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I have spent hundreds of hours in the company of George Herbert, Charles Wesley and Julian of Norwich. I read widely, so there are plenty of others well up the frequent and regular reading list. But these three have a special place for several reasons. 

Each of them has shaped my theology and spirituality, and have helped build in my mind a durable and symbiotic connection between the two. Theology is an exercise of the intellect which shapes spirituality, and spirituality as the experience of, and personal response to, the love of God in Christ, so that the two coalesce in a theological understanding best expressed in prayer. 

Three years ago I completed a tapestry based on Julian's parable of the hazelnut – I've added the text below, at the end of this post. The tapestry, as shown here, was designed and worked over four months. A fuller explanation of what I was seeking to explore can be found over on this page.

That exercise in close reading of a text through imaginative and creative work with threads, colour and canvas, deepened further my appreciation of the spiritual courage, theological urgency and literary brilliance of Julian and her Revelations of Divine Love. In May 2023 the tapestry, titled 'Benedicite Domine', was included in an art exhibition at the University of St Andrews. I was understandably chuffed, but also pleased that a piece of art inspired by a 14th Century anchoress, whose writings broke the male dominance of theological discourse and constructive thought, was on display in an exhibition titled "Enfolding: a Study of Margins and Centres."

However, having completed a work on the visionary theology of Julian, that left Charles Wesley and George Herbert, and the question of whether I might attempt a visual exposition of their lyrical poetry. Of course they are very different in Christian experience, historical context, theological emphasis, personality, and ecclesial commitments and convictions. Yet over the years of immersion in their hymns and poetry I was aware of an underlying affinity in their verse, a shared emphasis on the religious affections and the synergy between theological understanding and the spiritual experience of the writer.

Both George Herbert and Charles Wesley were profoundly serious in their quest for personal holiness, and in their poetry deeply confessional about their struggles with sin, their failures of love, their self-diminishing sense of unworthiness. Yet alongside such self-disqualification there are whole poems, verses and even single lines, that flame with faith and trust in the eternal love of God, revealed in Christ crucified and risen, and in which Christians live and move, and quite literally, have their being. 

At the start of Advent 2023 I started a tapestry I had been planning in my head for some time. 'Planning' is perhaps too rigid as a term, because I begin any tapestry aiming at visual exposition of a text with a broad and unresolved sense of what I want to do. Ideas evolve in the process of working it, and there are times when some part of the design doesn't work, and unexpected decisions about stitch, colour, pattern turn out surprisingly to be right.

However this tapestry was an attempt to explore two particular poems which I had in mind, one by Herbert, one by Wesley. The Herbert one I know by heart, the Wesley one is one of my favourite hymns and is also known by heart. Incidentally, that phrase 'known by heart', captures very well the intended impact of Wesley's hymns, and the spiritual longings of Herbert's poems. 

In any case, the two poems were already pretty thoroughly woven into my own inner spiritual patterns, which I trust have slowly been taking shape under the loving wisdom of the Holy Spirit, the ultimate tapestry worker! I already knew what would fill the central panel, the key image in Herbert's poem and Wesley's hymn. However, creating the right context in both the image and the background theological reflection – that needed working out.

The result is a tapestry that has taken less time than I imagined. Of course, one reason for that is the less than congenial weather over the past few weeks, and therefore more time indoors to move the work along. Once the tapestry has been framed I'll do another post and try to explain what on earth I was trying to do! 

Meantime, here is the parable of the hazelnut from the brilliant Julian, which inspired 'Benedicite Domine:

“And in this he showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally thus, ‘It is all that is made.’

I marvelled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that God loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.”

  ………………

The statue of George Herbert is on Westminster Abbey, one of a series on notable Christians.

The Wesley picture shows my well used Oxford Ed. of The Hymn Book for the People Called Methodists, a souvenir mug from Gwnap Pit, and a Victorian cockle plate showing Charles Wesley, a gift from Sheila who knows exactly the right kind of gift. 

