Briefly Noted

The Future of Orthodox Anglicanism
edited by gerald mcdermott
crossway, 288 pages, $23

If you are even a little f­­amiliar with Anglicanism, you are ­likely aware that it can be a bit of a mess. The recent death of John Shelby Spong, that tireless enemy of Christ’s Church, should serve as more than a reminder of the fact. You might also know that there is much hope, both here in North America and around the world, and this collection of essays documents it.

In the book, McDermott has gathered twelve Anglican scholars and clergymen from across the globe, as well as a Baptist and a Roman Catholic. Each gives a perspective on Anglican identity and its implications for what comes next. Even as a survey of different churchmanships and challenges facing the future of Anglicanism, the book covers the topic well and will give anyone a solid understanding of the complexities facing the tradition. Particularly heartening are essays from Africa and the Middle East, where Anglicanism grows at an lightning pace. At the same time, acknowledgement of the threat of a sort of “Neo-­Anglican Evangelical fusionism” appearing in the ACNA, the Church of England, and elsewhere can be difficult to find.

The volume's most optimistic essays invoke Anglicanism’s past as a foundation for Anglicanism’s future. The latter half of the twentieth century saw an emphasis on ecumenism over doctrine and distinctives, which has come to haunt Cranmer’s children in an age in which identity is everything. There is hope here, too: Among ­many younger Anglicans an ad ­fontes movement has taken hold, and the roaring success of projects such as IVP’s The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition shows that it goes beyond Twitter.

—Robert Ramsey

Emmanuel Levinas’s Talmudic Turn:
Philosophy and Jewish Thought
by ethan kleinberg
stanford university, 248 pages, $28

Levinas (1906–1995) is regarded as a major figure of twentieth-century French philosophy. After World War II, he became a prominent expositor of Judaism, regularly teaching and publishing on the Talmud and other Jewish texts. He worked for Jewish institutions for most of his life, coming to university teaching late, after he published Totality and Infinity and became the subject of a lengthy treatment by the young Derrida. Levinas is the author of two bodies of work. His philosophical texts can be read on their own; his Jewish lectures are connected to the philosophy but not identical with it.

Kleinberg illuminates ­Levinas’s Jewish background—which was limited—and the nature of his engagement with Jewish life and the French Jewish community’s intellectual needs. The book ­presupposes some acquaintance with Levinas and his philosophical world but does not require detailed insider knowledge. It is most useful in tracing the formative stages of Levinas’s work, both philosophical and Jewish.

One peculiarity of the book is the use of two parallel columns, as found in Derrida’s Glas. One column traces Levinas’s life and thought, while the other contains summary and discussion of selected Jewish lectures by Levinas.

Apart from its value as an introduction to Levinas and to his Jewish side, the book tackles the question of whether and how the two elements in Levinas come together. It explores the relationship between the universal claims of Levinas’s philosophical work and the specifically Jewish texts that are the subject of his Jewish work.

—Shalom Carmy

Faith Seeking Understanding:
The Theological Witness of Fr. Matthew Baker
by fr. matthew baker
st. vladimir’s seminary, 368 pages, $30

Most readers will be unfamiliar with the life and work of Fr. Matthew Baker, a rising theologian of the Orthodox Church. That is likely because he died in a car accident on a snowy road in 2015 at the age of thirty-­seven, leaving behind his wife and six children. In my converstions with those who knew him, they expressed astonishment at the genius of his mind, coupled with his soft, compassionate, and down-to-earth humanity. He was especially kind and respectful with those who disagreed with him. His death was the end of one of the most promising minds in contemporary Orthodoxy. He could have easily become the next Georges Florovsky (his hero), John Zizioulas, or Vladimir Lossky.

This volume was lovingly compiled in his memory by his friends and with the support of his family. It contains a selection of ­Baker’s wide-ranging contributions to the fields of theology, philosophy, and ethics. Along with the essays and reviews is a selection of Baker’s sermons and personal ­correspondences (my favorites). They are a digest of his thought written in practical prose. Topics include “Florovsky and Ecumenism: A Critique of False Claims,” “A Dangerous Delusion: Against the State ­Re-definition of Marriage,” and others. Baker’s essays include a brilliant article on Georges Florovsky’s “Neopatristic Synthesis and Ecumenism” and an insightful review of Paul Gavrilyuk’s Georges Florovsky and the Russian Religious Renaissance. Baker’s strength (and weakness) seems to have been his inquiry into the role of reason in Orthodox theology. He believed in the fullest use of logic, yet the relationship between faith and reason seems never to have been fully articulated in his extant writings. Perhaps that would have been developed in the future, had he lived. Regardless, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in a balanced assessment of Georges Florovsky and the contributions of Fr. ­Matthew Baker to modern Orthodox ­theology.

