![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/New-Blog-Book-Review-Graphic-25.png\")
<\/p>\nNote – this review was originally written for ‘Third Way’, a magazine now sadly defunct. I also wrote a letter to Steve and\u00a0his publishers about this book – you can read that<\/i> here.<\/p>\n
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Chalke needs little introduction. A prophetic voice in and around the church for many years, his various challenges to evangelicalism have made him a newsworthy figure. His latest book is no exception. Exploring no less a topic than what it is to be human is an admirable and important task. Recent Evangelical Ministry Assembly conferences, Roman Catholic encyclicals and the vibrancy of of academic discussion of theological anthropology demand a popularisation, an engagement, a mass-market version. This, unfortunately, is not exactly what Chalke provides<\/p>\n
Chalke is a divisive figure, and this cannot be put to one side when he casts a vision such as the one set forth in \u2018Being Human\u2019. Evangelical Christianity and other parts of the church have long been in disagreement over exactly what a \u2018five-fold\u2019 ministry is. I would contend that, in this book, Chalke arguably takes on the mantle of a prophet (with some particularly incisive observations and reflections challenging the core of what many believe) but unfortunately does so outside of an apostolic authority, an evangelist\u2019s zeal, or a pastoral or teachers emphases. In short, Chalke is high on rhetoric and low on listening to the counsel of others. This is the trajectory I will take in this review – that Chalke writes directly out of the heart of God in some areas, whilst ignoring it in others..<\/p>\n
I have mentioned the unity of the church and the focus on what it is to be human from different wings of the people of God. That the Evangelical Ministry Assembly (a reformed evangelical gathering) and a recent Pope would have similar concerns is theologically fascinating. So is Chalke bang on trend? This may be the case – and it is at this stage that the sheer lack of engagement with theological accounts of being human is particularly hard to fathom. There is an interesting chapter, \u2018The Indelible Image\u2019, which discusses the language of the Imago Dei, is in this reviewer\u2019s opinion helpful in grounding human dignity and inclusivity in the notion of the Image of God, but Chalke\u2019s answer to the key question of his book simply begs a deeper question. He closes this chapter: \u201cWhat is it to be human? It is to be made in the image of the God of love!<\/i>\u201d, to which I would respond: yes, amen, so what does it mean to be made in the Image of God?<\/p>\n
In amongst some occasionally provocative and entertaining observations on \u2018being human\u2019, \u2018doing life\u2019 and exploring faith, there are a few points where it seems Chalke might be commenting on various controversies and disagreements he has been involved in. In particular, it is difficult to read chapter 25, \u2018Better Together<\/i>\u2019, in isolation from the fact that the Evangelical Alliance has this exact phrase as its slogan. That is by way of aside, admittedly. This reviewer, though, was consistently puzzled by the emphasis solely on the \u2018social\u2019 nature of human being as understood by Chalke. Whilst this is undeniably the case, I can\u2019t help but wonder if a discussion of \u2018embodiment\u2019 might aid much of his discussion, as well as providing a grounding for ethics and community. Certainly the New Testament is rich on a discussion of the body, and whilst evangelicals have not been known for their treatment of this topic, the impact of Pope John Paul II\u2019s \u2018Theology of the Body\u2019 lecture series, and Christopher Wests\u2019s popularisation of this, has to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 <\/span>It will be clear to readers of this review that I was relatively unimpressed by Chalke\u2019s book in general. Whilst I don\u2019t want to say that \u2018Being Human\u2019 fails to answer its own key question, I would argue that Chalke\u2019s overall vision is unconvincing, and ultimately flawed. At a practical level, one symptom of the problems inherent in this book\u00a0 <\/span>is the Author\u2019s usage of the work of John Howard Yoder. Chapter 15 of \u2018Being Human\u2019, \u2018A Counter-revolutionary life<\/i>\u2019 begins with a recounting of a story about Yoder, labelling him as \u2018best known for his pacifism<\/i>\u2019. So far, so unremarkable, except that at no point in this chapter or its notes does Chalke acknowledge the large scale sexual abuse perpetrated by Yoder, and essentially ignores this in favour of using the story. This is a silencing of victims voices that goes against the much heralded thrust towards inclusion and honesty that Chalke is seeking to write a narrative of (for more: http:\/\/bit.ly\/1FRzAoy<\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Overall, then, this was a book that I read rapidly, disagreed with firmly, and mostly enjoyed interacting with. The editorial and authorial oversight regarding Yoder leaves a slightly sour taste in my mouth, at least, and the general theological engagement seems to me to be relatively unaware of what theologians (in all sorts of disciplines, contexts and movements) are saying about what it means to be human. For readers who enjoy Chalke\u2019s style, and the theological trajectories he focuses on, this may be an interesting read, but for those of us unconvinced by some of Chalke\u2019s theological claims, and wanting a book that practices what it preaches in terms of inclusion and relationship, we might want to look elsewhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (This review was published originally in 2015) One book that does ‘being human’\u00a0much<\/strong> better in my opinion is this one, by New Testament scholar Klyne D. Snodgrass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Note – this review was originally written for ‘Third Way’, a magazine now sadly defunct. I also wrote a letter to Steve and\u00a0his publishers about this book – you can read that here. Chalke needs little introduction. A prophetic voice … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[87,2],"tags":[132],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2507,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2506\/revisions\/2507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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