Book Reviews - Julie Clawson

Book Review – Inspiration and Incarnation

Posted on October 19, 2007July 9, 2025

I just finished reading a book that I highly recommend for others to read. Not because I agreed with everything in it or because it is necessarily spiritually transformative, but because it presents a constructive, faith affirming approach to a topic that is generally written about in destructive ways.

A few months ago Scot McKnight recommended to me Peter Enns’ Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. This book explores some of the difficult questions regarding cultural influences on the Bible, the diversity of theological views present in it, and whether or not it is necessarily unique. These are not new questions and have been bantered around the academic world for some time now, but most lay accessible books on these ideas take one of two negative approaches. They either present these cultural and historical facts in order to prove that the Bible is not to be trusted and that therefore Christian faith is misguided. Or the books are written from a defensive standpoint in order to generally deny the validity of the historical facts so as to prove the Bible trustworthy. These agendas on both extreme are lacking for the reader who is not persuaded to give up either her faith or her intellect.

Peter Enns’ book takes a third way in its approach to the conversation. It apologetically assumes an evangelical faith in scripture from the outset and then sets out to explore the historical details in light of that faith. On this approach, the author writes –

The way we can begin to address this issue is to confess at the outset, along with the historic Christian church, that the Bible is the word of God. That is our starting point, a confession of faith, not creating a standard of what the Bible should look like and then assessing the Bible on the basis of that standard. If we begin with the confession that the Bible is God’s word, that it ultimately comes from him, that it is what the Spirit of God wanted it to be, that there is no place in all the messiness of the Old Testament where God says, “Oops, I didn’t really mean to put it that way – I’d like to try again, please” – if we begin there, we have the freedom to look honestly and deeply at what God is doing in the Bible.” p108

I appreciate that perspective. Instead of pretending to be objective in trying to prove one’s agenda, I appreciate knowing the author admits the particular lens he is using to view the Bible. It isn’t the only approach out there, but I found it refreshing as it led to an exploration of scripture that didn’t create a false hierarchy between scripture and history. It is that acceptance of an interpretive tradition and embracing of one’s cultural context that I’ve found lacking in most evangelical treatments of this subject.

Enns places the Bible and modern evangelicals firmly in their historical settings. About the Bible he writes, “It was not an abstract, otherworldly book, dropped out of heaven. It was connected to and therefore spoke to those ancient cultures.” p.17 and “That the Bible, at every turn, shows how ‘connected’ it is to its own world is a necessary consequence of God incarnating himself”p20. The issues arise when both conservatives and liberals approach the Bible expecting it to be something it is not. When we desire for the Bible to speak only to the issues of a modern scientific society we display our arrogance in assuming that we are the only one’s God has ever cared about conveying his word to.

The book then presents three issues that have generally not been handled well in evangelical theology. First it explores why the Bible looks so much like other Ancient Near East literature. Then it looks at the theological diversity present within the Bible itself. And finally it looks the sometimes weird (and generally out of context) ways in which the New Testament authors make use of the interpretive traditions of their day to interpret the Old Testament. Basically, is the Bible really unique, does it have integrity, and how should it be interpreted? Each discussion is fascinating and is helpful in that it is very open about the difficult parts of scripture. The result is a unique perspective that sees the Bible as the inspired word of God, but that embraces its very human and cultural elements as God’s incarnation to us. We can therefore appreciate its diversity instead of deny it and allow the Bible to be what it is instead of what we wish it would be. So if these are issues you have ever struggled with or are just mildly curious about, I highly recommend this book as an easy, informed, and faith-affirming approach to the subject.

On Sacrifice, Repentance, and King’s Cross Station

Posted on July 28, 2007July 8, 2025

Warning, Disclaimer, etc… I waited a week. Exactly a week. If for some strange reason you have not yet finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows stop reading now. This post contains my thoughts on the themes present in the final book and therefore contains spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

As we finally hold in our hands the complete saga of Harry Potter what we find is not just an entertaining story of young witches and wizards coming of age in a parallel world to ours, but a beautiful story of repentance, love, and redemption. A lot has been said about these books not being great literature, but that really just misses the point. They are good stories that tap into the mythic nature of life and give us an imaginative retelling of the most common (and hence most visceral) story known to man – the sacrificial death and resurrection of the hero.