—Bradley Nassif

The Prophet’s Heir:
The Life of Ali ibn Abi Talib
by hassan abbas
yale university, 256 pages, $33

In this illuminating and engaging book on one of Islam’s pivotal figures, Ali Ibn Abi ­Talib, Hassan Abbas represents a more balanced picture of the polarizing personality at the heart of the first Muslim civil war (fitna). Ali’s historical role is widely contested, and any attempt to bridge the Sunni-Shia ­divide is most welcome. Far from being the cause of this divide, ­Abbas argues, Ali can be the unifier. Abbas appeals to both Sunni and Shia sources to make his case. The book is clearly slanted, however, reading more like a hagiography than a ­biography.

Abbas highlights Ali’s critical role in Islam’s founding. One of the first Muslims, Ali is the Prophet’s most loyal companion, his unwavering defender, and a trusted confidant. Abbas describes the inseparable bond between the Prophet and Ali, such as in his moving account of Muhammad cradling the newborn Ali in his arms. Such details surely inspire in both Sunnis and Shias a “common appreciation for Ali,” one of the author’s aims.

The book must be read with two significant cultural trends in mind. First, the religious revival that has gripped the Muslim world for the last four decades. Abbas is keen to center Ali’s moral example among the early Muslims, thereby laying claim to the “true spirit of Islam.” The second cultural trend is social justice activism emanating largely from the Western world. Abbas describes Ali in terms prominent in social justice discourse; Ali, for example, was “the pinnacle of equity” whose rule as Caliph was distinguished by its egalitarianism and redistribution of wealth.

This broader context aside, nobody can deny the breadth of knowledge on display. The book is a delightful read which complements the existing literature on Shia experience and narrative.

—Nasser Hussain

The Evangelical Theology of the Orthodox Church
by bradley nassif
st. vladimir’s seminary, 284 pages, $30

Bradley Nassif has written an informative volume that will challenge committed Christians of all backgrounds to desist, at last, from sinning by bearing false witness against one another.For centuries, entire communities have regularly and repeatedly misrepresented one another’s faith in their competition for converts. Modern ecumenical dialogues were never conceived to promote doctrinal indifference, but rather to establish mutual respect and harmony across confessional boundaries.

Nassif’s book is a personal testament to that effort. At several points, he presents what he calls the four core beliefs of Evangelical Christians, and notes that the Faith of the Ancient Church clearly affirms all four. In later chapters, he demonstrates that his own Eastern Orthodox tradition would probably need a longer list of core tenets, perhaps even twice as many. Using a geometric analogy, he places the Evangelical circle in the center of a larger Orthodox sphere. His ecumenical geometry offers a kind of mathematical “proof” that these communities should be able to ­cooperate at some practical and even theological level.

While most of the chapters are essays the author has previously published, their inclusion and arrangement in this collection provides a clear context for the ecumenical thrust of his presentation. He articulates this primarily in the final chapters, which bring the book’s argument into clear focus, supporting his recommendations and conclusions.

This reviewer would have appreciated if Nassif had provided a reflective summary of an Orthodox “core” identity to compare more explicitly with the four points of Evangelical Christianity. Perhaps this awaits further reflection. The next natural step will include some additional ecumenical arithmetic. It all adds up.

—Rev. Michael J. Oleksa

The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis:
How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind
by jason m. baxter
ivp academic, 176 pages, $22

In addition to Lewis the apologist and Lewis the imaginative writer, there was, Jason Baxter suggests, a “third Lewis.” This is the Lewis who was immersed in the medieval world—its image of the cosmos, its literature, patterns of speech, and influential thinkers and artists, Dante especially. For those who have read Lewis chiefly in the first two ways, Baxter hopes to show how this third Lewis “is just beneath the surface even in his more ­appreciated imaginative and devotional writings.” I am not sure that these connections have been so hidden from Lewis’s readers, but Baxter surely does a masterful job of clarifying them. In the process he has written a book that invites us to return to The ­Discarded Image, ­Lewis’s depiction of the model of the world underlying the ­medieval and renaissance literature he taught.

Lewis was sensitive to historical changes in the way the cosmos had been pictured—from “symphony” to “machine” in ­Baxter’s ­account—and how that movement in turn had altered the way we think about our beliefs, commitments, and interior lives. The longing for joy that was such a central element in ­Lewis’s inner life seems to have no place any longer in our world. What Baxter’s chapters provide, therefore, is, first, a depiction of a world now seemingly lost to us, and second, the ways in which ­Lewis gradually reclaimed through his scholarly and other writings that more symphonic world.

Especially helpful is a chapter that explores the sense in which Lewis’s vision is “mystical.” ­Lewis affirms that the good things of ­creation elicit within us a longing for their Giver, and ­he acknowledges the transcendence of a God who cannot be identified with any worldly good. In that chapter, ­Baxter depicts the Lucy whom we know from the Narnia Chronicles as just such a mystic. This is one of many instances in which Baxter draws illuminating connections between Lewis’s depiction of the medieval model and his apologetic and imaginative writings. He ­unfolds the extraordinary coherence of Lewis’s thinking and the ways in which his different kinds of writings shed light on each other. Readers will come away with a renewed and deepened appreciation for the depth of Lewis’s intellectual, emotional, and spiritual life.

—Gilbert Meilaender