Mediaculture

Despite predictions of their demise, books continue to proliferate, and many of them are well-worth reading.

Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster, 2008, $30) is made up of short (usually two to a page) accounts from primary sources—newspapers, diaries, memoirs, magazine articles, public proclamations and speeches—in chronological order, from August 1892 to Dec. 31, 1941 (the last two-thirds of the book cover 1940-41). World War II is often called “the good war,” but was it? Baker asks, “Did waging it help anyone who needed help?” The book leaves many impressions. Here are a few:

• World War II did not come out of nowhere;

• various companies sold military planes to Germany;

• Hitler’s actions against Jews was well-known but largely ignored, partly because he was so anti-Communist;

• Churchill was vicious; he wanted to use mustard gas from planes on Iraqis in 1920;

• Franklin D. Roosevelt was anti-Semitic (as was Churchill);

• U.S. military buildup in the Pacific alarmed Japan from back in 1934;

• Lockheed sold bombers to Japan;

• a plan by German generals to overthrow Hitler in August 1938 was averted when Neville Chamberlain signed over Czechoslovakia to Hitler;

• British bombers hit not more than 1 percent of their targets, and only 20 percent dropped their bombs within 75 square miles of their assigned target;

• in 1925, “most of the world was pacifist.”

The book also raises parallels to today. Fear of the enemy continues to be used, as it was then, to remove civil liberties as well as freedom of speech and of the press. It helps us gain a clearer sense of what led up to World War II, and it calls us to learn from the perils of glamorizing war.

Following Jesus: Quite a few books address how to be faithful disciples. The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord with reflections by Phyllis Tickle (Jossey-Bass, 2008, $22.95) collects Jesus’ sayings under such headings as public teaching, private instruction, healing dialogue, intimate conversation and post-Resurrection encounters. Tickle, a longtime religion writer, reflects on the impact of facing Jesus’ words directly.

She writes: “We have become lost in a wilderness of scholarship that forgot to bring faith and humility along for the trek.”

The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World’s Poor by Scott A. Bessenecker (IVP Books, 2006, $15) profiles young people who have chosen to follow Jesus by living among the poorest of the world’s poor.

Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church by Paul Louis Metzger (Eerdmans, 2007, $16) addresses divisions in the American church and how consumer religion contributes to that. He writes: “All forms of disunity in the church can be traced, in the end, to an absence of practical love, an absence that hinders our outreach to the world.”

Send Forth Your Light: A Vision for Peace, Mission and Worship by Willard M. Swartley (Herald Press, 2007, $18.99) collects earlier writings (only one chapter is new) that tie together biblical themes of peace, mission and worship. This book is more accessible to the general reader than Swartley’s excellent Covenant of Peace, and it covers broader themes. Though a substantial task, this book will make an excellent study for groups. It addresses a great need Swartley identifies in his introduction: “Have we been faithful as churches in our teaching and counseling [re peace]?”

Science and faith: Two books that address the integration of science and Christian faith are The Way the World Is: The Christian Perspective of a Scientist by John Polkinghorne (Westminster John Knox Press, 2007, $16.95) and The Sky Is Not a Ceiling: An Astronomer’s Faith by Aileen O’Donoghue (Orbis Books, 20087, $18).

Polkinghorne, a theoretical physicist who later became an Anglican priest, takes a more systematic approach and offers a reasoned account of the Christian view of the world. O’Donoghue, on the other hand, uses autobiography to explain how she came to be both an astronomer and a Christian. Hers is a more personal account than Polkinghorne’s apologia.

Goshen (Ind.) College hosts an annual conference on religion and science, which brings in renowned speakers in those fields. The Dialogue Between Religion and Science: Challenges and Future Directions by Antje Jackelén, edited by Carl S. Helrich (Pandora Press, 2004) includes the proceedings of the third such conference.