Rachel & I have both enjoyed the opportunity to read and review books for Englewood Review.
As it happens we both had reviews come out in this week’s newsletter. Rachel reviewed Kaitlyn Scheiss’s fantastic new The Ballot and the Bible. Excerpt:
Many will resonate with her critique that some leaders refuse to address biblical issues from the pulpit (especially around social justice) by saying, “They put politics in their preaching, while we stick to the Bible”. Having grown up in Christian spaces, I have heard this message many times in implicit and explicit ways followed by leaders proclaiming they are proud to have a “healthy” Christian church or school. Schiess reminds her readers that none of us, church leadership or church attendees, “come to the biblical text as a clean slate” (33). We are a mixed bag of motivations and life experiences. She exhorts us to check in with those biases instead of leading with assertions and assumptions that lead to bad scriptural interpretation.
I finally caught up on a much delayed (100 % on me for overcommitting myself in a busy season) review of Kaitlin B. Curtice’s Living Resistance. Excerpt:
I was challenged by Curtice’s call to expand the beloved community (a concept central to the vision of the American Civil Rights movement) to encompass the invisible, the forgotten, and the persecuted. If our need for spiritual community leads us to vacate the humanity (and ordinary human needs) of those who live outside of the teachings of Scripture in order to practice our faith, we should reconsider what it is that we are practicing. To put it another way, why is it that a woman with the background in Christianity that Curtice has would feel the need to stand fully outside the church in order to seek a healthy community that takes her humanity and the humanity of those she loves seriously? If we are not willing to receive that testimony and consider that question, that should raise some major flags for our faithfulness to the fullness of the way of Jesus.
Take some time to check out these reviews and read these fine books!