Questions, Questions, and More Questions

(Lois invited Larry to contribute a review this time, here’s what he has to say.)

I lead a Bible Study Group most Sunday mornings, except during the summer. The group loves questions. After I finish with my questions, they start in with theirs and we go from there.

How about God asking the questions? Could they handle that? I’m about to find out next January when, with some of the same folks, I’ll use Dale and Sandy Larsen’s Questions God Asks, exploring nine questions God asks of characters in the Old Testament (www.ivpress.com). The Larsens write, “While each question is only one verse, the study unfolds the larger context of the question, including immediate circumstances, background, identity of the person being questioned, the person’s response, and the apparent results.”

 For instance, God asks Adam and Eve “Where are you?” They’re hiding as you will remember. Do folks hide from God today? Why? And does he come asking?

Or Jonah, in a fit because God is so merciful, hears “Is it right for you to be angry?” Well. . . . We too might get angry at God; perhaps.

This goes on with questions for Moses—“What’s that in your hand?;” Israel at the Red Sea—“Why are you crying out to me?;” Joshua—“What are you doing down on your face?;” Elijah—“What are you doing here?;” Israel again, now called Jacob in Isaiah—“Why do you complain, Jacob?;” Ezekiel—“Can these bones live?;” and Israel again, after the exile—God asks, “What about that nice house you live in while mine is in ruins?”

Come January, I’ll put some of these questions to the group and listen to their reactions—and get some questions back, no doubt. God’s questions cut to the quick, designed to help with self examination and spiritual renewal.

By the way, go back through this review and count the question marks. See how often we need to ask (and hear) questions?

—Larry Sibley

Book by Book

The New York Times Book Review has a regular feature, By the Book. I've often thought it would be fun to riff on it. My professional specialties are liturgy and biblical studies, and I have varied avocational interests. As a guest on this blog, here's my take:

What books are on your night stand? Actually, it’s a footstool by my rocking/reading chair. Bit by bit, I’ve been reading Bobby Kennedy, by Larry Tye and Maine’s Golden Road, John Gould’s memoir about annual summer retreats in the Great Northen Maine wilderness. Over on the table across the room, are Wendell Berry’s Sabbath poems, This Day; often I read a few to start my Sunday.

Who is your favorite novelist of all time? Probably Flannery O’Connor. Wise Blood (1952), and The Violent Bear It Away (1960) showed that deep Christian commitment is no barrier to creative writing, indeed, it drives the best. Her letters (The Habit of Being, 1979) and her A Prayer Journal (2013) reveal the person who did the writing.

Who are your favorite writers working today? Wendell Berry, for fiction and poetry; Jeanne Murray Walker—Helping the Morning—for poetry; Marilynne Robinson for cultural comment; Jamie Smith on the competing loves in our world; Tom Wright for seeing the big picture in the biblical story; and Richard Hays for interpretive strategies.

What genres do you especially enjoy reading? I re-read three of Berry’s Port William novels this summer: The Memory of Old Jack, Jayber Crow, and Hannah Coulter. His Port William community in Kentucky takes me back to high school days in a hill farm community in Vermont. There’s more than nostalgia here, because Berry has tapped into the biblical motif of responsible care for the earth and its creatures; and the role of inter-generational families and the wider community in this caring.

Tell us about your favorite poetry books and short stories. For poetry, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Wendell Berry and Jeannie Walker. Short story collections by Flannery O’Connor, The Complete Stories; Wendell Berry, That Distant Land and A Place in Time; and William Trevor, A Bit on the Side and Cheating at Canasta.

You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited? I’d like to see John Calvin and Marilynne Robinson at the same table (since she quotes him from time to time), along with perhaps my friend Gordon Lathrop, a Lutheran writer. A potpourri of wit and dialog across the centuries.

What do you plan to read next? I’ve just begun Saving Images, by Lathrop and Awaiting the King, by Jamie Smith; so add those to the footstool. —Larry Sibley