Easy, there, Johnny

That rumbling-and-gurgling sound you hear is John Knox rolling over in his grave to vomit.



I got my copy of the book catalog from Westminster/John Knox Press today. Here are the books on the front cover:



Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief by Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury.) [ John Knox critiqued Anglicanism as being Popery without the Pope. His assessment is more true every day as the Church of England comes closer and closer to outright reconciliation with Rome. I wonder what Knox would think of a house which bears his name publishing a theological work done by a man who has done his best to smooth-over the controversy over gay clerics in the Anglican church?]



Thomas: the Other Gospel by Nocholas Perrin. [ From reading the advertising about this book, it comes down, eventually, on the side of giving this gnostic "gospel" a second-century date. But if your contention is that it falls rightly far outside the Canon of Scripture, then why call it "The Other Gospel" as if it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with the familiar, scriptural Four? Could it be...to boost interest, and therefore sales? Hmmm?]



Caring for Mother: A Daughter's Long Goodbye by Virginia Stem Owens. [ Now, obviously, there's nothing wrong with a tear-jerker book about losing a loved one to a drawn-out decline in disease. But this is Westminster/John Knox Press, not the Oprah magazine, for cryin' in the night! Anyone remember Westminster and the theological standards produced by that assembly? Anyone remember Knox, who proved himself adept at wielding two sorts of swords, the Word of God and the Scottish broadsword?]



The Gospel According to the Simpsons by Mark I. Pinsky. [No, I'm not making this up. It's a real book. I'd pay good money to watch John Knox give Mr. Pinsky an old-fashioned Highlander's education in how not to treat sacred things as if they were frivolous and common.]



I Want to Live These Days With You by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. [Okay, this is the only book on the front cover I can see John Knox actually looking at without retching. It's a daily devotional using snippets of Bonhoeffer's writings. The Reformer who publicly called for the regicide of Catholic Queen Mary would probably be able to feel some affinity with a preacher who refused to compromise his faith in the face of tyrants, and eventually died for his part in a plot to kill Hitler. I can almost hear the brogue in his "Good on ya, man!"]



It doesn't get better on the back cover, either. You have the waste of a tree called The Gospel According to Hollywood, and a pop-psycho babble screed called Losers, Loners, and Rebels: the Spiritual Struggles of Boys (apparently this will help where tools like, oh, say...the Bible have historically failed so miserably at raising Christian men.)



But the kicker, the one that's surely making Knox beg for just twenty-four hours to walk the earth with a sharp blade in his hand once again: Frank J. Matera's New Testament Theology. Hold onto your hat, there, Pastor Knox, but Matera's a Catholic theologian, and WJKP is publishing this book with the explicit hope to "integrate both Catholic and Protestant approaches."



Okay, okay, I know: John Knox is in the presence of his Lord, the King, Jesus Christ, and the silliness that goes on in his own small name is surely now of little consequence to him. I confess though: it ticks me off. I'm mad on Knox's behalf. I'm still here, after all, and anti-biblical doo doo like this still gets my goat.