. megachurches. became Indonesia were criti- rather than religion. Ulti - Commentators on the The most encouraging cal to Islamic religious and mately, even the firebrand mayoral election often sug- man i festation of improved cultural revival worldwide, leader of FPI made the re - gested that such interfaith attitudes is Basuki Tjahaja and the country became home markable concession that “if tolerance would never be Purnama, who is commonly to some very large mass a non-Muslim leader is elect- manifested in Islamic coun- known by his Chinese nick- movements. The Nadh latul ed [democratically] then I tries. But such pessimists are name, Ahok. Since 2014, Ulama (NU) claims an aston- will respect and support that wrong. Ahok has been governor of ishing 40 million members, as long as the leader is The world’s largest Islam ic the nation’s capital, Jakarta, a and another group, the Mu - respectful, polite, honest, and nation is Indonesia, where city with a population of 10 ham madiyah, has a 30 million. is willing to defend the peo- Muslims represent a large million, with some 30 million These very powerful groups ple.” By common consent, majority of a population of in the larger metropolitan are socially conservative and Ahok has been a successful some 250 million. Christians region. deeply involved in politics, and popular governor who make up about 10 percent of As his name suggests, but they are utterly different has struggled heroically to that number, and relations Ahok is of Chinese origin, from the intolerant Muslim solve Jakarta’s overwhelming between the two faiths have and his father came from organizations so often found problems. on occasion been rocky. Guangzhou. Like many Indo - in the Middle East. Such views have faced Matters reached their worst in nesian Chinese, this very For many years, NU’s severe stress recently. Extrem - the late 1990s, a time of eco- powerful leader in a mainly president was Abdurrahman ists claim to have found evi- nomic crisis and the collapse Is lamic society is also a Prot - Wa hid, who also served as the dence of Ahok uttering anti- of the long-standing military es tant, whose wife bears the president of Indonesia, and Islamic sentiments, provoking dictatorship. During the distinctively Christian name who was genuinely devoted mass dem on strations. Hard - chaos, Christian minorities in of Veronica. to pluralism, religious toler- line Islamist groups are mobi- regions like Sulawesi were Ahok began his career as a ance, and interfaith dialogue. lizing to challenge Ahok in the subjected to ethnic cleansing mining engineer. He entered Wahid was an early supporter 2017 gubernatorial elections, and Chinese Chris tians in politics in 2005 and earned a of Ahok and actively cam- albeit through proper demo- major cities were targeted for reputation for his legendary paigned for him in his early cratic activism. violence and mass rape. intolerance of corruption. elections. Despite these pro tests, the In large part, these crimes YouTube viewers particularly Such attitudes proved crit- fact that Ahok has the posi- resulted from economic griev- relished a bracing film of him ical in 2014, when Islamic fun- tion he does is a remarkable ances—Chinese merchants were denouncing venal civil ser- damentalists bitterly opposed tribute to religious attitudes in targeted as scape goats. Active vants in language not often the prospect of a Christian Indonesia. All in all, the Islamist terror movements heard in polite Javanese soci- ruling over Muslims. The Christian governor of Jakarta also appeared, with ties to al- ety. He is variously described Islamic Defenders Front would find some interesting Qaeda. For some years, Indo - as tough, combative, and (FPI) warned Muslims that things to chat about with the nesia seemed to epitomize downright rude and is not voting for Basuki Purnama Muslim mayor of London. Muslim-Christian tensions at known to suffer fools. In 2012, their most alarming. Ahok became the running Philip Jenkins’s Notes from the Global Church appears in every other issue.

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Christian Century December 21, 2016 46 Angel of Undevastation (top) and Black (bottom), by Paul Solovyev (aka 0x17)

oscow artist Paul Solovyev, or 0x17, creates art that intentionally throws viewers off Mbalance. His works turn the familiar inside out as the artist considers the nature of belief and the objects used to symbolize belief. “Is it possible,” Solovyev asks, “to repeat the phrase ‘God is not thrown down’ . . . in the language of contemporary art and not sink into the territory of didac- tics and platitude, and make a noncritical, unbiased and positive statement?” Solovyev wrestles with such questions in painting, sculpture, and installations, suggesting that the most important questions are best answered by art itself, as in Black, a burned rye loaf that spills out fire.

Art selection and comment by Lil Copan, a painter and editor.

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