Christianity Commons^™

Saving People From The Fiery Pits Of Hell? A Review Of “The Very Worst Missionary”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "As a Christian college student several decades ago, I knew without a doubt that the holiest, most sanctified majors on campus where those preparing their graduates for overseas missions. This probably explains the small twinges of guilt I felt when others gushed about their longing to serve God on the mission field. Nothing about that vocation seemed appealing to me, nor did the yearly short-term missions trips the college hosted, when vanloads of students travelled to Mexico or flew to other far-away locales to offer children a week of Vacation Bible School, or to build an outdoor baño."

Reckoning With “Other Lies”: A Review Of “Everything Happens For A Reason”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Everything Happens For a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved narrates the aftermath of Bowler’s diagnosis, reflecting on what it means to live well despite the specter of death. The memoir, by turns funny, thoughtful, meditative, and sobering, asks important questions about how we understand God in the midst of suffering and pain, especially when those facile mythologies we often turn to—everything happens for a reason, it’s all part of God’s plan, God is teaching me something—provide insufficient comfort for those who are hurting."

The Limitations Of Welcome: An Interview With Amy Jacober, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Amy Jacober remembers well the anger she felt when, in her early 20s, she saw a first-grade girl get kicked out of her church’s youth choir. The girl, a daughter of close friends, had Down syndrome, and the choir’s director decided since there was no one to help the child navigate her time in choir, she would be banned from participating."

Raising Spiritual Kids In The Age Of Instagram, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "The call came in to our harvest-yellow kitchen when I was fourteen. I stood at the breakfast bar with my family's also-yellow phone pressed to me ear, winding and unwinding the twisted cord while listening to Tamara, my erstwhile friend. She wanted me to know I was nice enough, but that everyone in my ninth-grade class agreed I needed to get some new clothes already. And that I definitely needed to get a new hairstyle, because my short curls were really ugly (except she used an expletive in place of "really")."

Finding The Intersections: A Review Of “This Child Of Faith”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Sophfronia Scott and her son, Tain Gregory, have a compelling story to tell. In December 2012, Tain was a thirdgrader at Sandy Hook Elementary, the school that became synonymous with the tragedy of school shootings when 20 first-grade children and six adult staff members were killed at Sandy Hook in a massacre that took only moments. Tain’s friend, Ben, was among those killed, as was the school’s principal, a woman who had only months earlier warmly welcomed Tain to his new school. Sophfronia and Tain tell their story in the book This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child …

Book Review: I’M Still Here: Black Dignity In A World Made For Whiteness, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "As a Christian feminist and progressive, I spend a lot of time patting myself on the back, believing other people might be racist or sexist or otherwise close-minded, but certainly not me. It’s easy for me to assert my bona fides. I seek to be inclusive in my language and in my actions; I champion diversity in the classes I teach; I have two teenage boys who are not white and with whom I’m carefully navigating an educational experience that has not been wholly positive, given their place in a majority white school."

The Totality (Chapter In Into The Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion), Abigail Rine Favale

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "For over a decade, the maleness of the priesthood kept me away from the Catholic Church. By the time I was a junior in college, my feminism was in full swing, and the ordination of women had become my litmus test for whether or not I could be part of a particular church or denomination."

Book Review: Fat And Faithful: Learning To Love Our Bodies, Our Neighbors, And Ourselves, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Patterson is the former president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, fired in May because of his misogynistic comments and mishandling of sexual abuse claims. He chose in his return to preaching last week to question the legitimacy of the #MeToo movement, and apparently thought the pulpit was the best place to body-shame women, in particular those who are fat. In a sermon during a Christian revival, Patterson described a woman who “filled the door,” made a joke about the baptistery and her weight, and said that she could play linebacker for an NFL team.

The audience, there ostensibly …

Why Mowing The Lawn Can Be Complicated (Chapter 6 From Worthy: Finding Yourself In A World Expecting Someone Else), Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

In Worthy, college professor Melanie Springer Mock sifts through the shape and weight of expectations that press Christians into cultural molds rather than God's image. By plumbing Scripture and critiquing the ten-billion-dollar-a-year self-improvement industry, Mock offers life-giving reminders that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Set free from the anxiety to conform to others' expectations, we are liberated to become who God has created us to be. If you're worn out from worrying that you've missed God's One Big Calling, and if you're tired of trying to fit yourself into some cookie-cutter Christian mold, step away from the expectations and …

Kitchen-Sink Enlightenment: A Review Of “Grace For Amateurs”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Here’s an honest admission: Several times while reading Lily Burana’s new book Grace for Amateurs: Field Notes on a Journey Back to Faith, I consulted the copyright page, confirming again that Grace for Amateurs was really published by Thomas Nelson, the notoriously evangelical (and, in my mind, notoriously traditional) press. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Thomas Nelson asked another writer to remove the word “vagina” from her book, well aware that Christian readers would balk at language so closely associated with women and S-E-X. Would this same publisher be willing to support a memoir as edgy …

A Journey In The Direction Of Love, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "This fall, when I began reading Benjamin Corey’s excellent new book Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith, my home state was burning. Forest fires were swiftly destroying parts of the iconic Columbia Gorge in Oregon, the ash floating westward to cover my car, over 50 miles away. Smoke clouded our skies for over a week, and breathing outside made my throat sore and my head throb. At the same time, Hurricanes Maria and Harvey were ravishing parts of Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico; Mexico City experienced an epic earthquake; floods killed scores in Southeast Asia."

