By Barbara Brown Taylor

(Cowley Publications, 2000)

Review by Carlton Kelley

Barbara Brown Taylor, noted author, teacher, preacher and priest of the Episcopal Church has a gift for writing simply and profoundly. In this book she brings those gifts to bear on a subject that unfortunately receives very little balanced treatment from either the study or the pulpit. She argues convincingly that many preachers have adopted, and their listeners accepted with ease, either the "legal" or the "medical" model of sin. In so doing, the real intent of Holy Scripture has been impoverished and its more hopeful and life-giving message of pardon and repentance ignored.

If the legal model of sin is adopted the focus becomes one of punishment instead of repentance and change. If the medical model is adopted the focus becomes one of sickness instead of responsibility and, again, repentance and change. She goes on to say that the addition of Clinical Pastoral Education to seminary curricula and the litigious nature of our time has contributed to the loss of a life-giving language of sin. "In order to speak of sin in any compelling way, we need to go diving for the core experience that word names. If we do, then we may just discover that sin is our only hope."(Taylor, p.39)

In a world where truth is often the first casualty of our disordered lives, Taylor insists that the language of sin is life-giving because it insists upon telling the truth about who we are. The language of sin requires us to look into our souls and face the reality we find. We do so not to feel guilty but to change (emphasis mine) into the people God would have us to be. Refreshingly, and yet contrary to many faith traditions, she maintains that we should not be so much concerned about particular sins, but about the consequences of sin. I believe this emphasis may help remove some of the cultural and religious bias that often accompanies any serious discussion of sin.

I highly recommend this slim yet deep volume for any Christian concerned with amendment of life.

The Reverend Carlton F. Kelley is priest-in-charge of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Indiana.

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