Book Review: Science Creation and the Bible by Carlson and Longman

Book Review:

            Richard F. Carlson and Tremper Longman III, “Science, Creation, and the Bible”, Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011.

            Richard F. Carlson is a professor of physics who also hols a masters degree in theology.  Carlson edited “Science and Christianity: Four Views” in 2000.  Tremper Longman III is a long time theology professor, who has written a number of texts in the field.  The publisher, IVP, has for decades specialized in books with the goal of being simultaneously faithful to the historic Christian faith and correct intellectual understanding with regard to a variety of issues, with particular emphasis on those points which are commonly seen in either secular intellectual culture or popular Christian culture as being in conflict.                                                                                              Certainly current understanding of the origins of the universe and life, and what appears in the Bible as commenting on creation of the universe and life fits into that description.  Possibly there is no subject which has more misunderstanding, both among believers and among those in mainline scientific circles.  No doubt, this is in part due to very public statements of Christian leaders who have built a public platform to speak, combined with minimal education with regard to specifics of modern science.  Key in this is the question:  How do we believers understand Genesis 1 and 2 in light of the discoveries of the scientific community over the last 200 years?  Carlson and Longman are both highly experienced in dealing with this question, one from the side of physics, which is now the premier jumping off point from the scientific side of the question, the other from the side of Christian theology.  The authors maintain the the question is answerable while maintaining orthodox Christian belief, but it is not a simple answer, and cannot be answered simplistically while desiring to be the “salt and light” believers are commanded to be towards the unbelieving world.  Therefore, any believer desiring to answer this question in 25 words or less, possibly even 25 minutes of less, will be disappointed.  Carlson give a complex, nuanced explanation which is connected to both science, especially physics, and that part of theology that deals with the literary and cultural contexts of the various parts of scripture. 

            For those who have not been exposed to this discussion according to the state of the art over the last couple of decades, the creation discussion is connected to the origin of the universe, not the biological discussion, which is only even mentioned in one sentence.  This book is slightly shorter than the normal published book at 141 pages, but none of it, in my opinion, is filler.  The whole book builds up aspects of the discussion as to why the authors hold the view that they present at the conclusion.  This is not an easy reading book, but still understandable to an average person willing to intellectually engage in some nuanced subject matter.

Book Review: The Pastor Has No Clothes by Jon Zens

The Pastor Has No Clothes: Moving from Clergy-Centered Church to Christ-Centered Ekklesia, by Jon Zens (Lincoln, NE: Ekklesia Press, 2011)

            This is the book that has taught me the most about following Jesus in spirit and truth that I have read so far this year.

            Jon Zens is a man who holds training in Christian theology through doctoral level, but, by the end of that training, concluded that what the New Testament shows us to be the way the church was to operate is what God meant, and what we see in western society is that tradition, having been morphed by various political and social movements through history, changed practices in the church to the degree that it does not reflect what Jesus taught the apostles, who, in turn, taught the early church.  In Jon’s previous works, he dealt with the difference between the early church meeting in homes informally as opposed to the tradition prevalent since the Roman Empire’s Edict of Tolerance of having buildings, paid staff, and ritual, in “A Church Building Every ½ Mile” and the role of women, which was uniquely equal before God and the rest of believers in “What’s With Paul and Women?” 

In “The Pastor Has No Clothes”, Jon deals with the difference between the early church, where believers met informally, and understood themselves to be responsible for each other’s growing in faith to the modern formal service dominated by one person designated in most institutional churches as a pastor or priest.

            The title, obviously, is a play on words off of Hans Christian Andersen’s children’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, where the Emperor is conned, but the people fear speaking out until a little boy says, “The Emperor has no clothes.” The pasted together look of the front cover is further symbolic of the content.  The not subtle comparison is that the pastoral office (not the persons holding the position specifically) is treated with dictatorial respect, without regard to the wisdom or lack that comes from the position by historical (not biblical) tradition.

            The forward to the book states a main point—the division between clergy and laity is unscriptural; the first word comes from the Greek kleros, which means the inheritance, and all believers, by faith are the inheritance, and the Greek laos, which means the people, and all believers are God’s people.  Both words referred to all believers.  From there, the first sixty pages breaks down in simple English what the church that was trained by the apostles were taught about their common life of living for Jesus, and how the Roman Empire and later social and political moves distorted the church in later times, with the result of the church largely losing much of its unique flavor in contrast to the world, going from believers “edifying each other” as in 1 Thessalonians 5:ll changed to one person in charge of a formal organization, being somehow divinely called to this work (although no one ever explains how that works), teaching others forever, and being in charge of everything.  This is explained in a manner that is readable for the average person.

            In pages 61 to 70, which is an introduction to the balance of the book, he examines some of the ideas Eugene Peterson, the lead translator to “The Message” Bible, seminary professor, and pastor, has in his recent memoir of his days as a pastor, and his mother’s experience of preaching in the towns of Montana.  Jon uses this reference in that, in the memoir, Eugene points out certain difficulties with being a pastor, which correspond to the basic problems all pastors have today, and shows how the main problems tie to traditions that are not based on anything scriptural.

            The rest of the book builds a theological argument.  If one isn’t into reading theology, and Zens’ writing is not nearly as complicated to read as much of the writing today in the field, these first 70 pages are worth getting the whole book. For persons in a pastoral position, I wish I could buy a copy of this for each believer occupying such a position (and I say believer in that, for persons holding church office who are not believers in Jesus, this whole argument is irrelevant to them).  If one has the mental wherewithal to read theology, the conclusion Jon draws at the end I will say is surprising enough to keep everyone who cares about living to glorify Jesus .reading to the end. 

            Other writers have pointed out that the word “pastor” comes from a Greek word meaning “shepherd” and of which is translated “shepherd” the other 17 times it appears in the New Testament, which questions whether its appearance in an English Bible is even appropriate. Surprisingly, to me, Jon never brings up this point either in the general reading or the theological argument part of the book.  He does discuss what the Greek word ekklesia, commonly translated “church”, meant to the early church, and what its clearest, not tradition-distorted, equivalent would be today.  To me, that fact was worth the price and time of buying and reading this.

            In buying my copy, I am aware than many Christian bookstores will not carry this title due to Zens’ reputation for challenging the status quo (www.cbd.com included, as of last week), but www.amazon.com has it, and, given that Jon runs a bookstore in Wisconsin, I’m sure his website, www.jonzens.com has it.

On Robert Banks' "Paul's Idea of Community"

            Today, some ideas (probably not quite a review) on Robert Banks’ book, Paul’s Idea of Community: Early House Churches in their Historical Setting (Exeter, UK: Paternoster, 1980)

            Banks begins the Preface with “This is not a technical book, nor a popular one either.”  By technical, he means a work directed toward graduate level/seminary students and up.  For the most part, it is written at a level a believing leader without such training can easily use.  In my opinion, the Preface, Introduction, Chapter One, many of the footnotes, and parts of the appendix lean in the way they are written toward the logician. If one does not care for such writing, there is much to gain from Chapters 2 through 18.  Still, it is not light reading, and it does not lead one toward personal introspection in the sense of many popular Christian books.  It flows, topic by topic, into what can be deduced from Acts and Paul’s writings.  By what he did and wrote, we see his idea of Christian community as he taught it in the process of communicating the message of Jesus, see people come to believe, and help them form into local churches.  This read, being still a little closer to theology than popular writing, starts slowly, like building a foundation, and, as the writing moves along, the topics tie together.

            There is plenty of explanation of various Greek words, particularly on, when Paul expressed himself on various topics, how he used certain words, avoided other words that were more common to that culture, and how the church, that group of people with a common faith in Jesus, was different from and similar to surrounding Jewish and Roman groups.  Banks moves through the topics of radical freedom (ch. 2), church as a household gathering (3), church as heavenly reality (4), community as family (5), community as a body (6), the intellectual part of spiritual growth (7), physical expressions of fellowship (8), gifts and ministry (9), charisma and order (10), unity and diversity (11)—at this point, for me, these subjects started not just flowing one from another, but tying together in a way that is more reality than just a theology tome—contribution of women (12), participation and its responsibilities (13), service and recognition (14), structure of Paul’s work (15), Paul’s work and the churches (16), the apostle and community (17), and, in conclusion, authority of the apostle (18).  For persons not really comfortable with the “church planter” idea in house churches, chapters 16 through 18 will be useful.

            For me, some notable ideas in this text are:  Banks’ explanation of how, in Ephesians 4:11, the word “pastors” may easily be a word modifying the following word “teachers”; discussion of 1 Tim 3:1 in the Revised Standard Version—that “the office of” before elder was an addition to the text by translators that only knew the western organizational form of worship and read their experience into the text; Romans 16:1—Phoebe as a leader, as opposed to a servant or helper.  Also covered are a number of details in the text that Paul and the original receivers of these letters would have known from living in that culture, but we don’t know unless it is explained to us.

            The more mature you are as a believer, and the more one is a functional leader, the more this read will be useful to you.  It is highly unlikely you will find this book on a bookstore shelf, or at a library, but it can be ordered (cbd.com has it in English and Spanish), or obtained on interlibrary loan.