Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Michael Ignatieff's "True Patriot Love" -- book review by Ron Dart

Michael Ignatieff, True Patriot Love: Four Generations in Search of Canada. Toronto: Viking Canada, 2009.

Michael Ignatieff could become the next Prime Minister in Canada. This means it is of some importance to know what Ignatieff thinks and why.

Ignatieff is the child of two important Canadian families: the Grant and Ignatieff clans. Michael has written of the roots of the Ignatieff family in The Russian Album. True Patriot Love is a turn to the better known Grant side of the family, and an exploration of how four generations of Grants have tried to make sense of what it means to be Canadian.

Three New Orthodox Works - Reviewed by Ron Dart

David J. Goa, A Regard for Creation: Collected Essays (Dewdney: Synaxis Press, 2008).

It often takes a few decades for an ancient tradition such as Orthodoxy to fully root, then bear the full foliage and fruit of such a deep rooting. There is little doubt that with the publication of A Regard for Creation: Collected Essays, by David Goa, the attentive reader cannot help but be held by the breadth, insights and grandeur of Orthodoxy as such a tradition speaks to our current questions.

Bob Ekblad's 'A New Christian Manifesto' - Review by Brad Jersak

Bob Ekblad, A New Christian Manifesto: Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.

Review by Brad Jersak

After my first encounters with the theo-praxis of Bob Ekblad, recounted so vividly in his previous work, Reading the Bible with the Damned, I could only wait impatiently for the arrival of his New Christian Manifesto. I was not disappointed.

In this work, Ekblad demonstrates his acumen as a master bridge-builder and integrator. Specifically, he bridges the best of world-class biblical theology and front line pastoral practice. He integrates the social prophetic world of liberation theology with the charismatic prophetic world of the modern renewal movement. Text meets testimony, mind meets heart and authentic prayer finds its way into the world of the poor, the immigrant, the gangster and the prisoner. In short, Bob brings the good news of the Kingdom of God, preaching a decentering word to the powers (a la Brueggemann), and inviting those on the margins to the banqueting table of God.

Annalise Acorn's "Compulsory Compassion" -- Review by Wayne Northey

Book Review of Compulsory Compassion: A Critique of Restorative Justice, Annalise Acorn, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004, 207 pages. 

By Wayne Northey 

Introduction 

There is a longstanding difference in how to read the Gospels in relation to criminal justice and in how we read the Gospels in response to issues of violence and nonviolence in general.  One of Mohandas Gandhi’s repeated statements was that it seems everyone but Christians knows Jesus was nonviolent¹.  The author is not grounding her critique on Jesus or the Bible, though she cites Jesus’ words several times.  She joins with Gandhi’s “Christians”.  I shall return to the issue of her ethical epistemology. 

My point of departure is the church’s Jesus and Bible.  And I am with Gandhi, a non-Christian by his self-designation, in his assessment of (especially) Western Christendom’s remarkable longstanding rejection of Jesus’ nonviolence.  Noted evangelical author Philip Yancey once wrote of Gandhi (rightly I think) that he was possibly the only Christian (Christ-follower) in India at the time of his bid to liberate India from British rule.  

Review of Urs Von Baltasar's "Dare We Hope: that all men be saved?" by Andre Harden

Is a somewhat misleading title for this book that examines the core nature of God's relationship to mankind. "Dare we" suggests that hope in God's intent and power to save his creation should be exercised tentatively, furtively and only at great risk, perhaps with the same manner that one might dash across a minefield, or urinate on an electric fence. "Uh ... go ahead, if you dare ... but to what purpose?"

Hans Urs Von Balthasar's purpose is extraordinary. His title reflects his awareness that dominant theology aggressively defends a lack of hope in God's desire and power to save all. His suggestion, that God wills to save all (which is not so much his suggestion as it is God's own expression of his will for Man) is an attack against an idolatry of pride and self-separation which leads one to declare himself blessed over others.

Review: Crazy for God by Frank Schaeffer

Review by Ron Dart

Frank Schaeffer, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to take all (or almost all) of it Back (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2007).

I lived in Switzerland from 1972-1973, and while I was there my mother sent me a copy of Escape from Reason by Francis Schaeffer. I had not heard of L’Abri or Francis/Edith Schaeffer at the time, but as I read the slim missive in the Alps, I became quite interested in Schaeffer’s interpretation of the sweep of Western intellectual history. I was young, naïve and not grounded in much, so the argument in Escape from Reason seemed to make sense to me.

Gems from Tilly - Interview, review and excerpt by Brad and Dominic Jersak with Meg Tilly

After my review of Meg Tilly’s work, entitled “A Spirituality of Courage and Hope,” she graciously responded to some questions that I hadn’t seen others pursue. Herein is the interview, along with a review of Porcupine written by my son, Dominic, who is 11 years old, and a powerful sample of prose/memory from Meg that she’s lent us from her blog site (www.officialmegtilly.com).

Porcupine – Review by Dominic Jersak (11)

Porcupine is a book about a 12 year old girl and her siblings. Their father was killed by ‘friendly fire’ in a war. Their mother eventually drove her family to the other side of Canada to live with her grandmother. There are many small events in this book that tie it together to make it a great book. 

The morals and some strong themes of Porcupine were courage, being helpful, and forgiveness.

Michael Azkoul's Ye Are Gods -- Review by Ron Dart

Both the Scriptures and the Fathers attest to the truth of deification as the teaching of the church from the beginning, universally confessed even if not universally expounded. Michael Azkoul, Ye Are Gods (p.2)

I have had an abiding interest in Orthodoxy since the 1970s. I did an MA thesis at Regent College (Vancouver, BC) on ‘The Spirituality of John Cassian’, and did another MA thesis at the University of British Columbia (UBC) on ‘Origen and Anthony’. I also had the opportunity to read, in a guided study, Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses in the Patristic Greek of the Late Antique Era. I was quite drawn, at the time, to the academic, intellectual and publishing work that was emerging from St. Vladimir’s Seminary and Press. I used Jaroslav Pelikan’s The Christian Tradition for my comprehensives, and I enjoyed a correspondence with both Jaroslav Pelikan and John Meyendorff when both men were alive.

Reviewing Lazar by Ron Dart

Book Reviews (books available through http://www.new-ostrog.org/synaxis/):

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, Freedom To Believe: Personhood and Freedom in Orthodox Christian Ontology (Dewdney, B.C.: Synaxis Press, Second Edition, 2007).  

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, The Impact of Orthodox Christian Thought on Medicine (Dewdney: Synaxis Press, 2006)

Preface:

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo has ventured faithfully and steadfastly, into intellectual and political terrain that few Orthodox theologians in North America have dared enter. The journey into such deep and demanding places has done much to reveal the splendour and motherlode of the Orthodox Tradition.   

Meg Tilly: A Spirituality of Courage and Hope

My Intro to Meg Tilly: Agnes of God

I first experienced Meg Tilly via her Golden Globe winning onscreen portrayal of an enigmatic young nun named Sister Agnes (Agnes of God, 1985). Her mysterious encounters with God trigger investigator Dr. Martha Livingstone (Jane Fonda) into a spiritual crisis which may just lead her back to faith. The providential interface between Agnes’ spirituality and Livingstone’s cynicism impacted me. It mirrored my own internal struggles as a young theology student whose heart and head were plagued by a serious disconnect. 

Novels: 

Twenty years later, it’s happening again. Meg Tilly left the acting trade to pick up the novelist’s pen. I’ve only just discovered her body of work and I’m pleased to say that I have not emerged unscathed. In each of her first three books—Singing Songs, Gemma and Porcupine—we hear the authentic voice and feel the true heart of courageous young girls who reflect some aspect of Tilly’s reality. The stories reveal an acquaintance with grief and fight and hope that are deeper than fiction. They have the capacity to heal.