“God, in the Midst of our Pain”

A Review of Being Well When We’re Ill,
by Marva Dawn.

By Jenny Price.

Being Well When We’re Ill:
Wholeness and Hope in Spite of our Infirmities.
Marva Dawn.
Paperback. Augsburg Books. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $12 ]  [ Amazon ]

           

Although Marva Dawn has written numerous books, her new book Being Well When We’re Ill is truly a deep find.  Indeed, Dawn argues that being well in the face of chronic illness is about finds as well as losses.  Her primary task in this book is to provide an in-depth look at the question of how we can remain well in Christ while we struggle with physical pain.  Even though Dawn looks mostly at coping with physical affliction and not necessarily the pain of mental illness, she examines many sides of chronic illness, reaching for wholeness and not just pat answers for those who struggling.

            The most captivating part of this book, however, is that Dawn uses her own personal illnesses and pains as examples throughout the book – her own struggles with chronic illness include diabetes, a kidney transplant, partial blindness and several more infirmities.  She humbly describes her own sufferings, and when you think nothing worse could befall her, it does.  Even in the epilogue of her book, Dawn shares another recent struggle with physical pain, in which she herself finds encouragement in the chapters of this manuscript.

            This is not a “self help” book for those coping with chronic illness, but is an offering of hope that we can be well when we are ill. (which, as Dawn emphasizes, does not necessarily mean “feeling well or doing well”.)  Her case for being well is built on the teaching of scripture, particularly the Psalms, which she uses repeatedly to show where our hope lies.  In each chapter, as she reflects on scripture, she encourages the reader to memorize and meditate on scripture and the liturgical prayers of the Church.  Her own stories of these practices offer immediate comfort through Christ to an audience that may be struggling with chronic illness or have a friend/family member who is.         

Dawn stresses that for the follower of Christ, illness cannot, and should not, be borne in isolation.  This call for community is vital for both for the person in illness (as a reminder to seek out relationships with others) and for those who are not ill (as a reminder to look after those who are ill and not let them lapse into isolation).  She speaks frankly of the downward spiral that can occur when one is chronically ill – addressing the feelings of abandonment from God that we often feel and showing ways to overcome that spiral.  She directs us to search for truth and not just emotional solace.  She also looks at the bad theology, often thrust upon people with illness, that maintains such illness is direct punishment for their sin or the sin of another.  She counteracts with John 9:3, in which Jesus responds to his disciples’ inquiry about the man born blind, saying: “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him” (NASB).  Jesus’ response here is a key element throughout this book; the primary issue in illness is not about who is to blame, but rather about what God might reveal through this affliction.  Following the teachings of scripture, she encourages us to lament our illness for as long as is necessary. She also encourages us not to thank God for our handicaps, but to rejoice and be grateful that God is in the midst of them.  The different kinds of isolation one feels in chronic illness can be overwhelming, which serves as a reminder that we all need to be in community with other believers.  In one chapter, Dawn also examines the scriptural witness about physical pain and discovers that there are only a handful of times when the word for physical pain is used.  Even in the descriptions of Jesus’ crucifixion, his torment is described in language that emphasizes his spiritual and mental anguish, rather than his physical pain.  The focus in that hour, as Dawn notes, is on the Gospel, not on his feeling of pain.  

          Another struggle that we might have as we face chronic illness is the loss of productivity, but Dawn found no scriptures that say anything about our inability to serve God while our illness encumbers us.  In our society, we find that the need to be productive outweighs many of our other needs, but Dawn sheds light on the fact that there is no truth in our fears about being productive. 

          In Being Well, Marva Dawn gives a thorough examination of many facets of chronic illness.  Her writing flows honestly, compassionately and transparently out of her own life and struggles with chronic illnesses.  She offers hope and clear insight into the challenge of being well when we’re ill.  It is a book for all who suffer personally, as well as for any believer who serves others in illness.           

The bread-n-butter of our bookstore business is the sale of used books, and we do a fair amount of scouting around for used books each week. In this section we feature some of the interesting books that we have found in the past week. Generally, we will only have a single copy of these books, so if you want one (or more) of them, you’ll need to respond quickly.

 

Be Not Afraid. 
Jean Vanier.  Paperback.  Paulist Press. 1975.
Very Good Condition. Clean pages, minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $7]

 

The Nonviolent Coming of God.
James Douglass.
Paperback. Orbis Books. 1991 Printing.
Very Good Condition. Clean pages, minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $8 ]

 

The Different Drum:
Community Making and Peace.
M. Scott Peck.
Hardcover. Simon and Schuster. 1987.
Very Good Condition. Clean pages, minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $3 ]

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

   It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

   It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

   And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with

     toil;

   And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell:

     the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

   There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

   Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

   World broods with warm breast and with ah!

     bright wings.

A Brief Review of Ron Hansen’s novel
Exiles
by Chris Smith

Ron Hansen’s Exiles is a superbly written novel, one of the best that I have read in a long time; although frankly I’m pretty picky about the novels I read and don’t actually read that many.  The storyline of this novel follows the life of the nineteenth century Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, as he is inspired by the story of the sinking of a German oceanliner (and particularly that of five nuns on board) to give up his self-imposed “exile” from writing poetry and to pen the epic poem “The Wreck of the Deutschland.”  Having long been intrigued by monastic cultures, I was enthralled by Hansen’s earthy depictions of life in both the German convent and in Hopkins‘ monastery.

            From everything I’ve read about Hopkins’ story, Hansen diligently strives here for historical accuracy.  The one exception is his anachronistic telling of the nuns’ story, which he elongates in order to culminate their story in parallel with Hopkins‘ death.  This device works well as it emphasizes the parallels between Hopkins and the German nuns both meeting their deaths as exiles in foreign lands.  The obedience of these monastics even unto death is inspiring.

            My one disappointment with this novel, and it is a significant one, is that Hansen could have developed Hopkins‘ internal struggles over writing (or not writing) much more than he did.  Once I heard about the storyline that Exiles covered, I waited in eager anticipation for the psychological drama of Hopkins‘ wrestling with his vocation, but Hansen’s treatment was anticlimactic and I almost sped through the part of the story about Hopkins‘ decision to pick up the pen again without realizing what had happened.

Despite my disappointment on this point, Exiles is well worth your time as a significant story from both literary history and church history.

 

Ron Hansen.
Exiles.
Hardcover. FSG. 2008.
Buy Now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $18 ] [ Amazon ]

John Roth’s Essay “Polls Apart” from
Electing Not to Vote is featured in Catapult magazine.

http://www.catapultmagazine.com/election/feature/polls-apart

“… Not surprisingly, the chasm dividing our country—along with the simmering tensions evident in offhand comments, eye-catching billboards, or partisan bumper stickers—became increasingly visible in our congregations as well. For the past two years I had been traveling widely in the Mennonite church, visiting dozens of congregations, staying in homes, talking with young people and engaging in conversations with all kinds of people on topics related to “the gospel of peace.” The impressions I gleaned during that period—which happened to coincide with the long presidential campaign—are admittedly anecdotal; but in most of the congregations, I found people keenly aware of national politics and deeply interested in making a link between their Christian convictions and the outcome of the elections. At the same time, however, the nature of the conversation in most Mennonite churches seemed to reflect the tone and substance of the political discourse that was dividing the nation as a whole.

Now the fact of diversity within the Anabaptist family of churches regarding political engagement is not a new thing. The sixteenth-century Anabaptists were far from unified in regard to their understanding of the sword or how Christians should relate to government; and those in the believers church tradition* have held a wide variety of positions on voting, political activism and office-holding. There is no well-established believers church “orthodoxy” on these questions. Indeed, it should be clear from the outset that the argument I wish to make regarding conscientious abstention from voting should not be understood as a standard of Christian integrity or faithfulness to Anabaptist principles. To be sure, our general commitment to pacifism and the voluntary church have always raised questions about the limits of our allegiance to the state; nonetheless, our traditions have also been characterized by a spectrum of political attitudes, ranging from vigorous engagement to a strict separatism.

