358 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 49, Number 4 • Winter 2010 • December
Book Review
Douglas A. Hicks and Mark Va-
leri, eds. Global Neighbors: Chris-
tian Faith and Moral Obligation in
Today’s Economy. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2008. 276 pages.
Global Neighbors is an important
addition to the Eerdmans’ Series
on Religion, Ethics, and Pub-
lic Life. This collection of es-
says by religious scholars, pastors,
and professors of business, eco-
nomics, and public policy came
out of a yearlong series of meet-
ings convened by the Institute
for Reformed Theology at Union
Theological Seminary and the
Presbyterian School of Christian
Education in Richmond, Vir-
ginia. Valeri is E.T. Thompson
Professor of Church History at
these institutions; Hicks is asso-
ciate professor of leadership stud-
ies and religion at the Univer-
sity of Richmond, and executive
director of the Bonner Center
for Civic Engagement. Most of
the authors write from a Protes-
tant, specifically Reformed, per-
spective; some also cite Roman
Catholic social teaching, and one
mentions Luther on vocation.

C 2010 Wiley Periodicals and Dialog, Inc.
In their introduction, Hicks and
Valeri state that the book’s pur-
pose is to “help others reflect on
moral participation in the market
and envision strategies to change
market relationships” (xix). The
volume achieves this goal and
is a useful contribution to ecu-
menical social ethics.
The book consists of three
main sections. In the first,
Thomas Walker, Eric Gregory,
and Douglas Hicks all draw on
the parable of the good Samar-
itan to address how Christian
faith calls us to understand our
moral obligation to our neigh-
bors, “near and far.” The second
section presents four critiques
of mainstream economic theory,
with chapters from Kent Van
Til, Jeff Van Duzer, and Janet
Parker drawing on particular bib-
lical and theological perspectives,
while Rebecca Todd Peters exam-
ines moral values in Adam Smith
and Robert MacNamara. The
third section is entitled “Labor
and Vocation in the Global Mar-
ket.” Robert D. Austin and Lee
Devin explore knowledge work,
craft work, and calling (voca-
tion); Shirley J. Roels examines
the challenges of the global econ-
omy to Christian manufacturers;
and Rebecca M. Blank presents
a Christian perspective on the
role of government in a market
economy. Hicks and Valeri con-
clude with a discussion of crit-
ical economic engagement, in-
cluding a historical overview of
“four American moments.” “Our
first act of moral imagination,”
they assert, “might be to believe
that we can muster the moral
agency to shape our relation-
ships with our global neighbors”
(264).
All authors believe that this is
possible, although there is a va-
riety of perspectives on how best
to do this. The central theologi-
cal principle is neighbor love, as
the book’s title implies. The em-
phasis on obligation to neighbors
both near and far, and its biblical
grounding, is a central strength
of this book. Each of the three
chapters in the first section
makes a distinct contribution.
Walker’s exegesis of the parable
of the good Samaritan percep-
tively demonstrates how it helps
us see the neighbor with new
eyes, “creating new imaginative
possibilities that challenge the re-
stricted view of the neighbor”
(12). Gregory discusses Christian
perspectives on our obligations
to special relations, those near to
us, which both Augustine and

Aquinas contend take priority
over more distant ones. Gregory
contrasts this approach to the
work of secular philosopher Pe-
ter Singer, who contends that we
are morally obligated to prevent
something bad from happening
to anyone anywhere (hunger, for
instance) if we can do it with-
out sacrificing anything of moral
significance—the parable of the
good Samaritan contends this as
well. Hicks offers a fascinating
assessment of the rock star Bono,
who often refers to the good
Samaritan, to present the pos-
sibilities and limits of celebrity
activism. Bono has sparked “the
moral imagination” of many to
address extreme poverty, yet “the
culture of celebrity and afflu-
ence . . . overlooks the question
of whether it is morally possible
to live with integrity in material
comfort in our own industrial-
ized society” (59).
Other especially constructive
chapters are those by Kent Van
Til, Janet Parker, and Rebecca
Blank. Van Til explores notions
of human nature and human
needs in the work of contem-
porary economists Gary Becker,
Hernando de Soto, and Amartya
Sen in relation to biblical anthro-
pology and the poor in Scrip-
ture. He concludes that Sen’s
capability approach is closer to
biblical understandings than ei-
ther Becker or de Soto, both in-
fluential mainstream economists.
