News
¡Sí, Se Puede!

Cultures
A Medieval Pottersville By Daniel W. Muth

Books
Virtue and Politics
edited by Paul Blackledge and Kelvin Knight
Review by Daniel A. Westberg

Faith, Hope and the Global Economy by Richard Higginson
Review by Richard Kew

Daniel Berrigan edited by John Dear
Etty Hillesum edited by Annemarie S. Kidder
Review by Justus Doenecke

Gustavo Gutiérrez selections by Daniel G. Groody
Review by Thomas P. Rausch

Catholic Voices
Two Anglo-Catholic Moments in England
By Zachary Guiliano

Sic et non
Why Provinces Matter
By Jesse Zink

Don’t Cheat the Prophet
By William G. Witt

Beyond Provincialism
By Colin Podmore

Other Departments
People & Places
Sunday’s Readings

News
Healing Vigil
for Heartbroken Boston

Features
Bob Dylan’s Music
Wakes Up Worship
By Douglas LeBlanc

Verbal Kwest Raps the Gospel
By Rodney Reinhart

Thom Satterlee Celebrates Søren Kierkegaard
By Amy Lepine Peterson

Books
Rowan Williams: His Legacy by Andrew Goddard
Review by Jesse Zink

Ordering Love and Being Holy in the World by David L. Schindler
Review by Anthony D. Baker

Diagonal Advance by Anthony D. Baker
Review by Robert W. Jenson

The Rule of Saint Benedict: A Contemporary Paraphrase
by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Review by Jennifer Henery

C.S. Lewis: Revelation, Conversion, and Apologetics by P.H.Brazier
Review by Edward H. Henderson

Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton by Christopher Pramuk
Review by Steve Harris

Other Departments
Cæli enarrant
Sunday’s Readings
People & Places

Virginia Theological Seminary has announced the release of The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion. The book’s editors include the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary, and the Rev. J. Barney Hawkins IV, Ph.D., the seminary’s vice president for institutional advancement and associate dean of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies (CACS) at VTS.

“One of the goals of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies is education,” Markham said. “This remarkable book is a significant contribution to meeting that goal. It is a reference work which will help individuals to understand the Communion. I am delighted this is coming out from VTS.”

Along with Markham and Hawkins, the book’s editors include the Rev. Leslie Nuñez Steffenson (VTS ’12), former administrative coordinator of CACS, and the Very Rev. Justyn Terry, dean and president of the Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, and author of The Justifying Judgement of God: A Reassessment of the Place of Judgement in the Saving Work of Christ (Wipf & Stock, 2008).

At more than 750 pages, Companion to the Anglican Communion explores every aspect of the Communion — from analyzing its instruments of unity, to its central role in interfaith communication, to each of its 44 provinces, to the role of women in the church. Organized under the headings “History,” “Structures of the Communion,” “Provinces” and “Themes,” the 65 substantial articles compose a work that is “invaluable to anyone interested in Anglicanism,” according to the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

“The Anglican Communion is home to the third largest family in Christendom,” Hawkins said. “This book with its many voices is a map of sorts, exposing the Communion’s diverse and global geography of faith.”

The comprehensive reference was a project of CACS, which works to support theological education; the engagement of Anglican leaders and scholars in study, research and conversation; and interreligious dynamics across the Communion. The four editors also served as contributors, along with several other leading Anglican commentators from around the world.

Among the local contributors in this book are Katherine L. Wood, current assistant director of CACS, and the Rev. Robert S. Heaney, Ph.D., who this fall will join the seminary faculty as the Center’s director and assistant professor of Christian mission at VTS. Additional contributors include VTS faculty members the Rev. Robert W. Prichard, Ph.D., Arthur Lee Kinsolver Professor of Christianity, and the Rev. William Bradley Roberts, D.M.A., professor of church music, as well as the Rev. William L. Sachs, Ph.D., visiting professor of church history for 2013-14. VTS students Ms. Cameron J. Soulis of the Diocese of Washington and the Rev. Jane L. Dogue-is of the Diocese of North Central Philippines contributed essays.