At one point in the book, Harry visits Godric’s Hollow, his birthplace, and goes looking for the graves of his parents. In the graveyard he stumbles upon the graves of Dumbledore’s mother and sister. On their tombstone is the verse “where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” Rowling deliberately refuses to explicate its significance at that point, but in it I see the theme of the whole series. What is a person’s treasure? What is their heart’s desire (as the Mirror of Erised revealed in the first book)? This is the theme that is repeatedly returned to throughout the series. We see characters that are hungry for power and wealth (Voldemort, the Malfoys) or for personal safety (Dumbledore’s brother). Those “treasures” define their entire life. In Harry we see a boy who starts out desperately wanting a family and a place to call home gain and lose that over and over again. And it is only when he let’s go of his desires (for family, for revenge, for home) and places the needs of all others before his own that he sees clearly what must be done to save the world. It is this overcoming of selfishness that marks the process of redemption for many of the characters in the book. In small ways they let go of selfish treasures they had been hording and take steps towards loving others more fully. Lupin overcomes his lifelong fears of hurting others to give Tonks and their child the love they need. The Malfoys, hurt and discarded in their attempts to gain prestige, money, and power, find that what really matters is family (a sentiment they had always ridiculed the Weasleys for). Even Dudley Dursley moved from being utterly self-centered to acknowledging that he needs Harry. They all had to sacrifice a part of themselves to become better people.

Two characters in the book though chose to give up everything for the sake of others. Like his mother before him, Harry realizes that in order to save those he loves he must be willing to give up his life. So to answer the question of whether Harry lives or dies, one can only answer yes. Harry, fully aware of the only way Voldemort can be defeated, willingly gives himself over to be sacrificed by the enemy. In a scene that recalls Aslan at the Stone Table, if not Golgotha itself, Harry offers up his life for the salvation of others. This sacrifice out of love stands in direct contrast to how Voldemort “sacrificed” parts of his life. Voldemort gave up parts of his soul (for Horcruxes) in desperate attempts to cling to power and overcome death. His sacrifices sprung from selfish ambition and not love and so each subsequent sacrifice made his life more miserable and helpless. So much so that even in the end, when faced with death and offered the chance to repent, he chose to cling to evil and power and remain in that misery.

But what of our sacrificial hero? Here we are treated with a scene that seems to come straight out of C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce or The Last Battle (Rowling has said all along that Narnia was her inspiration for these books). After being attacked by Voldemort, Harry awakes to find himself in a dark wood a mystical version of King’s Cross station (talk about amazing metaphorical allusions) where he encounters his mentor and guide Virgil Dumbledore. Here he discovers that what Voldemort has killed in him is the evil part of Voldemort’s own soul (represented as a crying baby). So instead of taking the heavenly Hogwart’s Express further up and further in on the next great adventure for the organized mind (as Dumbledore had once referred to death), Harry returns to life to finally defeat evil once and for all. What I love is that it is at this point that Harry having already demonstrated sacrificial love offers Voldemort the opportunity to repent and feel remorse. As Harry offers him a choice and seeks to merely disarm Voldemort of his evil intentions, it is Voldemort’s ultimate arrogance and refusal to repent that destroys him as his own killing curse rebounds. Our hero has sacrificed himself, conquered death, and lives happily ever after.

Oh yes the book held other gems in storytelling and was a very satisfying conclusion to the series. I applauded Snape’s vindication. I cheered audibly as Mrs. Weasley took on Belletrix and Neville proved himself to be a true Gryffindor by pulling Godric’s sword out of the sorting hat to slay Nagini. I cried as beloved characters died at Hogwart’s last stand. Rowling crafted an entrancing story and amazingly managed to tie up every loose end. I love this series as a story, but I resonate with the themes of sacrifice, redemption, and love that tie the stories together. Having defended the books for years to Christians who feared the magic, the wands, and all the “trappings of a world in which they do not believe” (who all the while promoted the “Christian” values of Narnia and Middle Earth), I restate my opinion that they owe Rowling an apology. For while the Harry Potter books aren’t just Christian books (they can be enjoyed by people of all faiths or no faith), they echo the most central tenets of our faith. The allegory of the resurrection, the call to sacrificial love, and the reminder that for where our treasure is there will our hearts be also are themes that all Christians should be able to embrace. It isn’t perfect theology or a one for one allegory, but it is a good story. For in the retelling of our deepest and most mysterious truths Rowling has ultimately cast a goodspell.

