Reviews
Spirit Abroad: a Second Selection of New Zealand Spiritual Verse
Edited by Paul Morris, Harry Ricketts & Mike Grimshaw
Random House Publishing (2004)
Spirit Abroad seeks to trace the emergence of our identities: our coming to and from this land we call Aotearoa.
There are six sections, each pointing to crucial sites where our “identity is ordered, disordered, contested, challenged, constructed and deconstructed”. The first, “Tangata Whenua” opens up the role of Maori spirituality and its traditions in our national life.
“The Heart of the Land/The Land of the Heart” concentrates on the numerous roles that “land” plays in our lives. Here we see it pulsating with life in a variety of settings, for example, Ruth Dallas’ “Milking before Dawn”, Wensley Willcox’s “Kiwiana”, or Kevin Ireland’s “Definitions of ourselves”.
The poetry of the third section, “Anzacs/ What’s worth fighting for?” is the most striking: it provides thought-provoking material on what has become this country’s most religious act; the only national observance that it promotes with any fervour or emotional intensity.
“Welfare, Wharfies and Wealth” reminds us of our egalitarian myth. Although I was not alive in the Depression and am far too young to recall the 1951 waterfront strike, Denis Glover’s and C K Stead’s evocative lines communicate the feeling of those events. As the distance between the “haves” and the “have-nots” widens, this selection speaks to those who sit powerlessly on an escalator that seems to be running backwards for more people than we dare admit.
“Location, This Location, Dis-Location” identifies our transitory nature. We often travel afar or come from afar to this place. The selection talks of what we bring and what we do when we get here. Pat Wilson’s “A New Zealander in London” and Denis Glover’s “Holiday Piece” contrast effectively.
The final section in this anthology, “Tangata Pakeha,” seeks to respond to the question of who we are.
This collection does not force us into a straightjacket in its definition of spirituality. There is room for the reader to move, and morsels for all palates to savour. Paul Morris’ concluding essay also reflects on our spirituality and identity.
This trio of academics has provided another much-needed anthology that speaks in the vernacular to our time. It is the kind of book one can dip into at random with profit and pleasure - and not just on a rainy day at the crib [bach]!
Reviewed by the Rev Graeme Munro, Senior Minister, Waitaki Presbyterian Church, North Otago.
Pacific Psalms
by Vinepa Aiono
Soulton House (2004)
Pacific Psalms is a collection of poems and stories that arise out of personal experiences growing up in Otara. They are windows into a life, with joys and trials that many will relate to. The poems are mostly short, containing layers of truth that only emerge after several readings. Vinepa Aiono incorporates two indelible factors: her Pacific culture and her faith in God.
Many scholars divide the biblical Psalms into public and private. Psalms that would have been used to bring the concerns of the congregation and nation to God, and those of an individual struggling with all life brings. Pacific Psalms is very much in the latter category, with Aiono’s experiences put forth in poetic terms and reaching out from life to the God who supports life.
Though most are not designed to be read in a church, I can envisage using them for this purpose because they speak to the realities that liturgy should be about.
In The Message of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann says that the Psalms draw our entire life under the rule of God, where everything may be submitted to the Gospel. In her own way, Vinepa Aiono has done just that. She has spoken of being a Samoan woman, of family, love, jealousy, death and dying. She talks of the pain of miscarriage, the power of violence and the joy of friendship. Her psalms are not always easy reading because they often speak of the hard realities of a life lived. Like the biblical Psalmist, she sometimes rails against God for life’s injustices but underpinning all is her faith in God. As she says in poem entitled “God Rocks”,
YOU’RE the rock the planet leans on I rock on to overcome.
Reviewed by the Rev Doug Rogers, a retired Methodist Minister, currently chairperson of the Hutt City Uniting Congregations.
Generosity: Big-heartedness as a way of life
By Michael Wakely
Inter Varsity Press (2004)
A delightful read. Many of the more radical theological persuasion will not look at, but then not to do so is to miss something. That something is a genuine effort by its author to remind his readers that the Gospel is simple should be kept simple and ought to be lived. In a way this is a book for professional Christians who are so busy about the things of heaven that they have become of no earthly use.
Over thirty years past I stood close to one of the world’s greatest preachers and most publicised of evangelists. He was unhappy, he was non communicative, and finally down right rude to me. I was a fly on the wall and not to be taken seriously. Never again did I see him through the spectacles as a wonderful man of God. He was very much a human being. Greatness has with it great faults in those who are elevated to such a height.
You’re reminded in this simple, excellent read that our culture is increasingly at loggerheads with our Gospel beliefs and responsibilities. How many times do we settle for the cultural norms and to hang with the Christian graces?
We are called to be disciples, to be followers as much as doers of the word. It may come as a surprise to us all that it takes courage to be the individual who does not walk on the other side of the road leaving the injured man to be picked up by those with lesser skills but greater hearts for humanity than ours.
You might wonder what on earth a writer could come up with dealing with such a simple part of the Gospel. Stop wondering, its simplicity is its ability to persuade and remind you that we are Christ’s people first and our own people second.
An excellent inspiring read.
Reviewed by the Rev Frank Glen
Reviewers needed
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