His analysis and critique of these
figures is substantive and per-
ceptive. Janet Parker is the only
contributor who draws substan-
tively on the significant work of
Book Review
the World Alliance of Reformed
Churches and World Council of
Churches on economic globaliza-
tion, or who addresses ecological
issues in any depth. She presents
a sharp critique of neoliberal
capitalism, pointing to its idola-
try of the market, and explores
alternatives based on economic
diversity, which she contends is
essential to preserve biological
and cultural diversity. She draws
on Scripture to extend the no-
tion of neighbor to include all
living beings, a crucial addition
to the volume’s interpretation of
the neighbor. Rebecca M. Blank,
who in June 2009 became Under
Secretary of Commerce for Eco-
nomic Affairs at the Department
of Commerce, insightfully ana-
lyzes three different roles for gov-
ernment in a market society: to
assist and correct the market, to
redistribute market outcomes to
respond to specific needs of citi-
zens the market does not address,
and to confront and limit market
involvement in certain spheres
of activity. She concludes with
a Christian perspective, charging
us to be aware that our actions
impact people in many coun-
tries. She cautions that both gov-
ernment and the market have
the potential for good and for
evil.
The volume does have a
few weaknesses. Significant as-
pects of today’s global econ-
omy are not discussed—the cru-
cial role of finance, investment,
and international governance (or
lack thereof ), for instance. There
seems to be an implicit assump-
tion throughout the book that
359
Christians by and large are lead-
ers, CEOs, knowledge workers,
or middle class. In looking at
leadership, why not include orga-
nizations like Interfaith Worker
Justice or labor unions? Likewise,
there is little if any gender, race,
class, or power analysis, although
both Gregory and Hicks allude
to how we in North Amer-
ica may be complicit in global
poverty and injustice. One chap-
ter was particularly disappointing
in both its research and analysis.
Shirley Roels asserts that “global
manufacturing” and the “market”
are the way out of poverty, al-
though Harvard economist Dani
Rodrick (among others) has pub-
lished compelling analyses that
show that several countries that
opened their economies to the
market are worse off. She also
presents Unocal as a model for
responding to opportunities in
the global economy, with no
mention of its highly question-
able record on human rights,
social justice, and ecological
devastation.
In their conclusion, Hicks and
Valeri observe that it is nei-
ther religious institutions nor the
state that threaten to be a “total-
izing force,” but the global mar-
ket, which along with a culture
of consumerism is predominant
in shaping our lives and thus
“deserves our moral scrutiny.”
They offer a Reformed perspec-
tive on vocation that resonates
with a Lutheran one: “Humans
pursue their vocations not only
to fulfill their own personhood,
but to help others realize their
dignity as well” (261). Overall,
360 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 49, Number 4 • Winter 2010 • December
the chapters in this volume
present sophisticated approaches
to biblical interpretation, eco-
nomic theory, and public pol-
icy that are needed for ade-
quate and appropriate theological
ethics. Any theologian interested
in global poverty and economic
justice will benefit from reading
this book.
Pamela K. Brubaker
California Lutheran University
Amy Plantinga Pauw and Serene
Jones, eds. Feminist and Wom-
anist Essays in Reformed Dogmat-
ics. Columbia Series in Reformed
Theology. Louisville: Westmin-
ster John Knox Press, 2006. 280
pages.
Do feminist, womanist, Latina,
and other theologies grounded
in the commitment to the full
co-humanity of male and fe-
male matter for the Lutheran
church and for Lutheran theol-
ogy? By way of engagement with
a number of key Reformed the-
ological themes, many of which
are in direct conversation with
Lutheran theology, the contribut-
ing authors to Feminist and Wom-
anist Essays in Reformed Dogmatics
offer a resoundingly affirmative
answer.
Thirteen Reformed feminist
and womanist theologians con-
tributed to this fourteen-chapter
volume, which is a distinc-
tive and necessary contribu-
tion not only to the Reformed
churches, but also to all Protes-
tant church bodies and the aca-
demic field of feminist, woman-
ist, and Latina theologies. Three
particular strengths of this vol-
ume create the architecture for
the detailed engagement with
specific theological themes.
First, the entire volume of-
fers a vision into the mutual
re-formation between Reformed
womanist and feminist theologies
and the heritage of Reformed
theology. Second, the authors
understand the necessity of stay-
ing within systematic theology in
order to support renewal. By re-
maining within systematic theol-
ogy, many of these theologians
are resoundingly theocentric and
christocentric (see, for example,
Jones, DeVries, and Rigby.) This
is a distinctive position in the
field of womanist, Latina, and
feminist theologies. The third
particular strength is the clear ar-
ticulation of Reformed theologi-
cal principles. All of the authors
engage John Calvin’s thought,
and a number of them likewise
draw upon Friedrich Schleierma-
cher and Karl Barth.
Theological themes of note
for Lutherans include the law
(Jones), the Word of God
(DeVries), imago Dei (Mc-
Clintock Fulkerson), the cross
(Gilliss), grace (Cannon), resis-
tance (Culp), and ecclesiology
(Pauw). Of these, the three most
outstanding contributions are
from DeVries, Culp, and Pauw.