The Companion to the Anglican Communion is the first collaboration of Markham and Hawkins since the 2010 publication of Christ and Culture: Communion after Lambeth (Canterbury Press/Church), which they also edited. Markham recently edited The Student’s Companion to the Theologians (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), and he is the author of Against Atheism (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), among other books. Hawkins is the author of Episcopal Priesthood and Etiquette: Living the Craft of Priesthood in the Episcopal Church (Morehouse, 2012) and co-editor of Staying One, Remaining Open: Education Leaders for a 21st Century Church (Church, 2010).

The Companion costs $195 in hardcover and $159.99 as an e-book.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

From the portion of Psalm 33 that formed today’s Introit: “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, alleluia: by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, alleluia, alleluia.”

Perhaps it is fitting that I select that brief and obscure part of today’s readings to begin my sermon. For is that not what we do today? We gather in relative obscurity to observe a little noticed aspect of the life of this museum and the woman who built it. Amidst the grandeur of this space there stands this little chapel — not even a chapel, really, but the end of a room with some choir stalls and an altar stuck in it. I wonder what the average visitor thinks of this little space. How quaint, they might say. Isabella Stewart Gardner was a religious woman. One more piece of information about her complex and interesting life.

Such is our age, of course. Everything in its place. Religion, like politics, should keep out of the arts. And so, we are told, the rightly ordered existence — liberated from all external limit — is one in which we shut off any possible vision of the whole so that we can look at details. That is, is it not, the main intellectual current of our day, whether in the hard sciences or in the “human” sciences, as they are called: to disavow any overarching narrative and focus on the particular. There we can relish in comprehensible truths, in certain knowledge; there, too, we can play, with all the delight that nature gives us, within the sphere of our own tastes and interests.

But again: “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Surely in that verse we can see something of the vision of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Here was a woman who could not stop seeing beauty and sharing it, not just in her magnificent interest in art, but in all kinds of human flourishing, from the monastic cloister to the baseball diamond. It is not just that she had diverse interests, it is that she did not see them as disparate. For her it was not idiosyncratic to support both the symphony and the Church, both the poor and the world of high art. In all these things she saw, I think, the same beauty at work, the same God “by whose word they were made.”

And this is not, mind you, because she held a vague or simplistic sense that to do good, or to see beauty, was to know God. Would it be too much to suggest that we look here, at this small world she created, to catch a glimpse of her vision of the whole created world? Here is a world in which the true, the beautiful and the good are one. Here is a world where every little thing gives a glimpse at transcendence, where beauty is both captivating and transporting. There is no division here between “secular” and “religious,” between the universal and the particular. Need I point out that in this museum, even behind seemingly mundane and “secular” works of art, often lurk the signs of the sacred? An old priestly vestment hiding behind a portrait, a cathedral choir stall sitting next to a dinner table.

Good people, this chapel is not an obscure corner of Mrs. Gardner’s world. It is a glimpse into the heart of that world. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Not just goodness, not just beauty, but the goodness and beauty of the Lord. It is the divine beauty of the Holy Trinity that charges earthly beauty with meaning, because it is in that beauty that all beautiful things participate, and to that beauty that they lead us.

Because of that — because of that eternal beauty which is God’s very nature — we can find, like Mrs. Gardner, that earthly beauty is meant to be shared. Her generosity to so many of the people and institutions of this city, I think, stems from her understanding of the generosity of God. The world is not necessary, from the divine perspective. It is purely gratuitous, purely gift. And so beauty is not something to be hoarded, as if it were a limited commodity. Earthly beauty, if it remains only that, is not even that, for it passes away. Earthly beauty is defined by its limitedness, by its rarity, its scarceness. But the rarest beauty of all, the divine nature, has no limit, no finitude, no termination. And if we give ourselves, and all of the beautiful things he has given us, back to him, we will find them transformed, like the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist, into the divine glory. We will find that there is no reason to be anxious about the fleetingness of the things in the world, because they “are full of the goodness of the Lord.” We can rest, with Isabella Stewart Gardner, in the knowledge and love of the God who will make all things new, who fills all things living with the light of his glory.

