Book Reviews and Resources
May 2010
by Margaret Cooling with Diane Walker and Jane Taylor, RMEP/National Gallery Publications Ltd with the Stapleford Project, 1998
£24.95
In A2, spiral bound format, and with the artwork in full colour, there is a short introduction to the whole book, and then 12 units/chapters of work. Beginning with the Annunciation, the book travels through the Christian story to Pentecost. Each section is illustrated with reproductions of the theme, so for 'The Annunciation ' we have Filippo Lippi's painting from the 1450s, along with that of Christina Yambeing (Aboriginal, born 1966) . Teacher's notes suggest meanings within the pictures, and are accompanied by the appropriate passage of scripture. Two suggested songs or readings and a series of activities follow.
Art lovers will already be familiar with many of the pictures in the book: for me the wide range of pictures that were selected is a major plus. Yes, we have the old masters, but alongside these familiar sights are more modern works, often taken from other cultures;-'Christ in the wilderness' by Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy (1837-1887), where 'the artist wanted to create a very Russian Christ', 'Jesus and the children' by Luke Ch'en, 1928, with Jesus clearly Chinese with Chinese children. Nicaraguan Rodolfo Arellano (1960s) paints a Nicaraguan Good Samaritan, in the corresponding landscape, and Lino Pontebon's 'Angry Christ' certainly is- shockingly so in this modern Philippino representation.
There are more pictures that widen our experience of an inclusive model of Christ, within a far ranging interpretation of the Gospel within many different contexts.
This is a book for those who like to feast their eyes and souls on beauty, while reminding us that Jesus came for the whole world, and that different cultures always see Jesus as 'one of us'. For a study group, this would be a very different and exciting way of encountering Christ, which may challenge those who are used to the western concept of beauty in our religious art. The target group is children aged from 7-14, but many church groups would enjoy working their way through the pictures, with the joy of the following trip to see them 'live' for the enthusiastic!
Biog:
Ronni Lamont was in Parish ministry for 16 years, most recently at St John the Evangelist in Bexley. Books co-written with husband Gordon include 'Children Aloud' (CHP), 'Work life Balance' (Sheldon) and 'Move Yourselves' (Bible Society). Most recently published is 'More Secondary school assemblies' SPCK 2009, 'The God who leads us on' SPCK 2008, 'Understanding children understanding God' (SPCK 2007) She is currently researching and writing a book on what Clergy do if they decide to leave parish ministry, and has PTO in Canterbury and Rochester dioceses.
Ronni edits www.assemblies.org and writes for the 'Secondary Assembly File' as well as ROOTS worship guide. She also reviews books for the 'Church Times'
An accredited Godly Play teacher, Ronni now works as a freelance writer and trainer, based in Sittingbourne. See www.creativespirituality.org
By Andrew Shanks (SPCK)
This is a short (107pp) book which takes a long time to get going. But when it does, wow! The opening chapter is a difficult read, despite the fashionable device of making Dawkins the target of the author's focus and ire. But if the rest of the book has been teed up by this reaction, then Dawkins is indeed a Godsend to the "truth as openness" that the author advocates for the Church. It is Andrew Shanks' aim in this book to show how the Anglican Church can equip itself to turn the why, what and how questions into "imaginative strategies to intensify the enquiry". And in discerning whether the Church helps or hinders in answering these questions, he contrasts the Church's tendency to collude in a shallow "belief in belief" with the more fundamental and inclusive concept, epitomised in the Eucharist, that God is equally and powerfully present to intellectuals and non-intellectuals alike in the bread and the wine.
But then Andrew Shanks casts aside the over-complication of his opening chapter in a wide ranging analysis of Nietzsche, Ignatius, and Newman (among others) to demonstrate and advocate "the solidarity of the shaken". Yes, stirring stuff! Clearly drawn to the Roman Catholic Church, especially the catholic bit, he hates the Roman, imperial part of it. He doesn't have a lot of love or time for what the Church of England has done or represented in the past, but expresses the hope that "I think that the Church of England's clear ecumenical calling is to become a pioneeringly repentant ex-oppressor Church"
The heart of the book is a critique of the liberal and the charismatic "experiments" in Anglicanism, forensic and insightful, generous in the strengths of each, but clearly yearning for a third way, a "broken middle" way. He then demolishes the arguments against linking baptism and taking communion, extolling the virtues of the annual Methodist Covenant Service, and advocating a kind of "grey" renewal of baptismal vows, marking the transition from working life to active retirement in the service of Christ.
However, the denouement of this tour de force is the author's solution to the potential break-up of the Anglican Communion because of its failure to allow "truth as openness": don't let bishops loose on issues beyond the confines of their dioceses! As their jobs include the need for discipline and order (which Andrew Shanks agrees are necessary), they should not therefore be engaged in potentially proscribing or championing Church positions across the globe - that's a task for theologians and others without a diocesan power base. So no more Lambeth conferences, let the Archbishop of Canterbury be spared the fate of Gregory of Naziansus, and let "indigenous rules for each Church independently" apply. I can see why Andrew Shanks is not a bishop, but I secretly wish he was!
Reviewed by Rupert Bristow, a Reader in Trinity Benefice, Folkestone, and author of "Prayers for Education", "Only Connect" and "Sunday Intercessions"
|