Review: When God Seems Distant

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Cover image of "When God Seems Distant" by Kyle Strobel and John Coe

When God Seems Distant

When God Seems Distant, Kyle Strobel and John Coe. Baker Books (ISBN: 9781540905321) 2026.

Summary: How God’s path of growth takes us into the desert, the way it exposes our self-will, and how we abide in God’s love.

One of the things that often accompanies new life in Christ is a deep sense of God’s presence, what the authors of this book call consolation. Often, experiences of worship, Christian community, personal Bible study and prayer deepen that sense. Until it doesn’t. How ought we understand and respond to that? We wonder if it is something we did. Then, if that’s not the case, we double down on the things that gave us a sense of God’s presence. Or we look for new practices.

Kyle Strobel and John Coe describe how this happened with them. It felt like they were in a dry place, a desert. And they discovered that these times of desolation, just as much as consolation, come from God. Specifically, God takes us into such times to expose deeper patterns of sin. He also takes us into learning to abide in Him rather than engage in sin management or self-improvement efforts. We learn to trust God rather than experiences or a set of practices. But its scary, just like being weaned.

The authors then address the “self-willed spirituality” that the desert teaches us to unlearn. Over five chapters, they explore different ways the self-will manifests. First, they discuss self-generated passion and experiences of excitement and devotion to generate a sense of God’s presence. Second, they turn to how we deal with brokenness in our lives, either by coverups or by trying to “fix” ourselves. Underlying this is pride. The desert exposes these, inviting us to draw near to be forgiven and loved. Third, we resort to goodness, the path of moralism. We use goodness to win God’s favor and then struggle under the burden of conscience when we fail. Again, in the desert, God invites us to come close and to let him do what we can’t.

Fourth, we try devotion. The authors observe, “There is a massive difference between using God to fix your life and knowing that Christ is your life” (p. 124). Paradoxically, we can either use spiritual practices in a self-help fashion or as a means to wait upon God. Lastly, and this has been implicit throughout, we try to fix ourselves rather than let our awareness of our inadequacy move us to surrender, to openness to what God’s Spirit would do.

The final part of the book, then, emphasizes the alternative to self-willed spirituality. It is the spirituality of surrender, of coming with all the mess the desert reveals. It is drawing near, not to an idea of God but God himself. We come not because we love, but that he has loved us in Christ. The book then concludes with five paths that individuals and churches might take in response. Particularly striking were those addressed to churches as a whole that often fail to address the desert, and to pastors.

I found the honesty about the desert as a normal part of Christian experience helpful. Many of our churches make people feel themselves failing in some way if they are experiencing this. Rather, they should be teaching people “desert spirituality.” Also, the second part of the book was so helpful in identifying our self-help strategies that we embrace in pride, rather than bring our messy selves to God. Finally, there is the wonderful news that all this is to teach us to abide in and rest in God’s love, whether there are feelings or not. God wants us to grow into a resilient trust.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Review: I Cheerfully Refuse

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Cover image of "I Cheerfully Refuse" by Leif Enger

I Cheerfully Refuse

I Cheerfully Refuse, Leif Enger. Grove Press (ISBN: 9780802165190) 2025.

Summary: In a dystopian America, Rainy and Lark carve out a joyful life until tragedy sends Rainy on a Lake Superior odyssey.

I don’t typically select books this way. Looking at a table of new works at my local store, the cover art of this book caught my eye. The description sounded like a modern day odyssey. And the author was from Minnesota. Having had a good experience with another Minnesota author, William Kent Krueger, I thought I’d give Leif Enger a try. I’m so glad I did, though amid the goodness, truth and beauty of the story was heartbreak and terrible darkness.

The setting is Lake Superior in a not-too-distant future America. Societal order, the economy, and the climate have collapsed. The country is controlled by sixteen multi-billionaire “astronauts.” Some semblance of societal order is maintained by pharmaceuticals developed aboard “ships of horror.” Children are rated on a “feral scale” and medicated. And if it all becomes intolerable, a little slip of paper with a drug called “Willow” will help you end it all. And some are having “Willow” parties. Libraries have closed and books are becoming an increasingly scarce commodity.

Rainy and Lark have somehow carved out a joyful life together. He’s a big bear of a man who paints houses, plays bass guitar, often with a local band, but sometimes just to comfort his friends. Lark is a former librarian with a big heart and a passion for books. She runs a second-hand bookstore in a bakery, scouring estate sales for book collections. Lark taught Rainy to sail, going to a place called “The Slates,” where they had a somewhat mystical encounter they believed was with Molly Thorn, thought to be dead. Consequently, they buy and re-hab an old sailboat.

Lark, in her open-heartedness brings home a fugitive, Kellen. He has run away from one of the pharmaceutical ships. Perhaps the fact that he had in his possession an unpublished work of Molly Thorn’s, I Cheerfully Refuse, sufficiently seals the deal and he stays with the couple. But tragedy strikes the night of Lark’s birthday. Kellen has disappeared. After a futile hunt, he returns home to find his home destroyed, and Lark brutally murdered. A stranger, an older gentleman, who he later learns is Werryck, ran the ship Kellen had fled, and has been around the town, and through the book, has traced Kellen to their house. That’s why Kellen has gone.

Not only that, Werryck is after Rainy. Whatever they tore up the house looking for is still missing. So, Rainy takes to his boat. The only destination he can think of is “The Slates,” hoping perhaps he will find Lark there. Along the way, he is joined by Sol, a young girl he rescues from an abuser, buying her with his bass. Together they endure Superior’s terrible storms, scrape together an existence, outsmart a corrupt bridge operator, and search for an old relative who once cared for her.

The novel asks the question what kind of people will we become and what kind of communities will we form when the societal order fails? Along the way, amid the corruption, Rainy and Sol will find outposts of goodness. But what kind of person will Rainy, who has lived by goodness, supporting his friends, become? He faces his greatest test when he becomes Werryck’s captive.

Rainy’s sailing journey on Lake Superior strikes me as a modern-day Odyssey. Will he, in the end, find home? And how will the journey have changed him? Also, not unlike Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Enger confronts us with a very possible dystopia, asking us what kind of people we would be in such times. He does all this in a compellingly beautiful story.

Review: Story Work

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Cover image of "Story Work" by GG Renee Hill

Story Work

Story Work, GG Renee Hill. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9798889832652) 2025.

Summary: How telling and reframing our stories in writing not only leads to self-discovery, but also to finding our voice and calling.

We not only love stories but our lives are stories. But how we understand those stories, the story we tell ourselves and others about ourselves, matter greatly. And how we become more fully ourselves has to do with telling truer stories of ourselves–not those imposed upon us but those that come from within us. In Story Work, GG Renee Hill takes us through how reflecting on, reframing. and re-writing her own story has been key to her growth into pursuing her calling. And she invites us to follow her example with writing prompts at the end of each chapter relating to the chapter contents.

But first, just a bit of her life (and there is a lot more in the book). She grew up in Pittsburgh in a two-parent family, close to both parents until her mother descended into schizophrenia. Suddenly, hugging her dad was perceived as sexual flirtation. That strained her relationship with both of them and led to an enduring estrangement from her mom. What was she to think of herself? Was mental illness in her future?

As she unfolds that story, she traces her own journey of self-discovery as she writes her story. She begins by inviting the reader to journal and live their own questions, identifying the beliefs that might be limiting. Then she goes on to ask us to look closely at one of the events that reflect self-limiting beliefs and ask ourselves what else could be true. The final chapter in this section on “Roots and Origins” encourages us to take a story of tragedy and defeat and drawing from seven basic plots, developing a new storyline.

Part II of the book focuses on the theme of “Truth and Lies.” She begins by reflecting on the masks we wear and how this hides our authentic selves with our highs and lows from ourselves and others. These reveal clues to our values, and she invites us to write those moments and the values they reveal. One of the challenges of writing our stories, however is that we are “unreliable narrators.” She explores the ways we deceive ourselves and invites us to write on unwanted, repeating patterns and how our responses have changed over time.

But part of our stories is also understanding our strengths and superpowers. What makes us different is what gives us strength. So, she invites us to identify those differences from those around us and how these might be strengths, as well as weaknesses and how we might support the former and manage the latter. Finally, in “Nothing is Ever Lost” she addresses our losses and griefs. She proposes that loss and grief can speak and she offers five exercises to explore loss in our stories.

