Getting
Religion: Faith, Culture and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of
Obama by Kenneth L. Woodward
A book spanning faith, culture and politics from a noted
Newsweek Religion reporter for many years is bound to stir up the pot. And yet, Kenneth Woodward’s new book, Getting
Religion, is as much about understanding how far we’ve come in unlearning
overly dogmatic things and relearning what it means to bring faith to the public
square. However overwhelming the task
may be to cover such a broad swath of themes in a lengthy numbers of years, this
book is really a good synthesis of the last 50 or so years.
One of the key movements that took place that affected
faith and culture in the past century was Vatican II. Woodward remarks that his interest was mainly
in the foundation of the reforms that were past, especially the books and
thinkers that helped shaped the changes (Rahner and others). One thing that Woodward pointed out was that,
“I was deeply impressed by the mutual respect, camaraderie even, between the
Catholic and Protestant veterans of the Council (75).” Even an outsider and Evangelical stalwart
such as David F. Wells contends after the council that, “It also has placed on
Protestants an obligation to revise their thinking about Rome (76).” No longer heeding to the call of Pope Pius
XII that only the church of Rome is the people of God, the Council sought to
bring together the worldwide church and its various members.
Much of the changing landscape of religion in our times
is due to the posture we have towards certain religious documents, most notably
the Bible. Woodward draws us into some
key movements that took the Bible seriously but also took issues relating to
women seriously too. Woodward writes, “Written,
edited, and translated solely by men, the Bible could be read – and dismissed –
as the religion of patriarchy…The most influential feminist scholars – were determined
to reclaim the Bible as a user-friendly text for women’s liberation (240).” Reuther and Fiorenza to name two, devoted
their life to making the Bible match their concern for the oppression of women,
and looked at their liberation. Their ‘hermeneutic
of suspicion’ was very much in line with the modern historical-critical method
but their bent was toward the major texts that prized women and eschewed the
one’s that hinted at male dominance.
Overall, Woodward does an excellent job at painting the
religious landscape of the past decades.
You won’t want to miss this book.
Thanks to Blogging for Books for the copy of this book
in exchange for an honest review.
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