I am happy to announce publication of my latest book.

       The title is Day by Day: A Journey Into the Bible.

       The publisher is Resource Publications, the practical theology imprint of Wipf & Stock, which also published my two previous books, Change of Heart: A Wesleyan Spirituality, and Keeping Christmas.

       It is now available from wipfandstock.com and from Amazon, both for $25.

       Kindle and hardcover editions are forthcoming, at what price I cannot say, except that the Kindle edition is generally half the price of the paperback and hardcover about twice the price of the paperback. (Not even I own the hardbacks!)

       Here is the back cover description of the book and the featured endorsements:

       In Day by Day, James A. Hopwood presents a straightforward, no-nonsense Journey Into the Bible that’s suitable for personal or small group study. In guiding readers through the big story the Bible tells, the book moves easily from the overall “narrative arc” to such details as how those 10 tribes of Israel got “lost.” Not bound by the constraints of pop religion, the study offers a fresh look at familiar passages and frank evaluations of interpretive issues. It comes in a format that’s conducive to one-year study but is easily adapted for other uses. It includes many insightful questions for personal reflection and group discussion. Its purpose, following Richard of Chichester and a memorable pop song, is to help you to see Christ more clearly, love Christ more dearly, and follow Christ more nearly, day by day.

        “The Bible can be difficult to understand unless one sees it as presenting the story of God centered on Jesus Christ. In this book Jim Hopwood’s careful arrangement of passages enables the reader to follow that story in all its richness and drama. But be ready: he also gets you to think about what you read, often in new and surprising ways. If you want a very understandable, at times challenging, and always fruitful engagement with scripture and the God of which it speaks, this is the book for you.” 

       – Henry H. Knight III, Professor Emeritus of Wesleyan Studies and Evangelism, Saint Paul School of Theology, Leawood, Kansas

       “Day by Day offers an accessible and compelling approach to the Bible’s blueprint of divine love. Written with humor, humility and first-class hermeneutics, Jim has captured the essence of the meta-narrative of scripture, focusing not on the details but on the storyline that consistently points toward God’s inclusive and radical love for humanity. The format of daily readings is adaptable to an individual’s desires or a small group’s time frame. If you’re looking for an overview of the Bible, you won’t find better than Day by Day.”

       – Angie McCarty, Location Pastor, Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas

       “With the investigative powers of a newspaper man and the spiritual sensitivity of a pastor, this wonderful text for biblical study provides exactly what people need. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book. From there we receive an outline of each book of the Bible, with brief, illuminating comments and just enough questions to take one deeper into the text. I recommend it with enthusiasm.”

       – Tex Sample, Robert B. and Kathleen Rogers Professor Emeritus of Church and Society, Saint Paul School of Theology, Leawood, Kansas

       “I love Jim Hopwood! His approach to scripture study combines the curiosity, research and storytelling of a great journalist with the devotion, passion and theological acumen of thoughtful pastor. Day by Day is a great resource for individuals and groups hoping to hear the Word of the Lord in the words of scripture.” – Adam Hamilton, author of Making Sense of the Bible and senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas

       I am honored to have received such warm endorsements from several people who are not only friends but also mentors and fine examples of how to follow Jesus day by day.

A battle worth fighting

Well, it sounded a whole lot more interesting than it really is.

  I’m speaking of the book Who Is a True Christian? by David W. Congdon.

  I read a review of it in Christian Century and for some reason that now escapes me, I was intrigued.

  I sent a copy of the review to Hal Knight, a professor at Saint Paul School of Theology in Leawood and longtime friend and mentor, to see whether he thought it might be a candidate for our reading group.

  Based on the review, he was not impressed by the book, but he asked me to let him know what I thought when I read it.

  So this is my message to Hal – and to you, too, if you are inclined.

  Initially, I found the book very hard to read. There are reasons I don’t read much raw theology these days, and this book clicks most of the boxes.

  But I kept reading stubbornly, thinking it would get better. It did, somewhat, until the end, when it crashed and burned.

  Congdon ought to be a good read. He’s senior editor at the University Press of Kansas, and he teaches at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary.

  I have two complaints.

First, he writes for an airy academic audience. He is capable of writing a simple declarative sentence, and even a complex declarative sentence, and he proves this capability several times.

