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Book reviews

Mary T. Malone, Women and Christianity, II: The Medieval Period AD 1000–1500 (Blackrock: Columba Press, 2001), ISBN 1–85607–339–4 (pbk), 198 pp. Nicholas Sagovsky, Ecumenism, Christian Origins and the Practice of Communion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), ISBN 0–521–77269–9 (hbk), 221 pp. John D. Zizioulas, Eucharist, Bishop, Church (trans. Elizabeth Theokritoff; Boston, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2001), ISBN 1–885652–43–7 (pbk). Peter Matheson, The Imaginative World of the Reformation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), ISBN 0–8006–3291–5 (pbk), xiv + 153 pp. Illus. Carol Rittner and John K. Roth (eds.), Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust (London/NY: Leicester University Press/Continuum, 2002), ISBN 0–7185–0274–2 (pbk), 256 pp. Paul Freston, Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), ISBN 0–521–80041–2 (hbk), xiii + 344 pp.

as cantor cantorum; Gertrude of Helfta's Christ showered her with priestly authority, clearly not having learned 'that the Sacrament of Orders could be administered only to men'! Christ also supported Bridget of Sweden's attempts to establish a double monastery with lay brothers serving nuns, notwithstanding existing papal decrees forbidding any such possibility, though Christ and Bridget had eventually to modify their plans.
There is also some attention given not only to the phenomenon of witch-burning (which persisted into Reformed Protestantism beyond the scope of this volume) but to the management of female prostitution, that persistent feature of 'Christianised' as of non-Christian societies.
Unsurprisingly in a work which encompasses so great a period, and which professional ecclesiastical historians are finding a goldmine for research, there are things to quibble at, and some obvious points of criticism. In the chapter on Julian of Norwich and the much-misunderstood Margery Kempe, for instance, there is no direct explanation of the phenomenon of pilgrimage, or of its continuing significance in our time, whilst recognising Margery's importance as illuminating the life of a mother of fourteen children and how she negotiated her life in an age when a celibate anchoress rather than a harassed mother would be much more highly regarded. Addressing Jesus as 'mother' in the mode of an Anselm or a Julian needs to take Margery's story into account, and this connection is an example of an important point the author could have made, but does not. Nor, in her treatment of the traditions about Mary of Magdala in her final chapter on the 'two models' (the other being the Virgin Mother) does the author attend to the remarkable medieval interest in Mary of Magdala as a preacher. Bertholdus Heyder, for example, rephrased earlier tradition not only to demonstrate that she herself met all the contemporary criteria for a preacher, but that she established dignity for all women. And she was sometimes depicted with the triple aureola -as an ascetic, a virgin, and as a preacher -of interest particularly to Dominicans.
In reading the book, therefore, one needs to be alert to its limitations, whilst valuing it for what it does accomplish. It could play a most useful role not only by helping us to recover a sense of the major contribution of women to western European Christianity in at least some contexts, but in enthusing readers to work their own way into a fascinating and richly rewarding period. In an era where too much theology appears to assume that 'history is bunk', readable reminders of the importance of paying attention to tradition in all its variability and complexity most certainly have their place. ANN  The first draft of this book was the text of the Hulsean Lectures, given in Cambridge in 1996. The author owes a special debt to the meetings and deliberations of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) of which he is an Anglican member. The book presents an exploration of the different meanings of the Greek term koinonia and/or the Latin translation communio in the Hellenistic and North African (Western) context of the early Church. The discussion focuses not only on the presentation of koinonia as participation in (or expression of) the life of God, but also considers the consequences of this ecclesiological concept for the ecumenical debate.
The concept/theology of koinonialcommunio has become a kind of ecumenical passe-partout in the last four decades. 'Here is a way of presenting the Christian faith that takes in a fundamental concern with God as Trinity (fcoinonia in God), with human beings as made for koinonia, with ecclesiology and the doctrine of salvation (koinonia with God and with human beings) and ethics (living in and for koinonia). It engages with much wider debates in society about community, about what it means to be a person, and about human relations' (p. 18).
