Martin Forward, Thy Nature and Thy Name is Love (Werrington, Peterbough: Epworth, 2008), xii + 212 Pps., $26.99.
Martin Forward is currently the Helena Wackerlin Professor of Religious Studies in Aurora University, Illinois, and Executive Director of its Center for Faith and Action. He is an ordained Methodist minister, the author and editor of numerous books and articles, and is an acknowledged expert in contemporary religious studies. Within this title, Forward seeks to rescue the notion that God has a place in religious studies. It also seeks to liberate God from some of his most ardent yet unpleasant supporters, as well as from his noisest and often clueless critics. Speaking from his Wesleyan heritage, Forward herein examines the conflicting claims of secularism, free-standing spirituality and New Age movements to replace religion but finds them wanting.
Chapter one asks whether religion has a future in Western Europe wherein skeptical European thought has taken root. He examines alternative homes for human spirituality, and concludes that there are many things to be said in favor of mainstream religion. Forward shifts the emphasis in chapter two from Europe to the Christian West and describes why Christianity is in the state that it now is in. He contends that religious studies have been negatively influenced by the state of religion in the Christian West. Chapter three opens up the interfaith dialogue, and suggests that Christianity has much to glean and learn from other cultures’ manners of being religious. The fourth chapter illustrates Forward’s conviction that the heart, if you will, of religion, is God’s love for humanity. Forward explores truth in the fifth chapter, and regards it as a quest with God to God. The last chapter, six, asks how the practice of worship and the bible itself provide believers with nourishment in faith, hope, and love, as well as how they prepare us for death.
Having briefly covered the contents of the book, I would like to make a few notes regarding the general content contained therein. Notably, Forward uses both male and female imagery and terminology for the Godhead, seamlessly shifting from one to the other. At various points, the author makes some severe criticisms of his own faith group, the Methodists. Nevertheless, he contends that Methodism’s inclusive tradition of faith is a palatable model for religious faith to emulate going forward. In a criticism of Forward’s running dialogue with the interlocutor simply named ‘Pat’, I assert that Forward’s outright dislike of Pat Robertson seethes through the text. Indeed, in at least four occasions (1, 85, 137, 142). Forward mentions the name ‘Pat’ in his argumentation. It is clear, though not explicitly stated (at least until page 85), that this ‘Pat’ is referring to the religious broadcaster whose surname is Robertson. Indeed, on the very first page Forward sets forth an invective toward this character known as ‘Pat’, noting that he is paranoid, macho, and ‘dumb’; he later even mentions ‘Pat’ in concert with ‘Osama’, presumably an equation of Mr. Robertson with the terrorist bin Laden. Although I in no way support all things that Mr. Robertson says (or does), I am disturbed by the characterization of him by Mr. Forward. It seems as though ‘Pat’ is the personification of all that is wrong with religion today.
My above referenced reservation aside, I nonetheless find this title to be stimulating of further thought. Forward lays out a good case that although Christianity seems increasingly beleaguered, irrelevant, and out-of-touch, it is nevertheless possible to proverbially rescue it from the wreckage in the twenty-first century (33). In sum, the book attempts to portray religion as an inclusive phenomenon, which can bring people together to further life upon earth. I recommend it to those patrons who possess interests in Wesleyan-based theologies, and inclusivist theologies.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA