Book Review: Jonathan L. Walton, Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World - Part Two

 

Book Review - Part Two

Jonathan L. Walton, Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018)

 

Walton masterfully and graciously writes a book about the Bible which billions of people still revere in an accessible, engaging and informative way. Clergy who have graduated from seminary will be reminded of their days and late nights of poring over religious monographs. He entices them to revisit some of their settled beliefs and opinions about scripture. Personally, I wish this book had been available when I was completing my Master of Divinity courses. I am happy for current students who have this piece of treasure as an introduction to formal historical, critical and analytical study of the Bible. Walton insists that students of the Bible grapple with irony, incongruity, ambiguity and longstanding contradictions. He does not allow an easy escape through emotions, facile verbal recitation and memorization. Respectfully, he asks readers to appreciate the Bible and the process of studying the Bible with intellectual integrity and genuine curiosity. This approach requires the suspension of predetermined knowledge and conclusions. Readers, like a forensic scientist, pathologist or crime scene investigator, should come to study the Bible with an open mind; thereby they allow the Bible to speak on its own and reveal the Divine as its authors, audience and historical context understood their experiences of God and religion.  Beyond the expanse of scholarly criticism, academics in all disciplines who are curious minimally about the study of religion within the Ancient Near Eastern world will find unimagined riches from Walton’s research, writing and insightful perspective. Reading the Bible within the lens of love is the most preferable and fulfilling methodology. LinkedIn professionals who crunch numbers, edit films, write screenplays, write legal briefs, prepare lesson plans, coordinate food pantries, prepare for surgery, draft blueprints, measure safety of bridges and tunnels or perform myriad other functions will find themselves similarly satisfied.

 

One of the delights of Walton’s book is its humor and recitation of funny African American Church idioms. He references the powerful testimony services of various denominations. In those worship experiences, average believers stand and offer personal statements of their individual experiences of God’s faithfulness. Their statements parallel the oral evidence of court witnesses. These disciples assure the congregation that the Bible and its promises about God’s unfailing love and unquestioned faithfulness are undeniably true because of their direct experience. We who have attended and participated in these services recall the warmth, affirmation and encouragement of those services. Walton’s summary places many readers on memory lane. Others travel mystically and anthropologically to a new venue and milieu of Christian worship and discipleship.

 

Regarding God’s power to heal and transform, testimony service traditionally contains vivid accounts of personal miracles. These stories closely parallel biblical accounts of theophanies like Moses’ discovery of a burning bush that is not being consumed by its flames, record a supernatural event. The suspension of natural law confirms God’s presence as He retains the right to do so to accomplish His purpose. Hints of the miraculous seems necessary to validate an account. Walton specifically notes that a believer who struggles with alcoholism attributes his delivery from addiction to God’s graciousness in “taking the taste out of his mouth.”

 

Walton allows that the rich and empowering traditions and experiences of local church membership can intersect with twenty-first century modalities of faith, religion and spirituality. Reading the Bible through the lens of love opens disciples to new vistas of reading Jung’s teachings on individuation while studying the Psalms. It permits disciples to embark upon the inward journey of inner healing and wholeness through the process of self-discovery and self-acceptance in counseling and psychoanalysis. It grasps the hard realities of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder borne of childhood anxiety and other causes. It expands the horizon of the ways in which Almighty God assists disciples and their families in resolving these significant conflicts. It seeks extra biblical and ecclesiastical guidance. It collaborates with neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, psychobiology and other disciplines to harness all resources within our global village.

 

Yet another delight of Walton’s equally delightful book is his rhetorical seasonings of literature and allusions to the rich traditions and cultural mores of the Black Church. African American literature, generally, and Black Women’s literature, specifically, contain myriad motifs that wrestle with religion and theodicy. Bearing the triple burden of gender, race and class, Black women fight to discover God’s presence and favor within their daily existence. Seemingly, they are amongst the most devout disciples who fervently and faithfully pray for deliverance and a better life. They regrettably remain in the same existential quicksand. How can a Jesus whom they love so much, to whom they faithfully appeal and for whom they defend against any other expression of deity be so cruel indifferent? Celie has frank conversation with God in the opening letter of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. The protagonist in Anne Perry’s classic and early twentieth century novel, The Street, under the burden of her life walks away from it thereby abandoning her beloved son. Sula Mae Peace, whose unbridled courage and self-determination challenges fellow characters and readers alike to dare to live freely. Sula, the title character of Toni Morrison’s enduring and provocative novel, brazenly lives her life as she chooses notwithstanding any social compulsion to believe and obey God. So many other works of literature grapple with the worth of religion when embroiled in daily hardships. Walton suggests an interpretation of the Bible that accommodates these ironies and incongruities. He affirms God’s love for humankind on the individual level but demands that disciples develop the capacity and character to demonstrate Christian love on a societal basis. Black women and other vulnerable people do not non impactful charity but direct service consistent with Matthew 25 and social justice advocacy that actualizes Isaiah 61:1-10 and Luke 4:18.

 

For disciples who simply love the Bible and study of the world that fostered its composition and compilation, Walton explores the beauty and bounty of biblical scholarship. He cites the enduring scholars and commentators such Raymond Brown, one of the leading authorities on the Gospel of John, and Joseph Fitzmeyer’s work on the book of Romans. Delightfully, Walton references the compelling scholarship of Jennifer Glancy and other next generation biblical scholars whose intriguing and refreshing insights are very helpful to contemporary disciples. I highly recommend that you read the notes and consult these books. The Bible is a mysterious, fascinating and mystical book that minimally requires a lifetime of study to scratch the surface of its history, meaning and significance. It is pitiful that countless misguided disciples attempt to reduce its complexity, profundity and infinite lessons to rote memorization in their primary language. These well intentioned and similarly uninformed people do not realize that the Bible which they pound was delivered divinely in five different languages within the historical context of the Ancient Near East. Some of them esteem the King James translation above the meaning of the original languages of Greek, Hebrew, Ugaritic, Aramaic and historical pidgins in which the texts were transmitted orally and composed on papyri. Nevertheless, Walton overlooks those academic shortcomings. He posits that if readers and students of the Bible will read the book through the lens of love, that methodology triumphs over the failings of any technical academic approaches. The scholars whom Walton references provides a plethora of insights, examples and tools to assist lifetime Bible students in accomplishing their goals of learning the Word of God as fruitfully as possible.

 

Walton however depicts Christ’s love as equal to a collective consciousness and expression of justice and equality. Christian love is more than a warm and fuzzy feeling in one’s mind and heart. It extends beyond rote recitation of religiously and socially acceptable statements. Like the Good Samaritan, it asks individual disciples to share the resources of time, treasure, talent and temperament to expand Christ’s reign and kingdom by demonstrating His love in interpersonal relationships and within society. Love on a collective level means that disciples allow each person the freedom and latitude to experience God as he uniquely understands Him. We do not have to agree with other people or condone their lifestyle choices. Still, Christ’s love commands us to graciously embrace their rights to live freely and openly.

 

Reading through the lens of love opens disciples’ eyes to interpret familiar passages with a new perspective. This angle removes any condemnation and judgement of the woman caught in adultery. The lens of love demand that we ask the silent question, “Where is the man?” This type of reading leads to amazement when disciples consider that God sends the Israelite spies to Rehab who operates a brothel. Readers join Mary and Martha in the village of Bethany at the tomb of Lazarus where Jesus cries for His friend. Consider the immeasurable love that Esau extends to Jacob upon the occasion of their reunion after twenty years following the latter’s ill treatment of his elder brother. Countless other texts equally reveal God’s unfailing love in human relationships.

 

Walton’s compelling book challenges readers to reexamine their theology which is rational thought about the existence of a divine being and whether His existence bears any significance on anyone’s life. Regarding God’s attributes and holy character, love is the most simplistic and profound definition and description. In the sacrifice of Christ, Almighty God establishes the new covenant of love (John 3:16). He rewrites the Law and implements the new law of love which is a much higher standard than the rules,  regulations and requirements of black letter restrictions. (Matthew chapters 5, 6and 7). Through love, God obliterates the penetrating and persistent fear that believers have of His righteousness and judgment. His perfect love annihilates fears and liberates anyone who believes in Him to live abundantly and eternally (1 John 4:18). Irrespective of any Christian denomination’s catechism, love is the primary prerequisite of Christian discipleship. The Fourth Evangelist unequivocally rejects any notion that someone can profess undying and unwavering love for God without having and sharing love with his brothers and sisters in the human family and global village. A disciple cannot say that he loves God whom he has never seen while failing to love his brothers and sisters whom he sees daily. (1 John 5:12).

 

It is necessary to reiterate that love as the biblical writers and Walton utilizes demands truth, justice, mercy, human rights and fundamental fairness of process and result. Love is personal and collective. Admittedly, disciples have daily priestly duties and obligations to their spouses, families and friends. Seeking to improve their neighborhoods and adjacent communities, they engage important altruistic and civic work. However, they have a parallel responsibility to creating a more sustainable and equitable global village. All of humankind deserves a fundamentally fair world that imparts each individual and nation a chair to actualize their unique lives. Christian love in the context of environmental inequalities, nuclear threats, shrinking resources, geopolitical tensions and rising populations insists upon policies and solutions that preserve the human dignity of all nations.

 

Are you disheartened by the current state of the Christian religion in the United States? Do you fear the blasphemy and cacophony in contemporary discourse about Christianity will further erode commitment of younger disciples who are rightly distrustful of prevalent inconsistencies and incongruities of the Church’s beliefs and actions? Does the anti-intellectualism of American preaching offend you? Does it appear that the pervasive darkness that surrounds the faith of our forebears will persist and not yield to a brighter day? Amid this bleak moment, as move into the second quarter of the twenty-first century which also holds immeasurable promise for human advancement, Professor Jonathan Walton offers a marvelous light to anyone who stumbles in darkness.  He graciously and fortuitously offers Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World with reason and reassurance for weary disciples, genuine seekers and suspicious participants in the discussion. Enthusiastically, I encourage you to eat this manna and drink this living water.