Eugene H Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology Book 1 in the Spiritual Theology series (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2005)

Review by Darren Cronshaw, to appear in EA’s Faith and Life (November 2010)

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places is the first of Eugene Peterson’s books on spiritual theology where he explores how to live the gospel as a follower of Jesus. Spiritual theology holds together what we know of God with how we live life. It is neither just information about God nor our own imagining of God, but an invitation to get in on what Christ is doing. Peterson asserts Christ is integrally involved in all of our living, and invites us to join in the playfulness, to accept the mystery of what we cannot control, to participate in God’s life and join in the perichoresis or dance of God. This is a rich Trinitarian picture of God as personal and relational, who invites people to enter into God’s communal love; ‘we do not know God by defining him but by being loved by him and loving in return’ (p.7).

Peterson, ever the appreciator of rich language, borrows a metaphor from poet Gerard Manley Hopkins about Christ spontaneously and exuberantly expressing himself in all of life:

“… for Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men’s faces.”

Peterson invites his readers to celebrate that – by virtue of being alive and being baptised – we are engaged with what Christ is doing in the world. But we can engage more of Christ’s playfulness and agenda if we are attentive and open to it.

To begin with, Peterson clears the playing field to define a biblical view of spirituality. In an era of diverse views of spirituality, he asserts that spirituality is not secretive, not about temperament, and not just empty silence, but about God. God is the God of life – he breathes life into Creation in Genesis, into Jesus at his baptism, into the church at Pentecost, and invites people to acknowledge his aliveness and presence and activity. To live life ‘in the fear of the Lord’ is to live responsively to God. Spiritual theology is about giving attention to what we pray and live, about living what we believe about God. It is not just knowing about God but experiencing the conversion of joining in on what Christ is doing and dancing in the world.

“As soon as the Gospels were written, speech without experience began to dabble with the new facts proposed by the existence of the Church. … People tried to think the new life without being touched by it first in some form of call, listening, passion or change of heart.”

(Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, I am An Impure Thinker (Norwich: Argo, 1970), p.2)

The bulk of the book is divided into three sections, exploring how “Christ plays” and invites us to join him in creation (the world where we live), history (everything that happens around us) and community (how we live with others in our neighbourhood). The three sections track through Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection; reveal threats of Gnosticism, moralism and sectarianism; offer ways to respond to God; and ground each of the three themes in an Old Testament and New Testament text. Through these sources, Peterson challenges us to be attentive to the ‘there-ness’ of creation, the ‘here-ness’ of history and the ‘us-ness’ of community.

So how does Christ play in creation and how we can join him there? God is intimately involved in creation, expressed most fully in the creation of the world and the conception and birth of Jesus. The beginning of Genesis and the beginning of the gospels earth us in God bringing and sharing life. Our weeks reflect this as we enjoy Creation through work and Sabbath. Part of creation is the rhythms of time and the gift of place. Our experience of God is not abstracted from everyday life: ‘God’s great gift of love and purposes for us are all worked out in messes in our kitchens and backyards, in storms and sins, blue skies, the daily work and dreams of our common loves.’ (p.75) John’s gospel shows the same involvement – Jesus making his home among us. Let’s be curious and look for what God is up to. Sabbath helps with that, as does work. Wonder helps too, as aroused by the new creation of the Resurrection.

“It is not allowable to love the Creation according to the purposes one has for it, any more than is it allowable to love one’s neighbour in order to borrow his tools.” (Wendell Berry, The Gift of Good Land (San Francisco: North Point, 1981), p.273)

The Bible shows God is interested also in history – names and places, events and stories. God is a God who saves in history, through exodus and through Jesus’ death. The people of God celebrate these events of God acting in history with meals. Just as Sabbath and wonder help us cultivate the fear of the Lord in creation, practices that help us cultivate the fear of the Lord in history are Eucharist and hospitality. They remind us of Jesus’ engagement with our world and his sacrifice on our behalf. Israel felt God had forgotten them in Egypt, psalmists often express feeling abandoned by God, and in the aftermath of the twentieth-century we might wonder where God has been, but Christ plays in history.

Thirdly, Christ plays in community. I am thankful I am called not just to follow Jesus as an individual but in community with God’s people. Resurrection is about living in a wondrous creation, celebrating God working in history and joining the community God calls together. God was present in Jesus to people, and continues to be present to people through others. We need to beware the seductions of individualism and narcissism that draw away from community. Prayer is what helps us stay connected to the life of Jesus and the life of Jesus’ community, which is why it is no surprise Luke often brings his readers to prayer. Luke also emphasises social inclusion and hospitality as characteristics of Christian community. And the principle ways fear-of-the-lord is cultivated in community is through baptism and love. Baptism initiates us into the life of the Trinity and the body of Christ. Love is the way of life to live out in community: ‘We are here to be formed over our lifetimes into a community of the beloved, God’s beloved who are being formed into a people who love God and one another in the way and on the terms in which God loves us. Its slow work. We are slow learners. … We bother because God is love.’ (p.312)

Peterson inspires me in integrating his pastoral and academic vocation. He draws on his academic study and pastoral dilemmas, his teaching and his enjoyment of the world’s beauty. This is reflected in his language of spiritual theology, ‘that comes at one time right out of the library and at another from a conversation over coffee in a diner, that on one page is derived from questions raised in a lecture and on another from insights accumulated while kayaking on a river’ (p.xii). His respect for people’s vocations, his sensitivity to their struggles, and his encouragement of their prayer helps bring out my best as a pastor attentive to God and people.

I confess I am prone to not being attentive. I go to pray and want to send off an email. I sit to listen over a coffee and am prone to think about the project I started earlier. I preach a gospel of grace but am drawn to drivenness. I celebrate communion but meditate on competitiveness. I am called to build community but am tempted to first build my career. I am compromised. Peterson calls me to repent and points me in more healthy directions.

Spiritual theology may be about giving attention to how I live theology, but it is easier to talk about what we believe or what we do as Christians. It is a deeper and harder call to let Christ play in my limbs and eyes. To learn to live life Christ’s way I would like to sign up for an intensive or pick it up from a book, but I know I am influenced by my impatient, shortcut-prone society. Peterson warns: ‘This is slow work and cannot be hurried. It is also urgent work and can’t be procrastinated’ (p.337). Last month we visited glaciers in Canada and Alaska, and I can identify with the image of slowly accumulating but unstoppable steady momentum in a glacier’s movement. Forming and living Christ’s life in Christ’s way is slow steady work. I pray God would form it in my limbs and eyes, and help me see in women’s and men’s faces around me – Christ playing in and through us to the Father, in ten thousand places.

Darren is BUV’s Coordinator of Leadership Training and pastor at Auburn Baptist. He hosts a monthly lunchtime Peterson reading group

Darren Cronshaw

Organizational ecologist

Auburn Baptist Church

& Baptist Union of Victoria

mobile 0438 136 287

home/office 9818 7014 | 50 Auburn Road, Hawthorn 3122

Auburn Baptist Church | 597 Burwood Road, Hawthorn 3122

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http://www.buv.com.au/ministries/leadership-training

“What you dream alone remains a dream, what you dream with others can become a reality.” (Edward Schillebeeckx)