The Conference (briefly) and The Book (no spoilers yet)

Posted on July 23, 2007July 8, 2025

I am exhausted.

We had a great time at the Midwest Emergent Gathering. At least from a planners perspective everything went smoothly. Since I didn’t participate as an attendee, it is hard to say what the feel and effect of the conference was to those really experiencing it. But I had a good time. I got to spend time with people I see maybe once a year and catch up with good conversation. I met new friends and am looking forward to continued dialog with them. But we were busy, very busy. I got just a handful of hours of sleep this past weekend. Mike has posted his summary of the weekend at his blog if you are interested in hearing all about what happened.

But of course tired or not I had to read Harry Potter. I started it at 5PM last night and didn’t stop until I was done sometime after 3am. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. It was satisfying in all ways. I think I cried for the last 300 pages or so (kinda hard not to when you read something like this when you are utterly exhausted and worn raw). I’ll wait for now to post spoilery type things. But I do have to say that after this concluding book all conservative Christians need to make a huge apology to JK Rowling, lift the bans on the books, and give them a place of honor on the spiritual fiction shelf next to the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings (where I’ve kept my set all along…). And although satisfying, it leaves one empty in a way to see the story end. I want to read it all again, to linger in the world a while longer. Maybe I’ll read it again once Mike is done (he started it as soon as I finished last night, or early this morning I should say…). At this point I’m just waiting for someone else to finish it so I can discuss it.

So I’m physically and emotionally exhausted. But it was good.

Harry Potter Speculations

Posted on July 12, 2007July 9, 2025

I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix today (my one movie of the season). While it didn’t follow the book exactly, I thought it was a good version nonetheless. We got to see Professor Umbridge in her full make you squirm in your seat portrayal of evil. She is to me the most loathsome and scary “bad guy” in the whole series because unlike fantastical dark lords, she is utterly real. Even with all her tacky pink clothing, decorative plates with cat pictures, and sugary teas she represents to me the worst sorts of evil present in educational philosophies, child development theories, and unthinking “the government is always right” patriotism. Her character makes me seriously physically uncomfortable. I think its because I know too many people that resemble her…

But we are just about a week away from the long awaited conclusion to the series – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now some idiots planned a thing called the Midwest Emergent Gathering that same weekend, so I can’t dress up in my Professor Trelawney costume and join the crowds celebrating its release nor start reading it at 12:01AM Saturday the 21st and not stop until I am done. No, I will patiently have to wait a full day before I can start reading it (and yes Mike I get it first!!!). But in the meantime, I have my own speculations as to what will occur.

The two big questions swirling around the book are – Can Snape be trusted? and Will Harry die? I personally have to go with Dumbledore and say that Snape can be trusted. I think in the end he will prove himself to be on the side of good. My thought is that Snape will end up sacrificing himself to save Harry. But as for Harry’s fate, that a harder one to call. It would wrap things up nicely to have Harry die (and stop the call for sequels) and allow Harry to reunite in some form of the afterlife with his parents and Sirius Black. But it would require killing one of the most beloved characters in children’s literature. So unless Rowling can pull off a better “heaven” than C.S Lewis did at the end of The Last Battle, she will have some really disturbed kids to deal with. (and would she really want to be telling children that death is a good way to get back together with your parents who have died?) I also think that perhaps we will see in the end that Harry isn’t really all that important. He has been a celebrity in the wizarding community his whole life and everyone places so much faith in his ability to destroy Voldemort, so it would be nice in a way to have him discover that he is just an “ordinary” boy. I personally think that the “prophecy” (either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives) actually refers to Neville Longbottom (as has been hinted at) and not Harry. So I think Neville will be the one to eventually defeat Voldemort (and possibly be killed in the process). That is unless Rowling works in some possible means of redeeming Voldemort. Anything could happen then. (although I do think there will be some redemption for the Dursley’s, for Petunia at least).

