God Is Just Love (Ken Whitt) A Review

 

GOD IS JUST LOVE: Building Spiritual Resilience and Sustaining Communities for the Sake of Our Children and Creation. By Ken Whitt. Foreword by David P. Gushee. Preface by Brian McLaren. Introduction by Daniel Buttry. Canton, MI: Read the Spirit Books, 2021. Xxv + 164 pages.

                What is the future we will leave to our children and grandchildren? That is a challenging question because we know that Climate Change is proceeding unabated, migration is on the rise, racial relationships are problematic. As I write this review, we remain impacted by a global pandemic that has been raging for more than a year, and future pandemics are likely. The future looks uncertain, and it’s easy to give up hope. But if we are people of faith, shouldn’t we have hope for the future? If so, what might faith have to say to our present and our future? As I ask that question, I must acknowledge that there are those whose eschatology insists that we’re in the last days, that the world is going to be destroyed when Jesus returns, so why worry about such things as the environment? Why not exploit the resources at hand and enjoy life while we can? After all, we might be up in heaven tomorrow! That’s one way to look at things, but that’s not my eschatology. It’s also not the eschatology embraced by Ken Whitt.  

                In GodIs Just Love, retired American Baptist pastor Ken Whitt introduces us to a spiritual vision that draws on people like Brian McLaren and Richard Rohr. This vision emphasizes love as the defining element of God's nature and therefore should be the defining element of our faith. Whitt writes this book with children in mind. As a father and grandfather, he’s concerned about the future that he will leave to those who come after him. With that in mind, Whitt begins the book with a story that's rooted in a conversation he had with his young children many years ago about God and love. Though the conversations took place long ago, they provide the jumping-off point for a conversation about spiritual resilience. There is another element to this book, and that is Whitt’s interest in the intersection of science and spirituality. He strongly believes, as I do, that they belong together. From this conversation come three core values that he explores in different ways in the course of the book: love, wonderment, and diversity. He brings these core values into a conversation he encourages parents to have with their children.

                This book ranges over a wide variety of subjects that runs from the way we read Genesis to the importance of telling the truth to children. Like the biblical refrain that declares that the “steadfast love of the Lord endures forever,” Whitt declares that “God is Just Love.” I will admit that I didn't completely grasp his definition of God being “just love.” It’s a bit elusive. Part of my challenge here was that I kept reading this in terms of a connection between justice and love. While he doesn’t exclude that idea from his definition, that’s not quite what he had in mind. It’s more that God is just love. Nothing more and nothing less. In some ways, this might resonate with understandings of God that have emerged in the Open and Relational Theology conversation. But Whitt’s conversation partners aren’t, to my knowledge, folks that are involved in that conversation. Nevertheless, the goal here is to prepare children for an unknown future that will likely be very different from the one we are experiencing at this moment.

                In his exploration of the relationship between spirituality and science, he embraces evolution, but like many of us, he wonders whether and how God plays a role in this. At one point he talks about a presentation from Stephen Hawking, which at first pulled him in, but the absence of God from Hawking’s presentation left him cold. It's not that he was operating from a “God of the Gaps” understanding of the relationship of faith and science, but he still wondered, where is God in this? It’s a question many of us ask.  He doesn’t give us a final answer to the question, but he raises questions we can pursue.

                Ultimately God Is Just Love should provide a helpful spiritual tonic to our overly divided era. In it, Whitt asks us to look outward at nature and our communities so we can recognize God's presence in those spaces once again. For the most part, the book is positive in its presentation, which is why I found it odd in the end that he wrote about preparing for a world of despair that seemed to embrace a survivalist vision. He suggests that we should stock up on supplies just in case bad things happen. Perhaps he’s right, but it just seemed a bit odd when taken together with the rest of the book. Thankfully, there was no word about arming oneself to protect one's domain.  That definitely would not fit at all with the overall message of God being love. While I found that discussion a bit odd, it doesn’t take away from the rest of the book, which offers a progressive vision for Christians to embrace.

                Whitt brings his book to a close with a list of "100 Things Families Can Do to Find Hope and Be Love." It’s not meant to be comprehensive, so we can add to it. In line with the overall message of the book, Whitt begins his list with a reminder that "God's Just Love surrounds you." From there he moves on to other ideas like teaching children to children to build a cooking fire so they can enjoy eating in nature as well as planting trees for a sustainable future. So, if God is just love, there are lots of things we can do in the power of that love. If we do this, then maybe we can pass on a livable future to our descendants. For isn’t that what the love of God would have us do?