146 - Turn Toward Life: The Bible and Peacemaking

Turn Toward Life:
The Bible and Peacemaking
By Jörg Zink
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1985. 126 pp. $7.95.

Turn Toward Life is, in the first instance, an impassioned plea to West German Protestants nonviolently but actively to resist their government's policies that contribute to escalating nuclear armament and the poisoning of their environment. Its dire, urgent tone is perhaps better reflected by the original title of this collection of Jörg Zink's Kirchentag addresses: Vielleicht ist es noch nicht zu spät ("Perhaps it is still not too late").

Until recently a Protestant pastor, Zink is well known as a speaker in the West German Christian peace movement and as a writer of devotional books. Here his reflections on the story of Jonah and the parable of the prodigal son, on Christian unity and the Eucharist, and on Romans 8, Matthew 5:25-34, and Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-30, are informed by the nuclear and ecological crises he believes threaten human survival. In addition to providing North American Christians with a window on West Germany's church life, politics, and peace movement, Turn Toward Life challenges us-in solidarity with our peace-loving sisters and brothers across the Atlantic-to say Yes to the Spirit of God and No to wanton destruction of life.

Barbara Nelson Gingerich
Indianapolis, Ind.