“Our complicity in the age
of ‘Cheap’ Oil and Hypermobility”

A Review of

Interstate 69:
The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway.
By Matt Dellinger.

Reviewed by Brent Aldrich.

Interstate 69:
The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway.
By Matt Dellinger.
Hardback: Scribner, 2010.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]

Driving back home to Indianapolis from Evansville one night last year, a city in the southwestern most tip of the state, which I’ve only been through this once, I pulled out my Indiana road map to figure out how to get home. It was late, and so I started along the route that looked quickest – not a common choice for me, but there I was. And after just a couple of miles, signs began to appear to tell me that the Interstate was ending. I checked my map, and sure enough, a thick red line stretched all the way to Indianapolis, but it wasn’t here. I realized my mistake, as this was only, as my state-produced map indicated in its margin, the I-69 CORRIDOR, which I knew about only vaguely at the time, mostly from its huge opposition. And so, I took state roads back to Bloomington and on to home, much as I normally would.

I relate this incident because it seems now, as it did then, to indicate the power of an image – in this case a line drawn on a map – as representing a complex set of desires and hopes, beliefs, fears, and narratives about how the world works (or should work). The dream of Interstate 69, reaching from Canada to Mexico, via this route through Indiana, and down through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas, has been in the air for multiple decades now, and its history tells the story of transportation in the States. Matt Dellinger’s Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway starts down in Evansville, and winds down the path of the proposed I-69, meeting its advocates and adversaries all along the way; tracing the routes of rivers, trains, and state roads that all predated the Interstate system; and telling the stories of cities – large and small – that stand to feel the effect if I-69 ever reaches them: what the effect will be is the driving motivation behind anyone interested in the I-69 project, and is telling of broader beliefs about cities, economies, and communities; read this book with an atlas in your other hand.

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“Lessons in Expectations”

A Review of
Jesus Died For This?
A Satirist’s Search for the Risen Christ
By Becky Garrison.

Reviewed by Greg Schreur.

Jesus Died For This?
A Satirist’s Search for the Risen Christ
By Becky Garrison.
Paperback: Zondervan, 2010.
Buy now: [ ChristianBook.com ]

Two things that are good for everyone, and probably for Christians in particular: reading about others’ spiritual journeys and learning to laugh at ourselves, even at those things about ourselves that we may consider too sacred to laugh about. Becky Garrison’s Jesus Died for This? A Satirist’s Search for the Risen Christ offers an opportunity to do both. As a Christian, as well as a cynic, and as someone who goes to a church with a lot of wealthy and/or attractive people, I eagerly anticipated my copy in the mail.

As someone who has learned that expectations are often just illusions there to disappoint us, I try to avoid strong preconceived notions when it comes to books. Expectations are limiting because they narrow our focus and sometimes require mental adjustments; the other danger, perhaps more even sinister, is when our expectations are met, robbing us of an opportunity to be challenged and to grow. But when I saw the title and even the cover, which depicts a vendor hawking savior figurines for fifty cents, expectation snuck out of its cage.

The day it arrived, I read the prologue, which begins:

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“Defining Emerging Christianity”

A Review of
An Emerging Dictionary for
The Gospel and Culture
By Leonard Hjalmarson.

Reviewed by Chris Smith.

An Emerging Dictionary for
The Gospel and Culture
Leonard Hjalmarson.
Paperback: Resource Publications/Wipf and Stock, 2010.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]

Len Hjalmarson has been in the middle of conversations about emerging forms of church for many years now. His blog, NextReformation.com , has been not only a place for him to post his keen insights, but also a place for conversation and exploration. Thus, I was excited to hear that he had recently published a book rooted in his experience in these conversations.  An Emerging Dictionary for the Gospel and Culture is indeed as it sets out to be “a roving, eclectic dictionary that is both ridiculously current and particular, and at the same time broadly inclusive, reaching back to Augustine and St. Benedict … the ABC’s of the emerging and missional conversations.”  Hjalmarson does a superb job introducing the topics that he has included here, which basically fall into the two categories of biographical entries and conceptual entries.  All entries here are brief (rarely more than 2 or 3 pages), engaging and helpful in their introducing the person or concept at hand.  I imagine that most readers, even those who have been deeply invested in the emerging and missional church conversations for many years will find at least a few entries here that are surprising or unknown.  For instance, the philosopher of science in me was delighted to see the entry on Thomas Kuhn here, as his work is essential to our work of understanding the times in which we live, and yet his name does not pop up often in church conversations.  There are also a number of terms here that are essential to understanding postmodern criticism – e.g., difference and L’avenir.   Hjalmarson also does a wonderful job at interweaving the entries here; one does not typically think of a dictionary as a book to sit down and read from cover to cover, but this engaging and well-written work flows along nicely and is certainly an exception to that rule!

