Review by J Gordon -- Who Told You That You Were Naked?
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J Gordon
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Review by J Gordon -- Who Told You That You Were Naked?
[Following is a volunteer review of "Who Told You That You Were Naked?" by William Combs.]
4 out of 4 stars
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In a study group I belong to which was reading about holiness last week, the hardest thing to wrap our minds around was the concept of mortification of sin. And in a recent St. John's Alumni group, studying Plato's Euthyphro, we explored the concept of piety. The common question being asked by skeptics and believers alike: Just how pious and holy do people need to be in order to become and remain acceptable to God and others?
The Presbyterian pastor who wrote Who Told You That You Were Naked? addresses our questions in a chapter entitled "Free Indeed":
Who Told You That You Were Naked? is a series of teachings drawn from the Bible and emphasizing the story of Adam and the words of Jesus. Combs elaborates with insights drawn from a lifetime of experience and study, supported by numerous passages and basic Christian teachings. It is organized to lead from one topic to another, and would be useful for groups looking for general study, who might opt for the discussion questions following each chapter. I rate it 4 out of 4 stars because it is clearly written and edited, accurately presents essentials of the historic Christian faith, and uses a friendly register to argue its position that we can daily choose to live in Adam's stressed-out condition or in Jesus' peaceful condition. I would recommend it to newer Christians as an introduction, or to small groups interested in discovering connections and finding consistency between various Biblical texts and genres: letters to the early church, proverbs, biography, prophecy. Do they all agree on what faith is, and on a life worth living?
What is "The good life?" The reader who is well-versed in Bible study will see each chapter as a "devotional" which might serve to enrich her/his/per daily faith, worship, and prayer. Such readers will be gently challenged to consider questions which arise within the context of a single passage, such as:
The predominant theme Combs chooses for his book is the knowledge of good and evil, which is inherited from our ancestor Adam, and its enslaving effect in our individual lives; countering this knowledge is the intervening action and wisdom of Jesus, the Second Adam, whose effect is freedom and peace. The chapters build on this theme of deathlike enslavement and estrangement from God being replaced by life, transformation, and closeness to God. The image of nakedness, drawn from Genesis and serving as the title for this book, recurs in subsequent chapters in which Combs identifies aspects of his own life that lead to feelings of inadequacy, fear, and anxiety.
Theologians will find the rudimentary approach to concepts such as propitiation to be simplistic, though not inaccurate, and will seek elsewhere for an in-depth study of atonement theory. But Combs's useful fictions, such as the story of "Jared", who might have attended one of Jesus' miracles and sermons, help to bring the ancient culture alive and out the sayings into relief, so that modern people may be brought into a better understanding of the tensions of daily life. Someone looking for a sermon illustration might begin here. The vignettes thin out in the second half of the book, and I actually prefer the direct analysis of the texts as opposed to the extrapolated embellishments, but readers of Max Lucado will enjoy the retelling of the Eden narrative.
Casual readers drawn to this book will find an accessible refresher course on key principles of Christian faith, such as faith itself, God's grace, and how to discern God's will in tumultuous times. This is not a book that will help you vote in the next election, nor decry the loss of a more innocent time. If anything it connects ordinary people of today with the very earliest members of our species, and assumes that the first humans mentioned in Genesis have one thing in common with us: we were created by a deity for relationships.
The final chapter describes an alternative and scholarly approach to the term sin and its usage, along with a brief mention of the contribution of John Calvin to the topic of Genesis and its connection with Paul's Letter to the Romans.
Though the primary audience will be those interested in expository teaching from the Christian New Testament, including Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, secondary readers will be those who have rejected Jesus' claims or who, disillusioned by feeble North American expressions of God's love, scruple to open any volume of religious teaching.