Reigniting The Firebrand Heart, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "From the very first pages of her memoir, Assimilate or Go Home, I felt an affinity with D.L. Mayfield. Perhaps I recognized my students in Mayfield’s idealism and innocence, a missionary fervor that burns brightly in many undergraduates who attend Christian universities like the one where I teach. Perhaps I saw in her narrative my own youthful firebrand heart when, as a senior in college, I longed to get arrested protesting injustice; imagined sitting in a jail, even, believing such activism would show how deeply my convictions ran and how ardently I loved Jesus."

A Spirituality Of Cycling: Review Of “Holy Spokes: The Search For Urban Spirituality On Two Wheels”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Holy Spokes is divided into twelve chapters, each of which examines one component of a complete bicycle: its frame, wheels, gears, brakes, etc. While this approach might seem artificial or forced, Everett seamlessly uses her contemplation of a bike’s necessary parts as a jumping-off point to considering aspects of her spiritual journey."

Charles Williams: The Third Inkling (Book Review), Gary L. Tandy

Faculty Publications - Department of English

No abstract provided.

Life Is Not A Pro/Con Proposition: A Review Of Kassi Underwood’S “May Cause Love”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "In many ways, contemporary abortion debates have managed to do just that: objectifying women who have abortions by politicizing their experiences. May Cause Love compellingly reveals that life doesn’t always follow ideology, as Adichie says, and that sometimes, when faced with a monumental decision, women need support, guidance, and a safe community who will listen closely, rather than judge harshly. Because every woman’s story about abortion has the power to change the world, if only we have the ears, and the heart, to listen."

Books, Theology, And Hens: The Correspondence And Friendship Of C. S. Lewis And Dorothy L. Sayers, Laura K. Simmons, Gary L. Tandy

Faculty Publications - Department of English

"That Lewis and Sayers had much in common and that their lives intersected in a number of interesting ways throughout their careers is common knowledge for even the casual follower of either author. What does not seem to have been appreciated or explained sufficiently in the scholarship to date is the nature of the friendship between these two influential Christian authors. Therefore, it is this friendship we wish to shed light on, using as our primary source the correspondence between Lewis and Sayers from 1942-1957. In addition, we look at what the biographers of each author have to say about …

Reflecting The Eternal: Dante's Divine Comedy In The Novels Of C. S. Lewis (Book Review), Gary L. Tandy

Faculty Publications - Department of English

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Inward Light: The Quaker Poet In Community, Bill Jolliff

Faculty Publications - Department of English

It's a privilege to be granted a chance tq address a gathering like this: a room full of people whose Quaker way of life and thought are so very central to their work that they spend time and resources to get together and talk about it. We've been blessed with a common gift, and it isn't a small one.

That said, I suspect I'm not the only one here who sometimes wonders how, or even if, what I do matters. Yet even among you, my group of fellow self-doubters, I must lobby for my own elevated position: as a poet …

Book Review: Between 2 Gods: Memoir Of Abuse In The Mennonite Community, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Metzger’s journey toward this epiphany is a difficult one, and she does not attempt to mollify readers by avoiding distressing details. This is a definite strength in Between 2 Gods. Rather than offer us a pleasant story of healing and redemption alone, Metzger names the many abuses she experienced at the hands of those who should love and protect her, including family members and church leaders. One point made both implicitly in Between 2 Gods, and explicitly by its publication, is exactly this: that people need to acknowledge their abuses for there to be healing; and that stories about …

Book Review: Ordinary Miracles: Awakening To The Holy Work Of Parenting, A Memoir With Pictures, And When The Roll Is Called A Pyonder: Tales From A Mennonite Childhood, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Perhaps the most powerful first-person story shared by a Mennonite in the past year has yet to appear in traditional print. It was instead publishing on a blog with a fairly modest following on Facebook. And yet, Sharon Detweiler’s January 9 story, posted on the Our Stories Untold site, produced considerable discussion, both on the site itself and in other Mennonite-related venues. “John Howard Yoder: My Untold Story After Sixty Years of Silence” narrates Detweiler’s experiences with Yoder, her attempts to report his sexual abuse, and the ways Mennonite leadership failed to hear her story. After years of silence, …

Book Review: Letters And Life By Bret Lott, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Lott’s newly published book, Letters and Life, limns and amplifies the themes expressed in “Genesis.” Letters and Life enters into a centuries-old conversation about what it means to be an artist and a Christian, relying on what has already been written about the Christian artist to expand and deepen our notions of faith and art, showing that, like the child-narrator in “Genesis,” the artist in creation imitates God."

On (Not) Fearing The Mystery Of God (Chapter 8 Of The Spirit Of Adoption: Writers On Faith, Adoption, God, And More), Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Just days before our trip to India, birthplace of my second son, a well-meaning relative cornered me at a family gathering. "We'll be praying for you!" she said, uttering the Christian phrase that can be, at the same moment, both cliche-riddled and completely sincere.

I chose to interpret it as sincere, needing all kinds of prayer for our journey. My husband and I were flying to India with our then six-year-old sons: Benjamin, whom we'd adopted from Vietnam as an infant, and Samuel, whom we brought home from Mumbai as a three-year-old. This was no ordinary homeland trip. My adult …

Book Review: Bonnet Strings: An Amish Woman's Ties To Two Worlds And Others, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "In Entering the Wild, Janzen narrates the process of crafting these hymns; and I found this chapter, titled “Three Women and the Lost Coin: How Three Women Found Me,” the memoir’s most compelling. In 1990, Janzen was asked to be on a committee to recreate a Mennonite hymnal that might “nourish . . . congregations for twenty years or more.” The committee, wanting to include several hymns honoring the feminine characteristics of God, turned to Janzen. Janzen describes encountering the work of three mystic women—Julian of Norwich, Hildegard von Bingen, and Mechtild of Magdeburg—and 􀂡nding there “the possibilities of …

Book Review Of Doug Frank's Gentler God, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Like most people, my understanding of God’s image and character has been transformed over time: in my case, from the bearded old white man of Sunday school lore, giving judgment from atop fluffy clouds, to a much more inclusive—and, to be honest, more ambiguous—deity, whose being is neither male nor female, bearded nor white. One aspect of God has remained fairly constant, however. I too often believe God to be a vindictive figure, eager to smack me down. Miss church a few Sundays in a row? Something bad is bound to happen. Say one too many swear words? God …

A Christian Feminist Speaks Out On The Drone War In Pakistan, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "On a warm morning recently, as I was backing the car out of the garage, I saw my eldest son standing on our porch, still in his pajamas and bare feet, looking mournfully at me. I stopped the car and asked what he wanted. “To give you a hug,” he said. I parked the car, got out, and picked up my growing kid, holding him for a moment as I might an infant, his long legs wrapped around me. Right then, nothing felt sweeter."

Book Review: Walking Gently On The Earth, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "For that reason, I approached Walking Gently on the Earth with a healthy sense of skepticism, ready to be preached at again regarding the choices I’ve made about my family and lifestyle. Yet a few pages into Lisa Graham McMinn’s new book, I knew this exploration of sustainability would be different: more gentle, as the title itself suggests. McMinn, along with her daughter and co-writer Megan Anna Neff, examines the ways we can more readily nurture “God’s good gift”—that is, the earth and everything in it— through what McMinn calls “an ethic of care.” Although McMinn and Neff challenge …

Life Writing And Mennonite Identity - Review: Essay Of Mennonite Women's Memoirs, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Rhoda Janzen’s recent success is enviable, her hefty book deal with a prominent press and the publicity that followed her first memoir the kind of triumphs to which writers often aspire. Her book Mennonite in a Little Black Dress has – in its own way – brought Mennonitism to the mainstream, introducing readers (and plenty of them) to a religious sect that remains, to many, enigmatic and exotic. The book’s title alone is alluring, juxtaposing the long-held stereotypes about cape-dress-wearing and be-capped Mennonites with the startling image of a skimpy black shift, a modern emblem of sexy fashion: and …

The Search For God: Virginia Woolf And Caroline Emelia Stephen, Kathleen A. Heininge

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "As a Modernist follower of radical individualism, Virginia Woolf is thought to be antipathetic to religious thought; Woolf’s own spirituality, however, is certainly more complicated than most critics have allowed, especially in light of the influence of her aunt, Caroline Emelia Stephen, a well-known Quaker mystic and writer who rejected the established church in favor of a less traditional version of Christianity. The intellectual relationship between niece and aunt has been little discussed; aside from Jane Marcus’s “The Niece of a Nun: Caroline Stephen and the Cloistered Imagination” and Alison Lewis’s “A Quaker Influence on Modern English Literature: Caroline …

Caroline Emelia Stephen, Kathleen A. Heininge

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Caroline Emelia Stephen, born on December 8, 1834, was notable for a number of reasons. Her connections were impressive: she was the unmarried daughter of Sir James Stephen (the noted Under-Secretary for the Colonies in 1836-1847), the sister of Leslie Stephen (author of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), sister-in-law to Minny Thackeray Stephen and Anny Thackeray Ritchie (daughters of William Makepeace Thackeray), and aunt to Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Her grandfather, also Sir James Stephen, wrote the legislation that ended slavery in England. Known as a Quaker mystic, she is credited with bringing about the revival of …

Celebrating Title Ix As God’S Good Gift, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "This October, in Oregon’s chilly pre-dawn, I will line up with nearly 10,000 other runners for the start of the Portland Marathon. Over half of the participants will be women, reflecting a trend occurring nationwide: more and more women have taken up long-distance running, with entries for the marathon—the marquee event in running —across the country drawing almost as many women as men.

A little over forty years ago, Katherine Switzer faced a far different running landscape. Entering the lauded Boston Marathon under the name K.V. Switzer, she was famously tackled by race director Jock Semple four miles into …