Generous Justice

This book, yep, another one by Tim Keller (what can I say? he writes excellent books), was also great. I think it's probably one of the most important christian books currently in existence. I'd kind of skim-read it a couple of years ago, but recently we've been trying to get more christian students at Sheffield uni involved with social justice campaigns, and so I reread it more thoroughly to refresh my theological motivation for Jesus-style activism. Having just finished it I feel very convicted and challenged and encouraged and joyously grateful for God's grace and goodness, so I guess that implies that to that end my rereading the book worked somewhat. We'll see over the coming months and years how truly I stick my life to it though (hopefully very). I'm also doing a philosophy module this semester about moral obligation, and christian ethics has a lot of interesting stuff to say on the matter (not least from everyone's favourite Danish existentialist with an "ø" in his name).

   The book itself is easy to explain. It's an instrument for kickstarting christians who aren't actively concerned with justice, and spurring onward those who are. Strong biblical foundations (from both old and new testaments) and theological bases are laid for a vision of justice that we should be striving toward. The reasons why we should be striving as such are given with Keller's usual calm clarity that drives home enormous truths warmly, comprehensibly, and in a way which forces you to reassess your attitudes and habits. Methods in which we could strive as such are explained broadly but helpfully. Powerful challenges are drilled down through the question of "who is my neighbour" through and extended analysis of the Good Samaritan, and powerful encouragements similarly offered through consideration of God's intentions, plans and character.
   We are to care about justice as Jesus did: serving and embracing and loving the marginalised poor. Doing so, argues Keller compellingly, is the true mark of the Spirit's work in one's heart.
   My reception, as a relatively-left-wing ethically-concerned liberal young christian aspiring-economist-and-philosopher, was as you may predict wholeheartedly positive. I don't think there was anything in the entire book which I disagreed with in any meaningful way (there was a certain aspect I thought maybe could have been good but I'll discuss later why I think its exclusion was probably a good thing). I sincerely hope and pray that this book is read and absorbed extremely widely across the world, especially in America (as God knows there's far too many "christian" bestsellers over there that turn out to be as heretical as they are badly-written and generally wrong). Much of what discourages non-christians from engaging properly with the gospel is the elitism, materialism, and general hypocritical evil which so many "christians" espouse. Such likely-to-upset-Jesus folk in the extreme form are fortunately quite rare, with a pseudo-theological preacher of prosperity here and an entire political party bent on remoulding christianity into neoliberalism there, but the vaguer attitudes of individualism and not-caring-about-the-poor have seeped into the wider christian community. This hasn't been too difficult given the overwhelmingly middle-class status of most western christians. Anyway, the prevalence of these hypocrisies make christianity unappealing, laughable, false in the eyes of observers who can very easy read Jesus' words about feeding the hungry and watch a churchful of his supposed followers do their utmost to ignore the homeless man sat in the doorway near where they parked their SUV. More christian involvement in active development of social justice would be as excellent for alleviating human suffering as it would excellent for creating opportunities to share the gospel by actually living its implications and demands out properly.
   The one gripe-that-isn't-really-a-gripe I had with it, as I mentioned earlier, was that Keller steered away from engaging with christian involvement in politics. The methods he outlined as ways in which to work towards God's justice in society were all to do with altering personal habits, reinvigorating communities, collectively solving problems - which is all very well and good, but I think if we have a moral responsibility from God to care for the vulnerable then that must influence whether/how we vote, protest, campaign and act politically. Keller avoided having to discuss this by allowing some flexibility in his readers' definitions of justice (especially economically), to cater to liberal and conservative readers, though I'm sure that thought through properly, his arguments strongly imply that a conservative position is simply contrary to Jesus' position.*
   However, he didn't include an extended discussion of how christians should engage with the political sphere: why? Because the book is a motivation-changer for all christians. In keeping his arguments as theological as possible without straying too far from political neutrality, he doesn't automatically alienate and so lose the readership (and potential to motivate into action) of more conservative christians. I therefore think it's reasonable for him to exclude such a section, but also I prayerfully hope that conservative christians, having read the book, will have their attitudes reshaped, and give serious thought to the implications Christ's ethics have on their politics.
   Anyway. Should you read this book? Well, as a general all-round, yes. If you're a christian who's actively concerned with social justice, it'll give you enormous boosts of motivation and plenty of theological grounding for your actions that will aid evangelism alongside it. If you're a christian who's not that actively concerned, it might start making you one. If you're not a christian, it may give you a radically new understanding of the character and purposes of God and the world and our place in it, which may provoke you to rethink your stance on them.
   Praise God for his glory as the Father's sovereignty, his grace in Jesus' death, his goodness in the Spirit's ongoing work - and for giving us Tim Keller as a popular, intelligent signpost towards his Kingdom!


* Yes, this is genuinely my position. I think that someone who both holds the gospel to be true and holds a neoliberal (or similar) political stance has either not given enough thought to the relationship between their faith and their ethics, or is just an unrepentant hypocrite stubbornly trying to force camels through needle-eyes.

