Who Were the Beguines?

It was a mystery to me, so I was glad to receive a review copy from BlueBridge (www.bluebridgebooks.com) and have enjoyed reading it. The Wisdom of the Beguines, the Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement is by Laura Swan, who is adjunct professor of religious studies, Washington State, and a former prioress of a community of Benedictine women in the Pacific Northwest. I am impressed by the research and study she must have done to tell us about the Beguines, and am grateful to her for all of this history of an important woman's group I had not heard of previously. Yes, I have heard of some of the early women mystics, such as Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, but those are about all I knew of, until now.

The Beguines began to form in groups in Europe more than 800 years ago! That's in the early 1200s. They were not nuns, but laywomen. They did not take vows, nor live in monasteries. There was no founder or rule to live by. Some lived alone, some lived in groups, perhaps sharing a house. Swan writes: "They did share their common way of life: chastity and simplicity, their unusual business acumen, and their commitment to God and to the marginalized."

Beguines existed into the twenty-first century and some news media reported the death of "the last Beguine, Marcella Pattyn in 2013." She was in her 90s and had lived in Belgium. They thought she was the last but Swan says there are reports that young women are "making spiritual promises and seeking a beguines lifestyle today, both in Europe and in North America."

Swan gives much information about who was where and what they were doing, their ups and downs, problems with business guilds, church officials, and local politics, even while they were much involved in helping the poor and needy in their communities. Often their day included "prayer, fasts, physical labor, and works of charity," She says that the beguines were "united in their commitment to ministry," and they were also involved in local businesses to support their ministries. I think we have much to learn about the women who have gone before us and their ministries and The Wisdom of the Beguines is an important beginning.

---Lois Sibley

Special Prayer Book for Military

With sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters signing up and going off to represent our country in this world of wars, it might be helpful for them to have a prayer or two in their pockets. The Episcopal Church has provided A Prayer Book for the Armed Services, which looks to me like it could be very helpful. Published by Church Publishing, Inc., this is a small book of the size to fit into one's pocket or purse. Meant for chaplains, but it could be of benefit to anyone in the military.

The print is small but manageable, and the contents are perfect from my perspective. First, there is a brief  suggestion for daily prayers in the morning, noon, and evening. There is a special listing of Psalms that might fit nicely into one's daily devotions. Some of the Psalms and prayers are also in Spanish. Changes in wording can be chosen and fitted in as best provides for the pray-er and his or her situation at any moment. There are pages of brief readings and prayers that quote from those in The Book of Common Prayer, which is a basic resource for this small prayer book. And there are also appropriate, brief prayers for specific needs of someone in the military, including one "for a family farewell for a deployed member." There are prayers "for a spouse," and their children I assume, "for loved ones out of touch," "during night hours," "friends who are being deployed," and "a flight prayer" for those who are in the Air Force and taking "the wings of the morning" while praying for "fair weather, a clean landing, and a welcome home."

There is also a summary of the Bible, beginning with Creation, including God's promise to Abraham, God's covenant with Israel, the story of Jesus' birth, baptism, preaching, some of his teachings, healings, his summary of the law, his promises to those who believe in him, his last supper with his disciples, his death and resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit. and the promise that Christ will come again. Enough so that anyone who wonders may know the truth and believe.

A good selection of the Psalms and words of some hymns are also there, and information for services of baptism, communion, and others that might be helpful to chaplains, as well as informative to the curious. The Lord's Prayer is included as well as the Ten Commandments, Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed.

It occurs to me that parents and grandparents might appreciate having this little book. With it, they could pray some of the same prayers their children and grandchildren are praying. And that might be a comfort for all of them.

---Lois Sibley,
ireviewreligiousbks.blogspot.com

Questions for the New Year...

As we begin the New Year 2015, let's read The Essential Question, How You Can Make a Difference for God by Whitney T. Kuniholm, and published by IVPress, (ivpress.com). Kuniholm, who is president of Scripture Union/USA is also author of several books on personal and group Bible study. In this one he invites readers to take a journey with him through the book of Acts as Luke tells us of the first century church, how it began and who were some of the people involved, like Peter and John and Stephen and Philip and Barnabus and Saul who became Paul, and Priscilla and others. These people knew that Jesus is Lord and it "changed their lives," as it continues to do for believers today.

After Jesus left it, the church began to grow. We might wonder how did the Christians function without him? Resolve conflicts? Manage day-to-day problems? Discern God's will for them and their church? Rely on the Holy Spirit as a guide? Remember Jesus's promise that he will come back one day? There were many questions in their minds and on their lips. Not unlike our own. For Christians, writes Kuniholm, "the real question is "How can I make a difference for God?" He is full of practical ideas and practices that might be helpful to readers who have that concern.

Other questions he brings up for discussion are: "Who are you, Lord?" and "What shall I do, Lord," Saul's questions on the Damascus Road (Acts 22:8-10). Kuniholm reminds us that once we have heard the story of Jesus and made our decision to follow him, that is our essential question: "What shall I do, Lord," and we may be asking it many times through our days and nights as we try to serve the Lord and share his life, death, and resurrection truth with others.

