Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

Though he’s been dead for 10 years, the much-loved author of numerous books on Christian spirituality has another book added to his canon. Presbyterian spiritual director Rebecca Laird and a board member of the Henri Nouwen Society, Michael Christinsen, have compiled lectures and assorted writings of Nouwen’s to create this Nouwen reflection on how to live a deeply spiritual life.

This book is not about the ministry of spiritual direction, per se. It’s about finding spiritual direction in one’s life—allowing God to direct us through our experiences, our longings and our travails. The book is classic Nouwen. That is, if you have all of his other books, you won’t find much new in this one. But it’s written more for those who are just now discovering the gentleness and wisdom of the “wounded healer” who had such a way with words. Nouwen’s genius was the way he could explain his faith and expose his vulnerabilities in plain English with parables and illustrations that resound with incredible accuracy. This book is to be read, used for journaling and reflection and can be treated as an introduction to the ministry of spiritual direction since what Nouwen taught about life with God is the basis for many of the formation programs that teach and train spiritual directors today.

—Teresa Blythe

A Theology of Sin

Missing the Mark: Sin and Its Consequences in Biblical Theology

by Mark E. Biddle (Abingdon, 2005, 190 pp; $19.00, paper; Abingdon Press)

The Western church’s dominant definition of sin as willful rebellion is too simplistic to address the consequences of sin in the world today.  In order to equip the church to address these consequences, Mark E. Biddle, Russell T. Cherry Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, probes the Bible and contemporary theologies, philosophies and social sciences for a more comprehensive, relevant and “Biblically oriented theology of sin.”  This theology encompasses the many manifestations of sin, from human perfectionism to self-loss, that arise from mistrusting God.  To address this root cause of sin, Biddle urges churches to model trustworthiness through committed relationships that teach people the capacity for trust.  He calls for the church’s ministry to follow in the footsteps of ancient Israel’s priests and Jesus by prioritizing restoration and focusing on the redress of sin’s afterlife.  The brilliance of this book is how the conclusions Biddle draws from his reexamination of sin in the Biblical text powerfully resonate with the contemporary life of the church in the world.  For laypersons, students and clergy, this vital study of sin hits the mark.

—Barry Huff, Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education

Women of the Cloth

Celebrating Our Call: Ordination Stories of Presbyterian Women

edited by Patricia Lloyd-Sidle (Geneva Press, 2006, paperback, 240pp; $19.95, Presbyterian Publishing Company)

As Presbyterians celebrate 100 years of women ordained as deacons, 75 years of women elders and 50 years of women ministers of the Word and sacrament, this collection brings to life the vivid experiences of women in that movement. Autobiographical narratives of Presbyterian women ordained as pastors, deacons and elders weave together historical accounts and personal experiences. Each woman tells about her call and the ensuing struggle for recognition of that call through ordination. In telling those stories, a number of the accounts include portions of the denomination’s history of women’s ordination.;

Beginning with Jane Parker Huber’s memory of her mother going off to the “Committee of 100 Women” gathered at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1929, the book proceeds to the story of current director of the PCUSA Worldwide Ministries Division; Marilyn McClure’s account of the impact of her gender as an ordained woman on church leaders from Pakistan to Brazil, from the Congo to the Middle East, adds a contemporary global dimension to this collection. By combining history and experience in this way, these narratives bring to life the long struggle for ordination by Presbyterian women.

The narratives include the beginnings of a call for each woman, a call sometimes connected to work they were already doing in the church. They tell of the encouraging people around them who affirmed their call and pressed them to go on. They also expose obstacles to the women’s attempts to do the work of leadership—obstacles like racism, language, stereotypes of women, even the strangeness of the very idea of an ordained woman elder or pastor. These stories reveal the courage and curiosity of women called to church leadership and show how prayers and protests, persistence and resistance, finally see those “intrepid women” through to ordination.

The church is richer for the lives and ministries of our ordained Presbyterian women. This hard-to-put-down book gives us glimpses into the historical struggles of the women and men that brought that richness into being for Presbyterian women around the world.

—Frances S. Adeney, Benfield Professor of Mission, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Biblical Women, Contemporary Stories

I Am ... Biblical Women Tell Their Own Stories

by Athalya Brenner (Fortress Press, 2005, 228 pp; $13.00, paperback; Fortress Press)

I Am . . takes a new approach to the academic feminist critique of Biblical texts.  By imagining little-known Biblical women gathering in the present day for an academic conference, Brenner gives those ancient women voice.

Many of them are nameless and so, in a way, according to Brenner, have never died.  Others are portrayed through the lens of men’s desires or problematic situations.  Male interpreters through the centuries have further covered the forgotten truths of Biblical women.  Even their talents are credited to men—the invention of music and birth control, for example.  Brenner sets the record straight by imaginatively gathering these mythic women together to tell their own stories.

Inspired by Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party and Natalie Zemon Davis’ The Return of Martin Guere, Brenner recreates the Biblical narratives, taking contemporary concerns to the texts. She creates responses to those concerns with the voices of the Biblical women.  This method mirrors that of liberation theologies as theologians seek wisdom on contemporary situations by bringing their problems to the text itself.

The resulting narratives turn the tables on the alternatively demure, wicked or hysterical portrayals of Biblical women, among them Huldah, the woman from the Song of Songs, and the woman from First Samuel, a role portrayed by the conference convener herself. Brenner’s critiques are scathing, her Biblical interpretations creative, and her caustic humor unrelenting as she reconstructs the Biblical stories through a 21st-century feminist lens.

Why would a Biblical scholar, a professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Amsterdam and Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth Texas, go to such lengths to re-invent women’s narratives?  Brenner asserts, with good reason, that our identity and memory are constructed and reconstructed through the narratives we hear. Women are entitled to personal views, entitled to a hearing, and Brenner gives them a hearing in this daring book.

—Frances S. Adeney, Benfield Professor of Mission, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary