Abstract
Richard A. Horsley,
Jesus and Magic: Freeing the Gospel Stories from Modern Misconceptions
(Cambridge: James Clarke, 2015); 178 pp.: 9780227175255, £15.00/$30.00 (pbk)
Those of us who have learned from John Pilch’s seminal study Healing in the New Testament: Insights from Medical and Mediterranean Anthropology (2000) may enjoy this lively new book by Richard Horsley. In it he argues that ‘the healing stories of Jesus as represented in the Gospels are healings. They are not miracles and not magic. It is inappropriate even to conclude that the healing episodes in the Gospels include elements or techniques of magic’ (p. 119). Believers or even sceptics who view them as (true or bogus) ‘miracles’ are, he maintains, framing them anachronistically in post-Enlightenment terms. He is also unconvinced by comparative scholars who see parallels with ancient ‘magic’. Like Pilch he sees Jesus’ healing (rather than ‘curing’) in relational terms. A stimulating book.
Abby Day and Mia Lövheim (eds),
Modernities, Memory and Mutations: Grace Davie and the Study of Religion
(Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2015); 255 pp.: 9781472436177, £65.00/$119.95 (hbk)
I praised the important contribution of Grace Davie to the sociology of religion in a previous editorial (Theology 118/6). This rich collection deservedly honours this contribution following her retirement from Exeter University. In the Foreword Linda Woodhead notes just how much she has achieved despite taking a career break to bring up three children. Divided into three sections, the first opens with a fine essay by the veteran French sociologist Danièle Hervieu-Léger on ‘religious memories’ that survive in apparently secular societies such as France and Britain. The second part opens with a masterly essay from David Martin that places her work in the spectrum of other scholars over the last 50 years. And the third opens with a well-measured account of differences and similarities between the role of religion in welfare provision in Britain and Nordic Countries by the Swedish sociologist Anders Bäckström. Among other essays are those by Sylvia Collins-Mayo (on young people), Douglas Davies (on Breivik’s religiously inspired massacre in Norway), Adam Dinham (on religious literacy) and Abby Day (on believing in belonging). There is much to enjoy here.
Jane Leach and Michael Paterson,
Pastoral Supervision: A Handbook
, 2nd edn (London: SCM Press, 2015); 299 pp.: 9780334053446, £19.99/$35.00 (pbk)
The first edition was published in 2010. A new introductory chapter has wisely been added to this second edition outlining ‘a generic approach to pastoral supervision written for those who do not share the dominant therapeutic paradigms underpinning most of the extant supervisory literature’ (p. xiii). And a further chapter has been added on ‘Attending to the Body’. The bibliography has also been updated and a list of professional bodies that promote pastoral supervision has been added.
James Steven (ed.),
Wrestling With a Godly Order: Encounters with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
(Salisbury: Sarum College Press, 2015); 124 pp.: 9780955066030, £18.99/$28.99 (hbk)
Seven articles originally given at a symposium at Sarum College marking the 350th anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer, but now published three years later. Colin Buchanan and Bridget Nichols contribute from the Church of England, but the other five are commendably ecumenical: the Methodist Norman Wallwork, the Baptist Chris Ellis, the United Reformed Church Susan Durber, the Orthodox David Frost and the Roman Catholic Alan Griffiths. Rowan Williams instructively commends it as: ‘A collection of lively studies that manages to be appreciative of the Book of Common Prayer but also serious and realistic about its gaps as well as its virtues.’
C. P. Ruloff (ed.),
Christian Philosophy of Religion: Essays in Honor of Stephen T. Davis
(Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2015); 361 pp.: 9780268040376, £42.74/$65.00 (hbk)
Sixteen wide-ranging contributions from authors impressively including Richard Swinburne, John Hick, C. Stephen Evans, Alvin Plantinga and Gerald O’Collins. The collection is organized in four sections: Doctrine and Christian Belief; The Nature of God and Christian Belief; Reason and Christian Belief; and Scripture, Theology and Christian Belief.