Fulgrim

This book by Graham McNeill is the fifth Horus Heresy instalment. In this one, we again skip backwards a few years to follow the strands of story around Fulgrim and his legion, the Emperor's Children - who pride themselves on being the legion that most strives for, and in large part attains, perfection in all they do. Like the Luna Wolves had before, the legion has a cohort of civilian remembrancers attached to their crusade fleet to record the great deeds achieved in the war to reunite humanity. The aesthetic experience in a temple-like construct of a defeated alien race called the laer seems to have a profound and disturbing effect on many of the legion and the remembrancers alike; this influence builds slowly over the course of this novel into a horrifying excess of expression and enjoyment. But before that peak is reached, Fulgrim is brought into the confidence of Horus's new direction and sides with the Warmaster - then, given the task of persuading Ferrus Manus, primarch of the Iron Hands legion, to join the cause also, Fulgrim tries his best but ultimately fails. This uncloseable breach between the brothers opened, Fulgrim draws the Iron Hands to Isstvan V - where, just mere days after the terribly scenes of Isstvan III, the civil war among the legions rears its head once more in all-out slaughter - including the death of Ferrus Manus himself (the first primarch to die). Despite having been forewarned by an eldar farseer earlier in the book, Fulgrim is by this point so full of pride and surety that even Horus is looking at him askance by the end: and rightly, as those feelings are not the only things Fulgrim is full of - he has been completely consumed and possessed by a daemon of the warp. His life is no longer his own - he has become a passive instrument of the dark powers. So while the chief instigator of the titular heresy is of course Horus, arguably Fulgrim fell further faster.* Quite the trajectory for one book, but trust me, it's well-paced enough that not of it feels rushed nor anything less than inevitable.

* There are a handful of other traitor primarchs who were well underway with their downward spirals before Horus too (especially looking at you, Lorgar), but we'll get to them in turn. This is a long series, folks.

the Way of Jesus Christ

This book is the third of Jürgen Moltmann's series of contributions to systematic theology, and this instalment deals with Christology, as the title probably suggests. He very deliberately opts to consider the subject matter through a messianic lens, which makes sense as Jesus was the Messiah, although this makes the points elucidated in this book altogether more rooted in Jewish tradition than most Protestant Christology tends to consciously be, which is interesting. What Moltmann has to say is broken down into seven broad chapters:

1. The messianic perspective - the genesis of its hopes, the development of the hoped-for figure therein, and a consideration of what we learn about this from Jewish-Christian dialogue.
2. Trends and transmutations in Christology - its identity and relevance as a field of thought, how its theme and scheme can be interpreted through cosmological and anthropological lenses, and what all this looks like in the modern context of a scientific civilisation.
3. Christ's mission - his birth and baptism in the Spirit, the gospel's relation to the poor, the sick, the demon-possessed and the outcast, the broader ethic of the messianic way of life as expressed and taught and lived in Jesus, and the person of Jesus as embodied in his relationships to God and the rest of humanity.
4. Christ's suffering - starting with the notion that his passion event provides an apocalyptic horizon to world history, then going on to consider the nature of his death, the presence (or rather absence) of God throughout, the overall purpose of his death, and how this is echoed in martyrdoms throughout history in remembrance.
5. Christ's resurrection - viewed through an eschatological lens, we look at the unique character of Christian faith in this event, then dissect the theological and historical problems of the resurrection as a historical phenomenon and the theological and natural problems of the resurrection as a [super]natural phenomenon, before finally thinking about the spiritual unification process foreshadowed by the resurrection as an event.
6. Christ in cosmic terms - first outlining historical and ecumenical views of such, then a look at Christ as the ground of creation, his relationship to evolution (is he its driving force, its victim, or its redeemer? Moltmann makes a case for all three), and his establishment of a basis for the community of creation.
7. Christ's parousia (that is, second coming) - the nature of its expectation, the character of the promised one who is coming "again", the event of the Last Day itself, the category of Heaven, the righteousness of the foretold judgement, and finally affirmed embodiment.

