More Gift-Giving Ideas

Carolyn Custis James writes:

A cartoon appeared in the October 1998 issue of Christianity Today, next to a book review titled, “Theology for the Rest of Us.” The reviewer was assessing Dr. Ellen Charry's book By the Renewing of Your Minds, in which she argues from Jesus and Paul through the writings of Augustine, John Calvin, and other church leaders that theology is (and always has been) good for every Christian in practical everyday ways.

The cartoon pictures a mother seated on a park bench with one hand resting on the handle of the stroller containing her wide-eyed, pacifier-plugged infant. Her other hand holds a book, balanced on her knees, which she is reading with the same undivided interest you would expect her to devote to the latest romance novel. The apprehensive look on the baby's face is explained by the title on the book jacket: “Theology for New Mothers.” What the cartoonist intended as a joke (or at best a bit of satire on the notion that a mother would find any use for theology) is, in fact, an excellent suggestion.

I have not yet attended a baby shower where the new mother unwrapped a systematic theology book, but upon reflection, that might not be such a bad idea. The value of reading Dr. Spock is negligible compared with the help a new mother would gain from focusing on her theology.

From her book, When Life and Beliefs Collide, pp. 138-139.

G. Mark Sumpter