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An excerpt from one of the books to be featured in our
first print edition…  (Have you subscribed? )

Postmodern Belief:
American Literature and Religion Since 1960.
Amy Hungerford.
Paperback: Princeton UP, 2010.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]

We are giving away two copies of
Leonard Sweet‘s brand new book
NUDGE : Awakening Each Other
to the God Who’s Already There
(David C. Cook 2010).

[ Read our review of NUDGE... ]

CLICK HERE to enter to win…

Announcing our Brand New, Quarterly Print Edition.

As we continue to encourage the practices of reading and theological conversation in our churches, we will, starting this Fall, be supplementing our online edition with a print edition that contains more reviews, interviews and book news of note for missional church communities. Our first issue will feature reviews by Debra Dean Murphy, Brett Foster, Ragan Sutterfield and others, and will explore the work of Seamus Heaney, Gregory Jones, Mary Oliver, William Stringfellow, Slavoj Žižek, Willie Jennings, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and more! You won’t want to miss this exciting new venture!

[ CLICK HERE for more info and to subscribe! ]

We’re Giving Away 10 Free books from IVP !!!

Thanks to our friends at IVP Books, we are giving 10 free books in our Fall contest!!!

Invite your friends (or yourself) to a FREE email subscription to the online edition of The Englewood Review this September, and you and any friends who activate their subscription will be entered to win two free books from IVP!

[ Go here to enter to win! ]

A Brief Review of

Working with Aging Families:
Therapeutic Solutions for Caregivers, Spouses and  Adult Children.
Kathleen Piercy.
Hardback: W.W. Norton ,2010.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]

Reviewed by Jennifer Price.

As our population includes many more people over the age of 65, we are forced to address the question of how do we take care of aging people?  Our little nuclear families are not always equipped to take care of aging parents and more often other support is needed, physically, mentally and spiritually.  Our families often include step-children and step-parents in a mobile culture which add to the complexity of caring for our families.  This book provides resources for counselors and therapists in navigating the golden years in the outpatient realm.

In order to get a grasp on this challenge, one must start with understanding the family dynamics and the transitions that older people make.  This book offers help in the aging process in the earlier years of aging, as well as the later years.  It offers examples of families who sought out therapy, with challenges such as, how to communicate with a family member or spouse who has MCI (mild cognitive impairment) or lessons in communication in marriage counseling for the later years.  Piercy suggests, that addressing these challenges sometimes involves psycho-educational  seminars at a senior community center for those reluctant to see a therapist. She offers several vivid examples of therapy sessions that demonstrate how people learn to cope, problem solve, and give resources.  Her research is thorough; in coordinating the care of the elderly person’s families she provices resources for various contexts, both urban and rural.  This can ease the stress placed on families in such situations.  Many times the children of elderly parents like to reciprocate the care they once received, but with health issues it can still be taxing to the caregivers.  Piercy explores complex family situations such as elderly parents who have a developmentally disabled adult child for whom they provide  care.  Another complexity, which is happening more often, is grandparents who are taking care of grandkids whose parent is absent.

Through reading this book these problems are addressed with lots of counseling interventions and resourceful examples for families that are described in a practical manner.  WORKING WITH AGING FAMILIES is a good resource for church families as we seek to care for both our birth parents as well as our older brothers and sisters in Christ.

A Brief Review of

Why Africa Matters.
Cedric Mayson.
Paperback: Orbis Books, 2010.
Buy now:  [ ChristianBook.com ]

Reviewed by Laretta Benjamin.

I have always been intrigued with the continent of Africa.  From the silly and false stereotyping days of Johnny Weissmuller and Tarzan (for those under 30 you’re probably asking “Who?”), to the days of “Amistad” and “Roots”, to the amazing Wildlife Parks and reserves, to the more recent developments in Rwanda and Sudan, there’s been much about Africa to think about.   Africa’s incredible and breathtaking beauty, its fascinating mix of peoples and cultures, its sometimes violent and almost unbelievable history are all powerful draws to the mind, heart and imagination.  Certainly there is much we can learn from all human history in all places  -  but I do think that maybe author is correct in thinking that in some ways there might be some particular things that can be seen and learned from the story of Africa, its history, its people, its ancient beginnings.