This edition’s contents:

News
A Communion Optimist for VTS

Features
You Are Here
By Jon Roberts

Your Parish and Global Mission
By Julian D. Linnell

Thank You to Our Contributors
The 2012 Living Church Associates

Review Essays

Pro Communione by Benjamin M. Guyer
Review by Colin Podmore

The Heartbeat of God and Gathering at God’s Table
by Katharine Jefferts Schori
Review by Jesse Zink

Books

Grace at the Garbage Dump by Jesse A. Zink
Review by John P. Bowen

Against the Tide and A Public Faith by Miroslav Volf
Review by Andrew Petiprin

Catholic Voices
Uganda’s Lessons of Inclusion
By Steven R. Ford

Other Departments
Cæli enarrant
Letters
Sunday’s Readings

How to interpret the profundity of the various “appearances” of Christ to his disciples has always been an important question, especially as that profundity often seems enveloped in a great simplicity of expression, as N.T. Wright has noted in various publications. The stories themselves seem remarkably underdeveloped in form and Scriptural allusion, at least in comparison to some other parts of the Gospels.

A basic rule of thumb, however, for interpreting narratives holds true with these stories as well. As St Gregory puts it, “It is pleasing to consider how the Sacred Eloquences express in their introductions the qualities of the stories (narrationum qualitates) and the meanings of the occasions (terminos causarum). For they signify, at one time by the position of a place, at another by the position of a body, at another by the quality of the weather, and at another by the quality of time, what they will posit later with regard to a coming action” (Moralia in Iob 2.2) In other words, the minute narrative details at the beginning of a particular story are important. Gregory goes on to note certain stories in which this is the case, using these examples: Israel received her law from a mountain while standing on a plain (position of place), Stephen saw Jesus standing in heaven (position of a body), Jesus was accused of blasphemy in winter (quality of weather), and Judas went out to betray Jesus at night (quality of time). Each of these details, Gregory says, gives some deeper indication of the meaning of the story in which they are embedded.

So, it is not without some underlying exegetical theory that Gregory will also draw attention to the placement of Jesus and his disciples in the resurrection appearances. He asks, for example, why, in the story recounted in John 21:1-14, “the Lord appears on the shore while his disciples are laboring in the sea, when before the resurrection he walked on the waves of the sea” (Homilies on the Gospels, 24.1). He is concerned with the “position of the body” in interpreting this particular narrative. And his answer is that Christ wished to signify that he had passed beyond the instability of this current life to an unshakeable existence. Christ’s human nature had passed from weakness to strength, from dishonor to glory, from mortality to immortality (cf. 1 Cor 15:42-58). He was no longer living in “the waves of confusion” as the disciples were.

And this point is important, not simply that we might clarify our theology of the Resurrection, but that we might see intimated in the Scriptural narrative God’s promises concerning our own future, as well as our present. We are to share in his immutable, incorruptible life. The glory of his body is one into which we ourselves shall pass and indeed are passing even now through our sharing in the sacraments of redemption. But it is also a different sort of comfort to us who are yet laboring on the tossing waves, the confused sea of this world, in which we hope still to make a miraculous catch of fish.

We must remember: Christ has passed over to life; “death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54). In his stability and power, he remains an anchor to us in prayer and in worship, mooring our light vessel which is so easily tossed to and fro. He is himself our peace, especially when we set our minds upon him, “on things that are above.” For we have died and our life is now hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:1-3). His transfer, his passing-over, that is, his pascha, is something in which we will share in manifold ways in the future and which gives us hope, peace, and assurance even now, as we await the fullness of our inheritance.

So “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” and “therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:57-58).  This is how we may keep Easter as we continue our journey through the great fifty days and beyond. We  continue our work in confidence, joy, and peace, always trusting in our risen Savior, amid the changes and chances of this life.

For while we are keeping Easter, we must remember that it is truly Easter that is keeping us.

Any Anglican student enrolled in a master’s degree program (M.Div., M.A., or equivalent diploma; not Th.M. or other secondary degrees) in any seminary of the Anglican Communion or accredited ecumenical equivalent may submit an essay of 1,500 to 2,000 words.

Essays may address any topic within the classic disciplines of theology (Bible, history, systematics, moral theology, liturgy). We also welcome essays written to fulfill course requirements. We will give special consideration to essays that demonstrate a mastery of one or more of the registers of Christian wisdom and radiate a love of the communion of the Church in Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God.

Students may send essays (in Word or RTF) via email no later than June 15, 2013.

Entries should include the student’s full name, postal and email addresses, and the name and address of the student’s school.

TLC Essay Competition 2013

The April 14 issue of The Living Church is now available online. But before you can access your files, you will need to create a new password.

