Abstract
This 2024 issue of Theology opens with the final part of Elaine Graham and Graeme Smith’s superb analysis of the theological writings of Don Cupitt, now in his nineth decade, and finishes with another welcome contribution to ‘Difficult Texts’ from Dr Rob James, this time on 1 John 3.23: ‘And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.’
Professors Graham and Smith, using the unique resources of the Gladstone Library, have been able to make an authoritative analysis (and this final critique), over three issues of Theology, of Cupitt’s influential, albeit controversial, contribution to theology. A significant and very welcome undertaking. This is followed by two new contributions concerned with food: Dr John Binns writes from an Eastern Orthodox and Mediterranean perspective on John the Baptist’s diet, and the postgraduate Marcello Newall writes on food laws in the West today. Then the Anglican priest and author of Kingdom Come, Mark Philps, provides a fresh article on ‘Making sense of God incarnate’.
As a New Year offering, I recommend two books to make stimulating reading. The first is a new book by Tom Wright:
Tom Wright,
Into the Heart of Romans: A Deep Dive into Paul’s Greatest Letter
(London: SPCK, 2023); 235 pp.: 9780281089840, £19.99 (hbk)
Ever since his weekly lectionary meditations for Church Times (1995–2000), Tom Wright has demonstrated an enviable ability to mediate academic scholarship to an intelligent, but non-specialist, wider Christian audience. He is also one of a small number of recent Anglican bishops who have been sought after by universities and was, finally, more comfortable once he had handed over his episcopal responsibilities, returned to the academic world, and was freer to write (his main love). He is, after all, one of the leading Pauline scholars in the world. Naturally, his scholarship is academically controversial and it must be for other scholars in his area to assess his latest work – although, frankly, it is not written for them, and they will already be well aware of his predilections and tropes. For a wider readership, however, this new book is Tom Wright at his best – accessible, interesting, provocative, opinionated and deeply instructive.
The focus of this book is Romans Chapter 8, ending with luminous words: ‘I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (NRSV). It is necessary to specify NRSV here, because Tom Wright provides his own translation of the chapter, together with a helpful transliteration of the Greek original. At every stage he invites readers to ‘dive in and dig deeper’, noting particularly the small but effective Greek conjunctions that Paul deploys. Along with the equally popular 1 Corinthians 13 and, especially, Philippians 2, a careful reading of the Greek text is essential for a fuller understanding and Wright is an excellent guide for non-specialists.
His style, as ever, is didactic and self-referential. With good reason, he constantly refers readers to one or other of his many books on Paul for further commentary and, more occasionally, to the works of other scholars. He also tends to ridicule the writings of those with other views – especially Platonists. He has no time for the ‘soul’ and, in addition, considers modernists responsible for the guillotine and Holocaust and post-modernists for widespread present-day cynicism. Yet, at one point he admits disarmingly (in relation to Romans 8.28): ‘One of the frustrations of being an elderly exegete is to find the text refusing to say what you thought it said sixty years ago’ (p. 154) – although he must have been only 15 at the time!
Such quirks only add to the enjoyment of reading this book. Undoubtedly, he sees himself as challenging the views of many Christians: ‘Ever since the Middle Ages, the western church has been fixated on how to get to heaven and avoid hell, and how to be sure that one is on the right path’ (p. 163). In contrast, as is well known, he insists that the Messiah will be interceding for us as we remain, after death, dormant in his care until we receive ‘a new bodily life in the final resurrection’ (p. 166). The latter may happen soon (given, as he argues, the mess that the world is currently in) or it may be centuries, millennia or even billions of years away … Not, I suspect, a view that many of his layfolk in Durham would have embraced enthusiastically.
Plenty to ponder and enjoy here – along with a very different book for the New Year:
Jackie Wullschläger,
Monet: The Restless Vision. A Biography
(London: Allen Lane, 2023); 548 pp.: 9780241188309, £35 (hbk)
This beautifully written and illustrated book is a sheer delight and good value at £35. The author is Chief Art Critic of the Financial Times (apparently, such a post exists). She writes lyrically about Monet and his Impressionist colleagues, few of whom had much interest in religion or religious subjects. While she depicts him simply as an ‘atheist’, she does note in passing that his second wife, Alice, brought out ‘a metaphysical element’ in him: It is telling that churches – Vétheuil, Varengeville, soon Vernon, then climactically Rouen cathedral – appeared in Monet’s paintings when Alice entered his life. (p. 237)
Happy reading!