I have in mind a friend who was recently persuaded that there is no immortality; some of Combs's passages address our doubts about the trappings of religion by cutting to the heart of Jesus' teaching. He demonstrates that both the scribes and authors of the Hebrew Scriptures and the other New Testament writers, such as James and Paul, are in agreement about some core values and spiritual principles. These have far more to do with intellectual, spiritual, physical, and emotional life in the here and now than with the idea of an afterlife, which is by and large irrelevant to Combs's discussion. In a way, Combs invites readers to take a fresh look at spirituality in order to emerge from darkness into light during everyday trials. Such a book may find readership among people like my friend, who are disenfranchised from contemporary religion in part because its adherents seem caught up in judgment and self-righteous confidence, and because of its demands on time, energy, money, and performance. Where is rest to be found?
He writes in everyday language, sprinkled with ample quotations from the Bible. His lifetime of familiarity with the 4 Gospel writers, Jesus' biographers, equips him to draw out the full context of Jesus' puzzling sayings by placing side by side two viewpoints of a single incident, written with slightly different emphases. In one extended case, he explores the origins of the expression "Ye of little faith", with the result that faith involves action on two sides--that of the follower and that of God.
People resistant to overt explication, or who, like me, have built up calluses from repeated exposure to "repent and be saved" messages, may find too familiar the territory covered here, and the method used. Others may simply be tired of hearing men explain things, or may be so troubled by contemporary expressions of North American churches and its Christianity that they give such books a wide berth. For you, I suggest previewing this book at a future date.
******
Who Told You That You Were Naked?
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
In a study group I belong to which was reading about holiness last week, the hardest thing to wrap our minds around was the concept of mortification of sin. And in a recent St. John's Alumni group, studying Plato's Euthyphro, we explored the concept of piety. The common question being asked by skeptics and believers alike: Just how pious and holy do people need to be in order to become and remain acceptable to God and others?
The Presbyterian pastor who wrote Who Told You That You Were Naked? addresses our questions in a chapter entitled "Free Indeed":
He goes on to demonstrate what it means to live when we are no longer "enslaved" to sin. Anticipating an objection from his contemporary reader, who may hear very little about the term sin in modern contexts, William E. Combs provides some useful groundwork about the term and its implications, amplifying this in his ultimate chapter, which I found one of the most interesting of all, since it addressed some of the assumptions the book seems to make about Biblical terms and their relevance today.To die to sin means we should not attempt in any way to resist sin any more than we would if we were lying (dead) in a pine box.
Who Told You That You Were Naked? is a series of teachings drawn from the Bible and emphasizing the story of Adam and the words of Jesus. Combs elaborates with insights drawn from a lifetime of experience and study, supported by numerous passages and basic Christian teachings. It is organized to lead from one topic to another, and would be useful for groups looking for general study, who might opt for the discussion questions following each chapter. I rate it 4 out of 4 stars because it is clearly written and edited, accurately presents essentials of the historic Christian faith, and uses a friendly register to argue its position that we can daily choose to live in Adam's stressed-out condition or in Jesus' peaceful condition. I would recommend it to newer Christians as an introduction, or to small groups interested in discovering connections and finding consistency between various Biblical texts and genres: letters to the early church, proverbs, biography, prophecy. Do they all agree on what faith is, and on a life worth living?
What is "The good life?" The reader who is well-versed in Bible study will see each chapter as a "devotional" which might serve to enrich her/his/per daily faith, worship, and prayer. Such readers will be gently challenged to consider questions which arise within the context of a single passage, such as:
How do faith and piety relate to living well, walking in light? This book's point of view is centered in a protestant understanding of spirituality, resting on the presupposition that God speaks today through human authors of the Bible, and that reading it carefully one might discern the authority of God.What does John mean when he urges us to walk in the light and not in darkness? (p 109)
The predominant theme Combs chooses for his book is the knowledge of good and evil, which is inherited from our ancestor Adam, and its enslaving effect in our individual lives; countering this knowledge is the intervening action and wisdom of Jesus, the Second Adam, whose effect is freedom and peace. The chapters build on this theme of deathlike enslavement and estrangement from God being replaced by life, transformation, and closeness to God. The image of nakedness, drawn from Genesis and serving as the title for this book, recurs in subsequent chapters in which Combs identifies aspects of his own life that lead to feelings of inadequacy, fear, and anxiety.
