Rowan WILLIAMS. Being Human. Bodies, Minds, Persons. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018. Paperback. 117pp. $12.00. ISBN 978-0-9-29-7656-0. Reviewed by Linda M. MALONEY, Enosburg Falls, VT 05450 and Cameron Park, CA 95682.
This is a short book, a collection of lectures and one sermon, but it would be a serious mistake to expect to read it quickly. The chapters are entitled:
“What is a person?”
“Bodies, minds and thoughts”
“Faith and human flourishing”
“Silence and human maturity.”
If those do not convince one that this is a book to be chewed and digested, nothing will. At one point (pp. 64–65) Williams opines that “Difficulty is good for us,” writing that he’s not just saying that as an apology for some of his books, but because difficulty makes us slow down, makes us take time; “the awareness of the ‘more’ that we have not yet absorbed” is good for us, makes us more patient, more able to deal with other necessary things, such as silence, and to cope with new ways of knowing about knowing.
Anyone familiar with any of Williams’s writing will not be surprised that on nearly every page there is at least one insight that brings the reader to a halt and makes her take time and think. The “callouts” on many pages are a useful set to begin with. Examples: “When we speak of human consciousness, we speak of something that is located somewhere” (p. 8). “Reductionism as a systematic, global principle is simply intellectually incoherent” (p. 21). “If there is one great intellectual challenge for our day, it is the pervasive sense that we are in danger of losing our sense of the human” (p. 25)—an observation that hits home as we reflect on how much of our time we spend interacting with machines, time that previously was spent interacting with other people (or with God).
As a practitioner of preaching, I recommend the book to other preachers for deep intellectual nourishment and for insights that help to clarify many biblical texts and liturgical feasts for congregations. (Williams even reflects on the dilemma of liturgy in our time: too much or too little in relation to silence? Is he [am I?] “conservative” or “liberal” in that regard? [pp. 100–102]). On the feast of All Saints, in speaking of death and new life, I made use of the sermon at the end of the book, “Epilogue: Humanity Transfigured”—with attribution—and the effect was powerful. It is well to sit sometimes on the shoulders of this giant.