The Heavenly Man.

Book Review.

Hattaway, Paul.  The Heavenly Man.  The remarkable story of Chinese Brother Yun.  Monarch Books. 2002.

Comment.  Henry.

Brother Yun’s name is Liu Zhenying.  He was born in 1958 in Henean Province in southern China.  It is a province of 100 million people.  Brother Yun’s family lived in a village of 600 farmers.  At age 16 the Lord called him as a follower.

Brother Yun’s story is filled with horrendous persecution, miraculous deliverances and amazing conversions.  As a leader of house churches he was targeted and prosecuted as a criminal.  His family suffered greatly because of Yun.  There is hardly a page where references are not made about miracles, signs, and wonders.  Eventually Brother Yun ended up in the West. He now lives in Germany and is giving leadership to the “Back to Jerusalem” movement coming out of China.

Brother Yun is not impressed with Western Christianity and its churches.  He considers them asleep (at best).  I (we) find it quite difficult to really wrap my head around the Christian, church, environment in China with all the opposition and risk for those who would declare to be Christian.  It seems to me that this is a two way challenge.  People like Brother Yun find it difficult to wrap their heads around our Christian environment.  The concerns and/or criticism are valid.  That should not in any way call into question the truth of our kinship in Christ.

Absence of Mind.

Book Review.

Robinson, Marilynne.  Absence of Mind.  Yale University Press.  2010.

Comment.  Henry.

I pulled this book off the library shelf because I had read Marilynne’s novel, “Gilead”, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It didn’t take much reading for me to realize that this would be a very different read from a novel.  This resource is part of “The Dwight Harrington Terry Foundation Lectures on Religion in the light of Science and Philosophy”.  This author’s lecture focuses on the topic of the mind and various opinions on what it is and how it functions.  She admits to be a religious (Christian?) person.  This position would make some of her opinions unacceptable by other writers.

I began my read with the attitude of a student that was auditing a course.  That approach didn’t work for me since I really had no comprehension of what I was reading.  Obviously this is not a book that works for me but it may be of interest to some of you who get these reviews.

Happy Reading!

henrydirksen.blogspot.com

In Search of Paul.

Book Review.

Croosan, John Dominic.  Reed, Jonathan L.  In Search of Paul.  How Jesus’, apostle opposed Rome’s empire with God’s Kingdom.  Harper, San Francisco.  2004.

JDC- professor emeritus of De Paul University, regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time.

JLR- teaches New Testament and Christian origins at University of La Verne, California.  He is a leading authority on first century archaeology.

Comment.  Henry.

In my reading(s) I can count on three expectations.  I can learn, I can be inspired, and I can be entertained.  This read was ‘heavy’ on the first expectation.  I never cease to be amazed at the ‘options’ of interpretations of Scripture.  I choose to accept them as such and thus avoid the frustration of what seem to be controversies.  I recommend this book as a stimulating read.

Rome’s imperial theology was diametrically opposed to Paul’s Christian theology.  Paul’s ministry focused on “pagans sympathetic to Judaism” (xi) e.g. Cornelius, who are referred to as God-fearers.  His teachings emphasized equality for all, Jew/Gentile, male/female, etc.

A ‘theme’ of the book is how the authors view the contrast between Luke’s presentations of Paul’s ministry in the book of Acts and how Paul presented his missionary work.  Luke did not acknowledge Paul as an apostle and he identified the religious leaders as Paul’s opponents.

“The entire book is about the clash between alternate visions of world peace.  One is Augustus’s vision- peace through victory (and) the other is Paul’s vision- peace through justice.” (74)

There are examples given of wrong information, e.g. the imminent return of Christ, which are not rejected but are rather a problem of interpretation.

“Epilogue”

“We are, at the start of the twenty-first century, what the Roman Empire was at the first century.” (412)   

As in the first century there are two themes being chanted by civilization:  “First victory, then peace, or Peace by victory (and/or) First justice, then peace, or Peace by justice.” (413)

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