Of course I could be way off base. But it’s fun to speculate. And to point you to a much more thoughtful set of predictions, I’ll send you to Alan Jacob’s thoughts over at Books and Culture. It was Dr. Jacobs who first introduced me to Harry Potter by assigning Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (just beginning to gain popularity in the USA at the time) as required reading in my literature Senior Seminar class. Harry Potter was our selection for studying the pleasures of reading. And what a pleasant adventure it has been.

Gurus, Mentors, and Guides

Posted on July 6, 2007July 9, 2025

I’ve recently started reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and am thoroughly enjoying it. The book is a chronicle of the year the author spent traveling to Italy, India, and Indonesia. The stories are witty and the musings about life, love, language, faith and food are well worth the read. One bit that struck me today was her description of following a guru. That’s right a guru. She went to an ashram in India to study under a particular guru. The author fully admits how weird such a thing sounds to our American sensibilities. To put something as personal and private as our faith into the hands of another person is not a normal part of our typically protestant experience. In fact we look down on people who follow gurus as deluded hippies (or something of that sort). And yet the author overcame all of those stereotypes, found a guru, and went to India to study her way of yoga. Interesting.

Besides a few painful classes at the community rec center, I have never done much yoga (not that I wouldn’t like to try) and any that I have done has been of the strictly physical sort (hatha yoga I think it is). I am not looking for a yoga guru (although apparently there were a number of Christians at the ashram), but the concept itself is appealing.

A guru. A mentor. A guide.

All good things even to us protestant believers. I think the issues arise when the concept of a person attracting a following comes into play. That scares us. We shy away from personality cults, fear leaders being placed on pedestals, and ignore whatever a person has to say if they get too popular. I see all the dangers in such things, but should someone be dismissed as a guide just because a lot of other people see them as a potential guide as well? If they have the ability to inspire, teach, and mentor is it really all that bad to want to study under them? I see this all the time in the emerging church. For just reading McLaren or listening to Rob Bell, I am told that I care more about them than about God. So respecting someone as a teacher and wanting to learn from them means I worship them above God? Oh, I’ve seen personality cults form and devotion that borders on idolatry even in the emerging church (and yes even of those two men). But can’t I desire to learn from a person I respect without being accused of idol worship? There has to be a balance there.

So, why am I rambling and ruminating about such things. I think I’m just frustrated in my inability to find a person I can see as a mentor. Oh there are a number of authors, pastors, and bloggers that I respect and look to for a sort of guidance. I greatly appreciate that input in my life. But unlike in the yoga guru system, such leaders wouldn’t dream of taking on disciples (especially not a woman, but that’s another issue). I could pay a lot of money for a spiritual director, but while she may function as a guide, the personal connection gets mired in the business transaction. It is an odd predicament of wanting a mentor, but not knowing anyone who could fit that role. I think that’s why I liked reading about the concept of following a guru. There’s this ready made system in place where one can choose a person to guide them who has no issues taking on pupils/disciples. It’s a very convenient method of mentorship.

Eight Random Things

Posted on July 5, 2007July 9, 2025

As I continue to post silly personal things…

So Mike tagged me in the 8 Random Things About Me Meme. I think he did it with malicious glee since he hates the things. The official rules for this one are –

The rules of getting tagged are simple. If you get tagged…

* Post eight random facts about yourself.
* Tag eight other bloggers (hopefully those who haven’t been tagged before).
* Post these rules.

I always feel really stupid trying to think of eight (or seven or five) facts about myself. So I tried to think up a theme to play along with. I toyed with the idea of crazy stuff that has happened to me in foreign places (mugged in Naples, car stolen in Barcelona, certain incidents with tequila in Cancun), but there weren’t quite enough to make eight (that I am willing to share). I already did the seven books I’m reading now one and a list of my favorite books would just be too hard. But I like the book theme. So I’m going to go with the “Eight Female Fictional Characters that I have Most Wanted to Be.” Okay, I’m sure that it says something weird about my personality and that I have serious issues that I want to be like characters in books, but I do it anyway (and not all of these are from when I was a kid!). I never wanted to be the typical choices either. All my friends when I was a kid went around pretending to be Princess Leia, Anne of Green Gables, or Madonna (yes it was the 80’s), but I chose lesser known characters to emulate. (I probably would have wanted to be like Anne of Green Gables, but I think I was too much like her to begin with…)

