The Gospels according to the Simpson's.
The Spiritual life of the worlds most animated family by Mark I Pinsky
Westminster John Knox Press £8.95 ISBN. 0-66422419-9
EVEN those who do not watch on TV the antics of The Simpson's -Homer, Marge and their children Bart and Lisa are likely to be aware of the existence of the famous cartoon family. Like the Flintstones an earlier example of the genre, the Simpson's have achieved a legendary and since they first hit our screens more than a decade ago.
Though both these animated family-based TV sitcoms could be classed as satire, there are at least two differences between them. First, the latter looked at life at the time they were written - the 1960s - by using the device of setting the stories in prehistory and the future. The latter is set in the present and consequently the comedy is more observational.
Secondly, The Simpson's, unlike the Flintstones or any other cartoon, sitcom or soap, has a recognisable religious dimension to the life of the main characters in Matt Groening's stories.
While The Simpson's does not paint a saintly picture of family life, it shows people living lives that we em recognise as real. Although the characters are coloured bright yellow, we can recognise them as human.
The humanity of the Simpson family extends to their struggle over faith. We see them praying out loud and often asking God for the sort of things for which we would not dare ask in a prayer meeting, but might wish for in our hearts. We see one of the most Christian men on television their neighbour, Ned Flanders trying to work out how to live real life as an evangelical Christian. We see the minister of the church, Revd Lovejoy and never was a man so ill-suited to his name - struggling with doubts and trying to hold on to his congregation in the face of a more attractive and exciting peripatetic evangelist.
While some of The Simpson's writers are Christians this is by no means a Christian show and there are some moments - usually fleeting - in which Christian sensibilities are trodden upon. Yet this seems to be a family whose more earth-bound members - father Homer and son Bart - are looking for a faith, which will actually make a difference in their lives. An American TV reviewer said the lesson of one episode was: Going to church might not be a terrible idea. How much would the Churches Media Trust pay to get that message across?
As an unashamed Simpson's fan, I came to Mark Pinskys book with a great sense of anticipation, which would have been hard to fulfil and the truth is that it was something of a disappointment. It is probably a little too heavyweight to be a suitable present for your Simpson's-loving nephew, but on the other hand it didn't quite cut the mustard as a theological analysis.
What it does do well, in chapters devoted to God, prayer, social gospel, evangelicalism, church, heaven and hell, moral dilemmas and the Bible, is look at how incidents in various episodes deal with these issues. While this analysis seems exhaustive, this does not make for a very readable book. It also lacks what would be a useful tool for a preacher - a cross-reference between theological themes and episode titles. However, this is still a book that's worth considerably more than the D- that Bart achieved after much prayer - to scrape through fourth grade. Shall we say B+?
The Revd Simon Carver is Minister of New Road Baptist Church, Oxford.
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times
Reflective Services for Lent
Holy Week and Easter
by Nick Fawcett
Kevin Mayhew, £11.99 ISBN1-84003-826-8
FROM Ash Wednesday to Trinity Sunday is that rich and liturgically swift period of the year (at least, swift by comparison with the slow moving period which follows through the dog days of summer) into which we are about to enter.
Here is a terrific resource for those charged with leading worship throughout this period. Each Sunday (Good Friday and Ascension Day into the bargain,) is resourced by suggestions for visual material from, for instance, videos; suggested music from a range of styles; hymn and song titles
(no space is wasted with their words,) and, best of all, prayers and meditations from the pen of Nick Fawcett himself. Their style is, well, extraordinarily ordinary, not too, high flown or overblown like some resources I could think Of. This is not the liturgical equivalent Of the voice I hear when 1 "n to Alan Bennett's mock sermon, 'Now Esau was an hairy man...' In short, this is better suited to Baptist worship than much on the market and as such deserves wide usage amongst those churches which might consider using anything other than ten songs and a rambling prayer (extemporary) full Of just...' and 'Lord...'which some might call liturgy of a sort.
Whether you use it straight from the page, or adapt and cannibalise, Sunday worship will be the richer for you using it, and might even be quicker in the preparation. Go on, try it!
The Revd. Paul Goodliff is a Regional Minister and Team Leader with the Central Baptist Association.
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times
Exploring the New Testament: Volume 1,
Introducing the Gospels and Acts
by David Wenham and Steve Walton
SPCK, £16.99 ISBN. 0-281-05433-9
This new book is the first of two volumes, the second of which will cover the New Testament Utters and the Book of Revelation. It is written by teachers at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and London Bible College.
Wenham is best known for his writing on the gospels, and Walton for his work on Acts and this shows through in a work which helpfully orientates a student to the main issues involved in the interpretation of the first five New Testament documents.
