to be frank

Catching water in a net?

Last week I had the privilege of launching Val Webb's new book, Like catching water in a net: Human attempts to describe the divine  (New York: Continuum, 2007)

Here is some of what I said, telling you what it's about and some of its strengths.

It's a strange title: Like catching water in a net:  It makes you wonder what is this about?
That's what the book is about: the wondering about something we can never quite explain.
The sub-title tells you: that it is about human attempts to describe the divine.

That tells you the thesis of the book: as Val puts it herself, p 16: ‘The most important thing to take from this book is that anything we say about God is a metaphor, a construction of language.’
Now actually the book has much more to say to us than that, but it shows us a few things about the approach.

Devoid of pride or fear

Chapter 6 of A Thinking Reed, Barry Jones' memoirs, is called 'Faces' and is about a lot of the significant people in Jones' life, including his mentors. But prior to that he introduces a few short cameo sketches, the first of which is about Bertrand Russell, arguably one of the most famous British thinkers of the 20th century.
I have my own story about Russell, which also shaped my interest in biography.

Before God

I have continued with George Stroup's excellent book Before God. (Eerdmans, 2004)
I don't know the author personally, though I have for a long time appreciated his earlier work on narrative theology.
In this book, which is exceptionally clearly written and structured, you have what feels like a distillation of the author's thought, the considered and concentrated wisdom of his life. I like it very much, even though I am also wanting to argue with it, and in some places disagree.

The central thesis of the book is simply stated: that the essence of biblical faith is the invitation to live 'before God' coram Deo. That is to say, this is the fundamental nature of reality. We do in fact exist within the presence of the divine reality. We are God's creatures, invited to live with God. We have the choice of recognizing this, and thus living 'before God', or denying it, and thus failing to live 'before God'.
In recent times, however, —which I think means most of the 'modern' period, theology has lost this focus. There has been an 'eclipse' of this sense of 'beforeness'. This has given rise to a tragic separation of theology and ethics. 'The eclipse of life lived before God has had a corrosive effect on Christian piety.' (p.3)
Stroup's opening chapter puts the case that this is the overall message of the Bible. He states his thesis in six key ideas.