So here my list of really cool female characters I aspired to be –

1. Betsy. There are two types of women in the world. Those who grew up loving the Betsy/Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace and those who have never heard of them. I would check these books out of the library over and over again during my childhood (they have since been reprinted so I have my own copies now). Set in pre-WW1 Minnesota, they tell the story of a girl, Betsy, as she grows up and sees her world expand into the modern era. She is outgoing and loves to write. Her experiences as a teenager, falling in love, and traveling abroad shaped my conceptions of life. Part of me truly thought that high school would hold dances where one filled out dance cards and selected who one danced the waltz with. Or that hanging out with friends for entertainment involved reading Shakespeare, writing stories, and singing around a piano. I think I was most shocked by traveling to Europe when I was 12 and realizing that it was a modern as the USA. Not that I really expected different, but the descriptions I had come to know through reading Betsy and the Great World were ingrained in my mind. I loved Betsy because she was a writer – my dream as a child. She also had no limits. She was encouraged to live life fully – to pursue her dreams, to travel, to follow her heart. I wanted to grow up and be like her.

2. Meg from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Another go to again and again book from my childhood. Meg was smart, but not in the way that fit the system. I always did exactly what was expected of me and did it well. I wanted to do more than that – to be creatively intelligent and find myself on adventures. Meg wasn’t a fearless hero, but she never gave up and did things out of a love for her family.

3. Aerin from The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. The quirky misfit princess who trains herself to become a dragonslayer and saved her Kingdom. Although most of my Christian friends have issues with her because of the way her relations play out in the book, I still love her for her courage. She didn’t fit the expectations of a princess and never gave up trying to discover who she really was. I love that she broke the mold and took on the most dangerous tasks because she was the only one who could.

4. Vicki Austin from Madeleine L’Engles’ Austin Family books, especially A Ring of Endless Light. So yes, the books about her are total coming of age, discovering oneself, and falling in love books. I so wanted to be Vicki when I was in 5th grade. She was a more normal person than the others on this list, but she got to hang out with family and friends that sat around discussing literature and philosophy. She also got to help do scientific observations of dolphins (this was my I want to be a marine biologist so I can swim with dolphins phase – 5th grade remember…). I wanted a life like hers – full of neat experiences and good conversations.

5. Mara Jade from the Star Wars Expanded Universe created by master Star Wars writer Timothy Zahn. So she is just an awesome, super sexy, totally independent, Jedi Master (who ends up marrying Luke Skywalker). The part of me that wants to be a kick-butt I’m going to save the world type of girl loves Mara Jade (same reason I love Sydney Bristow, but I’m sticking to books here). She’s fun and the exact opposite of my conflict avoiding pacifist nature. But then again if you know me only as Mara Jade from The Ooze, the description sorta fits.

6. Eowyn from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Another kickbutt girl who is determined to fight for what she believes in. I love her passion even as I understand her uncertainty in who she is as a person (even though I hate the way Tolkien resolved her character in the end – he CANNOT write women). I share her fears of life becoming “A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.” She appeals to the part of me that wants to make a difference in this world.

7. Liadan from Son of the Shadows Book 2 of The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliet Marillier. This book is a retelling of the Tam Lin tale – a Scottish poem where the damsel rescues the prince. I love most Tan Lin based novels, but mix in Celtic healing lore and ancient tribal factions, and this becomes more than just a feminist love story. The pagany side of me enjoys stories of wise women who are attuned to the earth and the natural power of plants. I like the idea of that sort of connection and would enjoy having that sort of knowledge.

8. Phedre from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series. Um. If you’ve read the books, you may understand. If you haven’t, I really don’t want to explain.

Update – The picture is me as Eowyn back in 2003

As for tagging. I’ll leave it open. It you want to be tagged (for 8 Random Things or 8 Characters that you Want To Be…), consider yourself tagged. Just let me know if you decide to continue the meme.

Books

Posted on June 30, 2007July 8, 2025

So I mentioned in my last post about wondering what I will be reading next. Then I saw this fun meme with a blanket tag over at Emerging Grace and Calacirian and decided to play. The point is to list 7 of the books I’m reading now (because you can tell about someone by the books they’re reading). Well, I technically haven’t started any of these, but they are what will be read very very soon.

1. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. For the Emerging Women book club July discussion.