What seemed new in the fall of 2004, however, was not the mere fact of diverse political attitudes but rather the growing “fundamentalism” evident among both the Christian Left and the Christian Right within our congregations, along with the sense that political involvement has now become a Christian imperative. I think we would all agree that the issues facing our country—issues of poverty and health care, housing, care for children and the unborn, security, relations with other countries—are all moral issues about which Christians might have something distinctive to say. But as I traveled in various Mennonite congregations, it became increasingly clear that the nature of the conversation about values and moral choices has been almost completely co-opted by the polarized rhetoric of the media: radio talk show hosts, direct mail campaigns, polemical ads and bloggers. In short, our congregations do not seem to be ready or able to engage the substantive questions of this presidential election in a framework other than that of the Red/Blue divide in our national culture.  …”

Read the full essay:
http://www.catapultmagazine.com/election/feature/polls-apart

Electing Not to Vote:
Christian Reflections on Reasons for Not Voting.
Ted Lewis, Editor.
Paperback. Cascade Books. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $15 ]

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Books and Culture reviews
Original Sin: A Cultural History
by Alan Jacobs.http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/004/10.36.html 

“It’s a funny thing when an idea becomes at once singularly despised and surprisingly fascinating, simultaneously passé and sexy. Take the doctrine of original sin—that complex of theological and biological commitments developed and coordinated to make sense of our sense (and Scripture’s) that we are dead ends, all of us. One wonders, though, whether it is our sense these days. Fifty years ago, evangelistic tracts did their Lutheran thing to great effect: Law, then Gospel. Evangelists established points of contact by reminding listeners that they were all sinners—who could deny it?—then moved from problem to solution and invitation. And it worked, more or less.

But things are different now. The contemporary American landscape features a striking coincidence of blatant brokenness and robust self-esteem. We know we’re broke, but we don’t think we need any fixin’. In fact, we resent the suggestion. We chafe at the occasional attempt to rehabilitate notions of innate sinfulness as world-denying, repressive, and death-dealing.

Whence, then, the recent rash of books on sin? We might expect that from academic monographs. After all, sin used to matter. Its historical fascination is patent, not least because we delight in figuring out what was wrong with our parents. But a series of wryly written and deftly marketed books on the seven deadly sins, selling for $9.95 a pop? I suspect that sin’s reemergence into the limelight is directly, if inversely, related to its perceived claim on our lives. Now that we can breezily laugh it off, sin has become interesting (if only quaintly so).  … “

Read the full review:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/004/10.36.html 

Original Sin: A Cultural History.
Alan Jacobs.
Hardcover. HarperOne. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $20 ] [ Amazon ]

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The Sustainablog reviews Keith Farnish’s
e-book A Matter of Scale.

Review: http://sustainablog.org/2008/07/27/layers-of-ecology-book-
review-for-a-matter-of-scale-by-keith-farnish/
E-book: http://www.amatterofscale.com/

“I can only imagine that Keith Farnish’s comprehensive A Matter of Scale was a similar labor of love.  One can sense the author’s own expressive burst in the feverish love with which he forms his ideas.

A Matter of Scale is an e-Book only; not yet a typical “print” book.  This could be for a number of reasons.  It could be the author’s environmental concerns of tree-felling for books.  Then, it could be the crux of his whole philosophy of taking personal responsibility for the actions affecting our global ecosystem.  But one thing is certain–A Matter of Scale is unpublished certainly NOT due to its lack of quality insight and urgent information.  For its own modest scale and scope, it packs a wallop.

A Matter of Scale is a powerful read.  Farnish is a long-time environmental writer, and his experience shows.  Farnish implores us to expand our narrow perspectives about what’s going on with our planet by examining issues that often slip by the naked eye: issues of scale.   …”

Read the full review:
Review: http://sustainablog.org/2008/07/27/layers-of-ecology-book-
review-for-a-matter-of-scale-by-keith-farnish/
E-book: http://www.amatterofscale.com/

Keith Farnish.  A Matter of Scale.
(A Free E-book.)
http://www.amatterofscale.com/

The Justice Kitchen Tour
(Jason and Brooke Evans)

will be coming to Englewood Christian Church
Wednesday August 13

Dinner (Local food with vegan option) starts at 5:45PM

Conversation at 7PM

Suggested donation:
$5 Adults / $2 Children (10& under) 

Please RSVP via Facebook or phone (317.639.1541)
on or before Sunday Aug. 10
so that we know how much food we should prepare…

A flyer (in PDF format) is now available here:
http://www.englewoodcc.com/JK-Flyer.pdf
Feel free to distribute this flyer in print or electronically.

