Reveiw of Matthew E. Henry's The Third Renunciation in Pedestal Magazine

 I am once again indebted to editor John Amen and his team for including one of my reviews in Pedestal Magazine. This one was a challenge because the author is outspoken and active on social media, and his work is passionate, personal and informed. I always want to do a writer justice when I share my experience and interpretation of their work, and I felt like the stakes were higher to get it right in this case. Matthew E. Henry is a black man; I am a white woman. I cannot truly understand the racism he has faced, especially in his career as a teacher in a mostly-white school with mostly-white faculty and staff, because I have not lived that experience. But nor would I ever use my gender and whiteness as an excuse for not trying to see what he has seen, hear what he has to say. I can appreciate anyone who looks at the injustices and pain in this world and asks not "why" but "what if?" What if.

Besides, how can I help but admire a book of radical theological sonnets? As usual, there was more I could have said and wanted to say, but the 1000-word limit meant I had to omit exploring how The Third Renunciation contrasts with Mark Jarman's Unholy Sonnets, among other things.