Book Review: IN THE EYE OF THE STORM: SWEPT TO THE CENTRE BY GOD

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM:
SWEPT TO THE CENTER BY GOD
By Bishop Gene Robinson

Reviewed by Jim Komar
St. James’ Anglican, Integrity/Saskatoon

Christianity, one of the most professed of the world's religions, is probably its least understood. Tragically, from time to time, the immense contributions of Christianity to human progress and Western civilization have been obscured and compromised by power brokers, ecclesiastical and lay, who sought to make it, from a way of life in a loving relationship with God and neighbour, into a collection of academic incredibilities which served the ends of the privileged, acquisitive few at the expense of the many, so that the lust for power could masquerade as piety.

Every so often, however, a Christian leader arises with the faith and courage to challenge the champions of self-interest. In our own day, Bishop Robinson is one of these champions, all the braver and more faithful for being openly gay and married to another man in an age of rampant homophobia which is tearing our church apart. His book opens with over 3-1/2 pages of endorsements by people with first-caliber religious credentials and a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The basis of their approval is evident after the first few pages have been read.

Robinson asks very searching questions about what it means to be a Christian, and you don't have to be a theologian to understand his answers. He confronts the arguments of his detractors head on, boldly, with the conviction born of a pastor’s understanding of the Bible and the human heart, and without recourse to the vilification which had been heaped upon him. His insights into the meaning of dialogue offer hope to those who seek our Anglican middle way of fellowship in the midst of diversity. They recall the finest hour of the early Church at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), where faith in the Risen Christ took precedence over cultural differences.

Homosexuality is the scapegoat, the tip of the iceberg, in the ocean of turmoil battering the Christian faith today, and Bishop Robinson makes this clear. Two centuries of critical biblical scholarship and progress in Science have raised questions about the nature of God, the authority of Scripture, the origin of the universe, and the role of experience versus tradition which challenge our understanding of the universe and our role within it. I am grateful to the author of "In the Eye of the Storm" for his role in meeting these challenges. How marvelous to find a believer who, like Bishop Spong, is a bold spiritual leader in an age of so many ecclesiastical careerists who place the Church (read "office and perks") above the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth. Gene Robinson is a man “Swept to the Center by God.”

Published by Seabury Books,
ISBN - 10: 1596270888
192 pg, $30.75 CAN