DeVries studies the Word
of God as a criterion of re-
form. Against the noted bib-
licism of the Reformed tradi-
tion, DeVries reveals the treasure
in Calvin’s thought—that scrip-
ture has “a target,” Jesus Christ,
which means that there is a dif-
ference between Scripture and
the Word of God (46). With
Calvin as her lead, DeVries af-
firms that the Word of God is
a metaphor that points to the
ways in which God is active with
us through a number of forms.
One of these forms is, of course,
Scripture, yet Scripture is for the
Reformed tradition “the means
of grace through which God’s
Word is . . . received in the Chris-
tian community” (52). This re-
sists literalism.
DeVries’ explication of
Calvin leads to two important
hermeneutical assertions. First,
the christological principle must
orient all scriptural interpreta-
tion (53-54). DeVries’ agreement
with the christological prin-
ciple challenges and reorients
theologies that hold women’s
flourishing as the norm for doc-
trine. Second, when the Word
of God is not understood as
biblical literalism, communal
discernment of Scripture may
mean that Scripture is inter-
preted differently in different
contexts.
Culp’s contribution on the
discipleship of resistance could
well serve as the lead chap-
ter, because she declares the
necessity of resistance for Protes-
tant theology. She writes, “With-
out resistance as a testimony of
faith and religious calling, Protes-
tant theology cannot be properly
‘protestant’ and Reformed theol-
ogy cannot be rightly reformed”
(153). The protest is against all
forms of idolatry, which we must
resist, Culp argues, individually,

ecclesially, and sociopolitically.
Culp’s chapter is an invaluable
resource for all leaders in the
church who want to engage more
deeply with the gift and ne-
cessity of womanist, feminist,
and Latina theologies for their
denominations.
Culp explicates the dual ne-
cessity of resistance to idolatry
and theological critique. Calvin
describes resistance as a call to
engage directly with idolatrous
human tendencies. The pivotal
resource for Culp’s analysis is
the French Reformed resistance,
in which leaders not only em-
ployed their theology to resist
the Nazi regime, but also ana-
lyzed their theology for its idola-
try. In this twofold practice Culp
lifts up a model of resistance and
transformation from within the
church. Culp explains that femi-
nist and womanist theologies also
offer the means to resist idolatry
within theology.
Pauw’s ecclesiology, which
calls for the mutual transforma-
tion of the Reformed tradition
and feminist and womanist Re-
formed theologies, is especially
important for leaders and the-
ologians who might not consider
themselves feminist or womanist.
Two of the central themes Pauw
explores to highlight this mu-
tual reformation are outstanding.
First, “the infirmity and weak-
ness” of the church, affirmed
in the 1560 Scots Confession,
means that the church has always
been so. As infirm and weak,
all in the church are alike sin-
ful, even those who criticize pa-
triarchy. Such an anthropologi-
cal and ecclesiological assertion is
Book Review
christocentric: Christ is the high-
est, not the church (192). Sec-
ond, the church is a commu-
nity of gift and argument. Ar-
gument, Pauw asserts, is a natu-
ral part of community, including
the church. The way forward is
to listen to each other through
arguments.
The rest of the volume clearly
shows that Reformed feminist
and womanist theologies are not
only Reformed but also reform-
ing. For example, Jones artfully
brings feminist thought to bear
on Calvin’s interpretation of cre-
ation and the law. Fulkerson ar-
gues that the social and theo-
logical discourse constructing the
“reality” of what it means to be
male and female must be an-
alyzed in order to honor the
imago Dei. Unlike some fem-
inist and womanist theologies,
Gilliss emphasizes the practical
import of a doctrine of the
atonement and the centrality of
the cross in Christian theology.
As the keystone between Jesus’
life and resurrection, the atone-
ment helps Christians to take
risks on behalf of others for
the sake of God’s love. Can-
non touches upon perhaps the
most notable concurrence with
Lutheran theology: justification
by grace through faith, out of
which and because of which we
love others. Shaped and nurtured
by the black Presbyterian church,
Cannon knows grace not only
as God’s gift, but also as the
transformative power in Chris-
tian life, empowering follow-
ers to action and restoring the
imago Dei of the oppressed and
marginalized.
361
This excellent volume is vital
to Protestant theology.
Mary J. Streufert
Director for Justice for Women,
ELCA
William C. Placher. The Triune
God: An Essay in Postliberal Theol-
ogy. Louisville: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2007. 163 pages.
William Placher (1948-2008)
taught humanities for thirty-
four years at Wabash College in
Crawfordsville, Indiana, won a
prestigious teaching award from
the American Academy of Re-
ligion, wrote thirteen books,
and served as editor-at-large for
Christian Century. The notice
of his death in that magazine
mourned the loss of one on
whom the editors could always
rely when a difficult theologi-
cal issue needed to be explored
in terms that would be widely
accessible.
