Wrestling Until the Dawn: The Fight for Biblical
Justice in a Postmodern World,
by John R. Preston (Spiritbook Press, 2006, $19.95).
a review by Gene TeSelle
[4-17-06]
The author began as an engineer, went through Yale Divinity School, served
several parish ministries, and then went into family therapy. He continues
to be involved in a rural ministry in upstate New York.
The image of Jacob wrestling with the
strange figure (an angel? God? or Esau, as some have suggested?) has
fascinated us all. Preston resonates with it as an image of the struggles of
faith in our own time, and specifically the struggle over Christians' all
too frequent collusion with oppression and suffering in human life.
The opening section surveys the many
issues of our time; Preston sums them up in this way (245):
-
The continued gap between very wealthy
and very impoverished nations that signifies economic injustice.
-
The continued strain upon Mother Earth
as the world-wide economic system continues to chew up more natural
resources and spit out more pollution.
-
The use of violence to redress
injustice, when what this offers is only an escalation of violence and
warfare.
Even beyond the damage that is being done,
there is another problem: we ourselves can all too easily become
"collaborators" with this system of domination and suffering. American
individualism, and its corollary, the freedom to be a consumer, seem
pervasive. People are so caught up in the culture that they are not really
free not to be consumers, employees, or employers. To be spiritually
free, Preston suggests, is to be liberated from this ordinary freedom
of choice and to be free for gratitude and sacred collaboration (33).
Most congregations are not of much help.
When they voice their concerns, they are usually restricted to the health of
members of the congregation, not reaching out to wider and more public
issues. Most ministers, if the truth be told, function as "chaplains"
serving a select flock, concentrating on priestly and pastoral roles (42).
In the U.S. today, the tradition of prophetic concern for the common good
has been lost; the cross is wrapped in the flag; and "traditional religion"
becomes a major support for "civil religion," probably for the reason that
"civil religion is the least doctrinal, the most emotional, and the most
widespread" (193).
Seeking a better approach, Preston looks
at Jesus and the early "Jesus movement," set in the context of the earlier
history of Israel and especially its key moments of exodus and return from
exile. Non-specialists are likely to find in these chapters a helpful
summary of recent scholarship. Authors often cited include Robert W. Funk,
John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, and Bernard Brandon Scott.
The chief result is a fresh emphasis on
Jesus' proclamation of the Reign of God — perhaps better called, to suggest
the contrast with what was so apparent in the world of the time, the Empire
of God. While the Hebrew Bible often spoke of God as Ruler, it did not
often use the language of Reign or Empire. There is, then, a new emphasis on
this shared "realm" or "commonwealth." This reign or realm is a present and
everyday reality that comes not with "observation," not with exercise of
power, not even with theocracy administered by priests and rabbis, but with
a Spirit-based "subversive resistance to Powers that no longer play a proper
role in the ecology of divine justice and love" (157).
This new emphasis leads, quite naturally,
to a theological reconstruction, in the course of which there is much
mention of Douglas John Hall, Gordon Kaufman, Sallie McFague, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer,
and Walter Wink. The last two of these are especially concerned to exorcise
the spirit of "redemptive violence" that breathes in much of the biblical
tradition, portraying God as either commanding or doing violence. There is
also a critique of what is called the "rescue system" (193), whose effect is
to infantilize believers, telling them to wait for deliverance by God.
What is the alternative? To act
non-violently even in the face of the harsh realities of life, a stance that
can be called "realized hope" (208), bringing out the hidden yet "graceful"
aspects of everyday reality. The shift from "collaborating with the Powers"
to "collaborating with the Spirit" begins with resistance, a refusal to join
the prevailing idolatries (249). Its emphasis is not on the "triumphant
individual" but on "faithful collaboration," guided by the stories,
metaphors, and parables of the faith. These are not forgotten, for they
sustain a resistance, often an explicit conflict, that often sounds like the
struggles evoked so frequently by the apostle Paul.
This book can be purchased via the web site
www.lulu.com/Spiritbrookpress,
or through Amazon
