{"id":5125,"date":"2015-01-03T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-03T06:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=5125"},"modified":"2015-01-02T17:49:39","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T23:49:39","slug":"living-many-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=5125","title":{"rendered":"LIVING MANY LIVES"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Patheos review of a very important book:<\/strong><\/p>\n

WHAT A PILGRIMAGE!<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Change of Heart: a Personal and Theological Memoir<\/i> by Thomas C. Oden<\/strong><\/p>\n

By David George Moore<\/strong><\/p>\n

I first encountered Tom Oden via his courageous and prescient book, After Modernity\u2026What?<\/i>\u00a0 Several years later, I did a radio interview with Chris Hall on his terrific book, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers<\/i>.\u00a0 Hall who did his Ph.D. with Oden at Drew University, would both team up with a number of scholars to produce the wonderfully conceived, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture<\/i>.\u00a0 The vision and preparation which went into that commentary series is a gift to the body of Christ.\u00a0 Even though some voiced skepticism about whether such a commentary could be done, the international team of scholars assembled, and its goal to reach a wide audience, came to fruition.\u00a0 On the latter, a half million copies of the commentary sold during its first ten years, and it is available in languages which cover half the world\u2019s population.<\/strong><\/p>\n

During my radio interview with Chris Hall, I was able to find out more about Oden.\u00a0 Oden\u2019s pilgrimage from restless radical to courageous enthusiast of all things truly orthodox makes him worthy of close attention.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

What a thrill to find out that InterVarsity would be publishing Oden\u2019s book, A Change of Heart: a Personal and Theological Memoir<\/i>.\u00a0 If you have the least bit of interest in listening to someone who is thoughtfully theological and lived many lives in one, then be forewarned.\u00a0 This book may keep you up late for several nights.\u00a0 As I read, I had to put governors on how much I read.\u00a0 \u201cOnly twenty-five pages tonight Dave.\u201d\u00a0 Oden\u2019s book is the type I copiously highlight along with my own marginal system of note taking.\u00a0 Encouragement and brilliant ideas are on almost every page as my red pencil and black pen attest.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oden\u2019s memoir is divided by chapters which each cover a decade, from the 1940s, 1950s all the way through to the 2010s.\u00a0 Oden\u2019s insatiable hunger for learning, his work ethic, commitment to various causes (some terribly misguided as he himself would discover), candor, and friendships, pepper his journey throughout. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Along with Oden\u2019s move out of radical thought and into Christian orthodoxy you meet all kinds of people.\u00a0 Oden personally interacted with the likes of Barth, Bultmann, Packer, and Pannenberg.\u00a0 Those four individuals are emblematic of Oden\u2019s theological and spiritual pilgrimage.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oden\u2019s friendships, mentors, and his family life put flesh and blood on his brilliant career.\u00a0 None is more important than the Jewish scholar, Will Herberg.\u00a0 Herberg played a formative role in Oden\u2019s life.\u00a0 As Oden underscores, it is a great irony that Herberg was encouraged to study Judaism by the Christian Niebuhr, and the Jewish scholar Herberg is the very one who encouraged Oden to more deeply study the roots of his Christian heritage.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seeking to remind his Methodist denomination that Christian orthodoxy is not only their rightful heritage, but also that which gives stability, has indeed been challenging.\u00a0 Reading about the Sophia worship that occurred at Oden\u2019s longtime place of employment, Drew University, is arresting and profoundly sad.\u00a0 Oden tried to address this and other concerns, but he increasingly found his robust orthodoxy on the margins, except with his students<\/i>.\u00a0 During Oden\u2019s tenure at Drew he taught a cadre of young scholars (Oden calls them \u201cyoung fogeys\u201d) who reveled in the riches of the Christian faith which had been rejected by the hubris of modernity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) receives some attention.\u00a0 It is fascinating to hear Oden\u2019s reflections.\u00a0 Oden shares some of the controversy surrounding ECT, but ends with this: \u201cA year after the second ECT document was published, most of the opposition had died down.\u201d\u00a0 This is certainly true, but I would have liked to hear Oden\u2019s reflections on whether this was due to ECT never rising to official status in Protestant or Roman Catholics circles.\u00a0 Oden\u2019s rather breezy account keeps moving along to other issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oden is honest about the tough stuff of life like his beloved wife\u2019s death.\u00a0 Oden\u2019s partnership and friendship with his beloved Edrita is beautiful to read.\u00a0 Oden clearly understands suffering, but his hard-won orthodoxy offers an unfailing hope which he now joyously declares to any who will listen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to learn about a brilliant theologian who is courageous, can write in an endlessly fascinating and accessible manner, and appreciate life stories with all kinds of twists and turns, then this book is for you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

David George Moore is the author of three books, the most recent being The Last Men\u2019s Book You\u2019ll Ever Need<\/i>.\u00a0 He blogs at www.twocities.org<\/a> and is a regular contributor on the Jesus Creed\/Patheos.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Patheos review of a very important book: WHAT A PILGRIMAGE! A Change of Heart: a Personal and Theological Memoir by Thomas C. Oden By David George Moore I first encountered Tom Oden via his courageous and prescient book, After Modernity\u2026What?\u00a0 Several years later, I did a radio interview with Chris Hall on his terrific […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5125"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5127,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5125\/revisions\/5127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}