The book aims not simply be a repository of information, but an educational guide. There are plenty of tables and diagrams, as one might expect from an introductory volume. However, the book moves beyond this in its use of chapter summaries and 'What do you think?' boxes which pose questions for the student to reflect upon.
Each chapter closes with possible essay questions and a good orientation to further reading material The end result is a volume that could be used by a student working on their own, or in a first-year university course. Overall, the approach of the book reminds me of that adopted for the last few volumes of the Christian Training Programme guides published by the Baptist Union A student who had used, for example, the volume Good News in the Gospels m that series, would usefully move on to this, more weighty discussion. The book is extremely user-friendly. The main issues, evidence and solutions are outlined with clarity, bullet points abound and Wenham and Walton keep a constant eye on the student taking their first steps into such complex territory. It will certainly make an appearance on many of my reading, lists. There are shortcomings, however. Inevitably the volume covers a vast amount of material and occasionally oversimplifies quite complex problems. The fact that the authors both teach in avowedly evangelical institutions means that their discussion of the historicity of the Jesus tradition and Acts is predictably, though not rigidly, conservative.
Above all this book enters an already crowded market of 'New Testament Introductions' and I am not sure that its educational focus fully warrants buying it as a supplement to, say Raymond Brown or Luke Johnson's admirable discussions.
If you have done some initial critical biblical study, however, and want to develop your knowledge of the gospels and Acts, then Wenham and Walton have provided a good place to start.
The Revd Dr Sean Winter is a Tutor in New Testament Studies at Northern Baptist College, Manchester.
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times
A Theology of God's Openness
by Clark H. Pinnock
Paternoster Press, £9.99
ISBN 1-84227-014-1
Last year I reviewed a book in the Baptist limes entitled Reconstructing Theology: A Critical Assessment of the theology of Clark H Pinnock. A number of essays by younger scholars discussed whether the
'Openness theology' which Pinnock, with others, was beginning to advocate could be considered evangelical.
There were essays on biblical and doctrinal matters. To each essay, Pinnock made a response, which I suggested in my review, was far too brief. It would have made for a better book if we had heard more from Pinnock himself.
Later, a November edition of the Baptist limes carried a report of three days of 'heated debate' at the Evangelical Theological Society in the United States. Again, the topic was 'openness theology'. This theological approach questions whether God has complete, accurate and infallible knowledge of all events, past, present and future.
Openness theology stresses the nature of the personal relationship in which God seeks us and the entire world in love. If God is personal and seeks us personally then impersonal notions of absolute sovereignty are wrong. Apparently, the Society divided over the issue, which will remain a matter serious debate for a long time to come.
Now we have a book from Clark Pinnock himself, setting out his criticisms of the classical deterministic view of God and his understanding of the God who seeks us in the free relationship of love.
Pinnock is straightforwardly clear about that, he is doing. He knows, from the inside, the position he is questioning and the extent of his challenge. The book is marked by his deep learning and a sense of passion about the Gospel of the Triune God. His critics have sometimes been fierce and less than charitable. Pinnock writes with a kind of grace consistent with the open mind that knows that all our interpretations are
The book has four chapters, following an introduction, which sets out what is at stake. The first is concerned with Scripture, asking just what it does teach about the ways of God. Here the themes of God's passion, his self-disclosure as personal, his divine repentance and his will to partnership, among other matters, are identified. Pinnock draws attention to aspects of the biblical witness, which it is tempting for Calvinistic systems to ignore. The argument is thorough and the case Pinnock makes is strong.
Then comes a chapter, which really is suggesting that much of the intellectual inheritance of early Christians, which they used to express their faith, was inevitably pagan and not wholly suitable for the purpose. In particular, he is concerned to argue that Platonism has been far too influential, resulting in static (the unmoved mover) rather than dynamic personal categories being dominant. A tradition was already being imposed upon the reading of Scripture.
Pinnock knows that every theology has an underlying philosophy. Sometimes this is not recognised and admitted, as when for example Fundamentalists claim to be biblical without realising that their arguments rest on a discredited and inadequate theory of knowledge. Pinnock works, in the light of the chapter on scriptural foundations, at a metaphysic of love. Then at the end he asks about whether 'openness theology' is not, in fact more fitting to the facts of Christian experience.
He has some very helpful things to say about prayer, the problem of evil, guidance and friendship.
I am very grateful for this book. It is serious theology, asking about the nature and ways of God. It is written by one devoted to Scripture who has himself a warm and rich relationship with God. I appreciated its courage and modesty I found myself at times questioning and wanting to debate with the author but I commend his work with gratitude.
The Revd. Dr. Brian Haymes is Minister of Bloomsbury Baptist Church, London.
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times
The Anglican Quest for Holiness
Compiled by Geoffrey Rowell, Kenneth Stevenson and Rowan Williams
0xford University Press
£40 ISBN 0-19-122476-6
WE all know of situations where Baptist ministers have sought ordination in the Church of England. Sometimes this is the result of frustration caused by Pastoral experience in Baptist churches which are narrow in their focus, lukewarm in their support for the Baptist Union and deeply suspicious of the ecumenical movement. In addition they may be complacent, wrapped up in their own a~ and opposed to any kind of change.
It is not surprising that in these situations the ministers concerned turn to the kindness and the support of their local vicar for some support, leading subsequently to transference of denomination loyalty. Their move has as much to do with a significant change in their understanding of the Church based on their experience of church life, as it has to do with doctrine. Baptists with narrow minds can never compete with the Church of England, even in holding on to their own!
The same less is emphasised in an entirely different way by this magnificent resource book on the important theme of English spirituality. Reviewing the contributions from over 200 Christian leaders over the past five centuries, we are bound to agree that the whole church is indebted to the Anglican Communion for the enormous Christian contribution that it has made to the common goal of holiness.
For believers this deeply felt inner hunger for holiness of thought, worship, and life is generic. It cannot he confined to a study of the teaching from the past. Anglicanism remains as probably the major defining force for us all, as we pursue this high goal today.
The three editors are all and are eminent teachers of the faith, committed to this task. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Wales, is responsible for the first main section covering the period from 1520-1650. Kenneth Stevenson, Bishop of Portsmouth, writes on the years from 1650-1830. Geoffrey Rowell, now moving from Basingstoke to become Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, takes the final section from 1830 to the present day There is a Foreword and an After-word contributed by Archbishops Carey and Hope respectively.
Each of the compilers introduces their section with an essay summarising the selection they offer. A brief biography is given on each subject. To help the reader around, there are three indices. Further reference works are also noted at the end of each piece.
Largeness of heart is what Anglicanism is all about at its best. Within the one church, different traditions are held together in dynamic tension which only occasionally explodes with a sparkling display that is always fascinating for non-Anglicans to watch.
I could understand a quarrel over the unevenness of treatment with their subjects. Did the great Charles Simeon really only merit two pages to the nine offered to John Henry Newman - who ended his journey no longer an Anglican but as a Roman Catholic Cardinal? Does this kind of judgement betray an editorial bias familiar enough in many ecumenical church circles?
In such an offering as this, there are plenty of opportunities for such discussions. Evangelicals, Catholics, and Liberals are all there with varying levels of treatment. Among them, for me, there is one well known truly fascinating near contemporary, who stands out because in a unique way he was hard to pigeonhole. This is the great Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey.
When he appeared for interview on television, he was the great Anglican gift to the cartoonists, and even more to church critics, as ever, eager to seize on any evidence of Christian incompetence or folly. His dress was always untidily formal. His delivery was slow and hesitant. He looked and sounded so frail and yet religious and odd.
However, beneath this somewhat bumbling exterior, Ramsey was gifted with a nimble mind and a compassionate spirit, and often sparkling wit. He was the kind of ecumenical the whole Church so much needs among that Office.
He despised those presentation skills, which epitomise the work of many apparently more clever religious commentators whose approach, in the end, is market driven. In place of their attractiveness, only skin deep at its best he urged the exercise of the contemplation of God turned as much to his righteousness as his beauty. For it is this desire for God that feeds the longing to serve him with our obedience in a needy world.
For Ramsey it is the Transfiguration that expresses the heart of the mystery of our faith, in the intense realisation of God within the self and the vivid nearness of God's love for us.
I humbly commend this great work. We have lots to learn from Anglicanism at its best and here is a tool that will help that process. If that stretches our minds and deepens our spirits, then Love's Redeeming Work will have achieved one of its purposes.
The Revd. Martin McBain formerly Baptist Union metropolitan Area Superintendent is an ecumenical representative on the General Synod of the Church of England.
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times
Praying the Jesus Prayer Together
by Brother Ramon and Simon Barrington
Ward Bible Reading Fellowship
£6.99 ISBN 1-84101-147-9
MANY Christians are learning the value of the Eastern Orthodox Jesus Prayer', not least because of the efforts of the co-authors of this book. 'The prayer is drawn from two Gospel stories: Blind Bartimaeus and the penitent tax collector. In its full form it goes: 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
Traditionally, it is repeated a number of times, the repetitions being counted off on a prayer rope of 50 or 100 knots. The prayer sinks from lips, to mind to heart as the one praying senses themselves drawn deeper into God's presence.
As well as providing a clear introduction to this prayer and the different ways it em be used, the most remarkable feature of this book is the observation the two writers make about death, one from the point of view of the terminally ill, the other as supporter and friend.
