By Jackson Clelland, Albert Bailey and Stan Cox

Spring 2001 Channels, Vol. 17 No. 2

Philip Yancey -- Reaching For the Invisible God...what can we expect to find?

Zondervan, 2000.

I begin with a personal note. The reason I chose to review this book is because I noticed it three times in one day; on a book table on spirituality at Chapter's, next to a Chicken Soup for the Soul at Costco, and on a coffee table in a friend's home. The week before that a member of my congregation had photocopied a chapter (sorry, Zondervan) and mailed it to me, insisting that I read it because it had "totally changed her life." This is a book that people both within and outside of the church are reading. Why are so many reading it and is it worth reading?

The appeal of Yancey's book is his transparent honesty in admitting that his own relationship with God has more often than not been a struggle. His background has left him with some baggage to unpack. He says, "I have lived most of my life in the evangelical Protestant tradition, which emphasizes personal relationship, and I finally decided to write this book because I want to identify for myself how a relationship with God truly works, not how it is supposed to work."

Yancey writes this book out of a thirst for God and a desire to point people to a faith that gives more than pat answers. He has clearly entered his own faith through the portal of doubt. But his doubts have moved him further, to probe into the deeper questions that most believers must come to terms with: How do we understand and live our faith during the times when God seems absent, indifferent, or even hostile? How can we get along with God when God is "invisible, overwhelming and perfect and we are visible, weak and flawed?" What does this relationship "do" and how does that come about? How does this relationship grow and transform us?

Although Yancey comes from conservative roots his writing reflects a much broader view of history and Christendom. Not only does he bring the thoughts of current Protestant evangelicals such as Eugene Peterson and J.I. Packer into his discussion, but he quotes Roman Catholics -- Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton and G.K. Chesterton -- and Jewish writers -- Abraham Heschel and Martin Buber. Yancey is not content to stay within the twentieth century either. He draws on the early Church Fathers, Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Augustine and other Christians throughout the history of the church -- Ignatius of Loyola, Blaise Pascal, John Bunyan and John Donne. He shares with his readers the literature and poetry from many periods. In all of this I believe that Yancey shows us that the "Communion of Saints" extends beyond our local congregation and certainly beyond and before the Reformation. He reveals that we have much to learn by sharing our spiritual struggles and insights with fellow pilgrims, even with a few we might not have expected to be on the road with us.

With all of these "fellow pilgrims" to travel with, it would seem that Yancey could very easily become a spiritual drifter. But Yancey does not lose sight of the Word of God and the Word made Flesh. The Bible is rooted to his task and he clearly sees the Son of God as central to the Bible. He opens the texts to his readers with a freshness and clarity. He reveals the personal struggles for faith are not his, or ours alone, but are found throughout the biblical narratives. His knowledge of the Bible is extensive, but he is certainly not purely academic. He opens the Bible both with reverence and relevance.

The beauty of this book is its simplicity and depth. The language is kept relatively free of "Christianese" despite the thoroughness with which many difficult subjects are covered. I would not hesitate to give a copy to a friend who is searching for faith or a friend who has been a Christian for a long time, as Yancey's winsome transparency would resonate with almost anyone.

Jackson Clelland

Jackson Clelland has been pastor at Angus, ON and a Renewal Fellowship board member. Jackson will be going to Spring Valley, CA Presbyterian Church to become Associate Pastor this summer.

Reformation Overview, including video tapes, leaders' guides and resources

How can you pass on knowledge of our Reformation heritage to new generations? That was answered in one way by St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Simcoe, Ontario, by purchasing a kit with the above title. The compact kit consists of two videotapes containing six half-hour segments, a Leader's Guide with suggestions for at least five flexible ways of developing the programs, and printed resources for each.

St. Paul's has used the material in two ways so far under the guidance of their then Christian Education Director Judy MacIntosh. The first was a noon-hour series with participants invited to bring a bag lunch. There were about a dozen or more taking part (including two retired pastors) and all felt they benefitted greatly from the series. A printed outline of each subject was provided beforehand and discussion followed the video presentation.

The second was with a teen class on Sunday mornings prior to Reformation Sunday, when the service was prepared and conducted by the young folk with one of their leaders giving the Reformation message. The material held their interest throughout. While the first series was simply video-discussion, the second included Bible study of the themes. This is part of the flexibility of the program.

