134 - Power in Weakness: New Hearing for Gospel Stories of Healing and Discipleship

Power in Weakness: New Hearing
for Gospel Stories of Healing and Discipleship
By Frederick Houk Borsch
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1983. 156 pp. $8.95.

Twenty-nine years ago, a naive freshman confessed to an upperclassman that he had come to the university to discover the direction of history and, thus, the meaning of life. The response was sympathetic, if not definitive. This book by the Dean of the Princeton University Chapel continues that conversation with this reviewer in a helpful way.

Borsch takes seriously the historical and literary-critical data available concerning nine healing and conversion stories in the Gospels. Through imaginative retelling, he bridges the gaps of time and culture which separate us from them and then provides a personal, thoughtful and practical theological reflection on each. We shall not soon forget the amazement of the Gadarene swineherds, nor the fear of the paralytic as be lands in a cloud of clay dust and straw at Jesus' feet. Most important, Borsch makes it possible to use these stories from an alien time and place to enhance our understanding of ourselves, our place in history, and the meaning of it all.

Thomas A. Kerr, Jr.
Grace Episcopal Church
Plainfield, N.J.