Several books I don't regret reading this year. I know, damned by faint praise you might think. But I guess when your age gets on a bit you start to be more selective in what you read, and you hope for worthwhile rewards of time and effort given to this or that book. I like to think that in later years there's less shame in being utilitarian, self-interested, more careful in spending time wisely, not to mention spending money on that which is bread for the soul and the intellect.
Reading this book am I learning more? Am I being taken to other places in my human experience, or gladly spending a few days absorbed into an imaginative world of story? Is my heart being retuned by poetry or well written theology, which are sometimes not so very different from each other?
So here are five books from this year's shelf that I don't regret reading for one or other of the above reasons.
I so wish I had been able to read this book when I wrote a paper in 2028, on Martha and Mary, with the title "Masterchef or Mastermind. A Reception History of Luke 10.38-42 in Art." I know Helen Bond from her time in Aberdeen, and there are few New Testament historians more thorough, incisive and alert to how the way history is written and taught, serves agendas other than truth in its treatment of, and constructions from available evidence. The chapters on Martha and Mary, on Mary Magdalene, on Mary the Mother of Jesus, and on Phoebe and Junia and the Women of the Roman Church, are simply superb, and I now read these texts more attuned to damaging historical silences, significant nuances and valuable sidelights.
"Martha was on such familiar terms with Jesus that she reprimanded him and told him what to do!" Apart from Amy Jill Levine, no other commentary on Luke that I read while writing my paper takes at face value the familiarity of Martha in Jesus' presence in her own home. This whole chapter is an exegetical and social-contextual eye-opener.
Women Remembered is written by Joan Taylor and Helen Bond, and it is a highly effective collaboration between Edinburgh School of Divinity and Kings College, London.
By far the most enjoyable novel of the year was Robert Harris's Act of Oblivion. The execution of Charles I reverberated across Europe, and just over a decade later the Restoration of Charles II created in Britain a climate of fear and menace for those guilty of aiding the regicide.
The novel follows the efforts of Richard Nayler, Secretary of the Regicide Committee, to apprehend those who had signed the death warrant of King Charles I. Two of them flee across the Atlantic, but even there their nemesis pursues them. It's a story well told, but what makes Harris such a gripping writer is detail, atmosphere, historical theatre as he recreates life in 17th Century London, and the new colonies.
By the way, I find it odd that this year another novel, this time by S G Maclean, is telling a very similar story. Maclean is a good novelist, and having a wee gift token I've just ordered The Winter List – it will be interesting to compare two novelists, recreating the same historical context and events, and with some of the same characters woven into the texture of the story.
I read commentaries, It takes a while, and can often feel like being on an archaeological dig where every care is taken to discover tiny clues which may be significant details in reconstructing the original context, intent and social environment that underlie the multiple layers of the text. Of the three I read this year I don't regret the time taken for the long read through Amy Erickson's commentary on Jonah, in the Illuminations series.
The book is in two parts. After about 70 pages of the usual introductory questions, there are over 170 pages devoted to the History of Consequences. This is an approach unique to the Illuminations Series. How has this small Hebrew prophetic pamphlet been read, received and explained in sermons, art, novels, music, film and in marginalised communities? The after-effects of an influential text significantly impact on later interpretations – this is fascinating and essential knowledge if we are to understand the use and misuse of sacred text.
The interpretation section builds on the first Part. Two hundred pages exploring the literary artistry, historical and religious context, theological claims and puzzles of the text. Superb!
Women scholars are at the forefront of Jonah scholarship, and especially the reception history and history of interpretation; Erickson has carefully excavated this history of interpretation, and has used that information to examine the consequences, impact and after effects of certain interpretations. In doing so she unearths surprising, at times shocking, ways the text of Jonah has been preached, received, interpreted and how it has shaped (at times misshaped), cultural norms and theological conclusions, for good and ill.
Every year for many a year I read Walter Brueggemann. Do I agree with all he writes – of course not, uncle Walter himself would scoff at such an obedience of the intellect! The very titles of Brueggemann's books make me interested. Truth and Hope. Essays for a Perilous Age, has been my Advent reading these past few weeks. It has been vintage Brueggemann – provocative exegesis, clearly delineated targets for prophetic comment of judgement or mercy on the illusions, pretensions, abuses and ethical failures of a world so devoted to consumerism it is consuming itself.
The chapters on 'Prayer as Neighbour Love', 'Justice as Love of God', and 'Prayer and Justice as Disciplines of Identity Maintenance', represent some of the best political spirituality, (or spirituality for politically perilous times) rooted in the ethical imperatives of the great Hebrew prophets, and expounded in the light of incarnation, Calvary and resurrection. These are gathered and republished essays, as most of the recent Brueggemann volumes have been. They are none the worse for that. And as a feature of Brueggemann's pastoral scholarship, the Endnotes in this and his other books, are an education in wide-ranging, interdisciplinary exploration of insights that help to drive our enthusiasm for the text. For Brueggemann, always the text. You might not always like what he does with said text, but this is a scholar and Christian who has wrestled at Jabbok and limped away towards the dawn.
I have always liked the honesty and forthrightness of Rory Stewart. In the leadership contest of the Conservative Party he accepted nomination as a candidate. He was never going to win. The febrile political shenanigans of a political Party in crisis because of serial serious crises of its own making, already made the leadership contest a foregone and foreboding conclusion.
The tone and content of Stewart's account of his time as an MP, Minister and Cabinet Minister is fairly summed up in the publisher's surprisingly restrained description:
"Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet Minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow and inadequate our democracy and government had become.
Cronyism, ignorance and sheer incompetence ran rampant. Around him, individual politicians laid the foundations for the political and economic chaos of today…Stewart emerged with…a deep, direct insight into the era of populism and global conflict."
Not only do I not regret the time reading this book; I have spent some time since revisiting it, pondering the how and why of a political machinery that can chew up good people and spit them out as if integrity, courage of conviction, valuable life experience, intelligence harnessed to moral character, were vices rather than virtues. When I ask myself which politicians should be gifted the support of those holding Christian convictions, leaving party affiliation aside, I am looking for virtues rather than vices, character rather than personality, constituency concern rather than the convenience of a safe seat, and yes, a concern for truth and integrity in public life.