2. The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. For our church’s Vision Team meeting this Thursday. I guess I should start it soon…

3. Chasing Sophia by Lilian Calles Barger. It’s been recommended by a few people (including the author) as something I might like, so I’ll give it a go.

4. Justice in the Burbs by Will and Lisa Samson. I’ve been looking forward to this book for awhile and we just got an advance copy. There are days when living “justly” in the suburbs seems near impossible, so I’m interested in hearing their take on how it might be done.

And for the sci-fi fantasy…

5. Blade of Fortriu and The Well of Shades by Juliet Marillier. Books 2 and 3 in the Bridei Chronicles, an historical fantasy series that focuses on the Picts.

6. Exile by Aaron Allston and Sacrifice by Karen Traviss. Books 4 and 5 in the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series. I’ve been trying to avoid reading spoilers about the fate of Mara Jade in book 5…

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. Just three more weeks, just three more weeks…

And to continue the meme – if you read this and want to play, consider yourself tagged. Just let me know you played!

Arcadia

Posted on May 31, 2007July 8, 2025

My Mother’s Day gift was tickets to a play of my choosing. So yesterday we dropped Emma off at a babysitter and went down to the University of Chicago’s Court Theater to see one of my favorite plays – Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. We also got to wander around the campus stopping at Chicago Theological Seminary (my top choice in my wishful thinking return to school). It was a fun day and a great production of the play (read the Chicago Trib’s review here).

Arcadia published in 1993 was written by Tom Stoppard (most commonly known for his play Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead and the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love). As explained by Wikipedia – “Arcadia explores the relationship between past and present, order and disorder, and the certainty of knowledge. It looks at the nature of evidence and truth in the context of modern ideas about history, mathematics and physics. It shows how the clues left by the past are interpreted by scholars. The play refers to a wide array of subjects, including mathematics, physics, thermodynamics, computer algorithms, fractals, population dynamics, chaos theory vs. determinism (especially in the context of love and death), classics, landscape design, romanticism vs. classicism, English literature (particularly poetry), Byron, 18th century periodicals, modern academia, and even South Pacific botany. These are the concrete topics of conversation; the more abstract philosophical resonances veer off into epistemology, nihilism, the origins of lust, and madness.

Arcadia is set in Sidley Park, an English country house in the years 1809 and 1989 alternately, juxtaposing the activities of two modern scholars and the house’s current residents with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier. In 1809, Thomasina Coverly, the daughter of the house, is a precocious teenager with ideas about mathematics well ahead of her time. She studies with her tutor, Septimus Hodge, a friend of Lord Byron, who is an unseen guest in the house. In 1989, a writer and an academic converge on the house: Hannah Jarvis, the writer, is investigating a hermit who once lived on the grounds; Bernard Nightingale, a professor of literature, is investigating a mysterious chapter in the life of Byron. As their investigations unfold, helped by Valentine Coverly, a post-graduate student in mathematical biology, the truth about what happened in 1809 is gradually revealed. The play’s set features a large table, which is used by the characters in both 1809 and 1989. Props are not removed when the play switches time period, so that the books, coffee mugs, quill pens, portfolios, and laptop computers of 1809 and 1989 appear alongside each other in a blurring of past and present. ”

The title refers to the pastoral ideal of Arcadia and to the memento mori spoken by Death: “Et in Arcadia ego” (“Even in Arcadia, I exist”). This theme presented itself a few times as I reflected on the play. The concept of determinism is a constant theme in Arcadia. Are our lives determined? If we had a big enough computer (or enough time, paper, and pencils) could a formula be written that tells the future and explains the past? We can program fractals – why not everything? But if populations are “determined’ to follow a formula even taking into account small fluctuations of nature (the populations of goldfish regulates) where does that leave the concept of justice? If everything (even tragedy and death) can be explained mathematically there can be no room for grief or outrage in the face of an inevitable determined universe. But death intrudes even in Arcadia and we are grieved. The influences of human emotion and love contradict the faith in an all encompassing deity of science. Romanticism and Classicalism collide.

