Mediaculture: Reflections on the effect of media and culture on our faith

As Christmas season approaches, you may want to consider books as gifts—to others or for yourself. Here are some recent ones worth considering.

Justice in Love by Nicholas Wolterstorff (Eerdmans, 2011, $35) addresses an important topic for Christians. While many oppose justice and love, Wolterstorff, an eminent Christian philosopher, shows that these two concepts, when understood properly, are perfectly compatible. “Doing justice is an example of love,” he writes.

Wolterstorff is thorough in his argument, yet uses easy-to-follow examples to illustrate his points. This is not an easy read, but it is worth the effort.

Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor by Ben Witherington III (Eerdmans, 2011, $18) considers work from a biblical point of view as calling, ministry, a way to make a living and as culture making.

“Our work does not bestow on us our humanity,” he writes, “but it is the way we can express in a useful manner our likeness to God as creators, sustainers, redeemers.”

Jesus, Paul and the Gospels by James D.G. Dunn (Eerdmans, 2011, $21) offers an accessible introduction to basic issues in the study of the New Testament. Based on three sets of lectures Dunn gave to Catholic and Jewish audiences in Italy, Spain and Israel, the book is designed for readers from various religious backgrounds.

Dunn draws on studies of oral tradition, including his book Jesus Remembered (Eerdmans, 2003), to address such questions as where, why and how the Gospels were written and what we should respect from them.

He goes on to explore the relationship between Jesus’ proclamation and the Apostle Paul’s proclamation and how to bridge the two.

Finally, he draws lessons on the significance of Paul’s teaching for the church today. Dunn writes: “If Christians could recapture the full sweep of Paul’s Trinitarian ecclesiology, it would save them from many of their traditional failings.”

Given that Islam is such a fast-growing religion and increasingly influential on the world scene, understanding it better is important. Two recent books help us in that regard: Islam: A Short Guide to the Faith, edited by Roger Allen and Shawkat M. Toorawa (Erdmans, 2011, $20), and Who Is My Enemy? Questions American Christians Must Face About Islam—and Themselves by Lee C. Camp (Brazos Press, 2011, $17.99).

Islam collects 15 essays, each by a different expert in the field, on the major aspects of Islam. Chapters cover such topics as Islam, Qur’an, Muhammad, Shari‘a and address interactions between Islam and women, Judaism and Christianity.

Toorwa addresses our ignorance when he writes: “The assumption that an elementary school teacher in Nigeria, an actress in Canada, a shopkeeper in Pakistan, a nurse in Baghdad, an architect in Indonesia, a combatant in Guantanamo and a criminal anywhere have a single Muslim view of the world is a seriously flawed one.”

Camp combines personal storytelling with summaries and analysis of Christian and Islamic teaching about war. Many Mennonites will be familiar with what he says about Christian attitudes toward war but not with his nuanced description of Islamic teaching.

Camp writes that while “the founding narratives of Christianity and Islam are different, … the Christian mainstream looks more like the Muhammad story than the Jesus story.”
I resonated with his chapter on Muslim hospitality.

Gordon Houser is associate editor of The Mennonite.