Kuniholm believes that God has a plan, an assignment, a mission for his people, whether it be in the home, school, military, marketplace or somewhere else, and Kuniholm is eager to help us "answer the essential question for ourselves---that is, to find and follow God's assignment for us today."

He recommends  readers follow the steps through his book with a friend, a group, or with their church. "Answering the essential question," he writes, "is not a one-time event. It's an everyday challenge. 'What shall I do, Lord?' is the question that will keep you focused on your God-given mission, whether great or small, for the rest of your life. And that's the way to change your world forever."

---Lois Sibley,
ireviewreligiousbks.blogspot.com/  

Roots and Renewal

Exploring Our Hebraic Heritage, a  Christian Theology of Roots and Renewal is by Marvin R. Wilson, who is Ockenga Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College in Massachusetts. This actually is his second book on the subject as in 1989 he wrote Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith.  Both books are from Eerdmans, at www.eerdmans.com. I have often wondered why Jews and Christians are so against each other when they share the same God and the same Scriptures. It was definitely a mystery to me, but not so much now that I am reading Wilson's books.

Wilson lays this book out in five parts: Theological Sources and Methods; People of God: An Abrahamic  Family; God and His Ways; An Approaching God; and Moving into the Future. Each part has several chapters, broken down to explain Jewish history and opinion for their 4,000 years, as well as our 2,000 years of Christian history and opinion since the birth of Christ. Wilson claims that Christians need Jewish texts and stories of their culture, to learn what happened when. He offers a "call to explore and to learn more of the richness and depth of the roots of Christian faith."

Wilson believes and teaches that in order to "know and understand the Jewish origins of Christianity we must not limit ourselves to only Christian sources. We need the benefit of engaging Jewish commentaries of Scripture as well."

As the church began to grow in the early first and second centuries after Christ, differences occurred until there began to be "an adversarial relationship between church and synagogue." If we look back through history, we will see the results of that, even down to the Holocaust and on. Wilson urges us to remember that "despite our long and painful adversarial relationship from the close of the biblical era through most of the twentieth century...the areas we share in common are far greater than those teachings, beliefs, and practices that divide us." Christians and Jews do share much common ground, as Wilson points out, but both groups have been uninformed or unwilling to explore and consider these facts. Perhaps the times are changing, on both sides of this divide.

Wish I had more room but here are a few quotes from Wilson: "God owns the book." "There is a pattern throughout the Scriptures: "God initiates; man responds." And "it might be surprising to many Christians, to discover that the first five books of the Bible, the Law of Moses, is the place where Christians and Jews often find considerable common ground. Themes such as creation, covenant, redemption, revelation, worship, holiness, love, compassion, moral law, ethics, and social justice are central to the teaching of the Torah and are correspondingly foundational  to Christian biblical thought." Marvin Wilson, with his books and teachings for those who are listening, may continue to turn the tide and bring Christians and Jews together, as we should be.

---Lois Sibley,
ireviewreligiousbks.blogspot.com

Tolkien as Professor and Author...

Have you read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings? If yes, you probably know that they have been acclaimed #1 in many polls and lists around the world. Current estimates put The Lord of the Rings as selling well over 150 million copies, with The Hobbit at over 100 million copies sold. It is amazing when you also read that these are books that "very nearly weren't."

The Hobbit was first published by Allen & Unwin in the UK. It so happened that Mr. Unwin liked to ask his son Rayner, who was 10 years old at the time, to give his opinion after reading a book they might publish. Rayner liked The Hobbit so it was published.

This book is called Tolkien: How an Obscure Oxford Professor Wrote The Hobbit and Became the Most Beloved Author of the Century. It is written by Devin Brown, who is a Lilly Scholar and a Professor of English at Asbury University, as well as an expert on both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. This new biography of Tolkien by Brown is published in the U.S. by Abingdon Press, at www.abingdonpress.com.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born January 3, 1892, not in England but in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, the former colony we now know as South Africa. His father. Arthur, was manager for a branch of the Bank of Africa. When Ronald was four, his homesick-for-England-mom, took Ronald and his brother Hilary (then two), back to England for family visits. While his family was in England, Arthur Tolkien died and was buried there in South Africa. This left the boys and their mother Mabel with family but what to do? Mabel was homeschooling for awhile but moved her little family several times in the Birmingham area, near schools she wanted the boys to attend. The boys loved living in the country and the scenery, woods and trees, a mill on a river, and other attractive scenes stayed in Ronald's mind when he began writing stories and eventually The Hobbit.

Schooling meant the need for scholarships.  Ronald admitted he was not a good student, often studying languages he loved instead of what was required to gain scholarship aid. He did eventually attend King Edward's School, then Exeter College, and then Oxford. And suddenly, there was World War I and he became a Second Lieut. in 1915. And in March 1916 he and his long-time love, Edith Bratt, were married. Tolkien had to go off to war, where he caught Trench Fever and was very ill, and finally returned to Birmingham Hospital for recuperation. As his health improved he was able to begin teaching, first at Leeds College, then back to Oxford, where he remained.