Death also enters the play in a more concrete form. We learn that the mathematical genius Thomasina dies in a fire on the night before her seventeenth birthday (the age her mother insists she should be married by before she is “educated beyond eligibility”). Her tutor then takes up the pursuit to prove her theories, become a lunatic hermit to do so. But the death of a woman “condemned” by genius in a fire has direct parallels to the “madwoman in the attic” theory. Referring to Bertha, Rochester’s insane wife in Jane Eyre, who died in a fire, this concept was adopted by feminist literary theorists as a metaphor for the madness imposed upon women when they were denied using their talents because of their sex. Here Thomasina on the verge of great discovery and threatened with the cage of conventionality finds that even in Arcadia, death exists. Paradise has its flaws (especially a paradise of human creation). For all the talk that the universe is determined – demands of society and the accidental tipping of a candle intrude to shatter dreams and introduce chaos to the mix. Understanding the fluctuation of populations of pigeons and goldfish through math and science doesn’t see death as a bad thing (unless you are the pigeon), but the death of a friend and family member has a more serious effect.

Not that death is the main theme of the play, it just struck me during this encounter with the work. I was also intrigued and amused by the exploration of interpretation and truth. Our assumptions in the present influence our reading of the past. Texts takes on new meaning and small bits of evidence become the shaky foundation for entire theories. Our postmodern humility in accepting the limits of our understanding was clearly illustrated in the negative examples of characters’ hubris. The discovery of knowledge and the fame in brings them prevents them from actually seeing the truth and leads to their downfall. It is a much more relevant theme to me now than it was a decade ago when I first encountered this play.

Anyway, it was a fun day and great play. It’s run has just been extended if anyone in the Chicago area in interested in attending.

Evil and the Justice of God – Our Role

Posted on May 17, 2007July 8, 2025

Wright sees the quest to find the solution to the problem of evil not as the search to answer why it exists at all, but as “a search for ways in which the healing, restorative justice of the Creator God himself – a justice which will one day suffuse the whole creation- can be brought to bear, in advance of that ultimate reality, within the present world of space, time, matter and messy realities in human lives and societies.” This job of changing reality is a way mopping up the spilled milk instead of just crying over it. As I mentioned before, I don’t share his dismissal of the emotional implications of evil, but I do find much of value in his “mop up” strategy.

In our anticipation of a world without evil, Wright suggests that the task of Christians is not “waiting passively for that future to arrive,” but instead involves “anticipating such a future world in prayer, holiness and justice in the present.” This “already but not yet” approach doesn’t deny creation or evil. Yes – evil does exist in the here and now and we can do something about it in the here and now. Wright suggest five ways that we can start to imagine a new world.

First is to let our lives be transformed through prayer. This involves asking God to intercede and transform the world not just enjoy spiritual comforts for ourselves. The next suggestion is for Christians to live holy lives that don’t clamor to return to slavery to sin/evil but instead celebrate Christ’s victory over evil.

Wright then turns to politics and calls believers to hold authorities accountable to their God-given tasks of doing justice, loving mercy, and ensuring that the weak and the vulnerable are properly looked after. If we truly believe that all power and authority is God-given then we must insist that the authorities live up to the mandate to do good and no evil. Who or how someone comes to power does not matter as much as what they do with that power (so we need to get over the idea that the mere fact of getting elected is a carte blanche to do whatever a leader wants. Elections mean nothing is the leader is promoting evil).

Wright’s fourth suggestion involves promoting restorative justice. In such systems “the whole community is committed to naming evil for what it is and to addressing and dealing with it, not by shutting people away from the embarrassed eyes all around, but by bringing together offender and victim, with their families and friends, to look hard at what has happened and agree on a way forward.”

Finally Wright suggests we need to approach international evil “not by ignoring it on the one hand or by blasting away at it with heavy artillery on the other.” International structures that engage those communities that neither deny evil or believe that might makes right are more and more necessary if the message of the cross is to prevail.

Obviously Wright has engaged the issue of evil from a faith perspective that cares for those created in God’s image. His solutions are meant for those who want to see God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. It doesn’t matter (in this sense) that it is often those who claim to follow Christ that perpetrate the most evil. The point is to do the hard work to change that. It is easier to deny that evil exists or to lash out in anger. Bombing a country or spanking a child is easy if you are the bigger more powerful entity. Working to reform and forgive is a lot harder. I appreciate that Wright insists hat this isn’t a magic formula that will eliminate all evil, but a means of imagining the way things can be and of claiming how it will someday be.

Category: Book Reviews