Veganomicon

This book, an American vegan cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, will not be done justice in this post due to haphazardity of circumstance, which will also be discussed but likewise probably not done justice in this post.

   I found the book on an evil monopolistic tax-dodging online store (which I shall not name) while searching for vegan cookbooks. It seemed like the best one, so I bought it from elsewhere. I've finished reading through it already since it arrived yesterday morning - not even cooking from it yet, just reading through for drool-inducing interest and getting a familiarity-feel for animal-product-free kitchen-work. Perhaps a cookbook is an odd choice for casual reading, but perhaps a bean is an odd choice for primary protein sourcing, and besides, I read lots of not-so-odd things recreationally too, so shush. I will continue to abuse hyphenation and thereby make up lots of words in this post, sorry. It is very early in the morning as I write. The main stint of reading was done last night, as all my housemates and most of our shared friends were going to fun, and I wasn't, so I hid in my room reading this cookbook to minimise my feelings-of-missing-out during predrinks; regrettably the numerous so-delicious-in-my-imagination-that-reading-them-became-genuinely-gripping recipes and my atrocious sleeping pattern conspired together such that I was still awake when the gang arrived home, and since I have work to do for uni tomorrow anyway it seemed wasteful to go to sleep. I finished the book, chilled with the others briefly, made a cafetiere of coffee and am writing this at around 6am. Once finished with this I'm going to make a start on a chunky problem sheet for a tutorial about economic inequality and poverty.

   Yes. Anyway, the book, apologies.

   It's great. Notsomuch for normal recreational reading (unless you get easily stimulated by descriptions of food and explanations of how to make it), but as a vegan cookbook, heck, even just as a cookbook, it's fabulous. There are brilliant helpful sections on really basic things that everyone kind of knows but a bit of expert advice shines new light on doing them well - like getting to know your kitchen implements, and preparing vegetables, grains and beans in certain ways. If our communal student kitchen were wholly my own I would likely go out tomorrow and fill it with quinoa, kale, squash, avocados, chickpeas and all the other glorious stereotypically-hipsterish eatable-plant-bits, but as I share it with three other young adult males of similar messiness to myself, doing so might cause cupboard-space-havoc. You know. The book's written really accessibly* and even amusingly, the recipe instructions are clear (especially given the helpful introductory chapters on how to prepare basics and use tools), the ingredients nutritionally diverse and relatively easy to find. I actually can't wait to start cooking some of them.

   What was that? Because it's a vegan cookbook you expect me to start trying to proselytise for a vegan lifestyle?** I shouldn't, because [a] strangers' life choices, unless morally detrimental, shouldn't be any of your business to question, and therefore I'm under no obligation to justify a legitimate choice to others, [b] I'll end up getting carried away and doing a huge rant about it, [c] even responding to these hypothetical clamours for explanation will no doubt result in accusations of my own preachiness, and most importantly [d] I really do need to start that tutorial sheet. But regardless, okay then mate, I will (briefly), because people who genuinely believe that a cause is important shouldn't be afraid of proselytising for it, and guess what, veganism is important.
   So basically, I went vegetarian a couple of months before starting uni because I'm proactively terrified of the prospects of climate change. The animal product industry is one of the worst global culprits in emissions, and consumer habits can and do change social trends - so I decided to aim for a meatless diet. I've since gained a growing sympathetic support for animal rights and even learned a fair bit about health benefits of being veggie, but the environmental case still forms the core of my dietary-choice-motivations. Veganism, in cutting out dairy as well as meat from one's intake, further substantially reduces your food's carbon footprint, so it was the logical next step. See the double-asterisk-footnote if you want more on the topic.

   Well, that's me done, hope you enjoyed what's been a considerably-sarkier-than-usual and less-actually-about-a-book-than-usual post. I'm going to go to the library to apply algebraic models to poor people (economics is a weird subject).

* Except for its being American; but while inserting u's into "color" and translating "zucchini" to "courgette" in my head aren't too tricky, converting medieval °F and ounces into sensible °C and grams was. Fortunately there was a conversion table in the back, which unfortunately I found after scrawling my own guides to converting everything in the back of the intro chapter. Ah well.

** Cards on the table, I'm not a hardline dogmatist when it comes to this. My shoes and satchel and wallet and belts, which (vegan friends reading this please note) I bought before going herbivore, are leather. Since taking the plunge into trying to become a citizen of plant-food-world, I've eaten things with dairy products in them from time to time out of convenience, and even the cooked flesh of dead creatures (mostly either in politeness when given food from friends from other cultures, or fried chicken after West Street Live). Nobody's adherence to their own ideal lifestyle is perfect, and I count myself as normal in that regard: consider my veganism more of a guideline I follow as much as expectable. However, these deviances are rare, and increasingly rarer, and so while I'll maybe never be self-disciplined enough to gain full vegan powers, my diet has got healthier, more ethical and much more sustainable, so who's complaining?