[1] This book breaks no new ground and has little to offer cognoscenti.\u00a0 But this is an observation, not a criticism.\u00a0 The authors, a biblical scholar and a religious journalist, aim for a general audience made up of millennials and others who are comfortable with evolution and distance from Christian faith because of its perceived prejudice against science.\u00a0 It is an apologetic appeal written in clear, jargon-free prose \u2013 although an alert copy editor should have caught the grating overuse of \u201cdefault.\u201d\u00a0 Adult and youth study groups will find their exploration of this slim volume amply rewarded.\u00a0 Indeed, the publisher missed an opportunity to add value to the book by adding discussion questions at the end of each chapter.<\/p>\n
[2] \u201cOne of the key purposes of this book,\u201d the authors write, \u201cis to show how, in the course of Mark\u2019s narrative, Jesus\u2019s mission initiates a quantum leap in Israel\u2019s mission of restoring humankind and all creation to its initial state of harmony.\u201d\u00a0 This focus on Christ as the avant garde of a universal trajectory is important and necessary, an eschatology or \u201ccosmic theology\u201d especially helpful for Plato-influenced dualists for whom Christ is largely a ticket to another world.\u00a0 This spiritualizing gospel misses the Markan Jesus\u2019s aim to create, by his loving acts, \u201cfields of compassion\u201d whereby tikkun olam<\/em> is effected and the prelapsarian status quo ante between heaven and earth is restored.<\/p>\n [3] This new creation motif is nicely shown in the evangelist\u2019s treatment of the Messiah\u2019s post-baptism wilderness experience.\u00a0 In Eden, there was initially no antagonism between the animals, human and not.\u00a0 Just so, the divine Restorer, after the routing of his satanic rival, \u201cwas among the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.\u201d<\/p>\n [4] Ecological themes, including keeping wilderness wild, bulk large in the book.\u00a0 The authors lament the intrusion of dispensationalism and other dualisms into Christian views of creation, which is the object of God\u2019s redemptive activity.\u00a0 They helpfully cite Thomas Berry, Pierre Teilhard and Pope Francis, a list that would have been enriched by contributions from Bill McKibben.\u00a0 Highlighting creation care as a sacred duty fits well with the larger theme of the divine project of the healing of the entire cosmos in the kingdom of Jesus\u2019s Father.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this capacious hope is put forward without reference to the Son\u2019s resurrection, the good news of new creation.\u00a0 Indeed, the authors\u2019 presentation is innocent of any robust trinitarian theology and their picture of Jesus veers away from the creed toward a one-dimensional, 19th<\/sup> century \u201cGreat Teacher.\u201d\u00a0 I find this odd, given the Roman Catholic background of both authors.<\/p>\n [5] Connell and Bartholomew demonstrate skill in using Genesis and Mark to show heaven\u2019s salvific and revolutionary intent in areas such as the status of women, violence and death, and racial justice.\u00a0 Readers will be enriched by getting to know prophets of God\u2019 vision like Abraham Joshua Heschel and Dorothy Day.\u00a0 I commend the authors for their inclusion of Jewish perspectives and offer for further inquiry Christianity in Jewish Terms<\/em>, ed. Tikva Frymer-Kensky et al.<\/em>\u00a0 The Qur\u2019an is also included in the list of primary sources.\u00a0 And there is also plenty to chew on in secondary sources, to which I would add Stanley Hauerwas, Ron Sider and John Howard Yoder.\u00a0 Add, too, John Dominic Crossan\u2019s The Historical Jesus<\/em>.<\/p>\n [6] A quibble?\u00a0 The era markers BCE\/CE, while not universally accepted, should have been explained to a lay audience.\u00a0 But don\u2019t let any of my grouchy grousings deter you from reading this clearly-argued book, or from using it in study groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [1] This book breaks no new ground and has little to offer cognoscenti.\u00a0 But this is an observation, not a criticism.\u00a0 The authors, a biblical scholar and a religious journalist, aim for a general audience made up of millennials and others who are comfortable with evolution and distance from Christian faith because of its perceived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n