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The Fool’s Song
William Carlos Williams
( Found in
The Collected Poems of
William Carlos Williams, Vol. 1: 1909-1939 )

I tried to put a bird in a cage.
    O fool that I am!
  For the bird was Truth.
    Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
  Truth in a cage!

And when I had the bird in the cage,
    O fool that I am!
  Why, it broke my pretty cage.
    Sing merrily, Truth; I tried to put
  Truth in a cage!

And when the bird was flown from the cage,
    O fool that I am!
  Why, I had nor bird nor cage.
    Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
Truth in a cage!
  Heigh-ho! Truth in a cage.

**** Less than 2 weeks of Early Registration Left!!! *****

A Rooted People:
Church, Place and Agriculture
in an Urban World

Registration and more info:

http://englewoodcc.com/rooted/

Spread the word with
the Facebook e-vite…

Ours is a world in which transportation is becoming extremely costly (as was highlighted by the massive costs of the BP Oil Spill) and yet at the same time is a world that is becoming increasingly urban. Common sense would seem to indicate that these trends will impact in a major way our food systems and the way we eat. Given these factors, what is the church’s redemptive role in caring for the health and wholeness (shalom) of not just humanity, but all creation? Englewood Christian Church has invited several speakers with rich experiences in sustainable agriculture to lead a conversation reflecting on this question and related ones about church, place, food, community and agriculture, and we invite you to join us.

Speakers:
* Fred Bahnson: Writer and Co-founder of Anathoth Community Garden

* Claudio Oliver:
Pastor and community developer from urban Curitiba, Brazil.

* Martin Price:
Former Director of Educational Concerns For Hunger Organization (ECHO)

* Ragan Sutterfield:
Arkansas Farmer/Writer, Author of FARMING AS A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE

Workshops Lead By :
Will Samson and others TBA

When: Friday Oct. 29 and Saturday Oct. 30, 2010

Where: Englewood Christian Church / Indianapolis

James K.A. Smith Summarizes and Critiques
James Davison Hunter’s TO CHANGE THE WORLD

http://www.theotherjournal.com/article.php?id=1021

…

Many of us are more indebted to James Davison Hunter than we might realize. His 1991 book, Culture Wars, has been a lens through which many have understood the dynamics of American politics, even if they have never read it. An astute and influential observer of American culture, particularly the role of (and transformation of) religion in the public sphere, Hunter is a sociologist without the usual allergy to normative language. And while he’s never taken sides in the culture wars (indeed, despite the way it is cited by both friends and detractors, Culture Wars was pointing out the futility of conducting such battles), Hunter has not shied away from prescription rooted in description and analysis. Thus, his later book The Death of Character unapologetically laments the loss of a unified moral ethos in American culture that undercuts the possibility of true character formation. Although Hunter’s writing can sometimes tend toward the curmudgeonly end of the jeremiad spectrum, he’s nonetheless an important cultural critic.

His latest offering is a logical trajectory from this earlier work. To Change the World is explicitly addressed to Christians in the United States and is his most unabashedly prescriptive and theological work to date. It is also one of the most important works on Christianity and culture since Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Until Justice and Peace Embrace. One could hope that To Change the World might finally displace the lazy hegemony of Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture, even if I think Hunter’s book might have a couple of similar faults.

…

Read the full piece:
http://www.theotherjournal.com/article.php?id=1021

To Change the World:
The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World.
James Davison Hunter.
Hardback: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]

http://booksandculture.com/articles/webexclusives/2010/september/winner091510.html

In the 1960s and 1970s, Catholic priest and poet Ernesto Cardenal lived and worked among the campesinos of Solentiname, a 36-island archipelago in Lake Nicaragua. On Sundays, the community gathered for worship. In lieu of a sermon, Cardenal led the men and women in a conversation about the gospel passage. Cardenal recorded many of those conversations and published them as The Gospel in Solentiname. In a 1998 essay, Timothy Gorringe points to these dialogues as a good example of a more widespread phenomenon: “Cardenal’s Bible studies are the products of a community,” writes Gorringe, “which believes that Jesus is the incarnate, risen and ascended Lord, who encounters us both in the Eucharist and in the struggle for justice. Whilst recognizing that everything is political, the members of the community do not think politics is everything.”

…

Read the full piece:
http://booksandculture.com/articles/webexclusives/2010/september/winner091510.html

The Gospel in Solentiname.
Ernesto Cardenal
Paperback (Reissue Edition): Orbis Books, 2010.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]