Yesterday I braved the snow and ice to honour a good man whose name will always be associated with the Kirk of St Nicholas in Aberdeen

Rev James Charles Stewart's entire working life was spent in fulfilling a deep commitment to the parish ministry of the Church of Scotland. He died on Hogmanay at the age of 90, full of years and decades of faithful ministry which continued for years beyond his retirement.

I met Jim in 1984 and though very different in personality, church tradition and life story, we became friends in that way that doesn't need frequent meeting and talking to sustain. The times our paths crossed there was nearly always time for a blether about anything from politics to ministry matters to whatever we were reading. For those on this page who will have known Jim, I wanted to mention several reasons I made my way to the 'Mither Kirk' yesterday.

I wanted to honour a good man, whose service to the City was one of the joys of his ministry. The high point was the year when Mikael Gorbachev was given the freedom of the City of Aberdeen, and Jim shared the Civic carriage with him as they processed the length of Union Street.

I wanted to give thanks for Jim, a thoughtful, traditional, and theologically precise preacher, loved of his congregation, respected by the City Councillors, and held in esteem throughout the Church of Scotland. For half a century he was a member of the Aberdeenshire Theological Club and every few years delivered a paper on various hidden corners of Scottish Church history. As current President of the ATC, I wanted to be there in memory of Jim the scholar and repository of the ecclesial traditions of the Kirk.

I was glad to hear again the back-story of Jim Stewart. Precise and meticulous and deeply informed in liturgical theology and practice, he was made for a ministry requiring the public face of the Kirk in city and nation. He brought thoughtful dignity to civic occasions and pastoral encounters alike. And yet. His first full charge was in Drumchapel, one of the most challenging of the Glasgow housing estates. He loved and never undersold the resilience and humanity of the folk in his Glasgow parish. In conversation his humanity and compassion came through in the words and responses of an essentially shy and reserved man, who loved both his vocation, and the people who were on the receiving end of both his gifts and his time.

True to his love of Scottish Reformed liturgy, Jim chose a Hymn, a Psalm and a Scottish paraphrase for the Thanksgiving Service. There was no photo on the Order of Service, the simplicity even sparseness of the design, the hallmark of a man who resisted drawing attention to himself; instead the plain single line cross, front and centre. As it was in the final hymn chosen by Jim, and printed below.

One last thought. As the life and faith of the Church in Scotland goes through rapid and disorienting change, Jim represented the high point of post-war transformation of the role and calling of parish ministry. He was a man of his time, and was puzzled and sad to see the relentless and accelerating decline of Christian cultural influence in Scotland. What remains though, from the ministry of Jim Stewart, is the lingering influence of a life dedicated to God, to his parish and city, in which gift and discipline, prayer and scholarship, brought the joy of service and the friendship of many.

Coming out the West Door, an elderly lady was struggling with her walking stick on the slippy cobblestones. I took her arm, and escorted her down to the taxi rank in Little Belmont Street. I learned she was one of the Elders of St Nicholas, and she had her own thoughts of the Rev James C Stewart. Mostly they coincided with mine! Rest in peace and rise in glory, good and faithful servant.

1 The Saviour died, but rose again
triumphant from the grave;
and pleads our cause at God's right hand,
omnipotent to save.

2 Who then can e'er divide us more
from Jesus and his love,
or break the sacred chain that binds
the earth to heaven above?

3 Let troubles rise, and terrors frown,
and days of darkness fall;
through him all dangers we'll defy,
and more than conquer all.

4 Nor death nor life, nor earth nor hell,
nor time's destroying sway,
can e'er efface us from his heart,
or make his love decay.

5 Each future period that will bless,
as it has blessed the past;
he loved us from the first of time,
he loves us to the last.