In Part III, “Voice and Vision” she considers how we might become active agents in our own stories. Hill begins by discussing how “Words Matter.” She illustrates that in a conversation with Aunt Mimi where she learns that “I’m not good at math” isn’t really what she is saying. Rather it is that “math is hard.” She’s challenged to think that she might become good at things that are hard. Here, she invites us to counter limiting beliefs with actionable value statements to achieve aspirations. Then, she turns to “life as a creative process.” She offers a four step creative process to pursue. Finally, in “Love and Fear” she invites us to surrender to our emerging calling. This includes both naming our fears and affirming what we love.

Hill models the power of writing to help us understand and re-frame our stories. In her vulnerable and honest account, she encourages us to shed the masks and self-deceptions behind which we hide from ourselves. She also helps us pay attention to our loves, our distinctives and our values. Then she invites us conceive them as central to the plotlines of our stories. For those who already like to write and journal, this book might lead to new self-exploration. Likewise, for others at one of those junctures where we are re-thinking our lives, this might be a helpful tool. As a society, we need to tell better stories. GG Renee Hill helps us begin to do that with the stories we tell of ourselves.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Review: Early Autumn

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Cover image of "Early Autumn" by Louis Bromfield

Early Autumn

Early Autumn, Louis Bromfield. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504073394) 2022, first published in 1926.

Summary: Olivia Pentland, in a loveless marriage in a rich old family, faces choices as the early autumn approaches when she turns 40.

I’ve long had an interest in Ohio-born author Louis Bromfield. Bromfield was a best-selling novelist in the 1920’s, winning the Pulitzer Prize for this work. In the 1938, he returned from Paris to his home town of Mansfield, Ohio, purchasing a worn out piece of farmland that he renamed Malabar Farm, building an elegant home that was the site of the wedding of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I’ve toured the home, camped with Boy Scouts on the farm, and read two books on his early experiments with sustainable agriculture, Pleasant Valley and Malabar Farm. But until now, I’ve not read any of his fiction, which I suspect is largely neglected these days.

The story is set in the fictional town of Durham, Massachusetts at the estate of the Pentlands, a rich but declining old New England family. The central character is Olivia Pentland. Though Scotch-Irish and of a lower class, she had a dark beauty and her own wealth. As a young girl, a marriage to Anson Pentland appeared promising. Twenty years on, she found herself in a loveless marriage. Anson was in love with writing his family’s history but no longer slept with Olivia, Their daughter, Sybil was turning 18, their son and heir, John, was sickly, and the shadow of death hangs over this narrative.

The one person Olivia shares the deepest bond with is Anson’s father, John. He is still in many ways the family head at the Pentlands, even as Olivia makes the household work. His wife is still living, but confined to a wing of the home, having descended into insanity and cared for by Miss Egan, who is secretly having an affair with Higgins, their groom. While visiting his wife every day, John Pentland also has had a close companionship with Mrs. Soames.

During the summer before Olivia is to turn forty, John’s niece, Sabine Callendar and her daughter Therese have come for a visit, staying at a cottage owned by Michael O’Hara, an upstart Irish politician who has built a new estate nearby. Sabine represents the family scandal, having lived a libertine life in France. She is resented by Aunt Cassie, the family Puritan determined to maintain the rectitude and reputation of the Pentlands. But Sabine’s presence is the catalyst for Olivia to realize the confining character of her own life at Pentlands. The loveless marriage, the strictures of what’s appropriate, and the secrets lurking behind the pious appearances. Not only that, Olivia fears her daughter will inherit all this.

Not only that, Sabine brings Olivia together with Michael O’Hara. O’Hara had been riding horses with Sybil. When Olivia joins to discover his intentions, she learns his interest is in her, not the daughter. Through the summer, romance kindles between them. Meanwhile, she finds a bundle of letters revealing a family secret that will wreck the pretensions of the Pentlands. That includes Anson’s book. Then a young man arrives from France who had met Sybil during a visit and is seeking her hand. He’s a man of character and the two really love each other. But this won’t go down well with the Pentlands.

Things come to a head as autumn and Olivia’s birthday approaches. What will she do about O’Hara? About her daughter? About the messed up household of the Pentlands, which somehow has ended depending upon her? Among all those trying to influence and define her, she is confronted with what she wants in her life at this important juncture, and what kind of person she will be.

I liked the way Bromfield builds up to the crisis we all see is coming. In addition, in developing the character of Olivia, we come to appreciate her strength, quiet beauty, and deep sadness. The novel harks back to a different time, a blend (or clash?) of Regency, Victorian, and Continental sensibilities in a New England setting. Written a century after Jane Austen’s novels, I found it had more in common with these than more recent works. Perhaps that is why people aren’t reading Bromfield these days. But this is Bromfield at his best, and well worth the read.

My reviews of Bromfield’s non-fiction:

Pleasant Valley: https://bobonbooks.com/2015/10/08/review-pleasant-valley/

Malabar Farm: https://bobonbooks.com/2015/10/26/review-malabar-farm/

Review: The Eternal Son

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Cover image of "The Eternal Son" by Robert Letham

The Eternal Son

The Eternal Son, Robert Letham, foreword by Ian Hamilton. P & R Publishing (ISBN: 9781629958637) 2025.

Summary: A Christology focused on Christ’s Person, his eternal sonship, and Incarnation, as clarified in councils and more recently.

Robert Letham has written extensively on the Godhead, beginning with a work on the Trinity. This work is the second of a projected three-volume series on the persons of the Godhead, the first being The Holy Spirit. Having in another work addressed the work of Christ, Letham focuses here on the Person of Christ. However, the final chapter, “For Us and our Salvation” does address aspects of Christ’s work.

Letham begins with three chapters which frame out what Christians have historically affirmed concerning the person of the Son. Firstly, he addresses the “Son in the Divine Trinity.” He summarizes developments between the New Testament and Constantinople, in 381. Discussing the Nicene-Constantinople Creed, he focuses on God’s indivisibility, three persons who are one substance, yet distinct persons. He focuses on the divine order, and the idea of the eternal generation of the Son, that from eternity without beginning, the Son is the Son of the Father. Secondly, in the following chapter, “Before The Beginning” he goes more deeply into the Son’s eternal relations with the Father. Then thirdly, in “The Word Became Flesh,” Letham discusses the biblical evidence of the Incarnation.

Chapters 4 through 8 address the controversies that arose related to the person of Christ and the conciliar decisions, post-Constantinople. One of the things that stands out in the controversies with Apollinaris and Nestorius and in the lead up to Council of Chalcedon is the singular influence of Cyril of Alexandria. Cyril defends the eternal nature of the Son, his taking on of human nature in full union, such that all his actions are of one person in two natures. One of the most interesting ideas was that the assumption of a human nature was not problematic for the Son through whom humans were created in the imago dei.

However, Chalcedon did not resolve all problems and led to new ones. Letham discusses the shortcomings of Chalcedon and the continuing challenge of Nestorians and the rise of Monophysites. Also, challenges arose around the two natures of the Incarnate Son willing and acting as one. Letham walks us through Monoenergism and Monothelitism, including a recent revival of the latter. Finally, he summarizes the consolidation of the church’s thought on Christology in both East and West. To do so, he focuses on two key figures, John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas.

Chapters 9 and 10 then focus on the Reformation and the Post-Enlightenment. The discussion of Luther and Calvin both emphasized their contributions and how at times they could wander from Chalcedonian orthodoxy. The Post-Enlightenment discussion focuses on kenotic theories–what did it mean that Christ “emptied” himself? Letham also discusses theories of peccability. That is, was it possible for Christ, having a human nature, to sin. Letham argues that Christ’s nature was neither a fallen nature or a nature like Adam’s before the fall. “Rather, he lived in a state of humiliation, sinless and righteous but with a nature bearing the consequences of the fall in its mortality, its vulnerability, and its suffering–but not fallen.”

Finally, after his concluding chapter on Christ’s work, he includes two appendices. One has to do with recent thinkers who have resurrected the idea of the adoption of Jesus as Son, particularly as the basis for our on adoption. The second, promoted by David Moffitt, proposes that Christ’s atoning work was not on the cross but when he presented himself as a blood sacrifice in heaven. Letham refutes both ideas.

I found Letham generally clear in his explanations and discussion of different controversies and councils (he also includes a glossary to help us keep our terms straight). In particular, Letham is good at explaining what is at stake with various proposals, and what stands to be lost. He also offers a good summary, as a Reformed writer, of Reformation developments, probably worth a book in itself. Most of all, I feel Letham writes doxologically. He speaks in his introduction of the hope that we might “Behold, the Lamb!” And I found myself often stopping to do just that.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: June 7-13

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The Weekly Wrap: June 7-13

Reading Until the Lights Go Out

In one of the articles I selected for this week, the writer recounts noted historian Gordon Wood speaking of recently accomplishing, in his nineties, the goal of reading Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. Sadly, the life of this bibliophile was interrupted this week when at 92, he was struck by a car.

But the article captures one of my personal aspirations. I want to keep reading, and reading challenging works, until the lights go out, in one way or another.

I recently picked up an edition of the works of Aristotle that runs to 1500 pages. His thought profoundly shaped our civilization, including Christian theology. In reading a work about his influence, I realized that I had never read him.

Then there are several systematic theologies, all long tomes, sitting on my shelves. As one who believes that our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy God forever, this is certainly one way to get a head start on that project!

This year, I have a goal of reading the six major novels of Jane Austen. I’ve finished three. I also have a couple thick books by historian Paul Horgan, highly recommended by David McCullough that I’d love to dig into. And I think I would like to read The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia once more.

Then, as for Proust? I actually have Remembrance of Things Past on my Kindle. I understand it is a challenging read and I’ve not yet seen a compelling reason why I should. Maybe for now, I’ll settle for reading the Thomas Pynchon on my TBR pile.

Of course, none of us knows how long we have, or how long our minds will comprehend the words. All I know is that I want to be like Gordon Wood.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Some of us wonder how far American democracy will make it past our 250th birthday. However, Gordon Wood had reasons to be hopeful. Johann N. Neem discusses these in “What I Learned from Gordon Wood.”

Then there is the article I mentioned, Nic Rowan’s “Gordon Wood’s Proust.” Wood was in conversation with George Will who asked him what book in American history he was reading. His reply? “I’m not reading American history right now,” Wood laughed. “I just finished Proust! I said I would do it before I die, and well . . .” He did.

Susannah Crockford argues in “Against Climate Grief” that Christian-influenced societies often approach climate change in apocalyptic, millenarian terms, leading to unproductive inaction and grief. She argues that this is helpful and hope remains our strongest resource. But the article left me wondering “whence hope?” as well as whether Christian belief might offer in its future hope greater substance for faithful action that anticipates creation’s renewal.

I am a music lover. Though never formally trained, I’ve sung in choirs and enjoy a diversity of music. So “What to Read to Really Understand Music” caught my attention!

Finally, in This Dark Night, Deborah Lutz explores the enigmatic life of Emily Brontë, who like Emily Dickenson, led a secluded life. In “Who Was Emily Brontë? We’ll Never Know” Sadie Stein reviews the book.

Quote of the Week

Charles Kingsley was a novelist, poet, and clergyman, born June 12, 1819, who made this perceptive comment about freedom:

“There are two freedoms – the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.“

Miscellaneous Musings

We also lost Jane Yolen on June 11 at age 87. She wrote over 400 children’s books. We will always be grateful for one in particular, Owl Moon, describing the special bond and wonder of a father and son who go out “owling” on a cold winter’s night. It was one of our favorite read aloud books when our son was young, I think, because it evoked something of the same bond and wonder in us.

A friend of mine has often sung the praises of Maestro John Demain, the long-time director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, in Wisconsin. The other day, that friend offered to send me a memoir co-written by him and Greg Hettmansberger titled Working with My Heroes. I was thrilled. Demain grew up in my hometown of Youngstown. I did an online interview with him in 2024 for a blog post I wrote about him and it was an utterly delightful hour.