In The Triune God, Placher’s
task is this: “Christians have
to find a way to say that
Christ who is God died on
the cross feeling himself aban-
doned by God—and yet there
is one God. Trinitarian theol-
ogy is the exercise in figur-
ing out what needs to be the
case in order for it to be pos-
sible to say that” (77). Such
clear, plain words and open-
ended discussion—giving per-
mission, even, to voice the kinds
of questions one may won-
der about privately—are major
strengths of this book.
362 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 49, Number 4 • Winter 2010 • December
Placher’s accomplishment in
The Triune God well demon-
strates his ability to sort and
clarify the threads of a thorny
topic. The reader leaves this
book certain that s/he has tra-
versed the problematic trinitar-
ian landscape with nuances ad-
dressed and plenty of room for
further thinking. Placher clearly
and provocatively lays out the
problems and the potential in
the church’s long-standing effort
to describe God, dealing with
language issues relevant to de-
bate over the Trinity across the
centuries, unpacking the various
definitions given to trinitarian
terms used in the Eastern and
Western churches and exploring
the heresies and theological re-
sponses to them, pulling apart
the differences among the divine
three and the constructs describ-
ing unity among “them.” What’s
more, he does all this in the con-
text of the shift from modern to
postmodern and then postliberal
theological paradigms.
Placher tackles the identi-
ties of the three “persons” of
the Trinity and their unity in
four chapters: “The Unknow-
able God,” “The Word Made
Flesh,” “The Epistemology of the
Spirit,” and finally, “These Three
Are One.” Rather than begin-
ning with the One God, Placher
starts with three:
If we could prove the ex-
istence of God . . . then we
would have this one God
firmly established, and the
claim that God is triune
would be at most an af-
terthought, an added com-
plexity to a basic belief in
one God. If, however, as I be-
lieve, we can know God only
as revealed in Christ through
the Holy Spirit, then we start
with three. What we know
is that Jesus is God’s self-
revelation, and only the Holy
Spirit enables us to believe
this. The task of Trinitarian
reflection is then to show how
these three are one, and it is a
task central to Christian faith
(1–2).
By moving from one of the
three to another, he introduces—
or reminds the reader—of the
many ways each has been
described, some contradictory.
Placher begins the discussion
of the Unknowable God by
comparing the thought of René
Descartes, John Locke, Anselm
of Canterbury, Thomas
Aquinas, Meister Eckhart,
Søren Kierkegaard, Emmanuel
Levinas, and Ludwig Wittgen-
stein. This inevitably raises the
theological questions that have
shaped the church around issues
of authority, conversion, the use-
fulness or difficulty of logic, the
impossibility of proof for God’s
existence, and much more. It
needs to be said, however, that
this discussion is very accessible
for just the reasons the Christian
Century editors so often turned
to this writer. Placher makes
interesting and sensible what, in
less skillful hands, can be quite
opaque.
The chapter on the Holy
Spirit well exemplifies the depth
and detail of Placher’s argu-
ments. He lays out the im-
age of the Holy Spirit that
is given in Scripture, through
John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards
(Placher is, after all, Presbyte-
rian), and then in Karl Barth’s
work. Placher’s conclusions about
the Holy Spirit end with a re-
view of the filioque clause in
the Nicene Creed. Given the on-
going theological dialogues be-
tween East and West, the filioque
should capture the attention of
all alert Christians. The issue, of
course, is the originating point
or “procession” of the three. At
Nicea in 381, the church agreed
that the Holy Spirit “proceeded
from the Father.” That wording
changed in the West in the sixth
century (to “proceeded from the
Father and the Son”) to become
the controversial filioque clause.
Although it was not the sole
problem, use of the filioque split
the church East and West in
1054. The filioque question re-
volves around the relationship of
the “three persons.” Is one or
two subordinate to one or two of
the others? If we speak of “pro-
cession,” how do we see “them”
as equals? Is the Trinity a hierar-
chy? How can “they” be One if
the analog describes an origina-
tor?
Placher seems to favor the
original 381 language. Yet, at the
end of the book he includes an
examination of the relatedness of
the Trinity that insists upon a
model of equality between them.
The filioque, then, remains prob-
lematic in the form that gives
priority to the Father, due to the
impossibility of seeing an equal-
izing metaphor in such gender-
bound language. Placher does
not address matters of patriar-
chal power, but feminist theolo-
gians cannot ignore it. The fact

that the Eastern churches still
do not care to break open theo-
logical constructs barring women
from ordination signals the need
for greater attention and de-
bate over the filioque before
huge and abiding agreements are
signed. Placher’s clarification of
the problem—although perhaps
not his conclusion—is needed
for this debate.
On another note, for those
who are supremely concerned
with the liturgical formation and
nurturance of faith, it is grat-
ifying that Placher writes this
about Jesus: “The relevant ev-
idence, moreover, involves not
just what early Christians said
about Jesus [in the Gospels
and Epistles, as he has just
explored] but what they did
with respect to him . . . They
prayed to him . . . They bap-
tized in his name and sang
hymns to him . . . Christians ap-
parently took worship of and
prayer to Jesus for granted within
twenty years of his death” (75).