Monday

Luke 11.1 “Lord, teach us to pray…”

Behind that request there is a lot of honesty, even humility. We all recognise prayer is vital, that is, life-giving. How do we speak to God? What do we ask for? Is there a right way and a wrong way to pray? To the first question, we speak as children to a loving parent. To the second, we ask whatever we need and whenever we need it. The third is best answered by remembering God knows our heart, and our world. The only wrong way to pray may well be not bothering to pray at all!

Tuesday

Luke 11.9 “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Promises, promises. If I ask for grace in time of need God says, my grace is sufficient for you. If I seek God’s guidance about a big decision, God says you will look and you will find me when you seek with your whole heart. If life seems to be a closed door, remember at Easter Jesus came and stood amongst them “though the doors were closed”. No, life doesn’t always turn out the way we thought, or the way we want. So we trust God’s promises, because all God’s promises are ‘Yes’ in Christ! (2 Cor.1.20)   

Wednesday

John 17.20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.”

It’s well worth remembering that before we utter a word of prayer, we have already been prayed for by the One to whom we pray. What’s more, the crucified and risen Lord “is at the right hand of God and ever lives to make intercession for us.” Every day, every breath and heartbeat, we are held in the heart of Eternal Love, drawn into the inner life of the Triune God. The Spirit prays within us, and Christ intercedes for us, at the right hand of the Father. We pray as those continually prayed for.

Thursday

Romans 12.12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

These three things are connected in the spiritual life. Joy isn’t an occasional emotional high, it’s the underlying confidence of faith, trustfulness in God who is the God of hope. Patience in affliction is easier said than done, but it’s often in the hard times, even the hardest times, that strength comes to us from beyond us, from God. Faithfulness in prayer is that persistent leaning on God, in whose hands we are held, and in whose loving purposes our daily lives are woven in mercy and grace.

Friday

1 Timothy 2.1 “I urge then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for everyone…”

Paul is writing about prayer in worship – and insisting that the worshipping community should pray urgently, widely, generously, faithfully and inclusively. For everyone. The church is not entitled as a first priority to pray for itself and its own success. The Christian community at prayer is putting into words the love of God for a broken world, and for people to be loved and prayed for wherever we might find them and wherever they have ended up in life. We should pray in a church with glass walls, and with our eyes open and with hearts pre-set to compassion as default.

Saturday

1 Timothy 2.1-2 “I urge then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for everyone…for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

The idea that the church shouldn’t get involved in politics is one that Paul’s whole life refutes. From his speech on the Areopagus, his meetings with Agrippa, his detention in Philippi, his insistence against every claim of the Emperor that there is one Lord and his name is Jesus –  political. Faithful discipleship requires of us an awareness of power, how it is used and abused. One way we confront and critique power is in prayers for justice to the One whose is the kingdom, the power and the glory.

Sunday

2 Corinthians 1.10-11a “God has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.”

This verse is one good reason we pray for each other, and for those going through difficult times and valleys of darkness. We have no idea what difference our prayers make to how people’s lives turn out. We do know that people are helped by knowing they are being prayed for. What we don’t know is how God answers not only our prayers, but the deepest needs of those he loves. God uses our faithful prayers in ways we can’t begin to imagine in bringing blessing to others. You know you’re doing this prayer thing right when someone says, “you help us by your prayers.”

We are pilgrims on a journey. We are brothers on the road.

We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you in the night time of your fear.

I will hold my hand out to you; speak the peace you long to hear.

This is not a book review; more an appreciation of a book that is so informative, engaging and downright interesting that I'm deliberately reading it slowly, with pencil in hand, and entirely at ease about re-reading a paragraph or page or two. 

I'm now half way through my Christmas present to myself. The Johannine Renaissance brings together two of my places of intellectual contentment and reward; the Gospel of John and Seventeenth Century poetry and theology. What has been refreshing in reading Cefalu's study of Johannine theology and early modern English literature and theology, is an early established confidence that the author has 'read, learned and inwardly digested' the significant primary sources and secondary studies pertinent to his overall thesis. 

His main contention is that scholarly discussions of soteriology have concentrated on Pauline atonement theology, and justification as the core experimental doctrine. The result has been an eclipse of the equally significant influence of Johannine theology in seeking to understand both the doctrine and experience of salvation in the lives and minds of 17th Century Christians. By contrast to the Pauline emphasis on atonement, Cefalu argues that the Johannine focus is on revelation, what is heard and seen of the Word of Life. The book aims to demonstrate John's revelatory Christology as of equal significance for understanding the theology and experience of many mainstream Christian voices in 17th Century England. Cefalu is well aware of the complexities of theology, political expediencies and agendas, ecclesial and liturgical controversies, that created so much turbulence throughout the 17th Century.

He is also well appraised of the history of biblical interpretation, especially Augustine's pervasive influence throughout the medieval and into the Reformation and early modern periods. When you find Marianne Thompson, Paul Anderson, Raymond Brown and Craig Koester amongst the key conversation partners, and from an earlier era, Rudolf Bultmann, C. H. Dodd, and Ernst Kasemann are given their due as classic voices in the history of Johannine interpretation, the ingredients are there for rich fare. 

Add to this Cefalu's obvious familiarity with current and past scholarship on Herbert, Milton, Donne, Vaughan, Crashaw and Quarles, and a host of less celebrated poets, preachers and expositors, and the result is a book like this; richly textured, thoroughly documented, lucidly written eschewing scholarly jargon, theologically informed and avoiding overstating his argument or overplaying the evidence. The chapters focus on specific Johannine texts:

Chapter 2. John 6 and the Bread of Life discourse, which Cefalu demonstrates was interpreted by Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw and Taylor variously, but in each case avoiding the suggestions of sacramental import and claims of the real presence validated by the I am saying. Herbert for example, is shown to interpret the key texts in the light of Christ's ascension and Christ's presence as manifested through the Spirit in the communion elements. The Eucharist is a pneumatological event, and is celebrated by acknowledging the location of Christ in heaven, made real by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 3. The John 20 encounter between the risen Jesus and Mary Magdalene, leads to various artistic depictions of  the Noli Me Tangere pericope. There is fascinating discussion on Johannine intertextuality, and comment on the nature of devotion, failed discipleship and the Catholic poets' later glorification of Mary Magdalene. 

Chapter 4. The Farewell Discourse and the role of the Paraclete / Comforter takes up an entire chapter exploring Reformed pneumatology, Donne's sermons and Holy Sonnets. A highlight of the book so far, is Cefalu's insistence that Donne's "Batter my heart" is an exposition of regeneration by the Spirit, who is the primary agent throughout the sonnet. There is considerable persuasiveness in the examinations of  the experience of the Holy Spirit, Paraclete and Comforter, and the analyses of the religious affections, experimental devotion and lyrical rapture in the writings of Donne and others, Joseph Hall being chosen as exemplar.  The portrayal of Donne in his own sonnet as impatient for the fullness of grace, to the point of being discontent with grace already received, is very well done, and deserves serious consideration as an interpretation of a sonnet many find troublesome in its intensity. Beyond Donne, there is consideration of John Milton's concern about false spirits, and the dangers of pneumatological distortions, excesses and subversions of ecclesial order and political stability.  

That's as far as I've reached. Three chapters remain on God is love, Johannine dualism and radical dissent, and on Irony in John and in the two poets, Herbert and Vaughan. Only half way through this six course banquet, and like any attempt on such a meal, it's wise to take your time and have space and time between the courses / chapters.    

Monday

1 Corinthians 13.8 “Love never fails, But where there are prophecies they will cease; where there are tongues they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

What is it that lasts when everything else runs out of time, energy, and impetus? Love. That’s what lasts. All those acts of kindness, bearing others’ burdens, gifts of time to listen, forgiveness offered before it’s asked, patience in peace-making. Add up all the most impressive spiritual gifts. They don’t displace love. “Lord fill us with your love, the characteristic behaviour pattern of the Christ-like disciple.”

