A BOOK REVIEW of Milton Mayeroff, On Caring. New York :  Harper @ Row, 1971.

by Dan Haarer

This small paperback, while not written as a religious book, is in a sense very spiritual.  One could see it as an essay on an aspect of “to love one’s neighbor as oneself.”  Mayeroff states his core thesis as “to care for another person, in the most significant sense, is to help him grow and actualize himself.”  He also elaborates on the process of caring as bringing about comprehensive order and meaning to life.  This book was recently added to our church library.

BOOK REVIEW by Dan Haarer

Harold S. Kushner, OVERCOMING LIFE’S DISAPPOINTMENTS. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 174 pp.

Have you ever experienced any significant disappointments in life? If not yet, it is inevitable. Disappointments will happen. They are part of life. What do you do when your dreams don’t come to pass, or they break?

In this book Rabbi Kushner, probably best known to most of us for When Bad Things Happen to Good People, uses the example of Moses to illustrate some ways of handling disappointments and broken dreams. Moses, the great leader and prototypical prophet of God’s people, experienced many frustrations and difficulties in leading God’s people, and near the end of life learned he would not be able to enter the Promised Land. Even though we will not likely aspire to or expect to be another Moses, what can we learn from his life that will help us cope, to carry on with faith and meaning, and to hear God’s voice rather than succumb with bitterness or depression?

Rabbi Kushner, wise pastor and counselor, reviews significant events of Moses’ life, from his early beginnings; his mountaintop conversations with God; the crushing betrayal of his people, symbolized by the broken tablets of stone which then required being refashioned; the ongoing saga with the people; and ending with his final mountaintop view, gazing into the land of promise and the future for his people. Rather than a theological discussion, the author searches for the human and symbolic meanings that can help us with our own struggles.

Some of the lessons this author reflects on include Moses’ perseverance, loyalty, keeping promises, humility, nurturing the ability to forgive, and being able to look back with thanks and gratitude rather than bitterness. He suggests we learn more from Moses’ failures than his successes. Like Moses, we should not let failures define us or keep us from dreaming, but we also need to free ourselves from the “tyranny of the dream.” Life will not always seem fair, but there are still possibilities and compensations. In the overall perspective of life most disappointments may be trivial. And what if we never make it to our “promised land”? How get over our angers? He suggests a delicate balance of remembering and forgetting. There are some keys to contentment in life. We will not be able to control what all happens to us but we do have the power to choose how to respond.

This book is well written, easy to understand and flows well. There are many life illustrations. Rabbi Kushner points especially to marriage, family, children and work where people may have dreams and which can easily be broken. If we have any such broken dreams we are not alone. One of the major things missing with Moses appears to be his family life.

This book can be helpful for any stage of life. It will perhaps be most poignant for those coping in the midst of a broken dream and for those in later life, perhaps having suffered or carried broken dreams, to be able after all, to contentedly finish well.

Campolo, prophet, teacher, evangelist and evangelical, writes out of deep concern about the current state of evangelicalism. He calls for Christians to follow Jesus and his teachings rather than the rhetoric and attitudes of the politically oriented religious right, or what he perceives as idolatrous hyper-nationalism and super-patriotism in much of today’s evangelical community.

In this book Campolo writes, ala the apostle Paul, to imagined young evangelicals whom he names Timothy and Junia. In his twenty-one “letters” (chapters) he writes about the history and central beliefs of historic evangelical Christian faith and then relates them to key issues and controversial topics. Campolo spells out what in his view is a more responsible picture of true evangelicalism than is normally conveyed in today’s media.

One of the problems for American evangelicalism today is that it has become so entwined and identified with the “Religious Right” as to become a hindrance. Thus, a group of evangelicals decided to call themselves “Red-Letter Christians”, taken from their intense desire to be faithful to the words of Jesus, sometimes printed in red in some Bibles.

For evangelicals, following Jesus includes commitment to social justice, though there are different ways evangelicals propose to work at social justice issues. Often this may turn on attitudes about the role of government in social justice. Campolo is clearly concerned about some of evangelicalism’s drift toward legalistic fundamentalism. He opposes the Dispensationalist theology founded by John Darby that undergirds the Zionist movement, proposes a Rapture and considers working for peace and justice as secular humanism. Campolo argues for loving persuasion over political coercion.

Campolo takes on some hot button issues including abortion, gay marriage, war, care for the creation and relating with Muslims. He definitely sides with Jesus’ interests in the poor and oppressed. He recognizes these are not easy issues with ready made answers. He is able to consider various viewpoints but will state where he comes out and why. He also makes clear it is possible to be friends and relate positively with people holding differing views. On one issue he and his wife, who are members of different congregations, hold to the divergent views of their respective, and respectful of each other, congregations.

In Campolo’s final letter he challenges his imaginary young proteges, actually all his readers, on where they, and we, will take evangelicalism in the future. To Campolo it appears some young evangelicals’ personal practices, if not their theology, are undergoing changes; so also their relationship with the organized church. And there will be new crises, issues and moral dilemmas ahead.

Tony Campolo has written this message in a fashion as perhaps only he could. Those familiar with his writings will certainly welcome this book. For those not familiar, it’s a wonderful place to start.

This book was borrowed from the Goshen Public Library. The call number is 248.4 CAM.

Dan Haarer, Reviewer