It has long been the con-
tention of liturgical scholars that
early Christian worship not only
shaped the canon but gave lan-
guage, calendrical order, gesture,
and voice to faith. Placher seems
to agree.
For those who have limited
knowledge of the terrain of trini-
tarian thinking, this book is a
fine introduction. For those who
are familiar with the subject and
want a textbook or an orderly
and even chronological reminder
of the many intricate issues be-
hind the difficult limitations of
human conceptions, Placher’s of-
fering is highly useful. For those
Book Review
who desire a sense of the Trin-
ity’s identity through past and
present analogical language, this
book takes the temperature of
the state of the questions.
Melinda A. Quivik
Liturgical Scholar, Houghton,
Michigan
John Radano. Lutheran and
Catholic Reconciliation on Justifi-
cation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
2009. 217 pages.
October 31, 2009, marked the
tenth anniversary of the historic
signing of the Joint Declaration on
the Doctrine on Justification (JD)
in Augsburg by representatives
of the churches of the Lutheran
World Federation and the Ro-
man Catholic Church. We are
fortunate to have this historical
and theological account not only
of the thirty-seven years of re-
search, church life, and human
relationships that gave rise to this
monumental ecclesial event, but
also the first seven years of follow
up and reception of the agree-
ment. This volume tells the story
with particular emphasis on the
Catholic side of the history. In-
deed, the way we teach Refor-
mation history and the sixteenth
century, the soteriological teach-
ings of the church, and our un-
derstanding of the churches to-
day and tomorrow has been un-
alterably changed by this event.
In a culture addicted to
meritocracy—evaluation of per-
sons by their status, incomes
363
and bonuses, and secular
achievements—the affirmation
together of the gifted character
of our creation and salvation at
the hands of a gracious God
remains a perennial counter
witness from the Christian
community to the wider so-
ciety. The common witness
of Catholics and Lutherans
provides an important ground
for common mission, teaching,
and understanding of the gospel
message. Indeed, the churches
are early in the reception of this
common commitment and the
reconciliation to which it attests.
As the author of this volume
notes, as an insider to the
Catholic process of ecumenical
engagement, the problem of
education, reception, and imple-
mentation is particularly acute
within the Catholic community
where, in many parts of the
world, Lutheran partners are
scarce on the ground.
The book treats the his-
torical development of the
Lutheran/Catholic relationship,
from the point of view of the
Catholic Church’s involvement,
beginning in 1961, in prepa-
ration for the Vatican Council
(1962–65), which brought this
Church out of isolation into the
modern ecumenical movement
and committed itself to dialogue
with the horizon of full commu-
nion. From the very beginning,
the Lutheran churches and the
Lutheran World Federation were
partners in the process, with ob-
servers at the council. The text
outlines the theological dialogue
that enabled the JD, which was
only one, if essential, element in
364 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 49, Number 4 • Winter 2010 • December
the elaboration of the relation-
ship. The personal encounters of
Lutherans and Catholics around
the world, in local congregational
settings, in families, in leadership
of the two churches, as well as
in the academy, all contributed
to the quality of the process.
The book is divided into four
parts, with an afterword de-
tailing the support of the JD
by Catholic leadership after the
1999 signing, the 2006 World
Methodist Council association
with the JD, and considerations
by Reformed and Anglicans of
its implications for their com-
munions. Forewords are provided
by Cardinal Edward Cassidy, pri-
mary Catholic representative at
the signing, and Lutheran World
Federation General Secretary
Ishmael Noko.
The first part of the book
outlines the foundations for
Catholic entry into dialogue in
the debates and affirmations of
the second Vatican Council. The
two chapters in this part re-
count the role of the Lutheran
observers at the council and
their initiatives in bringing the
dialogue into being by 1966.
It also highlights the roles of
popes John XXIII and Paul VI
in changing the atmosphere and
promoting the ecumenical initia-
tive of the Catholic bishops dur-
ing the council and after.
The second part moves the
discussion from isolation into
mutual respect and engagement,
covering the years from 1966
to the election of Pope John
Paul II in 1978. The dialogue
was a new fact in Christian his-
tory, picking up a formal discus-
sion that had been in abeyance
since the Regensburg colloquy of
1542. Many mutual visits, ad-
dresses, and exchanges of schol-
ars and leaders had to take place
to build up the trust that could
overcome the burdens of cen-
turies. During this period the
1972 Malta Report noted that
much had been resolved on justi-
fication, which made subsequent
dialogues move smoothly. How-
ever, there was a continuing chal-
lenge in both deepening the con-
sensus, educating the Catholic
and Lutheran laity on the theo-
logical progress, and bringing the
churches into institutional de-
cisions about their confessional
texts and the condemnations of
the sixteenth century, which still
have standing in both of the
churches.
