Book Reviews

Faculty of Theology and Philosophy

School of Theology

Children of God: Towards a Theology of Childhood (PDF File, 20.6 kb)

• Angela Shier-Jones, Peterborough UK: Epworth, 2007
• Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Tom Ryan SM, Adjunct Lecturer, Australian Catholic University, and Visiting Fellow, Griffith University, Brisbane.

• 'What is God saying to us in the existence of childhood?' sets the scene for this book (xii). The reference is not just to childhood as a phase of life [of separation and dependence] but as 'a part of our being before God.' In the background of these essays is the concern to counter the tendency to 'objectify' children and engage in anthropological studies with objective and 'non-interactive analysis' (xii).

  This project involves authors from the United Kingdom, mainly from the Methodist tradition. In addressing childhood and children as a subject of theological enquiry, it takes the reader through the various phases of childhood. The essays are fresh and, at times, controversial, but always give children the attention they deserve.

The Resurrection Effect: Transforming Christian Life and Thought (PDF File, 25.8 kb)

• Anthony J. Kelly, C.Ss.R., Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 2008
• Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Tom Ryan SM, adjunct lecturer, Australian Catholic University, and visiting fellow, Griffith University, Brisbane

• As I read The Resurrection Effect, I was prompted to borrow a copy of F-X. Durrwell’s The Resurrection: A Biblical Study. Durrwell’s work, first published in 1960, was a watershed in theology. No longer, he argued, should the Resurrection be just an epilogue in the work of Redemption. Nor should it be the ‘winner takes all’ apologetic argument to prove the divinity of Christ. Looking at Durrwell, nearly fifty years later, is a reminder of how much development there has been in Scripture scholarship, systematic theology and the interdisciplinary mode of theological investigation. This latest book (and particularly its title) by Durrwell’s fellow Redemptorist, Anthony Kelly, is testimony to that.

  The foundation to Kelly’s approach is that, before we can see the Resurrection as demanding, in N.T. Wright’s words, ‘a serious and well-grounded historical explanation’ (4) especially for apologetic purposes, it needs to be appreciated on its own terms. It is a given (datum) that precisely as given (donum) is a remarkable phenomenon that ‘saturates the whole life of faith.’ Kelly argues that before the theoretical and practical tasks of theology are approached systematically, a ‘phenomenological phase’ is needed (x). K wants to attempt such a ‘phase’. His approach is to blend it with Lonergan’s model of the basic structures of human knowing and loving that emerge in critical realism.

Moving Toward Spiritual Maturity: Psychological, Contemplative, and Moral Challenges in Christian Living (PDF File, 37.4 kb)

• Neil Pembroke, New York: The Haworth Pastoral Press, 2007
• Reviewed by Dr Terry Veling, Senior Lecturer, Brisbane Campus, Australian Catholic University

• Dr. Neil Pembroke is a Senior Lecturer in the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at the University of Queensland, and has published widely in the fields of pastoral theology, psychology and personal development, and spirituality.

  Let me begin with a brief story. A little while ago I visited Neil and his wife, Janelle, for lunch. They had recently purchased a house that needed some restoration, and had spent the past few months undertaking extensive renovations: removing old carpets, sanding and polishing floorboards, painting, re-doing the kitchen and bathrooms, etc. They have lovingly renovated the house, respecting its original integrity, and returning it to its former glory. Just after visiting with Neil and Janelle, I began to read Neil’s new book, and I had to smile to myself when I read in the Introduction, “This book is about renovation.”

The Future of the Sacrament of Penance (PDF File, 27.4 kb)

• Frank O’Loughlin, Strathfield NSW: St Paul's, 2007
• Reviewed by Dr Anne Tuohy, Senior Lecturer, School of Theology, Strathfield Campus of Australian Catholic University

• In Canberra at the beginning of the year the new Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, said ‘sorry’ to the countless men and women from the stolen generations who had been forcibly removed from their families over the last hundred years. In Washington at the beginning of this month during his first tour of America the new Pope, Benedict XVI publically apologised for the failure of the Roman Church to deal with the scandal of clerical sexual abuse that has rocked the American Church over the last decades. In these two seemingly unrelated events we have a testament to both the need for and the power of reconciliation in our contemporary world. And it is precisely this issue that a new book by Frank O’Loughlin, The Future of the Sacrament of Penance, seeks to explore.

Why Do We Hope? Images in the Psalms (PDF File, 23.3 kb)

• David J. Harrington, Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2008
• Reviewed by Dr Rosa MacGinlay PBVM, Golding Centre for Women’s History, Theology and Spirituality, Australian Catholic University

• This slim book by well known scriptural scholar, Daniel Harrington, is directed to a particular readership but within a wider context: firstly, he says, ‘it seeks to initiate beginners … into the methods and concerns used in the close reading of these ancient texts’ but, secondly, ‘it focuses on how the book of Psalms can contribute to our understanding and appreciation of the theme of hope’. (p.v) He has thus a theological purpose, one that he feels bears an urgent message for today’s world whose many trouble spots, inequalities, and stark human suffering test the credibility of older certainties and hitherto standard responses – unless these are heard within a deepened and renewed spiritual context. Needed today is the theological virtue of hope, which Harrington convincingly demonstrates is the persistent note of the ancient psalmists (many authors over a considerable time span). In their essentially this-worldly concerns – often voiced with a desperate plea to God for help – they come to find and express, through immediately environing and powerful imagery, their basic resource of trust and hope. This is not reasoned; it is experientially perceived and felt.