The material is historically and theologically sound, prepared for the Christian History Institute of Worcester, PA. The six programs on the tapes are: 1. John Wycliffe, 2. John Hus, 3. Martin Luther, 4. Swiss Reformation: Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, 5. The Anabaptists: Michael and Margaretha Sattler, 6. William Tyndale. They are excerpted from longer films of the Gateway Films/Vision Video Church History Filmseries, except the fourth which was created for this series.

Concise background information provides new perspectives for all but the learned Reformation scholar, yet is readily readable and understandable by the beginner. There is a caution to not use the resources as a diatribe against Roman Catholicism with a brief summary of basic Christian beliefs we hold in common, but it also provides an outline of items of disagreement. Each segment has a single page double-sided summary to hand out for study before and/or to help with discussion after the video, and/or as a "take home" paper, and a Bible Study Student Worksheet for the optional Bible Study, with permission for duplicating either as needed.

The kit can be obtained through Creative Communications for the Parish, 1564 Fencort Dr., Fenton, MO, USA 63026, or by calling 1-800-325-9414, identifying yourself as calling from Canada, and asking for Reinformation Overview, Catalogue #R65. The price is currently $79.95 US, and they will give you the equivalent Canadian cost including shipping and handling. The same can be obtained by FAX at 636-305-9333, or order Online from www.creativecommunications.com.

Albert Bailey, with information from Judy MacIntosh

Al Bailey is retired in Simcoe ON, having served the Presbyterian Church in Canada as pastor, educator and administrator.

Charry, Ellen T. -- By the Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 245 pages.

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

That put-down rightly backhands a lot of what passes for theology. But, according to Ellen Charry, Margaret W. Harmon Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, the smirking question knocks over a straw man.

In Charry's wonderfully rich tour through several Christian theologians who taught in the tradition of classic orthodoxy, she shows clearly that the task of Christian theology at its best has always been to enable the flourishing of human excellence by promoting people's enjoyment of God.

How do ordinary people participate joyfully in the life of God? That's the question that doctrines such as the Trinity and the two natures of Jesus Christ were meant to answer. God's purpose for his creation and for people in particular, is to guide us into the unique and joyful life than can be ours when we are engulfed by God's Holy Spirit. Charry takes us by the hand through the writings of Paul, Augustine, Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Anselm, Aquinas, Dame Julian of Norwich, Calvin and others, documenting their pastoral commitment to the conviction expressed by Augustine, that "God . . . had first to assure us of how much he loves us before we could allow him to teach us." Faithful teaching is meant to enable us to see that our turning to God would be a homecoming, and not an entry into an alien space.

One of the threads running through classic orthodox teaching is that goodness and joy will result from living Christian doctrine, and in turn, will shape that teaching itself. So the pastoral function of Christian doctrine is to foster human excellence in action, affection, and self-appraisal, by nourishing our enjoyment of God.

In the process of Charry's careful examination, the much maligned teachers such as Paul, Augustine, Calvin, and others, are shown in the warmer light of what they really taught. Instead of despising them as useless or even harmful, Charry hears them explicating and asserting the "truth about God, the world, and ourselves," and Christian doctrine as "truth that seeks to influence us."

Just as believers during Old Testament and New Testament times, we're surrounded and hounded by diverse visions of what it means to be human -- some of them contradictory to centuries of what God's people have believed and taught, and some of them sponsored, cheered, and pressed on the church by people who should know better. So you'll understand Charry's wisdom in insisting that "theology must again become a normative and not simply a descriptive discipline. It must take a position on what an excellent life looks like." Could it be that this is what is at stake in some of the conflicts about "alternative" life-styles that wrack the church chronically?

Read this book. But keep your dictionary close by. Be ready to learn or re-learn words like "sapiential," "aretegenic," and "salutarity." If you hang in there, you'll find reaffirmed that bedrock conviction of Scripture that, in Charry's words, "God is not only good to us, but good for us."

Stan Cox

Stan Cox is pastor of Paris Presbyterian Church in Paris, ON.

First Article in the Next Issue: Editorial by Calvin Brown.