The third part of the book
covers the move from dia-
logue to deepening the insti-
tutional bonds of communion.
In four chapters, it documents
the development of national
dialogues, some of which—
especially in Germany and the
United States—provided the de-
tailed research enabling the 1999
agreement; the leadership of
Pope John Paul II, especially
in his encounters in Germany,
the Nordic countries, and the
United States; and the emergence
of the question of official re-
ception of the rich scholarly re-
sults of the dialogue. The years
1980 and 1983, both significant
Lutheran anniversary years, pro-
vided important reassessments of
the role of Luther in the church,
revising centuries of Catholic
characterizations, and reevaluat-
ing the Augsburg Confession. In
1980 Pope John Paul challenged
German scholars to reevaluate
the condemnations of the six-
teenth century to see if they were
still applicable. The response to
this request produced volumi-
nous positive results, from which
the churches will be drawing ec-
umenically for years. On justifi-
cation, there was a recommenda-
tion to move forward. An agree-
ment in the United States, con-
cluded in 1985, also made an
important contribution to this
process. This volume is partic-
ularly important in documenting
the role of the ELCA and its pre-
decessor bodies in this process.
The fourth part of the book
may be the most interesting of
all, and provides information not
available in other sources. The
author was intimately involved
in this phase of movement from
dialogue to official ecclesial ac-
tion in the years 1988 to 1999.
In addition to knowing inti-
mately the public texts of the
dialogues and interchanges be-
tween the Catholic Church and
the Lutheran World Federation
and its member churches, he also
is able to bring to light some
of the correspondence of indi-
vidual scholars and leaders, es-
pecially in the delicate last year
of negotiations in 1998. Those
who know the academic context
of German Protestantism and
the worldwide diversity and de-
mography of Roman Catholicism
were not surprised that clarifica-
tions and debates intensified as
decisions were made about these
confessional elements so central
to our common understanding

of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and to identities of the churches
emerging from the sixteenth cen-
tury on both sides of the Refor-
mation divide.
As we approach the 2017
commemoration of the half mil-
lennium of alienation, and the
more than fifty years of pilgrim-
age toward reconciliation, we
have a rich resource in the com-
mon faith confessed in the JD
and in the other dialogues that
both contributed to it and have
emerged from its content and
methodology. We can be appre-
ciative of this volume that will
help preachers, educators, schol-
ars, and leaders to interpret the
sixteenth century, the modern ec-
umenical movement, the faith of
the church through the ages, and
each other’s Churches in a new
light, contributing to that recon-
ciliation for which Christ prayed.
In the 1520s Luther appealed
to a Pope Leo more informed,
from a Pope Leo less informed.
Radano documents how popes
John, Paul, John Paul, and Bene-
dict, and their Church, have wit-
nessed to that vision for which
Luther prayed in his day.
Brother Jeffrey Gros, FSC
Memphis Theological Seminary
Rupert Shortt. Rowan’s Rule: The
Biography of the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Grand Rapids: Eerd-
mans, 2009. 466 pages.
Rupert Shortt follows up
his 2002 publication, Rowan
Book Review
Williams: An Introduction, with
this thorough and interesting bi-
ography. Of course, writing such
a biography on a theologian
and church leader of Williams’
importance in the middle of the
Anglican crisis can yield only
a partial and incomplete story.
Nonetheless, Shortt provides in-
sight into Williams’ intellectual
development, his theological and
ecclesial convictions, and his
administrative style. This is im-
portant because Rowan Williams
is not easily categorized. We
discover that he is orthodox and
anti-modern, tilting leftward in
politics and economics. Admin-
istration is not his strength. We
learn this through Shortt’s well-
written and researched two-part
narrative. The first part traces
Williams’ personal, spiritual, and
intellectual development without
dividing these components of his
life into discrete categories. The
second begins with Williams’
appointment as the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and here we are
privy to insider details that shed
light not only on Williams but
also on the tensions within the
Anglican Communion.
Shortts’ reading sets a failed
tenure by Williams’ predeces-
sor, the evangelical George Carey,
against forces who sought to
temper the evangelical voice by
returning to a more English way
of doing things. Williams’ ap-
pointment came in spite of the
fact that six of the members of
the “Crown Appointments Com-
mission” were evangelicals. Shortt
notes that Carey’s “exiting early”
from his appointment may have
been “to take advantage” of the
365
evangelical strength of the com-
mission (238). Williams clearly
had support from some evan-
gelicals like Oliver O’Donovan
and Alister McGrath. We are
even privy to correspondence be-
tween O’Donovan and primates
Drexel Gomez, Donald Mte-
memela, and Yong Ping-Chung
(242). But others were less than
enthusiastic. Shortt sides with
an understanding of Williams’
appointment set forth by the
“Catholic commentator Damian
Thompson.” It was an “English
coup,” where “the establishment
has squashed the ambitions of
an evangelical lobby which re-
flects the prejudices of the de-
veloping world, not cosmopoli-
tan London” (241). Not every-
one will read that statement with
the same evaluation, but it is
telling of the difficult situation
Williams inherited.