I’ve spent the past week enthralled with Leif Enger’s I Cheerfully Refuse. It is one of those novels set in a dystopian, climate-changed world. It is the story of a wife, Lark, who runs a used bookstore in a world where no new books are published, and the sailing journey Rainy, her husband takes fleeing Lark’s killers, joined by an abused but resourceful nine-year old, Sol.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Robert Letham, The Eternal Son

Tuesday: Louis Bromfield, Early Autumn

Wednesday: G.G. Renee Hill, Story Work

Thursday: Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

Friday: Kyle Strobel and John Coe, When God Seems Distant

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for June 7-13.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: Nothing Can Separate Us

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Cover image of "Nothing Can Separate Us" by Howard Thurman

Nothing Can Separate Us

Nothing Can Separate Us (Plough Spiritual Guides), Howard Thurman, edited by Myles Werntz, Introduction by Vincent W. Lloyd. Plough Publishing (ISBN: 9781636081731) 2026.

Summary: The inner work of transformation through which God works to bring reconciliation, justice, and hope.

Plough Publishing is releasing its latest installment in the Plough Spiritual Guides series in September 2026. In this case, it is a collection of the writings of Howard Thurman. He was a pastor and theologian who mentored civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr. This guide, like preceding ones in the series offers a brief biography of Thurman followed by a guide to reading him, and then readings from Thurman’s works. Vincent LW. Lloyd, in the latter, observes this distinction between King and Thurman:

“If Martin Luther King, Jr. invites collective struggle to transform the political world, to end racism, Howard Thurman invites interior struggle to transform the self. There is no need for a choice between the two….Thurman demonstrates how we participate in God through struggle, how we struggle against false gods, against those individuals and systems and habits of mind that take themselves to be absolute authorities, and how the struggle within and the struggle without are intimately linked” (p. xxviii).

Lloyd thus offers a précis of the theme connecting the nine selections from Thurman’s writings. These selections, titled in the form of imperatives, offer nine ways we engage with God as we “engage the struggle without.” In “Know Thyself” he invites us to live in the present and in the disarming presence of God that strips us of illusions. Then, in “Love Your Neighbor” he connects our love of God and neighbor. He concludes with the wonder of “being completely and totally understood in the presence of God.”

But what does love have to do with our enemies? In “Love Your Enemies” he identifies three types of enemies the poor and disinherited face. He observes that even enemies are of infinite worth to God. Thus, it is worthy to try to make contact with this imago dei in the person’s life. We do this through forgiveness, leaving vengeance to God. Then, in “Choose Nonviolence” he addresses the nonviolent ethic of Jesus in both personal and national life. He offers the simple axiom that “No one ever wins a fight.” He discusses the choice of violence as the decision to will the non-existence of another.

Instead, we “Learn to Pray.” It is the acknowledgement that we do not want to be left to our own meagre resources. The chapter concludes with a wonderful prayer that models our dependence on God. An example of utter dependence comes from the slave experience and the spirituals that emerged from it. “Wade in the Water” speaks of coming to God in our vulnerability, trusting that God will “trouble the water” in healing. Finally, the road to dependency leads us to “Surrender to God.” Thurman describes in first person terms all the areas involved in full surrender to God.

This inner transformation has outward effects. For example, his call to “Attend to Nature” challenges us to “reverence for all expressions of life.” Likewise it results in an “at-homeness in the world.” Lastly, he calls us to “Live in Community.” He warns us against isolation and of ever thinking of “people” in merely abstract terms.

To devote oneself to seek God’s kingdom and pursue his reconciliation and justice in the world is a lifetime journey. We look for final fulfillment in Christ’s return. The wisdom captured in these nine short chapters from Howard Thurman’s writings capture the inner journey that transforms and sustains us as we seek societal transformation. The danger in any form of struggle against evil is to become like that against which we struggle. Thurman writes of the inner spiritual transformation that guards our hearts and makes reconciliation and healing possible.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?

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Cover image of "Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?" by Mikel Del Rosario

Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?

Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?, Mikel Del Rosario. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514011010) 2025.

Summary: Using methods of historiography, demonstrates that Jesus opponents believed him to be claiming divinity.

Christians believe Jesus was the Son of God, eternally God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We also believe he assumed a fully human nature, God and man in one person. But did Jesus ever say he was God in those words? The honest answer is “no.” And for some, this leads to the belief that subsequent to his time on earth, the church “made” him God. However, many of us point to statements in the gospels in which Jesus implies his deity in conversation with his adversaries. They believed him to be making a blasphemous claim to deity and Jesus does not deny it. Furthermore, Jesus teaches and acts in ways consistent with a consciousness of deity. But can we trust these accounts to provide us with reliable, historical information?

