BERLINER VORLESUNGEN III (1951-1958). By PaulTillich. Edited by Erdmann Sturm. Erganzungs- undNachlassbande zu den Gesammelten Werken, 16. Berlin:Walter de Gruyter, 2009. Pp. lxvii + 422. $235.00.

Tillich made reflection on being an integral part of hiswork from his early years to the final days. This criticaledited volume of his lectures in Germany from 1951 to 1958shows a lively mind at work. These lecture manuscripts,particularly the first one entitled “Ontologie,” will rewardinterested theological readers beyond those of the Tillichspecialist. The latter lectures focus on being, existence, andlife. These lectures show Tillich exploring angles and dimen-sions in being and existence in a much more direct way thanhe often did in his published work. Bergson and Whiteheadare given critical pride of place. Strum has written an exten-sive preface that puts these lectures in the historical contextof Tillich’s sometimes painful return to Germany followinghis emigration in 1938. This volume is necessary for Tillichspecialists owing to its intermediary position among thevarious smaller late works such and his Systematic Theology.

Gregory WalterSt. Olaf College

THE LEFT BEHIND FANTASY: THE THEOLOGYBEHIND THE LEFT BEHIND TALES. By William PowellTuck. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2010. Pp. ix + 151.$19.00.

Tuck’s book engages the wildly popular Left Behindseries. Illustrating the influence of these books and furtherprobing the ideological and theological underpinnings thatserve to structure these fictional tales, Tuck ultimately findsthe theological basis of the novels, often tacitly equated withbiblical “truth” itself, untenable. The approach Tuck offers isboth accessible and pastorally tinged. Tuck delineates thehistory, in brief, of the rise of Western evangelical eschatol-ogy, with special attention to the development of dispensa-tional hermeneutics and theology. Tuck helpfully identifiesthe central theological constructs espoused in the fictionaltales: the rapture, the glorious appearing, the seven-yeartribulation, “literal” hermeneutic, and other central con-cepts. He adequately demonstrates dispensationalism’s risein the early nineteenth century, its essential eschatologicalmotifs, all the while demonstrating the inconsistency inher-ent in several hermeneutical and theological premises. Hethen offers several alternative proposals toward understand-ing the Book of Revelation, the chief biblical book behind theLeft Behind theology. Subsequently, Tuck advances the argu-ment that to the bulk of Christian history and interpretersthe theological categories and scheme promulgated by dis-pensational theology is absent, which should give one pausein dispelling other viewpoints. Ultimately, Tuck’s case isclear: the Left Behind novels, predicated upon dispensationaltheology, present a theological hope built on sand. Ulti-mately, Tuck is reticent to propose a single alternative;rather, for him, almost any historical Christian alternative is

preferable to dispensationalism’s interpretation of the bibli-cal text and sensational claims.

Robert G. ReidBrite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT EVANGELI-CALS IS WRONG (WELL, ALMOST EVERYTHING):AN INSIDER’S LOOK AT MYTHS AND REALITIES.By Steve Wilkens and Don Thorsen. Grand Rapids, MI: BakerBooks, 2010. Pp. 224. $16.99.

The authors of this book address their observationsabout evangelicalism to two readerships. Externally, they tryto respond to some of the common caricatures of evangeli-cals. In their opening chapter, for example, they insist thatnot all evangelicals are mean, stupid, or dogmatic (thoughthey admit that enough are to bolster the stereotype). Inter-nally, they emphasize that not all evangelicals are dispensa-tionalists, antievolutionists, inerrantists, or Calvinists,among other things. Overall, the book attempts to discreditthe agenda of those whose definition of evangelicalism dis-enfranchises what has been called the “Evangelical Left.” Tosustain a broader definition of evangelicalism, the authorsdraw a distinction between orthodoxy (right doctrine), ortho-praxy (right conduct), and orthopathy (right feeling). Theybelieve that orthopathy is the most important for under-standing who is an evangelical. Many on the left possessorthopathy, so they are included in the evangelical fold. Fun-damentalists, however, lack orthopathy, so they areexcluded. The overall discussion becomes a bit one-sided attimes, and the authors do not always seem to understand thepositions that they are critiquing. Nevertheless, the volumeserves as a helpful introduction to one perspective on theperennial debate over who should be recognized as evangeli-cal. Highly readable, the book should be useful to pastorsand students as well as scholars.

Kevin T. BauderCentral Baptist Theological Seminary

Arts, Literature, Culture, andReligionFILM AND RELIGION: AN INTRODUCTION. By PaulV. M. Flesher and Robert Torry. Nashville, TN: AbingdonPress, 2007. Pp. xiii + 303. $27.00.

Flesher, a professor of religious studies, and Torry, aprofessor of English and American studies, offer a valuablestudy of the intersection of religion with American historyand popular culture. The book, which began as an upper-level college course, asks how film uses religion to conveymessages. The films range from How the Grinch Stole Christ-mas!, not ostensibly a religious film, to The Greatest StoryEver Told, which emphatically is. When a film uses Biblestories, the authors assume the audience’s interest in accu-racy and, in a fascinating move, introduce the ancient trans-lators’ practice of targum or visibly weaving in extra,

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interpretive material. Focusing on post-World War II films,Flesher and Torry persuasively suggest a 1950s covert pre-occupation in Roman conversion films, e.g., The Robe, withthe Cold War and Communism. Beginning in the 1960s,“hippies” were interested in Christ as a counterculturalfigure. However, The Last Temptation of Christ and ThePassion of the Christ have different purposes and wildly dif-ferent points of view, and insert different targumic material.Commonalities running through these films, Flesher andTorry suggest, include a very American interest in Americanexceptionalism and millennialism. Because the authors’ realinterest is Christianity, the final section on “world religions”seems tacked on and is less useful.

Ellin Sterne JimmersonHuntsville, Alabama

HIDEOUS GNOSIS: BLACK METAL THEORY SYM-POSIUM 1. Edited by Nicola Masciandaro. CreateSpace.com, 2010. Pp. 281. $20.00.

Ghoulish, misanthropic, and often aggressively ugly-sounding black metal music—an important and well-established subgenre of heavy metal—has also become anunusually productive (if antinomian) site for the religiousimagination within popular music. Both the music and sub-culture are marked by Satanism, neo-pagan nostalgia,apocalypticism, and an acosmic, sometimes mysticalnihilism. Gathering together the proceedings of the firstBlack Metal Symposium, held in Brooklyn in December2009, Hideous Gnosis both unpacks and traffics in thesecurrents in ways that are simultaneously illuminating, pro-vocative, and—like the music itself—intentionally disturbing.Edited and published by Masciandaro, a professor of medi-eval literature at Brooklyn College and the author of TheVoice of the Hammer (2006), the volume’s contributorstrack a number of themes—demonology, wolves, apophaticdiscourse, drum rhythms, and the specter offascism—through the dark forests of the genre. “Emic”voices—a term the contributors would no doubt reject—arerepresented in a brief oral history of American black metaland a collection of often hostile exchanges between fansand the symposium organizers. That said, in comparisonwith the distance implied in most works of cultural studies,Hideous Gnosis attempts something at once more fannishand more intellectually aggressive. In Masciandaro’swords, contributors were not involved in analyzing blackmetal so much as “thinking black metal.” This meansdense weaves of theory, quasi-fictional rhapsodies, and theoccasional deployment of Gothic fonts. Esoteric, intense,and occasionally disturbing, Hideous Gnosis is a vitalresource on black metal (anti)discourse and an inspiringexample of scholarly engagement with a complex culturalobject that brings both sides of the operation into mutualcontagion.

Erik DavisRice University

GETTING THE BLUES: WHAT BLUES MUSICTEACHES US ABOUT SUFFERING AND SALVA-TION. By Stephen J. Nichols. Grand Rapids, MI: BrazosPress, 2008. Pp. 192. Paper, $20.00.

The great lessons of human existence are often found inthe midst of pain and anguish. Referring to the Blues as“theology in a minor key,” Nichols creatively interweavesthe stories of early Blues artists like Robert Johnson andMuddy Waters with such themes as sin, forgiveness,redemption, justice, and eschatology to show how Christian-ity and culture interact and address the human dilemma. Bycarefully listening to its message, we can begin to appreciatehow this music, which began in the Mississippi Delta, canshow us how the church relates to modern culture. Bluesartists are not theologians, but their music may indeed bethe most theological because it tells the truth: Johnson sangabout Paradise Lost; Waters stated that the Blues would bearound as long as people hurt. The OT prophets denouncedsocial injustice, David fell into a deep pit of sin and degra-dation, and Paul addressed the deficiencies of humanity. Yetin their own way and with their own biblically based world-view, the slaves who sang spirituals in the cotton fields of theDelta, and the sharecroppers and railroad workers who fol-lowed them, also realistically addressed this “theology ofGood Friday.” Although ending on a good note (Sundaycomes with the hope of Resurrection), there is very littleabout the contributions of recent Blues artists (e.g., Hendrixand Bonamassa). These limits notwithstanding, Nichols’sbook will help readers to understand how the Blues, rootedin the African American experience, “teaches us what itmeans to be human.”

Michael B. SimmonsAuburn University Montgomery

BABYLON EAST: PERFORMING DANCEHALL,ROOTS REGGAE, AND RASTAFARI IN JAPAN. ByMarvin D. Sterling. Durham, NC: Duke University Press,2010. Pp. xiv + 299. $23.95.

What has Trench Town, Jamaica, to do with Tokyo,Japan? In his answer to this question, Sterling, an assistantprofessor of anthropology at Indiana University, has pennedan arresting, multisited ethnography of Afro-Asian culturalexchange, tracing the development of Jamaican dancehallreggae culture in Japan through five phases. The “socialperformance” of identity—which includes notions of trans-nationality, nationhood, ethnicity, class, gender, andreligion—represents his book’s presiding trope. Sterling dis-cusses dancers like J. Kudo, musicians like Sawa, and soundsystems like Mighty Crown. He maps the Japanese youthwho travel to Jamaica in search of self-actualization, hesurveys Jamaican attitudes to non-Jamaican appropriation ofJamaican culture, and, in his most gripping chapter, heexplains how “Rasta-identifying Japanese” in the country-side use “dread talk” like “Babylon” to articulate their ardentdisavowal of Japan’s nefarious nexus with Western capital-ism. The book’s case studies are riveting because Sterling

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never shoehorns his subjects into existing anthropologicalor religious theories and seldom overlooks how the localstimulates the global—namely how race in Japan complicatesnotions of blackness beyond the traditional boundaries ofthe African diaspora. Adroit and ingenious, Babylon East isan essential resource for scholars interested in the interna-tionalization of the Rastafari, in cultural globalization, and inAfricana studies.

Darren J. N. MiddletonTexas Christian University

Ancient Near EastTHE BOOK OF EZEKIEL: QUESTION BY QUESTION.By Corrine L. Carvalho. Question By Question Bible StudyCommentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2010. Pp. vii + 204.$21.95.

In keeping with the aims of the series, this volume pro-vides a resource for beginning-level engagement withEzekiel in the form of questions and answers that can beused in various settings of Bible study, especially withparish groups and educated laypersons. The work contains ashort introduction to Ezekiel, a section of questions coveringeach major portion of the biblical book, and a separatesection of answers to the discussion questions giventhroughout. The introduction gives very cursory remarks onbasic interpretive issues including the phenomenon of Isra-elite prophecy, historical context, and literary and theologi-cal features. Each section of questions for the major chapterblocks (chapters 1-3, 4-7, 8-11, 12-24, 25-32, 33-39, and40-48) provides an introduction, about five discussion ques-tions, and a conclusion. The questions mostly address thebasic content of the passages and the readers’ responses,although some explore historical settings, priestly perspec-tives, and major theological themes. The author does not shyaway from ethically problematic issues raised by the texts(e.g., gender imagery and divine violence), yet one wishesfor more attention to newer avenues of Ezekiel study such associo-psychology and trauma. The book is a good resourcefor those who want to study Ezekiel for congregational ordevotional interests while taking account of insights frommodern scholarship. It is useful and accessible to noviceaudiences in a variety of settings, including introductoryundergraduate courses.

Brad E. KellePoint Loma Nazarene University

EZEKIEL: A COMMENTARY. By Paul M. Joyce. Libraryof Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, 482. New York: T &T Clark, 2007. Pp. xi + 307. $140.00.

Joyce offers a focused work that does not intend toreplace existing comprehensive commentaries but providesa distinctive emphasis on the theology of the book of Ezekielviewed “in its own terms.” He leaves the task of constructivetheological application to others in order to adopt a primarily

historical perspective. The commentary interacts with theNRSV and begins with an extensive introduction that coversall the major critical issues relevant to Ezekiel. Joyce locatesEzekiel as a sixth-century BCE prophet in Babylonia andtakes a balanced and judicious approach to identifyingoriginal and redactional elements in the book. He exploresEzekiel’s key theological themes (judgment, repentance,responsibility, future restoration, theocentricity, divinedeparture, and return) and provides a thorough survey of theuse of Ezekiel in later religious and cultural traditions. Thecommentary section proceeds verse by verse (sometimesphrase by phrase), offering mostly historical and grammati-cal observations, with some literary and theological perspec-tives. The work features detailed interaction with up-to-datescholarship, even highlighting newer approaches such astrauma theory, yet makes only passing mention of gender-/feminist-critical issues. The volume will be useful to stu-dents and scholars on various levels and constitutes ahelpful resource for theological and research libraries.

Brad E. KellePoint Loma Nazarene University

THE POLEMICS OF EXILE IN JEREMIAH 26-45. ByMark Leuchter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2008. Pp. xiii + 320. $90.00.

This monograph represents Leuchter’s continued workon the compositional history of the book of Jeremiah. Hisprior work, Josiah’s Reform and Jeremiah’s Scroll, exploredthe formation of Jeremiah 1-25. In contrast to many schol-ars, Leuchter claims that chapters 26-45 compromise a dis-tinctive literary construct (the Supplement) that can bedated to a specific point in the history of exilic Israel. Thefirst four chapters provide detailed discussions relating tothe growth and exilic appropriation of the words and imageof the prophet Jeremiah within exilic Deuteronomisticcircles. The remaining two chapters attempt to situate thetheological program of the Supplement within internalexilic debates. In brief, those responsible for the productionof the Supplement were concerned to validate the Deuter-onomistic reading of Israel’s history among the Babyloniandeportees and to polemicize against a Zadokite (i.e.,Ezekielian) explanation for the destruction of Jerusalemand a corresponding Zadokite understanding of the resto-ration. Most controversially, Leuchter questions long-standing assumptions about the textual relationshipbetween the MT and LXX versions of the book, especiallywith relationship to the placement of the Oracles againstthe Nations in the respective versions. This carefullyresearched work will be of interest to many far beyondthose concerned with reconstructing the compositionalhistory of a notoriously disorderly work. The book is alsoan excellent research source, given the copious footnotesand extensive bibliography.

Phillip Michael ShermanMaryville College

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