Theologians will find the rudimentary approach to concepts such as propitiation to be simplistic, though not inaccurate, and will seek elsewhere for an in-depth study of atonement theory. But Combs's useful fictions, such as the story of "Jared", who might have attended one of Jesus' miracles and sermons, help to bring the ancient culture alive and out the sayings into relief, so that modern people may be brought into a better understanding of the tensions of daily life. Someone looking for a sermon illustration might begin here. The vignettes thin out in the second half of the book, and I actually prefer the direct analysis of the texts as opposed to the extrapolated embellishments, but readers of Max Lucado will enjoy the retelling of the Eden narrative.
Casual readers drawn to this book will find an accessible refresher course on key principles of Christian faith, such as faith itself, God's grace, and how to discern God's will in tumultuous times. This is not a book that will help you vote in the next election, nor decry the loss of a more innocent time. If anything it connects ordinary people of today with the very earliest members of our species, and assumes that the first humans mentioned in Genesis have one thing in common with us: we were created by a deity for relationships.
In Chapter 7 he points out that Joshua wears a "mantle of leadership" after Moses. Recently a few Christian authors have donned the mantle once worn by C.S. Lewis and become clear spokespersons for Biblical belief in an age that questions traditions but also seeks meaningful connections with other humans and with the spiritual aspects of ourselves. I am reminded of Tim Keller and Frederick Beuchner. Combs succeeds on two levels: both as a commentator on some of Jesus' most provocative sayings; and as a wise friend who hears our skepticism or unbelief and offers some thoughtful responses.… [W]e can see the primary reason Moses recorded the Law was to encourage people to search for and find a relationship with God through faith.
The final chapter describes an alternative and scholarly approach to the term sin and its usage, along with a brief mention of the contribution of John Calvin to the topic of Genesis and its connection with Paul's Letter to the Romans.
Though the primary audience will be those interested in expository teaching from the Christian New Testament, including Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, secondary readers will be those who have rejected Jesus' claims or who, disillusioned by feeble North American expressions of God's love, scruple to open any volume of religious teaching.
I have in mind a friend who was recently persuaded that there is no immortality; some of Combs's passages address our doubts about the trappings of religion by cutting to the heart of Jesus' teaching. He demonstrates that both the scribes and authors of the Hebrew Scriptures and the other New Testament writers, such as James and Paul, are in agreement about some core values and spiritual principles. These have far more to do with intellectual, spiritual, physical, and emotional life in the here and now than with the idea of an afterlife, which is by and large irrelevant to Combs's discussion. In a way, Combs invites readers to take a fresh look at spirituality in order to emerge from darkness into light during everyday trials. Such a book may find readership among people like my friend, who are disenfranchised from contemporary religion in part because its adherents seem caught up in judgment and self-righteous confidence, and because of its demands on time, energy, money, and performance. Where is rest to be found?
He writes in everyday language, sprinkled with ample quotations from the Bible. His lifetime of familiarity with the 4 Gospel writers, Jesus' biographers, equips him to draw out the full context of Jesus' puzzling sayings by placing side by side two viewpoints of a single incident, written with slightly different emphases. In one extended case, he explores the origins of the expression "Ye of little faith", with the result that faith involves action on two sides--that of the follower and that of God.
People resistant to overt explication, or who, like me, have built up calluses from repeated exposure to "repent and be saved" messages, may find too familiar the territory covered here, and the method used. Others may simply be tired of hearing men explain things, or may be so troubled by contemporary expressions of North American churches and its Christianity that they give such books a wide berth. For you, I suggest previewing this book at a future date.
******
Who Told You That You Were Naked?
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like J Gordon's review? Post a comment saying so!
J. Gordon 
Latest Review: Raven's Peak by Lincoln Cole
