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Title: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology
ISBN: 0802828752
Author:
Eugene H. Peterson
Publicate Date: 2005-02-03
Publish: 2005-02-03
List Price: $25.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places
Wonderfully written look at spirituality and a life with Christ. Eloquent, Peterson has done it again.
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2: A good, thought-provoking book by a knowledgeable theologian and educator..
Eugene Peterson is a very knowledgeable theologian and educator. He is thorough as well as very good at covering his topic from several different viewpoints and with a variety of "word-pictures" and sidelights on his topic. This book provided a very good basis for an online faith formation discussion I participated in.
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3: A vibrant and concrete God-focused life
A vibrant and concrete God-focused life. That is Eugene Peterson's vision for the Christian life, a vision that he lays out in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology. This profound yet conversational book gives readers a glimpse of what a spirituality focused on Christ may look like, with a careful anchoring in the Scripture and in the Triune God, with an ever-living fear-of-the-Lord permeating every move of our lives.
In today's world, spiritual and theology are not words that are too often combined. There is no shortage of books on spirituality in some form or another, and neither is there any lack of books on theology, either biblical or systematic. But too often books on spirituality lack grounding in the person of Christ, and equally as often, books on theology get no further than doctrines or systems of thought. Eugene Peterson, in Christ Plays in Ten-thousand Places, elegantly combines these two streams into a tightly-knit pattern. He describes this synthesis as the conjoining of the two streams that have occupied his professional life, those of professor and pastor.
There can be little doubt that Peterson has a keen eye for just the right turn of phrase and metaphor. He opens the book with the poem from which its title comes, and uses these perceptive words from the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins to provide the occasion for, and in fact give life to, his exercise in spiritual theology. The vision of Christ "playing" in ten thousand places, "Lovely in limbs" and "eyes not his." We were made for a life in Christ, made to be in relationship to this Triune God, made for his presence to live in and through us.
Peterson unfolds a four-fold vision for his spiritual theology, a vision he then unpacks in three cycles throughout the book, echoing the Triunity of God as a vision for creation, history, and community. His vision entails a spiritual theology, and in fact a spiritual life, oriented around four terms, "spirituality," "Jesus," "soul," and "fear-of-the-Lord." "Spirituality" means a spiritual life that is truly alive, a life that is both in touch with the transcendent yet "vaguely intermingled with intimacy" (27). This is a life that is genuine, vibrant, experienced. "Jesus" points to a life that is concrete. In opposition to so much spirituality that focuses on vague impressions and abstraction, Jesus truly anchors our faith and life in the concreteness of history, the revelation of God to humanity in intelligible and meaningful form. "Soul" intimates the relational character of this spiritual life. God is a Triune God, a being-in-relationship, and we have been created in God's likeness and have been called into relationship with this Triune God. For Peterson, "soul" is set over against "self" as we realize the fullness that is found not by being curved in on ourselves but in opening the totality of our being (the "soul") up to relationship with the other, and ultimately with the Triune God who invites us in our entirety into relationship with him. Finally, "fear-of-the-Lord" speaks of the God-focused nature of this life. In cultivating a life lived this way, we live "responsively and appropriately before who God is, who he is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (40). These four terms form the core of Peterson's vision, and point to the vibrant life-in-relationship to which he invites us, a spirituality that is truly informed, or better, formed, by Christ and lived in him.
Peterson then moves through this four-fold vision in three cycles, in response to the Triunity of this God who forms our spiritual theology. Through each cycle, he perceptively illuminates the world in which we live, with a very adeptly and subtly applied theological vision that at once informs the entire work without taking it over. He also speaks of pitfalls and obstacles that often result from distortions of the vision he is seeking. The core section of each chapter is its grounding in scripture, with extended reflections on two texts for each of the three cycles to give shape and anchor to his reflections. He then concludes with a reflection on the lived dimension of the truths he has been exploring, giving flesh to his visions of the Christian life through explication of symbols and acts such as Sabbath, Eucharist, and Baptism.
"The end of all Christian belief and obedience, witness and teaching, marriage and family, leisure and work life, preaching and pastoral work is the living of everything we know about God . . ."(1). Peterson shares, through these pages, his blueprint for a life so lived, a life lived to the glory of God. This means living a life of congruence "between what a thing is and what it does" (334). We find this congruence, through Christ's example, when we realize we were created to live in Christ, and seek to live out that design. In our world where spirituality is so often self-focused, where we are told to look inside, told to seek self-fulfillment, Peterson shares with us a contrasting vision, the vision of a live oriented toward God. This means that we are called to participate and to live out this life, but it is a life of "prepositional participation" (335) as we are called to act "with," "in," and "for." We stand not at the center, but are always oriented outside of ourselves, oriented with the fear-of-the-Lord toward God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, the God of creation, history, and community.
Peterson's book is one that I hope many will find time to read. His deep theological insight lends a profound depth to his reflections and truly models the type of "spiritual theology" he commends. The book also demonstrates the devotional and God-oriented focus he prescribes, as his pages so eloquently reflect a prayed theology. In the end, this is really a book about orientation, and it is just the prescription our wandering world needs to hear, myself clearly included. Many can get focused on self, others on theology, others on inclusion, at the expense of God. Peterson helps us shift our focus to the author of life, the worthy God, the end for which we were created, and points us toward a life where Christ plays. It is a jubilant vision of God-focused life, and an expression of what theology, when rightly done, may be.
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4: Not a user's manual
The earlier reviewer is right: This is not a user's manual. Peterson doesn't explain his ideas with straight, clear prose. Rather, he waxes poetic and writes rather circularly, going round and round a point well after it is established, but not necessarily shedding new light on it each time. But then, that shows my preference in style; others apparently really like it.
I think the book also is for the already-converted, those already familiar with his basic ideas and who share his assumptions. It is not for the non-Christian or the non-traditional Christian, especially since it seems to define "the spiritual life" (rather than "a spiritual life") only in Biblical terms, despite the spiritual practices and wisdom of many non-Biblical faiths.
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5: Our purpose, to worship and glorify God.
Give the author an A for literary flair, C for communication ability, and D for substance. The carefully crafted sentences in the book roll smoothly one after the other like a beautiful story, lulling us into a neglect of the plot. What is the author really trying to tell us? It is true that in the introductory chapter he carefully defines his terms, but unfortunately these definitions are unique with him. "Spirituality" is how we live with God. "Idolatry" is using God for our purposes through praying for what we want. "Fear of the Lord," is his comprehensive term of how we live our spiritual life and does not involve fear. His valiant attempt to define the Holy Trinity ends up a hair short of polytheism.
He divides his work into three sections: Creation, History, and Communication, the three being somehow related to God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. But the story rambles on and on lacking a coherent thread and, occasionally, internal consistency. A few pages after he describes how God's breath keeps man alive, he castigates the Gnostics who believe, as apparently he himself also does, that man carries a spark of God in him. My best guess about his apparent position in the book's first section is that mankind should live "to the glory of God," worshipping and praising him. So I ask myself, "Is this why God created mankind, to sing his praises and glorify him for ever?" Perhaps this is true, but in that case I don't find this God very glorious and praiseworthy.
Frankly I gave up and stopped reading halfway through the book.
(The writer is the author of "Christianity without Fairy Tales: When Science and Religion Merge," and of the forthcoming "The Way of the Butterfly: A Scientific Speculation on God and the Hereafter.")
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