That is the question that troubled Mikel Del Rosario as he encountered questions similar to those raised above. In this book Del Rosario focuses on two passages from the earliest gospel, Mark, where Jesus makes implicit claims of divinity understood in those terms by his adversaries. He uses historiographical methods to determine the probability of the different elements in these two passages and the overall probability that the implicit claims of divinity are highly evidenced facts. The two passages he considers are Mark 2:1-12, the healing of the paralytic, and Mark 14:53-65, Jesus examination before the Jewish Sanhedrin.

In the first part of the book, he discusses his historiographical methods and the rules of evidence he and other historians use in investigating Jesus. He sets out seven rules of evidence which he will apply: 1. multiple attestation; 2. dissimilarity (from both Jewish sources and subsequent church sources; 3. rejection and execution; 4. coherence; 5. embarrassment (elements that would be embarrassing to the church); 6. contextual plausibility; and 7. inherent ambiguity.

In Part Two, he examines the healing of the paralytic. He identifies five historical facts that he believes are at least highly probable: Jesus reputation as a miracle worker, the core scene, Jesus forgiveness saying, the scribal response, and Jesus authority saying. The conclusion was that it is highly probable, historically, that Jesus exercises divine authority to forgive sin.

In similar fashion he applies the rules of evidence to examine five historical facts in the Jewish examination of Jesus. Firstly, the authenticity of Jesus rejection by Jewish leaders and crucifixion, which he deems certainly historical. Then the remaining four facts are highly probable: the authenticity of the core scene, the authenticity of the high priest’s question, the authenticity of Jesus’ reply, and the authenticity of the blasphemy charge. Again, he concludes it was highly probable that Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of the Blessed. Likewise, it’s highly probable that his adversaries understood this as a blasphemous assertion of deity.

Then, in the final part of the book, he assesses this conclusion against those of Bart Ehrman, Tobias Hagerland, and Daniel Kirk. He found that in terms of plausibility, scope, explanatory power, and the use of less ad hoc, his analysis came out better than each of these. He concludes that Jesus did implicitly say he was God, and there are good historical grounds to believe this. And this was believed by the earliest Christians, not made up in later years.

All this stands and falls on the validity of his historiography. Can the probability of the core facts of these passages be established using the methods he uses? As far as I can tell, he uses methods used by others. I would like more discussion of why others reach different conclusions. I do appreciate the engagement with other prominent scholars. Above all, he gives even firmer grounds for those of us who have used these passages to argue Christ’s deity. He likewise provides a good basis for the conviction that this idea came from Jesus himself. He does all this carefully and methodically. This is a valuable and encouraging study.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Hard Feelings

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Cover image of "Hard Feelings" by Daniel Smith.

Hard Feelings

Hard Feelings, Daniel Smith. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781982103903) 2026.

Summary: We are inclined to suppress negative emotions but if we listen to what they are saying about ourselves, we gain wisdom.

Daniel Smith received two unusual gifts for his fortieth birthday. One was a 1621 book, The Anatomy of Melancholy. The other was a coffee table book of the strange, lurid art of Hieronymus Bosch. He shelved the books away but couldn’t forget them. He’d wrestled with what one might call “negative emotions” all his life, and most dramatically after his divorce several years earlier, that sent him in a tailspin. But he couldn’t shelve the negative emotions these represented. Neither could he wallow in them. As a therapist, he was coming to understand that the place to begin was to be curious about them and what they were pointing to, perhaps in his own life.

Before he gets into specific emotions he first explores the morality of emotions and theories about emotions. All to often, emotions were divided into good and bad, with the bad being immoral. Then he explores theories of emotions, considering both Basic Emotion Theory and the Theory of Constructed Emotion. The former proposes that we are wired to respond in certain ways to different experiences, the latter, that how we respond is shaped by our interpretation of experience. Smith favors the latter and believes we need to “understand the complex structures and patterns” that underlie our emotions.

