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Epistles Now!
In today's world of microwave ovens, VCRs, and computers, it is sometimes hard to relate to the teachings of the New Testament. The Damascus Road does not resemble our interstates, nor do many of us see the day-to-day struggles of that time as we see our own. Epstles Now is a compilation of contemporary restatements of the New Testament letters. These poetic restatements of the Epistles are easy to understand and freshen the familiar. They cut through with truth and fill us with new faith, calling us to the same commitment as the earliest apostles.
187 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1975
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November 21, 2024
I found this at the local secondhand book fair (in Katikati, New Zealand) and picked it up, paying the princely sum of $2, for the sole reason that the graphic design was done by Corita Kent - the legendary pop artist nun. Her signature is right there on the front cover. (I'm writing this review on Nov 22, and by a strange twist of serendipity, I've just opened an email informing me that Nov 23 is Corita Day in Los Angeles.)
It's an intriguing little book - there's no introduction explaining its modus operandi and the backcover blurb is just a short bio of the author, Leslie Brandt, with his photo, and a bit about Corita. I suppose the title is fairly self-explanatory, and with a quick flick through, the book reveals itself to be a rendering of the New Testament epistles for a contemporary audience.
The tendency would be to call it a paraphrase. But certain famous passages - 1 Corinthians on love, Ephesians on the armour of God, for example - are almost unrecogisable in terms of their famous tropes, so it isn't like, say, Eugene Peterson's The Message. In some ways it's kind of an expositional rephrasing, working its way through each chapter of the source material, bringing out the core concepts. It's beautifully written and formatted in a verse form that brings out a rhythm to the text, retaining the feel of scripture, rather than some kind of commentary.
I really enjoyed it in a way that came as a pleasant surprise. A 'contemporary audience' at the time of first publication was 1974 (though it went through many editions up to and maybe beyond the 1986 edition I have; Brandt's similar treatment of other biblical texts, including the psalms, seem to have been equally as popular - I'll have to hunt them out sometime). No doubt you might frame some things a bit differently if you were doing the project today, and it's not as if he's 'soft-peddling' anything with regards to the concepts of orthodox Christianity or the big calls to such things as self-sacrifice, but I found his language and the material itself, including his positioning of it in the contemporary world (with a clear awareness of issues of social justice), quite relevant to 2024.
In the end, the Corita bit is fairly minimal, though I'm pleased to own something she worked on. Brandt's writing was illuminating and was a companion over the weeks I read it, connecting to the ancient material in this way.
It's an intriguing little book - there's no introduction explaining its modus operandi and the backcover blurb is just a short bio of the author, Leslie Brandt, with his photo, and a bit about Corita. I suppose the title is fairly self-explanatory, and with a quick flick through, the book reveals itself to be a rendering of the New Testament epistles for a contemporary audience.
The tendency would be to call it a paraphrase. But certain famous passages - 1 Corinthians on love, Ephesians on the armour of God, for example - are almost unrecogisable in terms of their famous tropes, so it isn't like, say, Eugene Peterson's The Message. In some ways it's kind of an expositional rephrasing, working its way through each chapter of the source material, bringing out the core concepts. It's beautifully written and formatted in a verse form that brings out a rhythm to the text, retaining the feel of scripture, rather than some kind of commentary.
I really enjoyed it in a way that came as a pleasant surprise. A 'contemporary audience' at the time of first publication was 1974 (though it went through many editions up to and maybe beyond the 1986 edition I have; Brandt's similar treatment of other biblical texts, including the psalms, seem to have been equally as popular - I'll have to hunt them out sometime). No doubt you might frame some things a bit differently if you were doing the project today, and it's not as if he's 'soft-peddling' anything with regards to the concepts of orthodox Christianity or the big calls to such things as self-sacrifice, but I found his language and the material itself, including his positioning of it in the contemporary world (with a clear awareness of issues of social justice), quite relevant to 2024.
In the end, the Corita bit is fairly minimal, though I'm pleased to own something she worked on. Brandt's writing was illuminating and was a companion over the weeks I read it, connecting to the ancient material in this way.
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