Brother Ramon, a former Baptist minister, handed his half of the book to his co-author, the former bishop of Coventry, just days before he died in the summer of 2000. As patient and onlooker, the two writers share with us at a profound personally level. It is a deeply moving book. Whether one values the Jesus Prayer tradition or not, this book is invaluable reading for anyone dealing with death or the dying.
The Revd. David Dewey is minister of Sutcliffe Baptist Church, Olney, Bucks.
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times
by Margaret Cundiff
Bible Reading Fellowship,
£6.99 ISBN 1-84101-212-2
IN 34 short chapters, Margaret Cundiff helps her readers to reflect on everyday life, and the presence of the living God within it. Each chapter, two or three pages at most is a meditation on an incident, a view, a person or a task, finishing with a Bible passage and a prayer, continuing the theme.
This is not a book to be read at a sitting. Each meditation repays time spent with it, as its connections sink in, and its reminders return to the front of our minds. There is nothing startling here, nothing that we do not know or have not been told. However, they are presented with freshness and challenge; it is always good to be told again of God's love and presence.
She refers to the starting point of each meditation as a snapshot, and each one, from a holiday, to a memory of a member of the congregation who challenged her about the existence of a loving God in a world of pain, to consideration of doing crosswords, is drawn from her experiences in the time at the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000.
Reflecting on the significance of that time, she points out to us that significance is not always in the major events, but is in the little, everyday ~ and events, when we take time to be still and meet God.
Each chapter is rooted in things we recognise, an at the same time leads us gently into a wider perspective, and a reminder of the underlying eternity in which we live.
This is a 'dip-into' book. It would provide material for a quiet time on a bus or train. It would make a good gift for somebody busy or ill.
It is gentle and thought provoking and well worth having.
The Revd, Dr Ruth Gouldbourne is a tutor at Bristol Baptist College.
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times
Soul Survivor - How my faith survived the Church
by Philip Yancey
Hodder and Stoughton,
£9.99 ISBN 0-340-78600-0
Many will be familiar with the writings of Philip in recent years his books have touched on some important issues faced by Christians today. This book is different. This is Yancey's own story.
His formative years as a Christian were the 1960s. His church he writes presented a 'hermetically sealed view of the world' and contributed little to his own spiritual growth and enjoyment. On the contrary, the harm it inflicted resulted in him spending years recovering from its abuse.
The problem, as he saw it, was that too many of the beliefs and practices of contemporary culture were accepted and professed by his fellow Christians. Those who read this book will be saddened as they encounter some of them.
It would be easy to think that because he writes from a North American perspective then those on this side of the Pond would be free from such powerful negative influences. The UK Church may have faced different problems, but readers Maybe able to identify issues Of church life in Britain that have been harmful to their own Christian development.
This book contains stories of people who have enabled him to recover from his experiences. They include people whom he met and others he has encountered through their writings. Martin Luther King, Paul Brand, whose life work was with those suffering from leprosy and Henri Nouwen whose brokenness, seemed to bring him healing.
He was also helped by the writings of G.K. Chesterton and I John Donne. Leo Tolstoy, Feodor Dostoesvsky and Mahatma Gandhi also contributed to his journey towards recovery.
As with his other books this one is sensitively written and will help those who have been hurt by their fellow Christians.
It is saddening to think that a book like this had to be written, but if lessons are learnt we may all be challenged to live the Christian life based on the challenges of Christ rather than allow the attitudes of contemporary society to influence our beliefs and behaviour.
The Revd Stephen Henwood is Chaplain to St Francis Hospice, Romford, Essex.
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times
by Michael Moynagh
Monarch, £7.95
ISBN 1-85424-516-3
Kenneth Moynagh was an economist with the Confederation of British Industries before ordination and currently is on the staff at St John's College, Nottingham. He is also Co-Director of the Tomorrow Project, which engages the Christian faith with social issues.
It is this very rootedness in the realities of modem-day Britain, which give the book its ring of truth. Yet, this is not just another book of gloomy predictions about the future of the church (disconnected and shrinking), although it is brutally honest in its assessment of the state of the church's mission. It also gives some imaginative pointers to the kind of strategies and responses the
Western church might make if it is serious about its survival.
The first part of the book surveys some of the social and cultural changes which we will encounter over the next 20 years - customising, consumerism, workplace changes while the second half describes how the Church can grow again. The Church must lose its one-size-fits all habit, customise, connect, move to midweek, and much else.
Certainly every newly appointed regional minister should read this and every pastor with a passion to see the church grow in our world should read it. Perhaps Minister's meetings could discuss it. It is certainly a timely book and one I wholeheartedly recommend.
The Revd Paul Goodliff is a Regional minister for the Central Baptist Association
This review by kind permission of the Baptist Times