Tuesday

1 Corinthians 13.9-10  “For we know in part, and we prophecy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”

The more we think we know of God’s love and purpose, the less we really know. As for prophecy, it’s about speech and action enabled by the Holy Spirit. If love is deficient or even absent, no amount of claimed spirituality can make up that deficit. Christ-like love, to love as Christ loves – to the same extent, with the same wide-warmed embrace of others, at personal cost ungrudgingly paid – to aim at such love is to aim at perfection. “Lord, help us to live towards the perfection of your love.”

Wednesday

1 Corinthians 13.11 “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, but when I grew to maturity I put away childish things.”

Paul is telling the Corinthians to grow up! The community of Christ is not a playground. Worship, prayer and service are not games where the joy is in winning and out-competing others. Maturity is not fascination with gifts and personal promotion, or needing to be entertained and amused at every turn. Loving others is a serious though joyful lifestyle, funded and fuelled by the Holy Spirit, with Christ as both coach and goal. Only in that sense is it about ‘playing the game’. “Lord, bring us to maturity in Christ, and forgive us when we cling to childish things.”

Thursday

1 Corinthians 13.12 “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face.”

Mirrors in Paul’s day were polished metal, and it was very difficult to see exactly and clearly what the face looks like. Distortions and blurring were common in most affordable mirrors. The important phrase is “but then”. When we see Jesus face to face what we will see is the love of God in Christ incarnate, crucified, risen and ascended.  Whatever divine love looks like when looking on us, that we will see. And it’s that anticipation of looking on the One who loved us from all eternity that is the inspiration for Jesus followers to love as we are loved. Lord may we look with love on those you look on with love, because Love is who you are, and who we are in Christ.

Friday

1 Corinthians 13.12 “Now I know in part; but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

We see ourselves poorly, as in a faulty mirror. More than that, whatever we think we know, it’s always only part of what we can possibly know. It’s a scary thought that anyone, let alone God, should know us fully, completely, comprehensively, in all the complexity, vulnerability and unpredictability of the person we are. We only partly understand ourselves at the best of times. Time will come when before God we will stand, fully understood, all masks removed, face to face with the Triune God of grace made known in Christ Jesus our Lord– “Then Lord, may we fully know the Love that fully knows us to the deepest reality of who we are, and know ourselves loved.”

Saturday

1 Corinthians 13.13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

That word abide, it means to go on existing, to endure when much else has evaporated. They are the three cardinal virtues of Christian life: faith, hope and love. It is the love of God in Christ that we trust, in believing faith; and it is that same love of God revealed in Christ, enacted by the Holy Spirit who draws us towards God’s future. Such Christ-centred faith and hope are sure and steadfast, because anchored in the reality of who God is. God is love. “Lord God, in your eternal love we trust and hope. Make us live and move and have our being in the grace and love of Christ.”

Sunday

1 Corinthians 14.1 “Follow the way of love…”

The word Paul uses for ‘Follow’, can mean pursue, chase after, and suggests a determined hunt. Love is not a leisure pursuit or discretionary activity. Love is an intentional way of life, built on habits of the heart, sustained by the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5.5) You follow Jesus you follow the way of love; neighbours and enemies, the least, the last and the lost, the annoying and the enjoyable folk, folk of our own faith or no faith. “Brother, sister, let me serve you, let me be as Christ to you; pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant, too.” And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Just about at the centre, partly hidden by reeds, a parent swan and cygnet. One of the parent birds disappeared over the summer, but we're always uplifted in seeing these two making their way through the winter.

It was W H Vanstone who nearly 50 years ago in Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense, made me think more deeply about how we become invested in that which we love and labour over, and how over time we are shaped by that in which we invest our lives.

You could walk past this lochan any day, watch the various waterfowl, then walk on till the next time. But once you stop to look, to imagine the precarious early weeks of a cygnet, to watch it grow stronger, swim more independently, it begins to matter that it should flourish, grow and come to be just what a swan is made to be.

It's such attentiveness to life and the individual lives around us, a cultivated caring about outcomes for people, animals and our living world, that can help us back to the place where we confer value and worth on each life as God-given gift – and invest in life and the lives around us as gifts for which we bear personal responsibility, a duty of stewardship care, if you will. Or so it seems to me 

Monday, New Year’s Day

2 Corinthians 5.17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

New beginnings are part of life. The new job, a new relationship, our new role as parent or child as life moves on. Even a new car, kitchen, or cat, changes the way we feel and live our lives. It’s harder for us to change who we are inside, though. Only God the Creator can recreate, make new, transform and change us from the heart outwards. To be in Christ and know Christ in us, is the core experience of Christian faith. Paul calls it new creation; Jesus calls it being born again. It’s what God does.

Tuesday.

Acts 17.19 “Then they took Paul and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?  You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”

Get used to it. The Gospel is good news and will sound strange to those who have no idea what you’re talking about. Jesus was God’s Son come amongst us as a man. On the cross Jesus bore and carried away the weight of the world’s sin. Jesus confronted hate with love, violence with peace, guilt with forgiveness. The resurrection was both God’s No! to sin and death, and God’s Yes! to new life in Christ. Strange ideas indeed, for a world like ours. Christ is risen! That’s the good news. Live it and speak it.

Wednesday

John 13.34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

The new command isn’t new at all. What’s new is how Jesus demonstrated what it means to love one another. “As I have loved you.” The bar is raised beyond what we can manage without the grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit who pours the love of God into hearts made new. Jesus commands us to be like him in the way we love others – self-giving, generous, forgiving, faithful, persistent – “Having loved his own, he loved them to the very end…As I have loved you so you must love…”

Thursday

1 Corinthians 11.25 “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

The new relationship between God and the believer in Jesus, reconciliation through the blood of Jesus, God’s ancient promise to put a new heart into his people – all of this proclaimed, prayed and received in faith as the gracious gift, and forever faithful promise of God. That’s what Holy Communion is, living out the love and mercy of God in a new relationship of covenanted love. Love is a doing word, doing the will of God. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Friday

Matthew 13.57 “Every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

Continuing Professional development. Lifelong Learning. Annual appraisals. In the world of work it’s expected that we will extend our skill set, improve our professional performance, and hold on to and learn from important experiences. Jesus is saying that discipleship is no different in its demands that we be the best disciple of the kingdom we can be. Learning what’s new, building on what we already know, growing and maturing as ‘workmen who need not be ashamed.” New Year is a good time to reset our priorities in the light of the Kingdom of God, and the call of Jesus.

Saturday

Mark 2.21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.”

The new life in Christ isn’t a patchwork of the old and the new. When we are clothed with Christ we put on a new garment. You can’t mix them. A Christian can’t love and hate, bear a grudge and forgive, be selfish and generous, claim to be truthful while lying, ignore suffering and show the love and compassion of God. You can’t keep your old clothes and patch them up with good intentions. To be new in Christ is to wear the uniform of Jesus’ followers – the new unshrunk cloth of a new life in Christ.

Sunday

Revelation 21.5 “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

I’m not sure we take those words seriously enough. Everything! New! God will take the whole creation and repristinate it. I know! It sounds like one of those big words a writer uses to impress the readers. But it’s the right word. It means “to restore something to its original state or condition.” God’s promise is to renew the creation that “groans, awaiting its redemption.” To reverse the ravages of sin, restore the brokenness of relationships, to dry the tears of the heartbroken, to end suffering and make possible again the joy and fulfilment of a creation dancing once more to the Creator’s music of love, life and fellowship. How? I’ve no idea! But John was told, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”  And God knows!

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.