Shortt seems to evaluate this
positively. Although Williams’
appointment was received “en-
thusiastically” by the “great and
the good,” he inherited a mess.
Carey’s appointment had not
been successful within Eng-
land, but had been outside of
it, especially with bishops in
Africa, where the expectation
had been given by Carey that
the Church would “uphold con-
servative teaching on gay sex”
(241). This contest between En-
glish and African views on sex
is a thread running throughout
Shortt’s work, one that some-
times borders on advocacy rather
than narrative description.
Shortt interprets well
Williams’ seemingly contra-
dictory statements and actions
366 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 49, Number 4 • Winter 2010 • December
with respect to homosexuality.
Reading this with care could
help Williams’ not so subtle
critics on both the ecclesial right
and left better understand the
consistency in his own position.
Shortt also describes well his
leadership style and the form
it takes. Williams prays. He
has a near-monastic approach
where truth emerges from
conversation among contending
parties, but among contending
parties as they are brought into
communion with God and
each other. This is the most
favorable reading of Williams’
leadership style, which also
seems influenced at times by
a very different trajectory, by
a Hegelianism that finds the
conflict of contending parties as
a source that generates truth.
This makes for a very different
leadership style than the more
monastic form. Shortt notes the
Hegelian influence, but does not
always give it the critical assess-
ment it deserves. Nonetheless
I find Shortt’s own defense of
Williams’ more monastic form
of leadership compelling. Al-
though administration is not his
strength, it might yet be his gift
to the Anglican Communion,
given that he refuses to act with
a heavy hand with any of the
contending parties.
The same cannot always be
said of Shortt, and here is where
he borders on advocacy. Shortt
too often sets the West, especially
England, against the South, es-
pecially the Africans. He chides
Williams for his unwillingness
to challenge more directly the
“chauvinism” of Africa on ho-
mosexuality. It is Williams’ “po-
litical correctness” that makes
him fearful of critiquing “black
clerics” (304). This is some-
thing Shortt is more than will-
ing to do, calling Archbishop
Peter Akinola a “bigot.” More-
over his own account of En-
glish and/or Western sexual-
ity seems not to get beyond
“London cosmopolitanism.” He
makes the rather large asser-
tion that it is “almost universally
shared in Western society” that
“sex outside marriage is not al-
ways wrong” (248). These inter-
mittent interruptions in his pre-
sentation of Williams’ own gra-
cious engagement distracts from
Shortt’s otherwise compelling
narrative.
Alongside Shortt’s interrup-
tions with his “progressive” views
of sex are his interjections in pol-
itics and economics. Here too
he faults Williams for not be-
ing sufficiently modern. Williams
still finds biblical teachings on
usury worth considering when
they are nothing but “relics of a
superseded cultural milieu” (93).
His opposition to war is naı̈ve.
Shortt sets Williams’ infamous
Sharia comments in their proper
context, but dismisses, without
argument, any alternative to a
western liberal democratic poli-
tics they might entail—even as a
thought experiment. Shortt does
not seem to be able to think
outside the possibility of West-
ern liberal politics. He writes
that a “pluralistic legal system
will never work, since the result
is inevitably chaos.” Shortt, of
course, is welcome to his own
convictions on these matters,
but he would have been better
served to explain to us Williams’
own interesting, and not eas-
ily categorized, positions—as he
did on homosexuality—rather
than intruding his moral con-
victions into a biography on
Williams.
Rowan Williams may be one
of the most interesting, mis-
understood ecclesial leaders the
Anglican Communion has ever
received, a truly holy person
who accidentally or by an act
of Providence found himself in
a leadership role. Or he may
be confused, indecisive, and a
poor administrator. We do not
yet know, and we probably will
never know, for how does any-
one decide between such possi-
bilities? Are they always an ei-
ther/or? Shortt’s biography will
be one of many that help us un-
derstand Williams’ significance.
It does not answer this question,
but it certainly calls us to ask it,
and be attentive to a more nu-
anced interpretation of Williams’
role.
D. Stephen Long
Marquette University
Arthur Simon. The Rising of Bread
for the World: An Outcry of Citizens
Against Hunger. Mahwah, N.J.:
Paulist Press, 2009. 168 pages.
This is the thirty-fifth anniver-
sary of the founding of Bread
for the World, a national or-
ganization of Christian citizens
working to overcome the human

tragedy of widespread poverty
in the world and in this na-
tion. At one and the same time,
it is a movement drawing its
strength from the grassroots of
the church, a unique ecumenical
breakthrough for the sake of the
poorest of the poor, and a po-
litical force for elemental justice.
It is an explicitly Christian in-
volvement in significant aspects
of the public life of this nation.
