Fortress Press Research Articles

The Perfectly Simple Triune God: Aquinas and his Legacy. By D.Stephen Long. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016. Pp. xxvi + 422; paper, $49.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 43, Issue 3 p. 266-266 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Theology The Perfectly Simple Triune God: Aquinas and his Legacy. By D. Stephen Long. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016. Pp. xxvi + 422; paper, $49.00. Jack D. Kilcrease, Jack D. Kilcrease Institute of Lutheran TheologySearch for more papers by this author Jack D. Kilcrease, Jack D. Kilcrease Institute of Lutheran TheologySearch for more papers by this author First published: 13 September 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.13078Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume43, Issue3Special Issue: Studying the Extraordinary: Marian Apparitions and Anomalous Religious ExperiencesSeptember 2017Pages 266-266 RelatedInformation

Systematic Theology, Volume 1, The Doctrine of God by KatherineSonderegger (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), xxv + 539 pp.

Modern TheologyVolume 33, Issue 4 p. 705-707 Review Systematic Theology, Volume 1, The Doctrine of God by Katherine Sonderegger ( Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), xxv + 539 pp. D. Stephen Long, D. Stephen Long dslong1@me.com Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology, PO Box 750133, Dallas, TX 75275-0133, USASearch for more papers by this author D. Stephen Long, D. Stephen Long dslong1@me.com Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology, PO Box 750133, Dallas, TX 75275-0133, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 25 August 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12372Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume33, Issue4October 2017Pages 705-707 RelatedInformation

The annotated Luther, I: The roots of reform. Edited by Timothy J. Wengert . Pp. xiii + 574 incl. 73 ills. and 2 maps. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. £25.99. 978 1 4514 6269 2 - The annotated Luther, II: Word and faith. Edited by Kirsi I. Stjerna . Pp. xiv + 514 incl. 87 ills. and 2 maps. Minneapolis: Fortress

The annotated Luther, <i>I:</i> The roots of reform. Edited by Timothy J. Wengert . Pp. xiii + 574 incl. 73 ills. and 2 maps. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. £25.99. 978 1 4514 6269 2 - The annotated Luther, <i>II</i><i>:</i> Word and faith. Edited by Kirsi I. Stjerna . Pp. xiv + 514 incl. 87 ills. and 2 maps. Minneapolis: Fortress

Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods. vol. 1: Life, Culture, and Society. Edited by David A.Fiensy and James RileyStrange. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Pp. xvii + 411. Paper, $69.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 43, Issue 2 p. 166-166 Short Reviews on Recent Publications: Christian Origins Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods. vol. 1: Life, Culture, and Society. Edited by David A. Fiensy and James Riley Strange. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Pp. xvii + 411. Paper, $69.00. Daniel M. Gurtner, Daniel M. Gurtner Southern SeminarySearch for more papers by this author Daniel M. Gurtner, Daniel M. Gurtner Southern SeminarySearch for more papers by this author First published: 14 June 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.12960Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume43, Issue2June 2017Pages 166-166 RelatedInformation

Horror and its Aftermath: Reconsidering Theology and Human Experience. By SallyStamper. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016. Pp. ix + 236. Hardcover, $79.00.

Horror and its Aftermath: Reconsidering Theology and Human Experience. By SallyStamper. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016. Pp. ix + 236. Hardcover, $79.00.

Luther Refracted: The Reformer's Ecumenical Legacy. Edited by PitorJ.Maøøysz and Derek R.Nelson. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. xvii + 336. Paper, $35.00.

Luther Refracted: The Reformer's Ecumenical Legacy. Edited by PitorJ.Maøøysz and Derek R.Nelson. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. xvii + 336. Paper, $35.00.

Review of Maia Kotrosits, Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence and Belonging, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2015

Review of Maia Kotrosits, Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence and Belonging, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2015

&lt;em&gt;Healing in the Gospel of Matthew: Reflections on Method and Ministry&lt;/em&gt; by Walter T. Wilson, Fortress Press, December 2014

Walter Wilson, a professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology, wrote this book to help us gain new insights on the topic of healing by using a number of different forms of gospel criticism to help us look at the healing miracles in Matthew chaptres 8-9. Wilson challenges us to think more broadly and in new categories in our reading of these healing narratives in Matthew.

Book Review: Reading the Bible with Richard Hooker

Reading the Bible with Richard Hooker. By Daniel Eppley. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2016. xxxviii + 307 pp. $79.00 (cloth).While the recent renaissance of Richard Hooker studies has produced many fine research monographs and articles, there remains an urgent need to get Hooker back into the classroom, the pulpit, and the pew, to enable this startlingly relevant sixteenth-century divine to speak into the twenty-firstcentury church and society. Daniel Eppley's new book, Reading the Bible with Richard Hooker, answers to that need wonderfully, while at the same time offering fresh insights and opening new paths of inquiry for Hooker scholars. Recognizing that today, just as much as in the Reformation era, many Protestants remain confused about just what to do with their mantra of sola Scriptura, Eppley mines wisdom from Hookers clash with Thomas Cartwright and the Puritans to address the nature of certainty, and the role of reason and human authority in Christian faith. Eppley brings his careful reading of Hookers corpus into conversation with Susan Schreiner's recent research on the quest for certainty in the sixteenth century and Barbara Shapiro's on the seventeenth century, but also, more creatively, with the play Othello.Chapter 1, Scoundrels and Fools, carefully surveys the background of religious debate that set the stage for Hooker's contribution, particularly the Admonition Controversy between John Whitgift and Thomas Cartwright. Despite their radically different conclusions and allegiances, both men, argues Eppley, shared a commitment to a simplistic and literalistic biblical hermeneutic that made them see any who disagreed with them as either ill-intentioned scoundrels or unintelligent fools.Chapter 2, The Puritan is perhaps the most engaging read as well as the most original contribution of the book, comparing Hooker's diagnosis of the dangers of a misguided search for certainty to that offered by Shakespeare in his famous tragedy. Although not claiming that Hooker's analysis directly influenced Shakespeare's play, or even that Shakespeare had the problem of Puritanism specifically in mind when he wrote Othello, Eppley persuasively argues that both are wrestling, within a few years of each other, with the same constellation of issues such that they can shed remarkable light on one another. Both, in short, show that the misguided quest for certainty in matters that are intrinsically uncertain is a recipe for destructive selfdeception, as ambiguous evidence is made to bear an unsustainable weight.Chapter 3, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, expands upon this argument by showing how Hooker, recognizing that most matters of scriptural interpretation and application are probabilistic rather than certain, puts great weight on the role of the community and its representatives in making these probable judgments. …

Joseph A.BrackenS.J.The World in the Trinity: Open‐Ended Systems in Science and Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.

Joseph A.BrackenS.J.The World in the Trinity: Open‐Ended Systems in Science and Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.

Soundings in the Religion of Jesus: Perspectives and Methods in Jewish and Christian Scholarship. Edited by BruceChilton, AnthonyLe Donne, JacobNeusner, pp. xix, 268, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2012, $12.26.

Soundings in the Religion of Jesus: Perspectives and Methods in Jewish and Christian Scholarship. Edited by BruceChilton, AnthonyLe Donne, JacobNeusner, pp. xix, 268, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2012, $12.26.

Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr by Matthew Lewis Sutton

Reviewed by: Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr by Matthew Lewis Sutton Matthew Kuhner Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr by Matthew Lewis Sutton (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014), xvi + 244 pp. In 1968, Hans Urs von Balthasar famously wrote the following lines: “On the whole, I received far more from [Adrienne von Speyr], theologically, than she from me, though, of course, the exact proportion can never be calculated. … Today, after her death, Adrienne von Speyr’s work appears far more important than mine.”1 Such a powerful statement from one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century ought to give pause: who was Adrienne von Speyr, and what is so important about the writings that she has left to the Church? In his recent study, Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr, Matthew Sutton offers a scholarly and lucid answer to this pressing question. The careful work of this young scholar occasions a watershed moment in von Speyr studies and will demand the attention of anyone interested in the mystic’s life and work. Sutton’s text has the merit of offering the first book-length introduction in English to von Speyr’s works and mystical experiences (besides, of course, the English translation of von Balthasar’s First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr). In a manageable eleven chapters spread over 244 pages, the author has achieved a noteworthy feat: he has provided a broad introduction to von Speyr’s voluminous work without sacrificing the depth that accompanies a more focused theological investigation. The lynchpin of Sutton’s success is his prudently chosen focus of study: the doctrine of the Trinity in von Speyr’s writings and mysticism. The selection of such an arterial theme for a theological study allows Sutton to touch all the essential threads that wind their way through von Speyr’s immense corpus of writings. In this sense, Sutton’s book harmonizes nicely with Balthasar’s explication of the many major themes in her writings given in his First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr and his “General Introduction to the Posthumous Works” in The Book of All Saints: Part One. Unfortunately, Sutton’s book lacks a thematic index, which would have certainly added to its appeal as a general introduction to von Speyr’s work. Nonetheless, it is appropriately structured according to the requirements of his theological inquiry, which necessitates that the remarks upon other threads of von Speyr’s thought are scattered throughout the chapters of the text. The author embellishes his chapters [End Page 692] with the poetry of T. S. Eliot, who was greatly impacted by von Speyr’s Commentary on John. A glance at the bibliography reveals that Sutton is working with over eighty published and unpublished works of von Speyr in the original German. He offers his own articulate English translations throughout the text, in consultation with those English translations already published. Importantly, the texts engaged by Heaven Opens include the entirety of von Speyr’s posthumously published works (the Nachlassbände), which are of great importance for an understanding of her mystical and theological contribution to the Church despite the fact that they are unknown to most English readers. The breadth of von Speyrian sources employed by Sutton further secures the text’s place as a reliable introduction to the whole of von Speyr’s work. In refreshing opposition to some popular discussions of von Speyr, Sutton never cherry-picks quotes, but always understands particular passages in light of her whole oeuvre. The footnotes are strong and often locate apt places for future research. After a thorough overview of von Speyr’s life and work in chapter 1, chapters 2–3 provide a theological analysis of “von Speyr’s theory and experience of Trinitarian mysticism” (3). Since the remainder of the book will address theological topics that form the content of von Speyr’s mysticism (Sutton approvingly cites Balthasar’s claim that her mysticism is an “experiential dogmatics”) these crucial chapters offer a “methodology of interpretation for the rest of the book” (85). A particularly insightful contribution of von Speyr’s account of mysticism is her identification...

A Church Undone: Documents from the German Christian Faith Movement, 1932–1940 by Mary M. Solberg

A Undone: Documents from the Christian Faith 19321940. Selected, translated, and introduced by Mary M. Solberg. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2015. Pp. xvii, 486. $59.00 paperback. ISBN 9781451464726.)In selecting, translating, and introducing over twenty documents composed by members of the pro-Nazi German Christian Faith Movement, Mary M. Solberg has filled a significant gap in the English-language literature concerning both the Struggle (Kirchenkampf) and the religious dimension of the Holocaust. Asking What were they thinking?? Solberg concludes the constructed a powerful myth that complemented, strengthened, and served Socialist goals (p. 3). They were true believers, not only in Jesus Christ, but also in Adolf Hitler and his Nazi revolution, whose work enabled other Germans to understand life in the Third Reich fully compatible with their Christian faith (p. 13).In her introduction, Solberg outlines her rationale for selecting documents, which includes chronology, key issues, and diverse authors and document types (pp. 27-31). She also reflects on what these sources can teach about the momentum of antisemitism, the power of public discourse, Christian self-identity, and the power of cultural context to shape the church (pp. 32-41).In terms of the Protestant Struggle, A Undone enables scholars and students to study the words and ideas of the (mostly) men who are often known simply as the enemies of Karl Barth, Martin Niemoller, and the Confessing Church. Solberg has selected an illuminating mixture of theological, church-polit- ical, and popular texts, many by prominent figures like Ludwig Muller, Joachim Hossenfelder, Reinhold Krause, Emmanuel Hirsch, and Gerhard Kittel. They envision a new church order in which Protestantism would be remade in the image of Socialism, reordered as a unified Reich ruled by an authoritarian Reich Bishop. (Solberg settles for the more muted terms National Church and National Bishop.) As a vigorous Volk church, membership would be based on blood, ministry directed solely to the racial community, and ultimate authority vested in the Nazi regime (pp. 48-50, 109-14, 400-04).One striking aspect of this vision was the invocation of Martin Luther, as in The Prophet, a section in The Handbook of the Christians (1933) written by Anna Ilgenstein-Ratterfeld. …

A Council for the Global Church: Receiving Vatican II in History. By Massimo Faggioli . Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. 349 pages. $44.00.

A Council for the Global Church: Receiving Vatican II in History. By Massimo Faggioli . Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. 349 pages. $44.00.

Hope in Action: Subversive Eschatology in the Theology of Edward Schillebeeckx and Johann Baptist Metz by Steven M. Rodenborn, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2014, pp. 366, £25.99, pbk

Hope in Action: Subversive Eschatology in the Theology of Edward Schillebeeckx and Johann Baptist Metz by Steven M. Rodenborn, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2014, pp. 366, £25.99, pbk

Book Review: Coming Full Circle: Constructing Native Christian Theology

Coming Full Circle: Constructing Native Christian Theology. Edited by Steven Charleston and Elaine A. Robinson. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2015. xvii + 218 pp. $39.00 (paper).Coming Full Circle was conceptualized by Elaine Robinson, Academic Dean at Saint Paul School of Theology in Oklahoma City, and Steven Charleston, who at the time was a visiting professor there. The seminary locates itself within the Wesleyan tradition and the holiness movement based on the Deuteronomic command echoed in the Gospels of Mark and Luke to love God with all ones heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love ones neighbor as oneself.Coming Full Circle was published by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) through Fortress Press, Augsburg Fortress's imprint for academic titles. The eight essays in this anthology include contributions from authors with a range of perspectives, including the Indian Missionary Conference of the United Methodist Church, Native American Episcopal priests (including one bishop), and the Director of Native American Studies at the University of Georgia. These essays are bookended with contributions by Charleston: Articulating Native American Theory and a concluding chapter on Theological Anthropology in which he interviews Ada Deer, an American politician, on her childhood, Native identity, and her fight for Menominee restoration following the Congressional decision to terminate the Menominee people of Wisconsin.In his piece in Coming Full Circle, Martin Brokenleg reflects that his Lakota Christian identity was shaped more by family and First Nations than by the institutional church (p. 137). Carol Gallagher, another contributor to the volume, observes that despite the misunderstanding and hegemony of many well-meaning missionaries, the gospel became a part of our story, woven into the ancient fabric of our lives and traditions (p. 83). These perspectives, controversial in postcolonial contexts, nevertheless appear to reflect not-insignificant sectors of living reality. The titular concept for the volume, coming circle, is drawn from Charleston's first chapter, in which he discusses coming full circle as he is discovering new dimensions of Christian thought through his research on Native theory. David Wilson's chapter describes the history and experience in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference (OIMC), a Methodist organization in which 95 percent of clergy and lay leadership is indigenous. In his essay in the volume, Thom White Wolf Fassett notes that the church's desire for reconciliation and restoration has put it in a place of self-examination and reflection and thus in a place, if it is willing to turn and return to God and Native peoples, to receive a new heart and a new spirit. …

Christ the Light: The Theology of Light and Illumination in Thomas Aquinas by David L. WhiddenIII, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2015, pp. xii + 248, £32.99, pbk.

New BlackfriarsVolume 97, Issue 1071 p. 642-644 Review CHRIST THE LIGHT: THE THEOLOGY OF LIGHT AND ILLUMINATION IN THOMAS AQUINAS by David L. Whidden, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2015, pp. xii + 248, £32.99, pbk. THOMAS CREAN OP, THOMAS CREAN OPSearch for more papers by this author THOMAS CREAN OP, THOMAS CREAN OPSearch for more papers by this author First published: 28 July 2016 https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.2_12228Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume97, Issue1071September 2016Pages 642-644 RelatedInformation

Book Review: The Imposing Preacher: Samuel DeWitt Proctor and Black Public Faith

The Imposing Preacher: Samuel DeWitt Proctor and Public By Adam L. Bond. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2013. xi + 247 pp. $29.00 (paper).In this timely book, Adam Bond acquaints the reader with the Reverend Samuel DeWitt Proctor, African American minister, educator, and humani- tarian, acknowledging parallels in Proctor's biography and that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Despite the fact that Proctor did not receive the notoriety of King or other prominent African American peers, Bond maintains that Proctor is perhaps one of the greatest ethicists, scholars, and theologians of his generation.Following a short biographical introduction, Bond moves through the opening chapter unpacking Black Public Faith. Here Bond juxtaposes Proctor's witness to the black public faith tradition with that of other prominent African American leaders and preachers. Proctor saw himself as a bridge, a pragmatic harmonizer, who represented the values and beliefs that shaped the civil rights movement. Bond demonstrates how Proctors theo-political understandings differed from those of black liberation theology, soul theology, rainbow theology, and the womanist and feminist movements. Here the reader gains insights into the works of James Cone, J. Deotis Roberts, Katie G. Cannon, Delores Williams, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Edward V. Hill, and James Melvin Washington. For Proctor and all these leaders, the common enemy was racism.Where chapter 2 speaks of Proctor's foundational training as a pastor and preacher, chapter 3 delves into his formation as a public theologian. Bond surveys Proctor's theological positions on various topics, including orthodoxy and fundamentalism, science and creation, the authority of the Bible, the immanence and transcendence of God, and the church as advocate for society. Chapter 4 discusses Proctor's defense of black humanity and the notion that everybody is God's somebody, even in an America where and race divide our republic. This chapter articulates the imposing preacher's preaching voice, a voice now silenced for nearly twenty years, which encapsulated the same issues concerning race and as continue to exist in America today. Through these pages, many readers will hear one of the today's familiar slogans-Black Lives Matter-echo in their ears.As noted throughout the Imposing Preacher, Proctor often lectured, preached, and wrote concerning race and in America. Proctor believed racism is a community thing. Bond charts out Proctor's four stages of African American existence in America: disintegration, alienation, imitation (or acculturation), and reintegration. Here, Bond provides a summary review of one of Proctor's first books, The Young Negro in America (1966). Bond paints a passionate Proctor who spent most of his life preaching, teaching, and advocating for an integrated, and prejudice-free society that affirms persons of all races (p. …

Creative Adaptations in an Interdependent World: Recent Studies in Religion and Ecology

The Earth in Gods Economy: Creation, Salvation and Consummation in Ecological Perspective. By Emst M. Conradie. Studies in Religion and Environment. Wien: LIT Verlag, 2015. 368 pp. $69.95 (paper).The Future of Ethics: Sustainability, Social Justice, and Religious Creativity. By Willis Jenkins. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2013. 352 pp. $34.95 (paper).Preservation and Protest: Theological Foundations for an EcoEschatological Ethics. By Ryan Patrick McLaughlin. Emerging Scholars. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2014. 460 pp. $49.00 (paper).A Political Theology of Climate Change. By Michael S. Northcott. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, 2013.345 pp. $30.00 (paper).Systematic Theology and Climate Change: Ecumenical Perspectives. Edited by Michael S. Northcott and Peter M. Scott. London: Routledge, 2014. 180 pp. $49.95 (paper).Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key. By Larry L. Rasmussen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 480 pp. $47.95 (paper).The relationship between human beings and ecosystems that both threaten and sustain us has always been complex, but thresholds that have been crossed by human technological intervention in age of Anthropocene (our current age in which human activity has become leading influence on environment) have turned that relationship into a problem. Wicked problems are problems that cannot be treated with linear, analytic approaches. They are often difficult to clearly define, have many interdependencies, and are multi-causal. Attempts to address them often lead to unforeseen consequences. They are often unstable and have no clear solutions. They are socially complex and rarely responsibility of a single organization. They involve changing behavior. For all of these reasons they are frequently characterized by chronic policy failure.1The challenges of managing complex adaptive systems that make up planet Earth are not only scientific, or only technological, philosophical, political, ethical, or theological. They are all of these. The truth of Anthropocene is that consequences of human actions have grown ever larger through combination of population growth and advances in technology so that human action now must be understood to be a causal contributor to functioning and malfunctioning of systems that keep Earth habitable. This truth challenges modernity's assumptions about relative stability of natural world and division between realms of nature and culture. The crumbling worldview of modernity stands in need of something more than cosmetic repairs, and ecotheology is turning to resources of world's religions in search of an alternate worldview that can enable us to navigate wicked problems we now face.Do we need a new politics? A new economy? A revised theology or a new religion? New practices or new ethics? This review of six recent contributions to conversation indicates that answer is yes to all of above. These texts all offer their own improvisations on themes of modernity, technology, climate change, religion, and ethics, developing different approaches to interrelated aspects of problems we face. Although none possesses the to our current environmental challenges, nature of wicked problems means that a single comprehensive solution does not exist. Instead, each offers a piece of solution in their visions of ethics, politics, economy, and theology that we need today.A Theological EnsembleIn Systematic Theology and Climate Change: Ecumenical Perspectives, editors Michael S. Northcott and Peter M. Scott bring together theologians from Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions to critically retrieve Christian doctrine in light of climate change. The main point of consensus among these theologians is that anthropogenic climate change is a real threat to flourishing, and possibly survival, of both human beings and other forms of life. …

Book Review: Partakers of the Divine: Contemplation and the Practice of Philosophy

Partakers of the Divine: Contemplation and the Practice of Philosophy. By Jacob Holsinger Sherman. Emerging Scholars. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2014. xiii + 283 pp. $39.00 (paper).In this provocative and erudite study, Jacob Sherman seeks to recover ancient and medieval Christian contemplative philosophy. In contrast to mainstream modern philosophical methodologies, Christian contemplative philosophy integrates intellectual theory with a rich praxis of contemplation, of theoria. Theoria involves delight and self-transformation in the presence of the divine and includes the whole life of passionate devotion, prayer, study, devotion, and charity. Contemplative philosophy affirms the intellect, the mutual transformation of both and reason. As Nicholas of Cusa declared in the fifteenth century, The mind without cannot understand; the mind without intelligence cannot love (p. 49). Ultimately, Sherman poses a deeply significant question: Is such a holistic union of philosophy and contemplation, of thinking and thanking (p. ix) viable in our present philosophical and theological world (pp. 32-33)?In the introduction, Sherman traces the historical roots of contemplative philosophy in both ancient pagan and Christian philosophy. Of crucial importance to his analysis is the impact of the Christian doctrines of the Incarnation and Resurrection on both the path and the goal of the contemplative mind. Following 2 Peter 1:4, ancient church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius, and Augustine revolutionized the Platonic vision of ascent by acknowledging that theosis, or participation in the divine nature, is possible only because of the transforming power of divine grace. In the words of Athanasius, The Son of became human in order that we might become God (p. 16). For Christian thinkers in this contemplative tradition, the intellectual pursuit of wisdom, transformed and enriched by divine grace and contemplative practices, is the culmination of the philosophical life, not its elimination.In chapter 1, Sherman examines forms of contemporary philosophy of religion that, for all their insight, fail to achieve the richness and depth of the contemplative philosophical tradition. He considers, among other contributions, the work of the analytic philosopher William Alston and that of the continental thinker Jean-Luc Marion. While affirming Alston s rigor and insight in defending the rationality of belief in God, Sherman argues that Alston overlooks the role of contemplative practices in transforming our most basic philosophical intuitions and beliefs. Sherman then offers a sensitive and probing critique of the phenomenological theology of Marion. Unfortunately, given Marions axiomatic conviction of the death of all metaphysics, his theology, saturated with a mysticism of ineffability, lacks any coherent, even approximate language or clarity with which to speak of or yearn to commune with a personal God. In their veiy different ways, argues Sherman, Alston and Marion provide us with works of elegance and brilliance that fail to understand the holistic nature of the adorative intellect and to appreciate its superior philosophical potential.By way of contrast, chapters 2 and 3 present two compelling examples of contemplative philosophy, Anselm s Proslogion and Nicholas of Cusas De Visione Dei. Sherman argues brilliantly that the fundamental argumentum of the Proslogion is not merely an intellectual construction that hinges on the much-debated ontological argument. …