REVIEWS
However, the core of the crisis remains the
staggering, seemingly endless, scandals of clergy
sexual abuse of teens and children, and the equal
if not greater scandals of church authorities who
placed the church's institutional welfare ahead of
the safety of its most vulnerable members by
transferring abusing priests from parish to
parish, and in many cases, from diocese to dio-
cese. The ensuing institutional crisis raised the
neuralgic issue, long smoldering since the
Reformation and fanned by the breezes of the
Second Vatican Council, of mandatory celibacy
for diocesan priests of the Western church.
(Catholic Eastern rite priests in Europe are per-
mitted to marry as long as they do so before
ordination.)
While it is folly to assert a direct causal link
between mandated celibacy and clerical pedophiles
(since the preponderance of child abusers are mar-
ried men), celibacy imposed on men who possess
neither the aptitude nor the grace for such a life
often leads to truncated psycho-sexual develop-
ment—a common factor in adults who abuse chil-
dren.
At the height of the church's crisis and the
subsequent demands for a review of mandated
celibacy, Phipps speaks to a wounded church with
the clarity and dispassion of an outsider who has
long studied the Catholic tradition of obligatory
celibacy. His Clerical Celibacy is a breathtaking,
developmental study of the nine-hundred-year-
old law forbidding priests to marry. It is grounded
in an historically structured review of the scrip-
tural, philosophical, theological, pastoral, and
spiritual forces and arguments used both to but-
tress celibacy and critique its mandatory charac-
ter. Phipps offers his readers a comprehensive pic-
ture of just how celibacy became the linchpin of
clerical culture and a central factor in the church's
current crisis.
This Catholic insider is grateful for this
careful study of mandated celibacy. I am aware
of no other single volume that more clearly and
thoroughly addresses the stormy heritage of
clerical celibacy.
DONALD COZZENS
JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY
CLEVELAND, OHIO
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Interpretation 357
Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy
Leave Local Church Ministry
by Dean Hoge and Jacqueline Wenger
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2005. 257 pp. $21.00. ISBN
0-8028-2908-2.
MY BROTHER ROBERT and I are third-generation
ministers. Add our great-great-grandfather to
that line, and it represents 156 continuous years
of ministry to the Presbyterian Church during
which none of our ancestors left local church
pastoral ministry. Both my brother and I have—
moving from pastorates to Presbytery leadership.
Do we represent a trend? Do our forebears repre-
sent the true calling, or just our idealized vision
of real ministry?
Dean Hoge and Jacqueline Wenger take on
those questions in this study, the most recent
addition to the Pulpit and Pew series. Their partic-
ular contribution to the discussion is their reliance
upon data instead of anecdote. For this reason
alone, the book offers important information.
Their analysis also serves to correct, challenge, and
call to anyone considering the current state of
ministry.
The research consisted of contacts with over
2,000 ministers, mostly pastors who have left local
church ministry. They also interviewed a small
control group still serving congregations and a few
judicatory heads. The ministers served five denom-
inations: the Assemblies of God, the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod, the Presbyterian Church
(USA), and the United Methodist Church. The
research illustrates the effective use of exit inter-
views with those most involved in the move from
the pastorate and dispels much of what passes for
conventional wisdom.
The resulting data show that the most com-
mon reason for leaving local church ministry is
entirely voluntary—the preference for another
kind of ministry. Conflict with one's congrega-
tions or with denominational leadership repre-
sent the second and third most common reasons
for leaving. Hoge and Wenger are quick to point
out that motivations are frequently complex,
with no single reason driving the decision to
leave church ministry.
Especially interesting are the reflections of
judicatory heads—whose experiences of those
358 Interpretation
leaving the pastorate were often very different
from the impressions of those who have left. This
chapter alone makes the book valuable to anyone
who loves the church and pastoral ministry.
The authors' writing style is simple and
direct, and they use tables and summary charts
very effectively. Extensive quotes from the inter-
views give substance to the narrative andfleshto
the statistics. The book concludes with recom-
mendations—often drawing from the words of
the pastors they had interviewed. Their research
has earned our attention.
THOMAS D. HAY
SHENANDOAH PRESBYTERY
HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA
Preaching the Parables: From
Responsible Interpretation to Powerful
Proclamation
by Craig Blomberg
Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2004. 251 pp. $16.99.
ISBN 0-8010-2749-7.
FROM HIS PH.D. DISSERTATION on Lucan parables
in 1982 to Interpreting the Parables (1990), Craig
Blomberg has long been interested in this topic. He
now brings together this expertise with his preach-
ing ministry, offering sample sermons on fifteen
different parables from Luke and Matthew. Each
chapter begins with the sermon, followed by com-
mentary on Blomberg's reasoning in constructing
the sermon as he did, and the exegetical choices
and pastoral applications he makes. He writes as
an evangelical Christian who espouses expository
preaching. He moves from exposition to practical
application, a helpful approach in many ways.
However, there are times when it becomes moral-
izing, and the open-endedness of the parables,
which invites hearers to wrestle with their
response, becomes muted.
For Blomberg, approximately two-thirds of
the Gospel parables have a triangular structure in
which there are three main characters or groups of
characters, and the relationship pattern is that of a
master figure interacting with one or more con-
trasting pairs of subordinates. The remainder are
two-point and one-point parables. Each parable
has one main point per main character.
Accordingly, the bulk of the sermons in this vol-
ume have three main points. Often Blomberg uni-
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JULY 2 0 0 6
fies the three points into an overarching "big idea."
He finds implicit third characters even in
parables that have only two characters, such as the
parable of the widow and the judge (Luke 18:1-8),
where the implicit character is God. I agree with
Blomberg that there is more than one point to a
parable, depending upon which character one
focuses. I also agree that many of the parables
build up to their climax using three diverse charac-
ters. But I am not convinced that the triparte
structure is as pervasive as Blomberg would have
it. For example, as I have argued elsewhere, is not
the widow, who persistently pursues justice in Luke
18:1-8, the God-like figure to be emulated,
embodying how God relentlessly takes the part of
the oppressed? Rather than see God as an implicit
third character, is God not present in thefigureof
the widow?
One of Blomberg's guiding principles is that
the parables are authentic in the forms and con-
texts in which they appear in our canonical
Gospels. While I agree that it is necessary to deal
with the whole text in the form in which we now
have it, I would put greater reliance on source and
redaction criticism than does Blomberg, to try to
understand the redactional hand of the evangelist,
especially in the case of Luke 16:1-13 (ch. 5); Matt
13:1-23 (ch. 7); Matt 13:24-43 (ch. 8); and Luke
18:1-8 (ch. 12).
As Blomberg contemporizes the parables in
his sermons, he tackles some very difficult and
controversial issues. These include racism, poverty,
homosexuality, anti-Semitism, gun control, use of
time and monetary resources, and permanency in
commitments. I find this commendable, even if
some of my own positions would varyfromhis.
Blomberg includes perspectives from the two-
thirds world and his plea to attend to wider social
justice concerns than those usually associated with
evangelicals is laudable. His frequent use of dualis-
tic categories (e.g, lost/saved, Christian/non-
Christian, and sinful/righteous), however, does not
allow for the greater ambiguity inherent both in
the parables and in Christian living. While non-
evangelicals will disagree with some of Blomberg's
positions, there is much to be gained from his
book.
BARBARA E. REÍD
CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS