PRIDE:
Identity and the Worship of Self
By Matthew P.W. Roberts
Christian Focus. 182 pages. £14.99 (HB)
ISBN 978 1 527 109 391
THE NEW REFORMATION CATECHISM
ON HUMAN SEXUALITY:
A Catechism based on The Heidelberg
Catechism of 1563
By Christopher J. Gordon
Gospel Reformation Network.
32 pages. £4.99
ISBN 979 8 218 052 447
HUMAN:
Made and remade in the image of
God
By Ros Clarke
IVP. 158 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 1 789 744 835
WOMEN AND THE GENDER OF GOD
By Amy Peeler
Eerdmans. 274 pages £19.99
ISBN 978 0 802 874 097
The subjects of some books are like buses, you don’t see one in a while, and then three come along at once!
The first book is from a classic Reformed perspective. It argues persuasively that the contemporary debate concerning identity is informed and challenged by the Biblical concept of idolatry. Cleverly using the word PRIDE in the title highlights how idolatry is an expression of the worship of ourselves by the exaltation of our desires to the level of ultimate identity markers. There is much to commend in this book, but I was surprised by how many question marks I pencilled into the margins! The author insists that Christians should reflect carefully on how the gospel lands in our lives, what it offers and what it demands. The consequence of this is the call to abandon labels that might suggest that becoming a Christian can mean not abandoning our distorted desires. The author writes in particular of the problematic phrase ‘same-sex attracted’, which has become a mechanism for helping some Christians seek to be faithful in following Christ, while at the same time being aware of their ongoing struggles with their sexuality. The author asks whether this approach fails to affirm the transformative power of the gospel to remint our identity and reorder our desires.
Some readers might have issues with the language at points, the author insists on using the word ‘sodomy,’ which is not entirely helpful, not least because it is an almost exclusively masculine term. Nor will everyone buy into each of the author’s turns of interpretation or application, for example the comparison between the conversion of a Muslim and a gay person. This is a book worth reading carefully, but I was left wondering how pastorally helpful it would be for those who are struggling with their sexuality and pondering the claims of Christ. It might appear to them as pastorally tone deaf at points. It would have been useful to have included stories of those who had been transformed by the message articulated in the book – of turning to God from idols to serve the one true and living God.
For a fuller review see William Mason at the London Seminary (www.londonseminary. org/pride-by-matthew-roberts-a-rambling-review/).
A catechism
Another interesting and stimulating resource of identity and sexuality from a Reformed perspective is The New Reformation Catechism On Human Sexuality by Christopher J. Gordon.
This is the question on same sex-attraction:
29. Q. What about believers who fight against same-sex attraction but continue to experience shame and guilt for these desires?
A. God, in the gospel of His Son, has announced that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Any unholy desire, even if unchosen, such as same-sex attraction, is covered by the blood of Christ.
Believers who continue to struggle against same-sex attraction should trust in God’s forgiving mercies and, with earnest purpose, by the strength of the Holy Spirit, strive to live in the newness of life.
Further, the body of Christ should not avoid or shun those who struggle against any sexual sin. Instead, believers, with a spirit of compassion, should ‘bear each other’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ’.
What it means to be human
Ros Clarke paints a picture of human identity on a wider canvas and in a different style. In her book Human, the author takes the reader on journey from creation to glory as she explores what it means to be human. Following the flow of the Biblical story of humanity means taking issues as they come in the sweep of Biblical revelation.
The author does not dodge the difficult issues, but with a light and sensitive touch she faces what it means to be made in the image of God. The book helpfully addresses issues of gender, relationships (single and married), sexuality (heterosexual and same-sex attracted), identity politics and the sanctity of life.
I particularly enjoyed the narrative style of this book, in which the author’s presence and story was woven into the Biblical narrative, in an illuminating rather than intrusive way. The author, as a 49-year-old heterosexual single woman, helpfully writes about issues like singleness and loneliness from the inside.
One of her many helpful insights was that what was ‘not good’ about Adam’s situation was not his singleness but his loneliness.
The book is enhanced by helpful questions at the end of each chapter that might well make the book a useful resource for a book club or small-group study. Highly recommended.
Giving God a gender
Women and the Gender of God by Amy Peeler is a significant book and has attracted a lot of attention; it has provoked two substantial reviews from The Gospel Coalition and Council of Manhood and Womanhood websites*. In my view the one by Patrick Schreiner (TGC) is the fairer one.
I fear that it might become one of those books that we think we have read because we have read a review; that would be a pity. There is much to commend in this well-articulated perspective on the gender of God, that includes some illuminating work on the role of Mary in the incarnation. Peeler is clear that Scripture requires us to use masculine referents for God; she is not suggesting that Christians call God ‘Mother’, but insists that we are not justified in calling God, who is spirit, male or masculine. Peeler rightly cautions against overstating the differences between men and women that can be a feature of some forms of complementarity.
I asked Amy what aim she had for the book; she replied:
‘My aim in the book is, first and foremost, to encourage women that they are valued by God. In order to do that fully, I also needed to speak to what looks like a preferential treatment of the male in Christianity and dismantle it.’
Perhaps this is one of those books that needs the label: ‘Handle with Care’. But sometimes it is good to read outside our comfort zone. When we read all of what a person has written rather than a review or precis, we are more likely to catch the drift of what a person is saying, rather than deal with a caricature or straw (wo)man.
This is how Peeler ends her book:
‘Part of the way to work against negative connotations is to pay careful attention to the text and what it says – and what it does not – about the God named as Father. Without disagreement, the texts say that this God is a good Father.’
