Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 35 • NUMBER 4
is no room to compromise.” This book, a critical challenge to
Leibniz’s theodicy, is accessible to students, professors, and
even the novice.
Perry Neel
James Madison University
WELCOMING THE STRANGER. By Matthew Soerens
and Jenny Hwang. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press,
2009. Pp. 240. Paper, $15.00.
Soerens and Hwang, immigration experts at World
Relief, coauthor this text as an introduction to the immigra-
tion conundrum and the quagmire of issues it raises. The
importance of the text is that it analyzes immigration and
introduces the complexity of issues underlying this emotion-
ally charged topic. In the first chapters, the authors present
a balanced overview, dispel many immigration myths, and
begin to humanize the discourse on immigration. They chal-
lenge those viewpoints that perceive aliens as a burden on
society, and demonstrate contributions of immigrant
workers to the new country. Furthermore, the authors
describe the necessity of entering into relationship with the
immigrants, listening to and understanding their stories.
Such a posture allows for a building of bridges to aliens and
a possible way to work for a solution to the immigration
problem. The text also describes different historical anteced-
ents and capricious laws set in place according to the eco-
nomic demands of the US, and notes many contradictions in
immigration law and how outdated some of these are. Most
importantly, the authors have included a section on thinking
biblically and theologically concerning immigration. The
biblical text consistently reminds readers to remember the
immigrant past of the Nation of Israel, and of God’s call to
demonstrate kindness to the stranger. In the end, Soerens
and Hwang attempt to overcome the seeming hopelessness
of the situation by advocating for just, merciful, and loving
immigration policies as forms of Christian witness.
Daniel Orlando Álvarez
Regent University
AMERICAN INDIAN LIBERATION: A THEOLOGY
OF SOVEREIGNTY. By George E. Tinker. Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 2008. Pp. 170. Paper, $22.00.
This collection, written by an Osage Indian, provides a
framework whereby Native Americans can retrieve sover-
eignty over their own lives, lands, and destinies. Tinker
attacks the “euro-american” Christianity that savaged that
sovereignty. He challenges basic assumptions, even those of
Liberation Theology. Theologies based on class, race, or
gender analysis are as imperialistic as theologies based on
Enlightenment reason and individualism. Tinker’s method-
ology for an indigenous theology resists analyzing indig-
enous peoples in terms of race, class (poverty), and colonial
language/categories. Indigenous theology begins by assum-
ing the harmony of all creation, which includes the
sovereignty of indigenous people over themselves. Tinker
contrasts each point of indigenous thought with Euro-
• DECEMBER 2009
American Christianity. For example, he contrasts the
starting points of Christianity and indigenous religion.
Christianity typically starts with revelation (christo-
centrism), thereby distinguishing it from other religions.
Indigenous theologies begin with the harmony of creation,
thereby connecting it with other religions, including Chris-
tianity. Indeed, primitive Christianity begins with creation,
he insists, as reflected in its scriptures and earliest creeds.
But Christianity forfeited this common starting point in
favor of asserting its christo-centric uniqueness, and so
alienated itself from other religions. This book is provocative
and mostly fulfills its promise. Tinker does, however, occa-
sionally commit the colonial fallacy he critiques: assuming
that the difference of indigenous theology from Christianity
implies superiority. This book is accessible to audiences
beyond academia.
James Gilman
Mary Baldwin College
Arts, Literature, Culture
and Religion
TEACHING RELIGION AND FILM. Edited by Gregory J.
Watkins. Teaching Religious Studies. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2008. Pp. xi + 309. $49.95.
This excellent collection of essays will be valuable for
anyone who plans to teach, or who already teaches in, this
field. In Part I, W. Blizek and M. Desmarais suggest three
different approaches: using religion to understand movies,
using movies to interpret religion, and using movies to
clarify and illustrate cultural values. C. Ostwalt suggests a
fourth approach with his thesis that films can function in a
religious way without any actual religious content. Part II of
the book is more specialized, concerned with film and the
teaching of religious traditions, including Hinduism, Bud-
dhism, and Islam. C. Deacy writes about the pedagogical
challenge of finding Christ figures in film, C. Marsh dis-
cusses romance films and theology, and G. Williams-Ortiz
tackles feminist theology and film. The third part includes J.
Lyden on teaching film as religion, and G. Williams provides
a useful syllabus on theories of religion through film. The
book concludes with papers on the values approach to films
about evil, ethics, and genocide. A good specialist book by
acknowledged experts.
Andrew Quicke
Regent University
Ancient Near East
ECCLESIASTES. By Craig G. Bartholomew. Baker Com-
mentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms. Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009. Pp. 448. $39.99.
The author of this commentary has already published a
significant study of Qoheleth and hermeneutical theory
(Reading Ecclesiastes, Analecta Biblica 139, Rome: Pontifical
258