   Obviously there is a lot going on in this book (as there has been with all of Moltmann's books that I've read so far and I expect nothing less of the fourth and fifth) and it would be ludicrous for me to attempt to summarise what is said herein. I will say though that as with the books on the Trinity and creation Moltmann here delves into corners of theology that comprise the home turf of questions I have always had but never quite known how to pose; he has an uncanny knack for uncovering something so intellectually obscure that it seems almost esoteric but once discussed and placed into proper context provides new and fruitful ammunition for starting to grasp the divine mysteries underlying the Christian faith. The same caveats apply here for the first two books - that is, that being translated (very well, but still) from German means the text's structure is often a wee bit confusing, and Moltmann has that incorrigible academic habit of dumping you with a phrase in Greek or Latin that even the footnotes refuse to clarify in English for the heathen reader - but overall this is a largely readable book for how dense its ideas are, and I think any Christian reader willing to be patient and thoughtful with a meatily rewarding series of trains of thought will find a great deal in this book to flesh out their understandings of Christ's being, mission, and meaning.

Stage Invasion

This book by Pete Bearder is a multi-disciplinary investigation in poetry and "the spoken word Renaissance" that has been taking place in the west in recent years. I've actually met the author* (stage name Pete the Temp) at a fracking site a few years ago, where he performed some radical poetry - but his scholarship shown here is just as fine as his capacity for crowd-rousing verse.

   The book itself drives a complex path across its many disciplines to explicate the nature and trajectory of spoken word. After an introduction setting up the intent of the book, we are first given a glimpse into the world of slam poetry, its origins, popularity, and benefits and drawbacks.** We then dive into a definitional chapter discussing exactly what spoken word is and isn't - from the ancient concept of oral tradition to "live literature"; reflections on style, and then finally a consideration of the social format itself in which this art form generally takes place and its uniquenesses. Then there's a history chapter, starting with the Romantics through the Beat generation up to contemporary hip-hop, and how all of these have left their mark on the art form as it's evolved. The next chapter digs into DIY renewal culture; how the grassroots nature of poetic space necessarily creates room for creators to create, interact and share in innovative ways. Following this are three chapters building on the same idea - first how a poem inhabits and leaves the body of the performer during performance; second how this inhabits and shapes the experience of bodies in the crowd listening to said performance,*** and thirdly how if done well this can all lead to spoken word performances bringing out transcendent states of shared consciousness between audience and performer. The final chapter is about how this can be, and often is, utilized to great effect in harmonising sympathies in crowds for transformative political ends - poetry can be remarkably effective propaganda if written and shared correctly, as long as recognition and empathy are at its heart.

   The blurb quote on the front of this book claims it is the book "we have all been waiting for", and as a member of the many spoken word communities in the UK today, I couldn't agree more; Bearder's scholarship is deep and wide and his love of the craft evident on every page. The poetry he samples for quotes to make his points is eclectic and wondrous, and his core argument that spoken word is a social force of uniting and driving emotional communal activity toward understanding and the forging of better worlds is tangible throughout. If you're a spoken word artist craving to know more about the artistic world you inhabit, this is absolutely the book for you - if you're skeptical about it as an art form, this would be a challenging but wholesome read that will make you think twice about what you do or don't seek out and listen to. A fantastic book.

* And again [edit December 2024] as he was performing at The Shakespeares, and I got my copy signed; he says "this book - in your hands - a powerful weapon". I hope I live to prove him right.

** As the host of a spoken word night myself which is very much in its culture antithetical to slam, I found much to disagree with in this chapter, but much worth bearing in mind too.

*** This chapter has a section which delves into the role of the MC of a spoken word event, a role which I myself have held for Guerrilla since 2019, and so this was of much encouraging inspiration to me.