The Expository Times

http://ext.sagepub.com Book Review: FROM MYTHOLOGY TO ECOLOGY Leonardo Boff, Essential Care: An Ethics of Human Nature, trans. and notes by Alexandre Gilherne (London: SPCK, 2007. 14.99. pp. 192. ISBN 978 028105853)
Jane E. Wallman-Girdlestone The Expository Times 2008; 120; 44 DOI: 10.1177/00145246081200011202 The online version of this article can be found at: http://ext.sagepub.com

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Volume 120 Number 1 Pages 4451 Copyright T H E 2008 E X SAGE P O S Publications ITORY TIMES (Los Angeles London New Delhi Singapore Washington DC) DOI: 10.1177/0014524608096276 http://EXT.sagepub.com

BOOK REVIEWS
A CONSERVaTIVE GUIDE TO ISaIaH Bryan E. Beyer, Encountering the Book of Isaiah (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007. $24.99. pp. 303. ISBN 9780801026454). In a recent faculty meeting I was lamenting the difculty of trying to teach a course on a book such as Isaiah when some students arrive with no prior knowledge of the Old Testament; I wanted it to be prerequisite that students had taken at least one survey-type course before undertaking a course on a book. One of my colleagues protested heartily; he very much likes teaching a course on a book such as Isaiah as a way into Old Testament study for students. (We reached an amicable arrangement whereby there could be some courses with a prerequisite, some without.) This textbook designed for the study of Isaiah assumes a completion of Bible survey courses as well as a working knowledge of the principles of hermeneutics and exegesis but it is written in readerfriendly fashion, with sidebars, chapter outlines and objectives, glossaries of key terms, study questions, and suggestions for further reading. I think people with very little background would cope with it ne. And for better or worse, it would not frighten them, as it takes the kind of view of the text that they are familiar with from their church life (if there is a view of the text that they are familiar with from their church life). While it discusses in open-minded fashion the possibility that there was more than one Isaiah, it concludes that if one believes that God exists and can reveal the future, this is an unnecessary hypothesis. Similarly, in connection with the interpretation of passages such as the identity of the almah in 7:14, it surveys the basic interpretations evangelicals have given to these questions, but in considering such passages its default position is to assume that the New Testament is a good guide to the meaning of the Old Testament text. So for 61:13, the New Testament evidence again points to Jesus as the fullment of Isaiahs words. The book also works hard to show how Isaiah relates to peoples individual lives. It shows good awareness of many aspects of modern study of Isaiah, and covers questions such as the feminine imagery in Isaiah 40 66 and what happened at the Babylonian New Year Festival. It includes useful documents such as the Siloam inscription and Sennacheribs account of his siege of Jerusalem. I can imagine it being useful in Bible College courses and in study groups in conservative churches. JOHn GOLDIngaY Fuller Theological Seminary Pasadena, California

FROM MYTHOLOGY TO ECOLOGY Leonardo Boff, Essential Care: An Ethics of Human Nature, trans. and notes by Alexandre Gilherne (London: SPCK, 2007. 14.99. pp. 192. ISBN 978 028105853). Boff offers a new interpretation on a familiar theme the centrality of care to the intrinsic worth or human beings. He argues that in essence one of homo-sapiens key signatures is an ability to not only show care for the purposes of survival but be intelligent with regards to how care is given. Boff draws on an interesting paradigm to highlight his basic thesis. Instead of following conventional approaches to Liberation Theology, Boff uses an early fable-myth attributed to Hyginus to reect on the underlying purposes and conditions of caring the ethics of care. His synthesis shifts liberation theologys approach from the oppression of the poor to the oppressive behaviours of humankind towards Gaia planet earth. Boff offers inspirational gures from Jesus Christ to Gandhi, Mother Theresa to St Antonio, as examples of his synthesis. For Boff an ethically rooted care structure can only be achieved through the building of a sustainable society; a caring community life; global improvement in the quality of life; conserving

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the earths existing diversity; keeping within the earths carrying capacity; changing personal practices and with that personal attitudes: encouraging local care of the environment; providing networks of conservation and development; and creating a global alliance. For readers within an over-developed and selfinterested driven culture like Europe and the US, this book may seem a little old-fashioned, harking back to simpler times when life wasnt complicated by the transitional reality of fast-developing technology and increasing understandings of our context within the Universe. In a sense Boff is encouraging us to tend our own backyard each other and planet earth, focusing on the minutiae of human existence as described and embraced by our heritage; this will be the ballast that helps us interpret and embrace the storm of challenge and change. Boffs sythnthesis has heart and soul, but it is primarily ideological with a practical template which is practical in spirit but unimplementable in practice. This book is a prophetic reminder and revision of the realities of being human and inhabiting a lone planet. It is interesting rather than inspiring transformation directly. It reminded me of a toned-down version of the writings of mystics such as Meister Eckhart which were later hijacked by Matthew Fox in the 1960s and 1970s with the re-creation of a wholly creation-based spirituality. The difference was that somehow Foxs lightness of touch and disrespect for convention made some of his work feel as though it might be possible to change our thinking. Boff, in the twenty-rst century, needed to push harder at our norms and not let us feel quite as comfortable as this book does. The crisis of sustainability is in my backyard and not just a difculty others can discuss and rectify. JanE E. WaLLMan-GIRDLESTOnE St Columba House, Inverness

as well as giving a snapshot of how mainstream Mormons view their own religion. The book is divided into seven chapters. These explore different themes of Mormonism or phases in its history. The majority of chapters commence with a detailed discussion of how the theme in question was understood during the foundational period of the movement (1830s 1850s), and then how it has subsequently been appropriated, especially in the contemporary period. Bushman squarely addresses some of the criticisms raised against Mormonism. He admits that, the charge that Mormons are not Christians puzzles Latter-day Saints more than any other criticism (p. 3). Reading his discussion will perhaps clarify why this is so from the Mormon position, but it also makes the reader aware of how dissonant many of the beliefs are when compared to mainstream Christian groups. The discussion of the practice of plural marriage sheds much light where there has previously been heat by emphasizing that the custom was ofcial forbidden by Latter-day Saints in 1890. By outlining the factions within the Mormon movement, Bushman distinguishes between mainline practices and the adherence of splinter groups to behaviours that generate salacious media interest. The Very Short Introduction series has been a publishing phenomenon. These brief, but learned volumes allow educated readers to come up-to-speed on a variety of topics. Admittedly, Bushman is a strong advocate of Mormonism, and this may blunten the critical edge of this volume to some extent. However, it remains a valuable corrective to many false understandings of this religious movement, and explains central group-beliefs clearly and concisely. PAUL FOSTER School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh

AN INSIDER PERSPECTIVE ON MORMONISM Richard L. Bushman, Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: OUP, 2008. 6.99. pp. xiii + 130. ISBN 978019530306). In an age when perception is everything, Bushmans introduction to Mormonism, written from an insiders perspective, will clarify many misunderstandings

A COmpENDIUm Of NEW TESTamENT ETHIcS J. G. van der Watt (ed.), Identity, Ethics, and Ethos in the New Testament (BZNW 141; Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 2006. 148.00. pp. 645. ISBN 9783110189735). In this volume South African New Testament scholars, with the support of some imports from all over the world, have produced a really impressive

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