  However, most of his sentences suffer compound fracture. They are overly complex. They have far too many dependent and sub-dependent clauses. Too often his sentences require a second or even third read for me to figure out what he’s trying to say. And then I basically shrug and think, “Well, why didn’t he just say that outright?”

  I know that it is possible to be precise while being concise but density reigns here. I don’t think it needs to reign anywhere.

  Second, his conclusion turns out to be kinda wonky.

For most of the book he appears (at least to me) to oppose orthodoxy of belief because (he says) it always turns out to be right wing and oppressive. (Think Christian nationalism.) But at the end he declares that it is impossible for anybody to define the essence of Christian faith, so everybody ought to be free to believe whatever they want.

  In place of orthodoxy he calls for “polydoxy,” which is essentially anything goes. Or, as he puts it: “everyone must embrace heresy.”

  I don’t buy it. It seems to me that if at least some of us can’t agree on what we’re about as Christians, then we have nothing to say to the world, so we might as well shut up.

  I do not think that’s what Jesus had in mind.

A sin of omission

Time to ’fess up.

  In my 2019 book Keeping Christmas, I listed 129 popular songs of the season. About half were sacred, half were secular, and the rest were a bit of a mixture.

  The list was meant to be more representative than comprehensive. I’m sure I missed several songs, especially secular ones – not to mention some that have appeared in the six years since the book came out. (Can it really be that long ago?)

  Now I realize that my list ignored an important sacred hymn – an especially big error since this one is in the United Methodist Hymnal (#244) and many other hymnals as well. It’s been in circulation in English for 100 years, and French for many years before that.

It’s usually listed as “'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime.” The popular title is “The Huron Carol.” It has been recorded by many top artists, though I confess that I don’t recall hearing of it before Kate Bowler mentioned it in an Advent meditation this week.

It was written about 1643 by Saint Jean de Brébeuf, a French Jesuit priest to the Huron tribe in what is now Ontario. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the Huron language and set it to a French folk song. The original title was "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born").

  The Huron tribe is also known as Wendat or Wyandot, and has communities in Canada and the United States, including Kansas.

  Brébeuf and another missionary, Gabriel Lallemant, were tortured to death in1649 by Iroquois who destroyed the Jesuit mission and drove the Hurons out of their homeland.

  Here is the song as it appears in most hymnals, from the English translation by Jesse Edgar Middleton in 1926.

  1. 'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled,

That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;

Before their light the stars grew dim, and wandering hunter heard the hymn:

Refrain:

"Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria."

  2. Within a lodge of broken bark the tender Babe was found,

A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapp'd his beauty round;

But as the hunter braves drew nigh, the angel song rang loud and high.

Refrain

  3. The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair

As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.

The chiefs from far before him knelt with gifts of fox and beaver pelt.

Refrain

  4. O children of the forest free, O sons of Manitou,

The Holy Child of earth and heaven Is born today for you.

Come kneel before the radiant boy who brings you beauty, peace and joy.

Refrain

  May you have a blessed Advent and a merry (which is to say, a blessed) Christmas!

A new book is coming!

News flash: I’ve got a new book coming out soon!

  I’ll offer details later, when I have a better idea of when it will happen.

  I haven’t posted anything on this blog lately because I’ve been occupied getting the final manuscript to the publisher.

  Sad to say, it will not be out by Nov. 30, which is the end of the publisher’s half-price sale.

  (A reminder: two of my previous books are half-price! They are Keeping Christmas and Change of Heart. Check them out at wipfandstock.com.)

  Don’t think the new one will be out by Christmas either, so tell Santa he can cross it off his delivery lists this year.

  I turned in the manuscript and associated paperwork last Friday. I’m relieved to get over that initial hurdle, but more work is ahead, including paginating, copy editing, proofreading and early marketing. Happily, I don’t have to do all those steps, mostly just wait for the results.

  * * * * *

  Here’s more on the “hidden” Pantocrator at St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral in the city of Cork, Ireland.

  Linda and I toured the cathedral late in the summer as part of a Wesley Study Tour of the British Isles.

  The cathedral occupies a relatively small footprint but soars high into the sky above Cork. For all its height, it lacks the flying buttresses you often see to support the high walls in other cathedrals.

  The lack of buttresses may explain why high above the altar you can barely see a mosaic depiction of Christ Pantocrator, or Christ the King. The view is obscured by several colorful support beams.

  When I asked about them, a spokesman for the cathedral said the beams were probably used to carry the weight of the walls from the inside because there were no buttresses outside.

  Recently I got a message from Shane Broderick, a cathedral guide who also is a historian and folklorist. He said he thought the Pantocrator was not part of the original design by noted architect William Burges, but was added later.

  He provided a drawing by Burges of the upper reaches of the walls above the altar. There’s no Pantocrator visible.

  So maybe another piece of the puzzle falls into place, so to speak.

  Shane sent me several photos of the Pantocrator. I’m including one here. You may notice that he is not nearly so fierce as so many other renderings of him.

  I’m also including another photo he sent me – a photo of one of the angels that line the high walls near the Pantocrator. This angel is holding a model of the cathedral.

  From that iconography it would appear that not only was the cathedral a part of the heavenly plan, perhaps the “hidden” Pantocrator was as well. Ask the angels.

A high mystery

The Christ Pantocrator at St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork, Ireland, (left), is partly obscured by colorful support beams. By contrast, te Pantocrator at Monreal Duomo in Palermo, Sicily, is in plain view. Yet there is one way to see the Cork mosaic clearly.

I like mysteries, but I like solving mysteries even more.

The latest mystery to catch my interest: Why would anyone place a beautiful piece of artwork in plain sight but almost impossible to see clearly?

  The question arises from a tour of a cathedral in Cork, Ireland, during our recent Wesley Study Tour of the British Isles.

  St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral is certainly magnificent. On a relatively small footprint, it soars high into the sky – so high I could barely crane my neck back far enough to see the upper reaches.

  It is there that I spotted it.

  High above the altar is a depiction of Christ Pantocrator, or Christ the King.

  Similar representations of Christ date back to the sixth century and are especially popular in Orthodox iconography. Christ is portrayed as the stern but compassionate ruler of the universe who raises his right hand in blessing and holds a Gospel book in his left hand.

  Linda and I have seen excellent versions of the Pantocrator in the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and on a wall in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

  Alas, there is apparently no clear view of the mosaic at St. Fin Barre’s. A series of what one commentator calls “intersecting painted ribs” obscures the mosaic, no matter where you stand to get a better line of sight.

  Architect William Burges is said to have taken great care in every detail of the cathedral, completed in 1870. So is the obscured view of the Pantocrator an oversight, or maybe the unintentional result of necessary structural elements?

  Maybe I’m the only one who cares about this, but the Pantocrator image has long held great meaning for me, though it’s not easy to explain why.

  I have seen versions of the image that are quite intimidating, but I don’t see the stern visage as threatening. No, I see it as both magnificent and terrifying, the way you might see a lion in the wild.

  The notion that this great lion (think Aslan) might regard me as friend rather than prey is wildly exhilarating, and humbling, and comforting.

  He personifies the notion of “fear of the Lord.” Not quite fear as in terror or dread. More like fear as in great awe.

  I decided that the best way to solve the mystery was to go to the source, so I contacted St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral by email.

  A spokesman kindly offered an explanation.

  “Unlike other Gothic and Neo-Gothic Cathedrals such as Notre-Dame de Paris and the Washington National Cathedral, St. Fin Barre's Cathedral does not have outside flying buttresses, which serve to support the lateral and downward thrust from heavy stone vaulted ceilings.

  “William Burges undoubtedly took great care and responsibility over every detail of the cathedral's design and construction but chose not to use buttresses, perhaps to rein back on spiraling costs and expenses.”

  Rather, he said, Burgess might have chosen to use the interior wooden beams instead of exterior buttresses to support the high walls of the cathedral.

  He noted: “It is said here that to fully view and take in the Pantocrator mosaic scene, one should lie on the high altar floor underneath and view it in all its glory from there. Next time you visit us here in Cork you are more than welcome to try this!” 

  Lying on the floor of the high altar to view the Pantocrator mosaic? That posture might suggest some deep theological meaning, might it not?

  My great thanks to the cathedral staff for bothering with my query.

  As I ponder the meaning of the posture myself, I offer it to you as your own mystery to consider