I would have a hard time calling this a book review; since I am slightly biased with this little volume.
Friendship at the Margins: Discovering Mutuality in Service and Mission is written by one of my favorite professors at
Asbury Seminary; Dr. Christine Pohl. Chris Heuertz is a friend of the school and I enjoyed spending time with him last year during a visit.
I think you should read this book.
I have already exposed my excitement, so you know this isn’t one of my “usual” reviews. I purchased the book because I wanted to support my friends. It is part of a series from Duke Divinity entitled “
Resources for Reconciliation”.
What this book is about is stories of friendship, with deep theological overtones woven throughout. Written by a practitioner who is a scholar in the ancient sense (Chris) and an Academic scholar who has spent an extended amount of time inside the church practicing (Christine). This unique blend makes for a very easy, but engaging read.
Friendship is the center of the conversation throughout the book, especially friendship with people of different cultural and economic standing. Using this platform, various issues of justice concerns are thought about, from the lense of how Western Cultures taxing of the poor actually affects our friends in other parts of the world. This takes a radically different look at “friendship evangelism”, which some have said is simply taking advantage of friends. The train that keeps the book running are the stories of people whom the authors are friends with.
Chris runs
Word Made Flesh, an organization devoted to “serving Jesus among the poorest of the poor”. One of its core values is people spending long amounts of time in marginalized areas, to build up friendships with those around them. Through this, they are able to care, live with and minister to people in many different ways. The authors share a view about exploiting causes through documentary means; something they dub “hunger pornography”.
At the root level, these people matter because they are friends.
What this book takes is the Patristic view that everyone should be cared for because everyone is a child of God, made in the image of a divine creator. God has shared friendship with us, through the gift of Jesus Christ.
We have been befriended. That is the gift that we then share with others, the same way it has been shared to us. As we journey closer to Christ, our life with others is impacted and drastically changed.
Our Holiness then is an eruption of God’s goodness and beauty in the world. When we embody a unified commitment to personal righteousness and efforts at justice, we help to expand the possibilities of transformation and healing.(pg 126)
Part of the careful thought of this book deals with how "hip" ideas of justice have come. The final chapter,
A Spirituality Fit for the Margins, deals with the need for a deep relationship with God, a healthy network of relationship for communal life, and the desire to bring the marginalized into a stable system of Christian community. This stability isn’t there to graduate the person to a functioning member of society, but to provide a place of safety for healing and care to occur. Justice isn't cool, but necessary!
I couldn’t call this a book review, because of my relationship with the authors I knew this would be a great book. I simply can’t be objective about it. For those who are interested in issues of justice, but have concerns about it and orthodoxy, this is a great book. Since the phrase “social justice” has been in the media so much lately, writings such as these show how justice is deeply and inherently connected to the Christian faith.
I think you should read this book.