The author examines and discusses the role the term koinonia comes to play in the actual ecumenical bilateral and multilateral dialogues. He mentions especially ARCIC (pp. 18-21) (Church as Communion 1991), the 'Meissen Declaration' (1991) (pp. 24-5), the 'Concordat of Agreement ' (1991) in the USA and the 'Porvoo Common Statement' (1992) (pp. 25-8), the (rather confused and confusing) debate in the Roman Catholic Church on the 'ecclesiology of communion' after the Second Vatican Council in which the protagonists Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper both claim to be working within the context of the last Council (pp. 28-35), the Roman Catholic international dialogue with Lutherans and Orthodox (pp. 35-9) and multilateral discussions like those of the World Council of Churches' Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry report (1982) and the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order, which produced the official Paper On the Way to Fuller Koinonia (1994) (pp. 41-5). The collection of texts from the ecumenical scene is quite useful, but commonly known. Helpful and maybe not so much known is his concise survey on the contributions of Plato (pp. 48-71) and  to the development of the meaning of koinonia. Plato sees the community in the metaphor of a body in which the parts are not of equal importance, though all are interdependent (p. 52). Aristotle prefers a balance of the different exercises of power in the koinonia of the polis and a 'pluralistic nature' (Bernhard Crick) of authority (pp. 85, 87). The book tries to sketch a possible Jewish (of the Second Temple period) background of the word koinonia and finds it in the concept of the covenant as an awareness of being-in-relation to . The early Christian communities describe Jesus as the covenant (pp. 110-15). Nearer to the preaching of Jesus himself would have been an analysis of the concept of the basileia. Origen calls Jesus the auto-basileia, the basileia in person. The situations of the early Christian communities, the Marcan and Johannine communities, the communities at Jerusalem or Corinth (pp. 119-39) are very difficult to assess and to identify. In each case the question remains open whether the particular author of a concrete text reinforces the community in beliefs already held or inculcates foreign beliefs and convictions. A new use of the term koinonia is achieved by the Cappadocians (pp. 146-70). They detect in it a common formula to develop the Trinitarian orthodoxy and also a way which enables the Church, or in Basil of Caesarea the monastic community, to see itself as the body of Christ. Another point of interest is illustrated in the thinking of Augustine (pp. 171-93). The nexus of meanings suggested by koinonia can be found in his writings in a whole range of Latin words like communiolcommunicatio, partidpatio, sotietas, even respublica and civitas.
Sagovsky's book can be seen as an advancement of the relevant study of John D. Zizioulas (Being as Communion, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1985) in a more and explicitly ecumenical-ecclesiological perspective. It is very helpful and sometimes inspiring. The resume seems to me that the theory and practice of koinonia are -from a historictheological point of view -a very plausible approach to the actual situation of ecumenism, even if they still raise as many questions as they resolve. Holy Cross Orthodox Press has reissued the second edition (1990) of Metropolitan John of Pergamon's 1965 doctoral dissertation in an English translation from the Greek by Elizabeth Theokritoff. In doing so, the publishers have done a service to the ecclesiastical, ecumenical and academic audiences for whom this book will be of interest. The ecumenical and historiographical issues raised and addressed here have not disappeared in the thirty-seven years since this book was written.
The theme of the book is the role of the bishop and the Eucharist in the expression of the unity of the church in the first three centuries. The author seeks to correct what he sees as the 'imprisonment of church unity' by modern historiography, which has effectively made no place for the r6le of the bishop or the Eucharist in accounting for the unity of the Church. Thus both Protestant and Roman Catholic historiography come in for heavy critique by Zizioulas. He replies to these views with the thesis that the unity of the Church found expression above all in the celebration of the Eucharist by one church in one place, presided over by one bishop. The book is divided into three sections. The first attempts to establish a positive relationship between Eucharist, bishop and Church in the earliest Christian communities. The argument then moves to a discussion of the role of the Eucharist and the bishop in the formation of the 'Catholic Church' in the second and third centuries, and concludes with a study of the emergence in the third and fourth centuries of parishes under the eucharistic presidency of a presbyter rather than the one bishop. In my view this third section is the most significant of the book, for it addresses the question of the impact of the development of discrete parishes on the expression of the church's unity. In various forms this question still exercises ecumenists, and Zizioulas' proposals on it still need to be taken up in ecumenical conversation.
One question I have about the book's argument has to do with its use of the term 'Eucharist', especially as it applies to the practices of the first three centuries. The study never really defines what the Eucharist was at that time. Liturgical studies in the past thirty-five years have shown that there was a large amount of diversity in the forms of the eucharistic prayer in early Christianity, and that the development of that prayer took different paths in different locales. How, if at all, does this diversity of development play a role in the development of the expression of Church unity in the first three centuries?