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Registration is now open for the

Godspeed the Plough! conference

http://englewoodcc.com/plough/

 

Nov 7-8

Indianapolis

 

Keynote speaker:

Ragan Sutterfield (Blog here)

 

BONUS: The 1st 100 paid registrations will receive
a free copy of Ragan’s booklet “God’s Grandeur”

FACEBOOK USERS: There is now a Facebook event announcement.

I have an article in the current issue of Next-Wave, an e-zine read widely by emerging and missional church folks, on doing theology in the local church and the role that we hope The Englewood Review will play in that process. I hope that it will provide you with a sense of what the ERB is about.

Books, Ecclesial Conversation and the Mission of God
By Christopher Smith

[ Read the full article … ]

At a conference earlier this week, I had the opportunity to sit in on a workshop where several noted theologians and Christian activists carried on a frank discussion about the embodiment of our faith in urban places. To summarize a long conversation, the theologians were worried that the activists were acting without serious theological reflection and the activists were worried that theologians were disconnected from the urban settings in which they were carrying on the mission of God. This dilemma, of course, rears its head in various forms throughout contemporary (and historical) Christianity, including the emerging church conversation. It seems to me that, with some intentionality, we can begin to mediate this dilemma in our local congregations. Specifically, there are two related practices that I believe can launch us in this direction: individual reading and reflection, and a corporate conversation that combines reflection and discernment.

Of all the varieties of Christians with whom I have interacted, there are few that read as much as those in emerging churches. Additionally, emerging churches usually have a fairly strong sense of their participation in the mission of God, and individuals invested in this emerging conversation typically connect the reading they are doing with the Mission on which they have been called. So, there is no need for me to elaborate here on the value of individual reading and reflection, other than to note that this practice is not just for pastors/leaders but should be encouraged as broadly as possible among the members of our churches. If only a few members of the church are reading and reflecting, then we seriously diminish the potential of the second practice: corporate conversation.

[ Read the full article … ]

“Knowing the Creator
in the Creation”

A Review of The Holy Earth,
by Liberty Hyde Bailey.

By Brent Aldrich.

The Holy Earth.
LH Bailey.
Foreword by Ragan Sutterfield.
Paperback. Doulos Christou Press. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $12 ] 
In 1915, Liberty Hyde Bailey’s book The Holy Earth was first published as part of his series of “Background Books.” Bailey, a botanist and horticulturist, wrote this series as a call for the care of the earth as a holy and divine creation, a responsible and cooperative participation with the earth via agriculture and a concern for the increasing separation between people and the land, the backgrounds, as he names them. This book, then, makes the argument for local culture to use local nature as its measure: “the creation…is the norm.” Using nature as measure, though, the land and all its inhabitants must be understood as parts of a creation, so that “[the farmer] must handle all his materials, remembering man and remembering God. A man cannot be a good farmer unless he is a religious man.” 

                   This is a religion grounded and made manifest in the particularities of a place, which is practiced by the stewardship of the land and the peaceful relationships within the community. “If God created the earth, so is the earth hallowed; and if it is hallowed, so must we deal with it devotedly and with care that we do not despoil it, and mindful of our relations to all beings that live on it…To live in sincere relations with the company of created things and with conscious regard for the support of all men now and yet to come, must be of the essence of righteousness.”                   

           Overwhelmingly with this book, I am reminded of many of Wendell Berry’s essays, both in the large concepts, as well as many particulars, including saving land for wildness, an argument for diversified agriculture and the adaptation of culture to a place. This shared theme has been expressed by Berry, particularly in his essay “A Practical Harmony,” in which he traces back further to Virgil, and to Job, the “view of things [that] holds that we can live only in and from nature, and that we have, therefore, an inescapable obligation to be nature’s stewards and to live in harmony with her” (Berry, “A Practical Harmony” in What Are People For?). For Bailey (as for Berry), this means that “we shall find our rootage in the soil.”

          This rooting begins with the background spaces, “the large environments in which we live but which we do not make…the facts and situations that stand at our backs, to which we adjust our civilization, and by which we measure ourselves.” As the creation becomes the measure, all human acts must exist in accord to it. Bailey elaborates throughout the book on three practices that are in need of correction to be a “practical harmony”: agriculture, division of property and war.           

          Agriculture is given the most attention in this book; it is helpful to consider the rise of industrialized agriculture in Bailey’s day, and compare this to our present time. His warnings of “foods transported from the ends of the earth, and compounded by impersonal devices and condensed into packages that go into every house alike” have much the same tone as Michael Pollan, writing today about the similar need for unadulterated, natural food.

           A theme throughout The Holy Earth is the distance and the disconnect between a people and the land, people and food, people and materials, “and so we all live mechanically, from shop to table, without contact, and irreverently.” Bailey writes against the mediated experience, the irreverent and dispassionate life, not only in agriculture, but in the dividing of land and properties; of maps that ignore the particularities of place and other people, dividing the land into a grid despite rivers and hills; occupations and property that are based in selfishness.

          There is also this same concern in relation to the military, and to war. The Holy Earth was written at the beginning of World War I, and Bailey makes clear the connection of military destruction of people and land to the economic model that posits unlimited growth and resources. This underlying violence informs much of the abuse of the earth: “The organized destructiveness of those who would make military domination the major premise in the constitution of society, accompanying desolation with viciousness and violence, ravaging the holy earth, disrespecting the works of the creator, looking toward extirpation, confessing thereby that they do not know how to live in cooperation with their fellows…” Similarly, Bailey argues, in the diversity of life on earth, there is no example of this wholesale destruction; rather, the model found in nature is one of adaptation and interdependence, protecting the weak: “the very earth breathes peace.” 

          The Holy Earth is nearly a century old, although its words are just as fitting for the place we find ourselves in at the present; what can be depressing in reading it is how little we seem to have progressed since the first publication of the book. What is extremely hopeful, though, is to discover another person, decades ago, who was able to see the need to reclaim creation (nature) as the measure for our human culture, just as many of us have recognized this need in the present; again we are reminded that what we are doing is nothing new, it is just continued faithfulness, daily, to the call of inhabiting the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Remembering also, with Liberty Hyde Bailey, that “the final control of human welfare will not be governmental or military, and we shall some day learn that it will not be economic as we now prevailingly use the word…we shall know the creator in the creation.” Our hope is that we would learn to see – and to participate within – the kingdom of God already at work and revealed in the creation around us, and to adapt our culture to it.

The bread-n-butter of our bookstore business is the sale of used books, and we do a fair amount of scouting around for used books each week. In this section we feature some of the interesting books that we have found in the past week. Generally, we will only have a single copy of these books, so if you want one (or more) of them, you’ll need to respond quickly.

 

The Great Starvation Experiment: 
The Heroic Men Who Starved So That Millions Could Live.
Todd Tucker.  Hardcover.  Free Press. 2007.
Very Good Condition. Clean pages, minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $8]

 

Highlights of Christian Mission:
A History and Survey.
Harold Cook.
Hardcover. Moody Press. 1971 Printing.
Very Good Condition. Clean pages, minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $7 ]

 

Religious Ethics and Pastoral Care.
Don Browning.
Paperback. Fortress Press. 1983.
Good Condition. Mostly clean pages, minimal/moderate wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $3 ]

In this issue, we will begin a new section of the ERB, a weekly poem.

Today’s poem is from a long-lost volume of poetry by Liberty Hyde Bailey (for more on Bailey, see the featured review in this issue.)

Country Church

In some great day
The country church
Will find its voice And it will say:I stand in the fields
Where the wide earth yields
Her bounties of fruit and of grain,
Where the furrows turn
Till the plowshares burn
As they come round and round again;
Where the workers pray
With their tools all day
In the sunshine and shadow and rain.And I bid them tell
Of the crops they sell
And speak of the work they have done;
I speed ev’ry man
In his hope and plan
And follow his day with the sun;
And grasses and trees
The birds and the bees
I know and I feel ev’ry one.

And out of it all
As the seasons fall
I build my great temple alway;
I point to the skies,
But my footstone lies
In commonplace work of the day;
For I preach the worth
Of the native earth, –
To love and to work is to pray.

(from LH Bailey Wind and Weather, orginally published 1916,
reprint forthcoming Oct. 2008 from Doulos Christou Press).