Theology Today volume 67, N u m b e r 2 j u l y 2 0 1 0 EDITORIAL Christmas in July 123 JAMES F. KAY ARTICLES American Scriptures 127 C. CLIFTON BLACK Christian Spirituality in a Time of Ecological Awareness 169 KATHLEEN FISCHER The “New Monasticism” as Ancient-Future Belonging 182 PHILIP HARROLD Sexuality as Sacrament: An Evangelical Reads Andrew Greeley 194 ANTHONY L. BLAIR THEOLOGICAL TABLE TALK The Difference Calvin Made 205 R. BRUCE DOUGLASS CRITIC’S CORNER Thinking beyond Easy Tribalism 216 WALTER BRUEGGEMANN BOOK REVIEWS The Ten Commandments, by Patrick Miller 220 STANLEY HAUERWAS An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts, by D. C. Parker 224 SHANE BERG TT-67-2-pages.indb 1 4/21/10 12:45 PM Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ by Thomas F. Torrance, edited by Robert T. Walker 225 PAUL D. MOLNAR Religion after Postmodernism: Retheorizing Myth and Literature by Victor E. Taylor 231 TOM BEAUDOIN Practical Theology: An Introduction, by Richard R. Osmer 234 JOYCE ANN MERCER Boundless Faith: The Global Outreach of American Churches by Robert Wuthnow 241 RICHARD FOX YOUNG The Hand and the Road: The Life and Times of John A. Mackay by John Mackay Metzger 244 JOHN H. SINCLAIR The Child in the Bible, Marcia J. Bunge, general editor; Terence E. Fretheim and Beverly Roberts Gaventa, coeditors 248 KAREN-MARIE YUST TT-67-2-pages.indb 2 4/21/10 12:45 PM James F. Kay, Editor Gordon S. Mikoski, Reviews Editor Blair D. Bertrand, Editorial Assistant EDITORIAL COUNCIL Iain R. Torrance, Chair Abdullahi A. An-Na'im Ulrich H. J. Körtner Emory University University of Vienna Atlanta, Georgia Austria H. Russel Botman Otto Maduro Stellenbosch University Drew University South Africa Madison, New Jersey J. Kameron Carter Nancey Murphy Duke University Fuller Theological Seminary Durham, North Carolina Pasadena, California William T. Cavanaugh Mark Noll The University of St Thomas University of Notre Dame St. Paul, Minnesota Notre Dame, Indiana John Chryssavgis Peter Ochs Boston, Massachusetts University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia Sarah Coakley Cambridge University Amy Plantinga Pauw England Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky Craig R. Dykstra Lilly Endowment Inc. R. Kendall Soulen Indianapolis, Indiana Wesley Theological Seminary Washington, D.C. Wendy Farley Jeffrey Stout Emory University Princeton University Atlanta, Georgia Princeton, New Jersey David Fergusson Cornel West University of Edinburgh Princeton University Scotland Princeton, New Jersey Mary McClintock Fulkerson John D. Witvliet Duke University Calvin College and Seminary Durham, North Carolina Grand Rapids, Michigan Carver T. Yu China Graduate School of Theology Hong Kong http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu TT-67-2-pages.indb 3 4/21/10 12:45 PM © 2010 Theology Today ISSN 0040-5736 Theology Today is published quarterly (April, July, October, and January) by Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, and Westminster John Knox Press in Louisville, Kentucky. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Theology Today, P.O. Box 821, Princeton, NJ 08542-0803. Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by permission. 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The articles in Theology Today are listed in: Religion Index One: Periodicals, American Theological Library Association, available on line through BRS and DIALOG; Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature; New Testament Abstracts; Religious and Theological Abstracts; Subject Index to Select Periodical Literature; Book Reviews of the Month; Current Contents/Arts & Humanities; Arts and Humanities Citation Index; Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur aus allen Gebieten des Wissens; and Humanities International Complete. Microtext reprints are available through the American Theological Library Association (ATLA). Cover art: “Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and Capitol Building Illuminated at Night in Washington DC” © Stock Connection/SuperStock TT-67-2-pages.indb 4 4/21/10 12:45 PM volume 67 (2010): 123–126 Theology Today editorial Christmas in july JAMES F. KAY Some months removed from two holiday rites of American civil religion, namely, the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular and the Park Ave- nue Christmas Tree Lighting and Carol Sing, I am still thinking about what I experienced at these two events in New York. The ghost of Christmas past still haunts me in July. Residing in the New York metropolitan area does not put those of us who live there beyond the occasional need to play the tourist in our own Big Apple. So when a friend suggested we attend the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, I welcomed the opportunity. I had seen the show only once before—some thirty years ago—and it seemed like a good way to begin the holiday season. Radio City Music Hall, part of the Rockefeller Center complex, is a cav- ernous and opulent theatre seating nearly 6,000 people, a vintage Art Deco masterpiece that opened in 1932. It is furnished with a twin-console “Mighty Wurlitzer” organ of 4,400 pipes, boasts a full orchestra, and features the famous Rockettes with their high-kick dance line. The annual Christmas Spectacular is not as pricey as Broadway, and many working parents can still afford to come to it with their children and flash cameras in tow. The program is an amalgam of pop-culture Christmas scenes: a high-tech animation sequence that gives the audience, bedecked in 3-D eyeglasses, the exhilarating sensation of flying with Santa Claus over the streets of Manhattan; the incredibly synchronized dancing of the Rockettes; a sampling from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker; and a procession of live sheep and camels moving on stage silently and deliberately to Bethlehem. The show builds to a climactic “living nativity” as majestically garbed wise men bow before the Holy Family and offer their gifts to the Christ child. Then the entire audience joins the cast in singing “Joy to the World.” It’s all here American style: a ninety-minute celebration seamlessly combining holiday chutzpuh, sexy chorus girls, Santa Claus, and the infant Savior in a nostalgic setting 123 TT-67-2-pages.indb 123 4/21/10 12:45 PM 124 james F. Kay Theology Today recalling a bygone era when attending a show at Radio City was an extra- ordinary event. Christ and culture, indeed! Amid all the kitsch, there was a brief interlude in which child actors per- formed in an onstage living room. The children actually read, in the words of the program notes, “the beautiful and inspiring story of the first Christmas” in “scripture,” taken from the King James Bible, and including both the Matthean and Lucan accounts: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem” (Luke 2:8ff.; Matt 2:1ff.) In this way thousands of people once again heard the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ, read with an intentionality and purpose that would instruct many a church lector. I am impressed that the Gospels still get read in public in a set- ting free of clerical control or trappings. Perhaps, in this way, scandalous to be sure, some of today’s “shepherds” still “have the good news preached to them,” not to mention those who might still pass these days for “wise men.” Now picture standing with me on the first Sunday night of last December for the 65th Annual Park Avenue Christmas Tree Lighting and Carol Sing. To get there, you have to make your way on foot up Manhattan’s Park Avenue toward 91st Street, through the police lines, and toward the steps of the Brick Presby- terian Church. There a children’s choir is assembled outdoors close to a nearby organ.