As Arthur Simon, the founder of
Bread for the World and the au-
thor of this book, puts it, “We
do not know the time for justice
to emerge regarding hunger, but
we do know that we are called
in Christ to seek on this earth
the love and justice of God for
those who hunger” (167). That
is what Art Simon and countless
other Christians have committed
themselves to do. What they are
doing has demonstrated the rad-
ical implications of the Christian
faith for the amelioration of hu-
man need, the genuine possibili-
ties for a democratic response to
situations of chronic deprivation,
and a way that Christian human-
itarian values can come to ef-
fective expression within the po-
litical life of this country. The
accomplishments and the experi-
ence of Bread for the World con-
tinue to instruct all who would
seek fundamental justice today.
How did this happen? In his
book, Simon points to all those
other persons who contributed to
the formation and growth of this
movement. He certainly was not
the first or only person to ad-
dress issues of poverty in this na-
tion and the world. Yet it re-
mains true that without some
Book Review
knowledge of Simon’s own story
we cannot understand the gene-
sis and development of Bread for
the World. He is a representa-
tive of a remarkable generation
of pastors, social activists, and
theologians who emerged from
the Missouri Synod tradition of
Lutheranism during the last half-
century. He and his brother Paul
were sons of the parsonage, nur-
tured in a conservative but lively
understanding of the Christian
faith. Both were shaped by the
life-transforming experiences of
the civil rights movement, the
anti-Vietnam War protests, the
War on Poverty of the Johnson
administration, and the open-
ing up of the Roman Catholic
Church following the Second
Vatican Council. Both had a
strong interest in politics (Paul
later became a highly respected
senator from Illinois), particu-
larly as it related to the ongo-
ing struggle for racial and so-
cial justice. After completing his
studies at Concordia Seminary in
Saint Louis, Simon taught two
years at Concordia Teachers Col-
lege in Chicago before beginning
his pastoral ministry in a large
church in Denver.
As Simon describes it, he
took the decisive step leading
to the formation of Bread for
the World when he accepted
the call to be pastor of Trinity
Lutheran Church on the Lower
East Side of Manhattan. Sur-
rounded by the stark reality of
poverty, he soon was involved
in efforts to address issues of
hunger and homelessness and ex-
ploitation in the area surround-
ing his church. Here he demon-
367
strated an ability to enlist even
unlikely allies for what he was
attempting to do, skill in orga-
nizing effective responses within
situations of near chaos, and tal-
ent for framing a compelling vi-
sion of what he wanted to ac-
complish. Here as well he began
to develop those ecumenical
friendships that would become
so important for the future Bread
for the World. Impelled by his
faith, moved by the suffering
he had witnessed, and encour-
aged by responses to his lead-
ership, he came to a clearer
understanding of his vocation.
Simon decided that the focus of
his life work would be to engage
in the struggle against hunger.
He determined that he would at-
tempt to mobilize Christian citi-
zens to influence political lead-
ers to act in ways that would
relieve and begin to overcome
the massive hunger of the world’s
poor.
In his book Simon contin-
ues by describing the beginning
and development of this justice
movement by Christian citizens.
Outstanding leaders and volun-
teers from across the Christian
spectrum provided support and
access both to a broader con-
stituency and to important fig-
ures in the political life of the
nation. Crucial for the effective-
ness of Bread for the World,
then and now, was the annual
“Offering of Letters” that mem-
bers would write to their repre-
sentatives and senators. Selected
issues, carefully chosen by the
board of Bread for the World,
provided focus for members’ ef-
forts and were supplemented by
368 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 49, Number 4 • Winter 2010 • December
the research provided by the
Bread for the World Institute
and other reputable organiza-
tions. Avoiding ideology but un-
afraid of controversy, Bread for
the World again and again was
able to help in the develop-
ment of bipartisan approaches to
many hunger issues. Its successes,
in cooperation with other orga-
nizations and movements, have
been remarkable. Among them
are the Right to Food Resolution
of Congress, the establishment
of a grain reserve for use dur-
ing famines, renewed attention
to hunger issues in this country,
the recasting of overseas develop-
ment assistance and the empha-
sis upon self-reliance programs,
African Relief and Recovery leg-
islation, the role of women in
development, formation of the
Alliance to End Hunger, and
the Jubilee Year debt forgiveness
campaign for developing coun-
tries.
Arthur Simon has retired as
director of Bread for the World
but continues to work as a faith-
ful advocate for the world’s poor.
As he reminds us, the struggle
against hunger during this time
of global recession faces new
challenges and urgent tasks. But
let us pause for a moment to say,
“We thank God, Arthur, for the
example of your steadfast faith,
your compassion for the poor,
and the vision and courage and
persistence that have brought life
to so many. Well done, good and
faithful servant of Christ.”
Wayne C. Stumme
Trinity Lutheran Seminary
(retired)