American Academy of Religion

Church, Identity, and Change: Theology and Denominational Structures in Unsettled Times byDavid A. Roozen; James R. NiemanReview by: R. Drew SmithJournal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 74, No. 4 (Dec., 2006), pp. 1034-1037Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139977 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 04:41

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Oxford University Press and American Academy of Religion are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserveand extend access to Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.127.79 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 04:41:09 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1034 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

is possible for a regional or local literary culture to manifest at any given time. Freeman (479ff.) addresses domesticized religious textuality and hybridizing movements between performance and text (489). On more squarely political dimensions, Asani (626ff.) addresses the conflict between Sindhi and Persian fol- lowing the coming of the Arabs to Sindh in 711 CE. Yet, Sindhi maintained its autonomy in an environment increasingly dominated by Perso-Arabic culture because it housed a strong Sufi literary tradition, including mystical romances in which the feminine became the symbol of the soul. Yashaschandra, whose views may be closest to Pollock's, addresses, among other things, the relationship between oral and written literary cultures (614ff.).

Although I cannot here discuss every article in this massive book, it should be clear that every article discusses language acculturation, discursive shifts, social sites on the Indian subcontinent in which this occurred, and how the tex- tual basis for political power initially expressed through Sanskrit and Sanskritic culture eventually entered other South Asian literary cultures. Scholars of all fields have much to learn from this important and effective volume, whether they are literary scholars or (as readers of this journal) study the ways in which the literature of religion constructs social and political universes.

doi:10.1093/jaarel/1fl021 Advance Access publication October 11, 2006

Frederick M. Smith University of Iowa

Church, Identity, and Change: Theology and Denominational Structures in Unsettled Times. Edited by David A. Roozen and James R. Nieman. Wm. B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 2005. 656 pages. $36.00.

With rumors flying about the immanent demise of Protestant denomina- tional life in the United States, this volume's rigorous assessment of eight American Protestant communions convincingly argues that American denominations are persevering for the most part, despite multiple factors contributing to denomina- tional decline. The volume's contributors suggest that some denominations have endured through efforts to maintain their established ecclesiastical and cultural niches, whereas others have sustained themselves through efforts to adapt to new historical realities. Nevertheless, persevering is not the same as thriving, and some of the "oldline" Protestant communions among the volume's eight denomi- national case studies were diagnosed as stable, at best, with increasingly difficult futures looming if important internal changes are not made.

What the volume's contributors most often believed to be hindering the pros- pects of oldline denominations were structures that concentrated decision-making in too few hands, stifled rank-and-file input, relied too heavily on professional staff to envision and implement the denominational mission, failed to empower women and youth, responded too slowly to demographic and technological changes within the society, and emphasized secular objectives too much and spiritual objectives too little. Volume's contributors invoked some or all of these critiques in their

This content downloaded from 188.72.127.79 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 04:41:09 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Book Reviews 1035

analysis of the Episcopalian Church, the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Reformed Church of America, the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod, and the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. The Assemblies of God and Vineyard Churches came in for some of this criticism as well but were generally viewed by contributors as more attuned than some of the other denomi- nations to spiritual and ecclesiastical winds of change. A chapter on Vineyard Churches, for example, comments on the ability of Vineyard Church leaders to "exegete culture" at least as well, if not better, than they do Scripture (157) and states further that it was the inability of mainline denominations to read culture that contributed to their decline and "[c]reated a vacuum into which movements like Vineyard" and other "new paradigm" churches could move (159). Neverthe- less, Vineyard Churches and the Assemblies of God were viewed as lagging behind some of the others in their willingness to accommodate the nation's racial and ideological diversity-(although they are clearly not the only denominations in this volume, or in this country, struggling with racial and ideological diversity).

An established strength of oldline and historically black denominations has been their emphasis on social engagement. And although the volume's contribu- tors note the continued importance these denominations placed on these matters, there have been factors eroding the ability of these denominations to rely on this as a basis for institutional influence and growth. An observation made by more than one of the contributors was that oldline and historically black denominations have been preoccupied of late with their own survival and have become more internally focused, at the expense of missions, social activ- ism, and even evangelism. A contributor commenting on the Reformed Church of America draws attention to shifts in the mid-1960s away from the denomina- tion's "extracongregational undertakings in order to cover skyrocketing congre- gational expenses." The author points out further that the percentage of the Reformed Church of America's resources allocated for external expenses declined from 25 percent in the mid-1960s to less than 10 percent by the 1990s (416). Similarly, a chapter on the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod comments on the denomination's "dual mentalities of preservation and mission outreach" which "went to war with each other" during the 1960s and 1970s and led to increased debate about the need to theologically rein in the denomination's ministry (260-61). Although internalization on the part of the Reformed Church of America was premised on preserving congregational viability and was premised within the Lutheran Church on preserving "theological purity," a chapter on the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., outlines a privileging of internal structure over external engagement that results from an ongoing prac- tice within the Convention of selecting Convention staff leaders for reasons other than their technical expertise. A consequence, say the authors, is that the Convention has had difficulties within an increasingly complex social context in shaping an effective plan to "strengthen black families," "counteract the burgeoning prison industries," or respond to other social urgencies in ways comparable to Convention churches during the civil rights movement (375-76).

