Saturday, June 21, 1997

Religion in the media: a look at recent books and magazines

The Dallas Morning News

BOOKS

"For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church," by N.T. Wright (Eerdmans, price not listed). The word worship is a contraction of "worthship." It means, N.T. Wright says, giving God all he's worth. The author is dean of Lichfield Cathedral in England, and the book is a call to renewal of worship and witness. Not in the sense of adopting this or that fad or introducing this or that new music, for the renewal he has in mind begins with a better knowledge of God. The book's first half dwells on the greatness and love of God, especially as the author finds them shining forth in the death and resurrection of Christ, as the basis for worship. The second half shows how worship from the heart and mind leads to mission. "Are we ready," the author asks, "to speak up for the truth of the gospel over the dinner-table, and in the coffee-bar, and in the council-chamber?" -Paul R. Buckley

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"Doing Theology for the People of God: Studies in Honor of J.I. Packer," edited by Donald Lewis and Alister McGrath (InterVarsity Press, $22.99). J.I. Packer, an orthodox Anglican, is probably best known for "Knowing God," a book that has whetted the spiritual appetites of multitudes of Christian readers. The title of this essay collection, which honors Packer's 70th birthday, captures well the focus of his long ministry. Among the highlights: John R.W. Stott, rector emeritus at All Souls Church in London, discusses theology as a "multidimensional discipline." David F. Wright of the University of Edinburgh laments the declining status of baptism among many churches and hopes for its recovery in "a new age of mission." He wonders how many pastors would think to reflect on baptism when correcting various errors in their churches, as St. Paul does. -Paul R. Buckley

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"The Battle for Normality: A Guide for (Self-) Therapy for Homosexuality," by Gerard J.M. van den Aardweg (Ignatius Press, $11.95). A Dutch psychologist offers self-therapy guidelines for people struggling with the homosexual "condition" who have been unable to find professional help in changing or controlling their desires. The author, a Roman Catholic, believes that change is possible for anyone who has "a quiet and strong feeling that homosexuality is incompatible with psychological maturity and/or moral purity, with the deepest stirrings of one's conscience, and with one's responsibility before God."

In Part One, van den Aardweg aims to debunk what he calls the "normality" ideology. This ideology, found in both the higher strata of academia and the culture at large, views homosexuality as a natural alternative to heterosexuality. The theory that homosexuality is rooted in disordered parent-child relationships is also disputed. The author proposes rather that adolescent peer relationships are the determining factor. Those relationships, he contends, establish a young person's view of his or her masculinity or femininity.

Part Two outlines practical guidelines. The author recommends a two-pronged approach: a daily combat of the will over passion and sin and an ever-deepening spiritual life focused on prayer. The struggler "will notice that an honest prayer with the mindset of a son addressing a good Father will keep him from succumbing." The author also emphasizes the church's sacramental life, especially confession and the Eucharist. Therapy is a "psychological, spiritual, and moral affair" that no one can battle alone.

The author's views will be controversial, of course, but he brings to the discussion more than 30 years of psychotherapeutic work with gays and lesbians. -Marisol de Leon

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MAGAZINES

Vanity Fair (June) has an interesting and poignant article on Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. The author of "On Death and Dying" is 70 and eagerly awaiting her own death, to pass into the afterlife she so strongly believes in. Contributing editor Leslie Bennetts found Kubler-Ross ailing - she has had several strokes - at her Arizona desert home "surrounded by photographs of her family, a large picture of herself with Mother Teresa, and images of E.T. and angels and Jesus and the Virgin Mary. She seems to be on intimate speaking terms with all of them." Why E.T.? "Because I loved him." Don't miss the mystical vignette at the end of the article about red roses in the snow. -Robert Plocheck

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Commonweal (May 23) has a question-and-answer piece with author James Carroll, winner of a 1996 National Book Awar for "An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us." Carroll tells interviewer John D. Spalding about his social activism in the 1960s and '70s, when he was a Paulist priest. In the same issue, Paul Baumann, Commonweal's executive editor, takes issue with Carroll's essay in the April 7 New Yorker on the church and the Holocaust. Baumann rejects Mr. Carroll's argument that "connects ... 'absolutist' Catholic claims about Jesus" to Nazi actions. He calls the account factually flawed, logically garbled, theologically incoherent and "little more than demagoguery." -Robert Plocheck

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Woman's Touch (May/June), a magazine of the Assemblies of God, has a provocative account of evangelizing in a condom store. In "Are You Kidding, God?" Fran Sandin, a writer from Greenville, Texas, relates the story of a college student who, passing the store, saw a clerk who seemed upset. The student felt compelled to witness to her. The result was a conversion. -Robert Plocheck

(Writers are staff members of The Dallas Morning News. Write to them in care of: the Religion Section, Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265.)

(c) 1997, The Dallas Morning News.

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