OPENING UP EZEKIEL’S VISIONS
By Peter Jeffery
Day One. 128 pages. £5.00
ISBN 1 903087 66 X
This book is clearly and readably written and presented in an attractive format including some good illustrations. It is realistically priced. Assuming a degree of biblical literacy, it offers helpful background analyses of the prophet and his book.
Jeffrey makes no attempt to provide a commentary, opting rather for an ‘opening up’ of the prophet. In reality it is less this than reflections on a number of themes, especially those that might be deemed ‘gospel’ themes, for example, sin, divine wrath, judgement, the need for repentance, etc. As such, it offers a robust presentation of the conservative evangelical understanding of the gospel. Indeed, it reads like written-up sermons.
The presentation assumes a modern rather than a postmodern world, and, in places, there is a degree of overstatement, and this might be unnecessarily offensive to the thoughtful and generally sympathetic reader. In addition, while clearly sensitive to the possibilities of a wider readership, the illustrations are almost all drawn from the British or Welsh context, and the ‘traditional’ catalogue of sins are those that one might expect from such a background. References to the sins of a permissive society abound, while those that characterise Western society (disregard for the weak and vulnerable, discrimination, etc.) are nowhere mentioned, though often more seriously embedded in the contemporary ‘people of God’.
A useful little book, but whether it really opens up Ezekiel’s visions is doubtful. Whether it is an adequate re-presentation of the unchanging gospel to the emerging contemporary world is to be questioned.