When you click this link you will be directed to the registration page for TLC’s digital edition. Simply add a password and update your email address if necessary. If you have any trouble, please contact our Customer Service Department:

800.211.2771 | 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Eastern) weekdays
subscriptions@livingchurch.org

Thank you.

John Schuessler, managing editor
The Living Church

We have now entered Holy Week and have begun our intense contemplation of the passion and cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The season of Lent is ending, but this reading from Philippians assigned for the Daily Office presses upon us precisely as our time of denial draws nearer to its appointed end, to its climax and completion in the Triduum. At the very end of our labors and exercises of self-denial, when we look forward anxiously to the joys of Easter, we are forced to ask a most difficult question: who are the enemies of the cross of Christ?

This verse has a long history in Christian polemics, being directed often against those somewhere “out there” who would deny or lessen (or be thought to deny or lessen ) the sufferings of Jesus or the Incarnation of the Word. But we should be careful about such an application. It is all too easy to fix our gaze on some other group of people, rather than directing the critique somewhere closer to home. Perhaps the real question is: are we ourselves the enemies of the cross? And, if this is true, how are we in hostility to our Lord’s Passion?

I doubt that many readers of this blog deny the sufferings of Christ or his Incarnation. But the verse’s referent is not directed towards confessional statements, but at moral actions. “Many walk as enemies of the cross.” It is the whole sphere of living, working, and being that is the aim of Paul’s critique. We are constituted as enemies of the cross when we would deny the exemplary activity of self-denial present in the Lord’s Incarnation and Crucifixion, evident in the relinquishment of pride which characterized Paul’s apostolate, and exhibited by the saints of every age who suffered for the life of the one body. For our redemption was not secured by the avoidance of suffering, the preservation of personal estate, or the exaltation of the self. The Body of Christ was a body of suffering from the very beginning.

I often believe there is an ecclesial application to all such verses. That is, I want us to ask whether we have set ourselves up as enemies of the cross, precisely in those actions which constitute our common life together as Christians. In what ways have we avoided the suffering which establishes community? Have we drawn back from fellowship with those different from us? Have we attempted to preserve our own identity through a putatively holy separation? Have we regarded our form of life as an object precious to us, “something to be grasped” (harpagmon; Phil. 2:6)?

This is an especially serious question in the aftermath of the struggles of recent years. I think we all have some sense of exhaustion at the effort needed to wrestle for the maintenance of the bond of peace, while encountering hostility and even aggression from our closest neighbors in faith. At times, it seems that our struggle has accomplished even less than the most pessimistic critic might have projected years ago. And so we find it hard to summon up the energy for ongoing unity. We retreat to our confessional, liturgical, and theological ghettoes. And, perhaps, we walk as enemies of the cross of Christ

But let us not give up the struggle for unity, for Christ our God did not suffer that we might sit in passivity. It will be difficult, sweaty, disappointing, frustrating, and often seem useless. But is not without an end, the sight of which will be glorious.  Christ’s kenosis did not end in death, but in death and resurrection. So let us must manifest now by our struggles the full pattern of the passion of our Lord, while yet remembering that “our citizenship is in the heavens, whence also we expect a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humiliation into the same form as the body of his glory, according to the power that enables him to subject all things to himself” (Phil 3:21).

He will transform the body of each of us, for he will transform the body of his Church.

• Visit our current page for PDF editions. You may encounter a warning about a missing security certificate. Be assured that we are not phishing or spreading malware.
• Download a PDF from Dropbox.
• Write to Managing Editor John Schuessler (jschuessler@livingchurch.org) or call him at (414) 292-1241 if you wish to receive the issue via email.

News
Archbishop Welcomes Pope Francis

Features
Primitive Prayer
By Patrick T. Twomey

At the Heart of Christian Worship: Liturgical Essays of Yves Congar
Review by Nathan Jennings

Books
Incarnality by Rod Jellema
Review by Ephraim Radner

Broken: 7 “Christian” Rules That Every Christian Ought to Break
as Often as Possible by Jonathan Fisk
Review by Jonathan Mitchican

The Melody of Faith by Vigen Guroian
Review by Anthony D. Baker

Cultures
Burners as Beloved Riff-Raff
By Jon Carlson

Catholic Voices
Struck Down, But Not Destroyed by Daniel H. Martins

Other Departments
Sunday’s Readings
People & Places