In the remainder of the book, in two parts, he considers six emotions we might consider negative. Part Two considers annoyance, shame, and envy. Then Part Three looks at boredom, regret and despair. Smith combines autobiographical material with research to tease out what each of these emotions. Annoyance points to boundaries transgressed that could lead to anger. Smith realized the choice he faces to internalize the annoying–to become annoyed–and that he may choose not to. He discovers that shame feeds on hiding and is lessened with self-exposure. Then there is envy, which may point to a neglected desire, fueled by comparisons with others. Interestingly, he spends a lot of time discussing his wife’s struggle to not have others envy her!

One of the strengths of the book is Smith’s candor. For example he honestly describes his own boredom in parenting a young child. Yet he sees boredom as the underside of a life “pregnant with meaning.” Then, he explores the addictive element of regret that poisons our steps into the future. Finally, despair is the curving inward in which one luxuriates in one’s helplessness rather than accept help, to look beyond oneself. In the author’s case, this meant daily studying a linden in a nearby park.

Perhaps the greatest wisdom here is to acknowledge and listen to all our emotions for what they are trying to show us. Smith’s self-deprecating autobiography models that posture. However, at points, this felt meandering. I didn’t always feel that his discussions “landed.” But perhaps that is also the point. He and all of us are in a process of making sense out of our lives, one that doesn’t progress in neat, linear fashion. He is not one of those who has arrived. Rather, he is still on the way, a way he has illuminated with humor, honesty, and substance.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Review: Love in a Time of Climate Change

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Cover image of "Love in a Time of Climate Change" by Sharon Delgado

Love in a Time of Climate Change

Love in a Time of Climate Change (Revised edition), Sharon Delgado. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9798889837206) 2026, first edition 2017.

Summary: Uses the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to discern a faithful Christian response to the realities of climate change.

Sharon Delgado is a United Methodist pastor who seeks to help those with whom she ministers to connect their personal faith with their advocacy, including advocacy around concerns of climate change and climate justice. Delgado provides an overview of the facts about climate change and its impacts. But what is unique about this book is how she draws on John Wesley’s use of scripture, tradition, reason, and experience as tools for discerning and acting upon Christian truth. These four elements are sometimes known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. What is delightful is to see how she follows Wesley in walking readers through this process. She focuses on two ideas, creation and justice, and then ties these together with the love of God and neighbor.

In Part I of the book, she offers an overview of information about climate change. Then she turns to Wesley use of the Quadrilateral and explains each aspect.

Part II is on the theme of “Honoring Creation.” First, in looking at scripture, she looks at God’s love for the groaning creation as well as our role in it. Then, under tradition, she summarizes Wesley’s teaching and that of contemporary Wesleyan theologians. She focuses on his theology of grace and how people nurtured in grace join God in nurturing his creation. But science and scripture have sometimes been seen in conflict about creation. Under reason, she focuses on the use of reason to draw from both in common sense action. Finally, under experience, she discusses a sacramental approach to the world that practices God’s presence as we care for creation.

Part III turns to the theme of “Establishing Justice.” Much of the focus on scripture is an extended reflection on the Jericho road. She explores what it means to move beyond individual acts of compassion (i.e. “the Good Samaritan”) to recognizing systemic injustices and the need for transformation. Then, on tradition, she begins with Wesley’s ideas on social holiness which led him to address the slave trade and relates it to contemporary theologies of liberation. Under reason, she challenges climate denialism and “cap and trade” strategies as traditional market strategies and argues for alternatives to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Finally, under experience, she profiles those working on the front lines where climate change is deeply impacting lives, such as extraction zones, those affected by extreme weather, and on the lands of indigenous peoples.

The final chapter pulls thinking about creation and justice together around love of God and neighbor. She reminds people of the spiritual nature of the work and urges people to work in community. This community extends to others around the world working to protect creation.

I wrestle with the hopefulness that reason and right action will save the day. Apart from a radical transformation, I think we are determined to go down the path of destruction. Honestly, I don’t think we will act apart from catastrophic consequences, and maybe not even then, in a united fashion. That does not mean that Christians don’t pursue the care of creation and justice. We choose to pursue mercy and justice no matter the outcome. And perhaps in that context, the template of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral offers a good process to think Christianly about how we ought live faithfully. Delgado provides supplemental resources for study and action groups to use. I welcome this Wesleyan perspective on creation care.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.