Because this is not a general textbook in ecclesiology, one cannot expect it to be exhaustive. Its topic is circumscribed, a fact acknowledged by the author. However, in spite of the author's assertion in the preface to the second edition that 'the basic theses of this work are still sound and need no revision' (p. 5), it would have been helpful to readers interested in exploring the subject further to have included an updated bibliography. I agree that many of the author's conclusions have become common currency in academic and theological circles today. And yet, I wonder if the stature of the author will lead some to take it as the last word in a subject whose details are still very much under discussion. For example, with regard to the historical sources there has been a great deal of research since 1965 on the church order literature and on the Ignatian epistles. Not all scholars even today would agree with Zizioulas' conclusions regarding the ecclesiastical situation behind Ignatius of Antioch's exhortations regarding the mono-episcopate. If it were not possible for the author to include chapters bringing the work up to date, it would have done students a great service to have included more recent scholarship in the bibliography. From an ecumenical perspective, it would have been valuable to include bibliographical references to recent Faith and Order studies of the episcopate and perhaps even of the liturgy of the Eucharist, to point students toward sources demonstrating the influence of the author's ideas on contemporary ecumenical conversations. Finally, because this book could for some readers serve as the introduction to Metropolitan John's work, at least a brief bibliography of his writings would help such readers to see the directions his work has taken since 1965.
This work still has much to say to the Orthodox Churches today in their struggle to address the jurisdictionalism which afflicts not only their relations with each other, but also their relations with other churches. There are some facts about the Reformation that every educated person knows. One is that it introduced antisemitism into Christianity. Another is that without it capitalism could never have come into being. A third is that, with its iconoclasm and its emphasis on the Word, it substituted a verbal religious culture for a visual one. Peter Matheson is to be congratulated on attempting to dispel at least one of these misconceptions in his latest book, originally given as a series of lectures at Edinburgh and published by T&T Clark in 2000.
While his earlier Rhetoric of the Reformation (1998) looked at characteristic literary forms of communication in the sixteenth-century reformations, this book considers the 'images' at work in the same period, the new symbolic universe ushered in by the Reformation. Matheson's purpose is to show that the Reformation was not primarily about ideas (as the theologians tell us) or about social structures (as the social historians tell us), but about a spiritual paradigm shift, 'signposted by the creative metaphors of the preachers and teachers, the images in literature and art, the rhythms and melodies of the popular ballads and chorales which sang the Reformation into people's souls' (p. 6).
To demonstrate his point, Matheson takes us through the rich pamphlet literature of early sixteenth-century Germany to show how biblical images of freedom, light, the holy city, and Christ crucified, among many others, were used to convey the Reformation message. In subsequent chapters, he considers the programmes for reform put forward by both urban and rural interests, the 'nightmares' into which these Utopias often turned (notably the Peasants' War on the one hand and the disintegration of the magisterial Reformation on the other), the working out of Reformation principle in the very difficult circumstances of Argula von Grumbach's life, and the spirituality of the Reformation, which Matheson identifies as 'a real hope, but by way of a gritty determination ... to face up to the theatre of real life, not to pretend it is an enchanted one' (p. 139).
Here, then, is an extremely ambitious book, which goes a long way towards answering the question which recent Reformation scholarship has studiously avoided, 'Why would anyone have wanted to become Protestant?' One of its strengths is its attention to the pamphlet sources, which allows us to hear what seem to be genuine voices from the past. Another is its recognition that a symbolic universe is not the same as a visual culture, which enables Matheson to acknowledge that the Reformation could still work with a repertoire of mental imagery even when its more extreme supporters sought to smash and mutilate the physical icons they regarded as idols.
There are, however, some weaknesses which must also be acknowledged. The first is, again, the ambitious nature of the project. To squeeze into fewer than 150 pages of text a controversial argument, a survey of recent historiography of the Reformation as a whole, and a wide range of cultural and intellectual allusions (from Bertolt Brecht in the first chapter to Paul Ricoeur in the last) is an amazing achievement, and it is not surprising that some corners have had to be cut. Several direct quotations from the pamphlet literature are not referenced. Other references are potentially baffling: for instance, it is not explained that pamphlet titles followed by a fiche and catalogue number refer to the Kohler/Hebenstreit/Weissmann collection, Flugschriften des frtihen 16.Jahrhunderts.

An important question which Matheson does not address is whether
Reformation pamphlets express genuine popular sentiment or simply the views of the educated elite who wrote them. It is important in view of his contention that through the images used in these pamphlets 'the voiceless were given a voice, the visionless a vision ' (p. 47). It is revealing that he regards a particular woodcut illustration as indicative of the reader's imagination rather than the author's or publisher's (p. 39).
A more justifiable omission is of the mental imagery conveyed by Catholic publications, including Catholic pamphlets, in the same period. Matheson briefly describes Erasmus's image of the Church (p. 94); but more on the competing repertoire of Catholic images would have provided this account of the Protestant imagination with a fuller context. Also lacking (except in the discussion of reform programmes) is much on the latemedieval background to the images discussed here. This gives a one-sided view of the issue. There must already have been some inculcation of basic biblical imagery, however unconscious, for the pamphleteers' and preachers' allusions to light, freedom etc. to have any resonance. Equally, 'theological road-rage' (p. 81) was not a monopoly of Reformation debates: odium theologicum has a long, if not necessarily distinguished, history in the Christian Church.
Despite these omissions (which is another way of saying that the book should have been twice as long!), Matheson has provided us with some essential insights into the Reformation as a spiritual event, and for that reason alone this book is to be recommended enthusiastically. In the flood of numerous works on this topic one welcomes a book which helps make sense out of the, frequently, contradictory mass of information (and misinformation!) and personal opinion. The book that Carol Rittner and John Roth have edited is one of those books which helps you do precisely that, in an area where sometimes separating fact from opinion or even fiction becomes difficult since oftentimes each of us has formed our opinions out of prejudices, biases and even distortions of the truth. The collection of contributors to Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust is not only impressive but also is of the highest quality and expertise.
The book, which is divided into three parts, successfully treats three important areas of the debate on Pius XII: first, his involvement in the controversies surrounding the Shoah. Then the second part explores the person of the pope and his policies. Finally in the third section there is an evaluation of the pontificate of Pius XII. One can see from the beginning to the end of this fascinating work that a fundamental methodological principle has been employed, namely that of an attempt to contextualize and not to use hindsight as an evaluative historical principle. This obviously does not relieve us from the realization that is expressed in the Jewish scholar, Michael Marrus' analysis that when touching on the question of the holocaust all are in agreement that no one did enough. In spite of this human realization when judging history and historical figures other scientific and scholarly criteria must be used. What comes to light by the research conducted by these scholars is that there is still a mass of information that is not fully available to the general public. This is the point of John Pawlikowski's investigation into the facts of the pontificate of Pius XII. Here he uncovers a wealth of information which was little known or completely ignored. The question of the 'silence' of Papa Pacelli on many issues is certainly placed in a different light when this information is factored into the evaluation of what he did or did not do and how it was done. Here the diplomatic channels seem to have played an enormous role and we are assured that these channels were not silent. What appears to be important here is the fact that we cannot be persuaded by psychological arguments that are too often used on one side of the discussion when the action of Pius XII was quite decisive on a lateral front.
In an extremely focused chapter on the Shoah and the Pope, Richard Rubenstein critically examines the position of the Vatican before and after the Second Vatican Council. This perspective, which treats the position toward religious pluralism that the Catholic Church had before and after the horrific holocaust experience, puts into context the goal of the Vatican in relationship to secular Jews in a Christian Europe. He poses the question as to where there was effectively a difference between this goal and the antisemitic programme of the Nazi regime. At Vatican II and in the post council period, we begin to see a clear position regarding religious pluralism and religious freedom. This chapter is one of the most challenging of the book.
Another aspect of the discussions presented in this work is the ethical question. Here, too, the situation is very complicated and not easy to find a common opinion. Michael Phayer takes us through the intricacies of the discussion on this point. From his extensive research in archives in Germany and elsewhere he arrives at the conclusion that one might disagree with the position that Pacelli took in many regards but the decisions that he arrived at were taken without hatred or malice toward the Jews. Obviously this conclusion will certainly not content our Jewish brothers and sisters but it must be seen within the context of the ethics of the time. It is interesting that some discussions with the 'peace churches' on the question of just war and the use of force to protect threatened or endangered populations leads very much in the same direction. This demonstrates that the ethical and moral issues are still not clearly defined.
By way of conclusion I recommend this book for all those who have been sufficiently confused by the mass of information and propaganda that has been produced about the key issue of the involvement of the Pope in the extermination of Jews and his collaboration with Nazisocialist regimes in this programme. At least it appears to this reviewer that a fair hearing has been given to Pacelli and the Vatican policies through a precise scholarly and systematic examination of important material surrounding the Shoah. This is done by both Christian and Jewish scholars and represents another important step on the road to the healing of memories and the beginning of an authentic Jewish-Christian theological dialogue. This is an important book on an important subject, written by a scholar from Latin America-one of the many places in the modern world where evangelical Protestantism is flourishing, notably in Pentecostal forms. The Foreword is provided by David Martin, one of the first academics in the West to appreciate the significance of evangelicalism as a global and quintessentially modem form of Christianity. Martin himself has been more concerned with the connections between Pentecostalism and culture; Freston's work complements this in so far as it focuses on the political rather than cultural implications of this crucial global movement. In so doing it fills an important gap in the literature.
The sheer presence of evangelical forms of religion across vast areas of the modern world is the first point to appreciate, a fact that Western scholars (most notably Europeans) still find difficult to grasp. Indeed the most searching question for Europeans currently is to explain the absence of widespread and popular forms of evangelicalism in Europe rather than its presence elsewhere-a task which challenges, very profoundly, the dominant paradigms of Western understanding. This book, however, concentrates on the developing world: on Latin America, on Asia and on Africa. The chapters work round in a circle, beginning with Brazil and ending with the Spanish speaking countries of Latin America.
One point is immediately apparent: the immense diversity both of evangelicals themselves and of their political views Herein moreover lies the book's greatest strength in that it works from an empirical base (indeed a multitude of empirical bases) to build a picture of the diverse contributions of evangelicals and the groups of which they are part to the political field. Generalisations in this diverse and complex world are out of order, a point made absolutely clear from page one. We cannot assume anything about the political outcomes of evangelicalism: we have instead to look at the wide diversity of cases on offer (both between and within the 27 countries described) to see what has happened / is happening in each place.
A further point follows from this: that is the disconcerting fact (at least disconcerting for some) that organisational and contextual factorswhether defined in religious or socio-political terms-are often more important for understanding the politics of evangelicals than their theology. Such factors include size, social and ethnic composition, the position of the evangelical constituency relative to other confessions, internal church structures and conflicts, the degree of legitimacy of national myths and the presence or absence of international connections.
The pendulum, however, should not swing too far. There are theological constraints for an evangelical community, which must be taken seriously by the members of the group in question, but also by those who observe their behaviour. Some outcomes, moreover, are more likely than others, and the more that we know about a situation, and the multiplicity of variables that are operative therein, the more likely we are to be able to predict with accuracy. This gradual capacity both to discern and to explain patterns illustrates the sociological task at its best.
Particular attention is paid to rebutting two theories. The first is the socalled 'conspiracy' theory, 'which supposes American right-wing forces to be behind most political activity by evangelicals in the Third World' (p. 283). Freston, in contrast, assumes the autonomy of Third World evangelicalism unless proved otherwise. The second theory argues that the 'logic' of evangelicalism will produce similar results everywhere-more specifically that what has happened in Europe and North America will necessarily happen elsewhere. Once again, this may not be so, a point that returns us immediately to the empirical nature of the task. We must start from what really happens (what ordinary church members do and say) and not from what theories of whatever kind predict, or even from what church leaders or theologians indicate might be the case.
In making us aware of the importance of empirical work, Freston has opened up a huge research agenda. In many of the cases covered in this book, he offers the first rather than the last word, a fact which he freely admits. It is for others to penetrate further, a task which requires a demanding combination of skills: detailed local knowledge, linguistic competence, considerable sensitivity to the aspirations of those involved and almost infinite patience. But given Freston's innovatory introduction, the importance of the questions can no longer be denied. Evangelicalism offers a way to be both modern and religious in the emergent world order; with this in mind, its political dimensions (amongst many other things) deserve our sustained and careful attention.