LIFE ON THE VINE, BY PHILIP D. KENNESON  ¦ BOOK REVIEW

Reviewed by Thomas Scarborough

Life On The Vine is a deeply layered and thought-provoking book which gives significant insights into how Christian fruit would be distinguished from the norms of the dominant culture in North America – and, for that matter, in the rest of the Western world.

The book systematically “unpacks” each of the nine examples of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Typically, each chapter begins with a detailed Biblical exposition of a fruit, then details how its practice will draw one out of oneself, to live a life that is centred both in God and in others. Kenneson refers to this as the “displacement of the self”.

Finally, each chapter provides examples of how the dominant culture in the U.S.A. creates obstacles to the cultivation of the fruit, and how each fruit may be developed in this context. In this regard, Kenneson received generous help from his students over a number of years, which greatly enriches the text.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK?

On the surface of it, Kenneson has the concern that the Church has become too far assimilated into U.S. culture. The Church is “not offering the kind of embodied witness” it should. Therefore it needs to regain its distinctiveness and spiritual power, on the basis of the definitions of spiritual fruit found in Scripture. This is what meets what “God desires”.

On closer analysis, however, the purpose of the book is harder to discern.

As an example, Kenneson writes that “God is in the process of restoring the created order to a state of harmony and order”. He has a “plan to restore harmony and order to all of creation”. This raises the question: what “process” is he referring to, and how does this relate to the fruit of the Spirit? In this and other passages, Kenneson uses terminology which is by no means clear. It would appear, however, that he is suggesting that fruit-bearing is significant to historical progress.

Further, Kenneson by and large does not refer the fruit of the Spirit back to Jesus Christ or to the Holy Spirit.

In keeping with this, I wondered whether his treatment of an ABSENCE of fruit in people’s lives was sufficiently radical. As an example, he surmises that Christians who “abuse their spouses” do so because of the way they are “schooled to think”, and because of their “view of justice”. He routinely refers people’s behaviour back to culture and worldview, rather than the standing of their relationship with Christ.

A major purpose of the fruit in the Bible is of course an eternal one, which cannot be considered in terms of its significance to the present life. This aspect of the fruit was under-developed if not absent from the book. Instead, Kenneson refers almost exclusively to God’s purposes for “creation”.

SYNTHESIS

All told, the emphasis of the book is a welcome one, since the subject of the fruit of the Spirit is often marginalised in favour of other aspects of the Christian faith. Also, Kenneson’s analysis of the Spirit’s fruit is deep and rewarding.

If one can overlook the insufficiencies of the book, it does provide a very valuable resource concerning the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

CITATION OF REFERENCE

Kenneson, Philip D. Life On the Vine. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8308-2219-4.

Thomas Scarborough is the minister of an Evangelical Congregational Church near the centre of Cape Town, in Africa’s most densely populated suburb. He is presently studying for an M.A. in Global Leadership through Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.