God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys

God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys. By Catherine Keller. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2005. xii + 184 pp. $22.00 (paperback).

From end to beginning and back, unending apocalypse and open-ended creation without given finalities or pure beginnings, this collection unveils Catherine Keller's "bible bookends" theological ventures. Following her Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World (1996), an in depth reading of the Revelation of John and its afterlives, and Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming (2003), a midrash-like exfoliation of Genesis 1, this volume connects both works to the present setting of the U.S. war on terror. Many of the chapters began their life as essays scattered in journals or as lectures given at conferences and in churches.

Keller's "theopolitics" reflect deeply on the context of U.S. empire, inviting readers to come to terms with an "apocalyptic unconscious" formative to societies informed by Western Christianity (p. viii). Her point is that if we do not work through this "apocalyptic unconscious," we will act it out in interhuman and planetary relations. The first part of the book offers incisive and insightful vantages on "The United States of Apocalypse," discussing the theologizing rhetoric of God and power in the context of post-9/11 imperial posturing. In the worship of power itself, she suggests, the doctrine of omnipotence and discourses to legitimate empire employ strangely similar rhetorical strategies. Keller investigates the psychodynamics of our souls and faith, the texts and contexts of our lives where apocalyptic absolutes are clashing. Suggesting that loving one's enemies may be the most realistic path in an interdependent world of "mutually assured vulnerability" (p. 117), Keller suggests that peacemaking must evolve in "at least a trifaith, non-linear model" (p. 15). Any religious person must consider what she so searingly states: power requires legitimacy through stories of creation, and religion has faithfully provided such covert legitimation for empires throughout history. A contemporary constructive faith commitment today then necessitates examining the "halo that surrounds our empire" and resisting its usurpation of religious language (p. 22).

The second part of the book examines in greater detail various prominent figures in apocalyptic texts, tracing patiently the perturbed and perturbing readings. This part fully exposes one of the most powerful features of Keller's work: she lets neither 'right' nor 'left' off the hook. Apocalyptical habits can be found across the spectrum, she argues, and selective readings on either side elide the full complexity and ambiguity of these texts (p. 74).

The third part constructs a "political theology of love" based on a "hermeneutic of uncertainty, not undecidability" that is "not without vision but without one vision" and proclaims a hope for "justice in love with this creation" (pp. 91, 99). This political theology of love offers no cozy vision of amorous bliss, but consistently reminds us that "whether colonized or colonizing, Christianity has not existed in abstraction from empire" and that a desirable "Christian globalism" would manifest as a "counterimperial ecology of love" (pp. 115-116).

This collection is vintage Keller: it never ceases to amaze, please, and challenge through its critically incisive and yet profoundly compassionate, healing theological vision. Keller traces with often stunningly wise insight the patters of psyche and faith that allows us to recognize and constructively engage the greatest follies and the greatest wisdoms resident in our selves and our theologies. It is highly recommended for those new to her thought, those who may have found the previous volumes too daunting to tackle, and those who will enjoy a collection that brings together some of her best writing and unveils some of her newest theological work.

MARION GRAU

Church Divinity School of the Pacific

Berkeley, California

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Fall 2006
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