There, he met C. S. Lewis and the two professors-authors became good friends, sharing, critiqueing, and encouraging each other on their writings. Thus, the Inklings group began again, meeting each week to talk and share their work. Still, it was many years before Tolkien's The Hobbit, accepted by Allen & Unwin in 1930, was published in 1937; and even more years before his The Lord of the Rings, accepted in 1937, was finally published in 1954.

It took a long time, but eventually The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings "were translated into more than 40 different languages, and became beloved, best sellers all over the world."

---Lois Sibley
ireviewreligiousbks.blogspot.com

No Secrets Are Hid!

From Whom No Secrets Are Hid, Introducing the Psalms by Walter Brueggemann and edited by Brent A. Strawn is published by WestminsterJohnKnox at www.wjkbooks.com. It is not Brueggemann's first on the Psalms, but he thinks of this one as "an invitation to growth in faith" and he hopes that it will "lead some to a deeper sense of worship in churches that read, sing, or chant the Psalms." I hope with him that this book will help expand the number of Psalms that are used in worship. He's right. Only a few of the Psalms among the 150 are a part of weekly worship and sometimes the Psalm of the day is skipped over with no comments.

The title of Brueggemann's book is part of a well-known and often used prayer in worship (BCP 355). God knows our secrets, even when we have not shared them with anyone else. Brueggemann reminds us that the Psalter includes the secrets of the human heart and community, and when spoken "out loud in speech and song in the midst of the community," these words are important, even "indispensable," he writes, "for the social and economic health of the body of faith and the body politic." The Psalter that was important for the Israelites, is important for Christians as well.

We may know only a few of the Psalms by heart, and Brueggemann notes that we are drawn to the Psalms, and yet we flee from them. Why? Perhaps because we are part of two worlds: our "closely held world," that is, our every day world that we both welcome and dread, and the other world, the Psalms' "counter world," where voices and words call us to a world in tension with our every day world. We want a new, improved world where the Good Shepherd will be near. And so we cling to the Psalms and the God who occupies that counter world "scripted for us in the Psalms."

Brueggemann looks at many groups of Psalms: 22 and 23, 29, 68, 104, 117, 140--150 to name a few, and he explains their meanings and uses by the people of ancient Israel, He says there is "a direct line of continuity from the old song of Moses (Exod. 15:18) through the Psalms to the prophetic declaration of Isaiah (52:7) to the announcement of Jesus and by Jesus, to the hope of the book of Revelation to the present." He reminds us that we are late participants in this "generative act of enthronement," but in our liturgies, we are like ancient Israel, regularly reasserting that the world is under the governance of the God of justice and righteousness, and the Psalms have "immediate implications for social practice and policy." Our singing and saying these poems is an act of hope that God's rule prevails and includes a resolve for us to participate. There is much more....find time to study it....

---Lois Sibley,
ireviewreligiousbks.blogspot.com

Shaping the Prayers...

Shaping the Prayers of the People, The Art of Intercession by Samuel Wells and Abigail Kocher offers many ideas and suggestions for both clergy and lay people who have the responsibility of preparing the prayers that are used in the worship services at their particular churches. Both Wells and Kocher have spent time planning and preparing specific prayers for use in congregations in both Duke University Chapel and the surrounding churches and neighborhoods in that part of North Carolina. Kocher mentions how God's people have been "insisting," that they needed a book like this and the pressure, almost nagging, she says, finally brought them to the task of improving worship services and especially the prayers of the people. Wells reminds readers that the ones who pray, who intercede for all who are present, know it is a duty to plan and prepare their prayers. He wants this book to show that intercession is not just a duty, but a joy, and he and Kocher are eager to explain why, and how to live it.

 Published by Eerdmans, more information can be found at www.eerdmans.com. To begin, Kocher and Wells give a little history of American churches, and how prayers were put together. Sometimes it was a Pastoral Prayer given by clergy, sometimes prayers were woven together from "revivalist traditions," and sometimes lay people were encouraged to just put together the cares and concerns of the members of the congregation. Among all the churches, there are many different styles of worship. Wells and Kocher are accepting differences and looking at them as opportunities for those intercessors who lead prayers to think carefully about what they are doing.

Their book has two parts: theory and practice. The authors say it is designed to answer the question: "Teach us to pray," and intercessors will take from it what they find helpful and that's good. The authors are offering "grace and joy" in planning prayers, "not new laws or rote" on how to do it. But I think that in the first five chapters, they cover just about every angle of how to plan and pray as intercessors. It shows, as they begin with words like: propose, suggest, explore, choose. And they remind us that Jesus described prayer as: "Ask, Seek, and Knock."

In the second part, Kocher and Wells offer samples of prayers under three headings: Seasons, Ordinary Time, and Occasions. Some of these prayers go back many years and some have been more recently prayed, remembered, and shared. These prayers take us through the church year and there are brief paragraphs suggesting how they might be used. The final two pages are a Checklist for Preparing the Prayers of the People that intercessors may find helpful.

---Lois Sibley,
ireviewreligiousbks.blogspot.com