In attempting to understand social dynamics shaping denominational life, however, one wishes that the volume's contributors had also explored the extent

This content downloaded from 188.72.127.79 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 04:41:09 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1036 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

to which declines in the social activism and support bases of various oldline and historically black denominations may be related to increased resistance within the United States to the liberal political agendas favored by many of these denomina- tions. The ecclesiastical impact of debates over gay rights, abortion, and family values was touched upon in some of the denominational case studies but was not explored systematically as factors contributing to decreasing memberships or political visibility on the part of denominations that may, in fact, be swimming upstream with respect to the nation's ideological and ecclesiastical currents.

Because denominations tend to be large, bureaucratic structures with entrenched procedures and traditions, they cannot make ecclesiastical or ideo- logical adjustments with the speed or ease that some congregations can. Increas- ingly, then, it has been innovative congregations, more than denominations, wielding far-reaching influence on contemporary ecclesiastical and social affairs. The volume's analysis of the institutional spontaneity of some Assemblies of God congregations, Vineyard congregations, and Full Gospel Baptist congrega- tions sheds important light on this dynamic-as did analysis in the very insight- ful integrative summaries by the editors. But perhaps one of the volume's case studies should have been the megachurch movement-congregations with thousands of members, attracting an ever-larger market share through good use of broad appeal worship styles, decentralized institutional structures, high-tech communications approaches, and diversified, highly professionalized ministries and programmatic initiatives. Megachurches are not denominations but, in many respects, embody some of the main elements that denominations are competing against.

That is not to say that this volume had, or should have had, any intentions of serving as a church growth manual. In fact, it carefully avoids promoting growth and largeness as indicators of ecclesiastical health and success. As one of the edi- tors makes clear, the real issue for denominations (and, by implication, congre- gations as well) is to determine what size represents the "right size" for them to "maintain and enhance" their "theological identity" (624).

Identity is central to this volume's analysis of denominational prospects within the American context-more specifically, "strength of identity." A theme reiterated throughout the volume is that one of the great threats to a denomi- nation's viability is the uncertainty of ecclesiastical mission and purpose. In commenting on denominational responses to America's rapidly changing post- modern social and religious context, one of the editors states ". .. there are stress and unsettledness caused by increasing internal diversity and fragmentation of identities in all eight of the denominations studied. The severity of the stress, however, varies considerably from 'annoying but manageable' in denominations that retain stronger identities to 'perplexing and paralyzing' in denominations whose identities have significantly eroded ... (Therefore), the 'problem' is fore- most a matter of identity, and only derivatively a matter of the role and process of a denomination's national structures" (591-92).

It would appear, then, that in responding to a central question posed by the volume-are denominations passe?-the answer provided by this volume would be -not unless they think they are.

This content downloaded from 188.72.127.79 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 04:41:09 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Book Reviews 1037

This is clearly an important book about critical issues at the heart of Ameri- can life, and it deserves a wide readership. Because it is also a fairly lengthy book (656 pages), chances are that many readers will not read the book in its entirety. Those who do, however, will discover insights within each chapter that will prove valuable in sorting out the social and ecclesiastical complexities of denomi- national life within the contemporary American context.

doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lfl022 Advance Access publication October 6, 2006

R. Drew Smith Morehouse College

A Briefer History of Time. By Steven W. Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. Bantam Books, October 2005. 162 pages. $25.00.

As the title indicates, A Briefer History of Time (BrHT) is a briefer (36 fewer pages) rendering of Steven W. Hawking's famous bestseller-A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (BHT) (Bantam Books, April 1988). Here "stated without mathematics in a form that people without a scientific education can understand," Hawking offered "basic ideas about the origin and fate of the universe" (BHT vi). The same basic ideas, in many of the same words, lightly edited for easier reading, plus new discussions of more recent developments in observation and theory, all printed on glossy pages with thirty-eight new colorful illustrations, minus some of the original content (autobiographical and technical), yield A Briefer History of Time by Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.

Unlike Hawking's 1988 brief history, the 2005 Hawking-Mlodinow briefer history does not include Carl Sagan's two-page Introduction. This is unfortu- nate because Sagan introduces an essential and important truth about the con- tent of Hawking's book-that "This is also a book about God... or perhaps about the absence of God" (BHT x). The theological implications of cosmological models are much discussed in Hawking's brief history. Sagan says, "The word God fills these pages" (BHT x). There is no mention of God in the Foreword to the briefer history. Yet, because the briefer history maintains "the essential con- tent of the original book" (BrHT 2), the briefer history remains also about God.

The Hawking-Mlodinow briefer history does not include Hawking's origi- nal three-page Acknowledgements section. This is unfortunate because here Hawking introduces a major feature of his work-that it has progressed from a "classical" phase to a "quantum" phase (BHT vii). Then in the first chapter Hawking explains that "the major theme of this book" is his continuing search for a new theory-a "quantum theory of gravity" (BHT 12). In the briefer his- tory, this major theme is not mentioned until part way into the third chapter.

During the "classical" phase, Hawking and Roger Penrose developed a cosmological model of the universe by employing a classical theory of gravity- Einstein's general theory of relativity. This model "implied that the universe must have a beginning, and possibly, an end" (BHT 34). Our expanding universe is the result of one long ago event when space-time exploded into existence. This

This content downloaded from 188.72.127.79 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 04:41:09 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions