Christ in the Margins

By Robert Lentz and Edwina Gateley

Orbis Books. New York , 2003

RRP $39.95

 

Reviewed by Marian Zaunbrecher , Associate General Secretary of the Queensland Synod.

 

Christ in the Margins would be marvellous for the liturgist or educator who regularly uses PowerPoint illustrations.

It has over 50 icons painted by Mr Lentz and they are thought provoking yet attractive.

Some of the icons are of Christ.

Others are of Christian leaders, prophets, visionaries, mystics and servants of the church.

Each icon is accompanied by a biography and then a reflection on the challenge which that person’s life brings to our lives.

I could not sit down with this book for a long time: it had to be consumed in small bits else one suffered from overload.

It is slightly expensive but every page could be used to provide worship opportunities for small groups, or as discussion starters.

Some of my favourite pictures and stories were that of Harvey Milk of San Francisco , Mother of the Streets, Saint Vincent de Paul, the Navaho Madonna and Pax Christi, where the picture evokes the symbolism of the prophet Isaiah where the Christ child stands above a coiled snake.

Above all however, this book is a reminder that Christ is found at the margins of the world. As the authors say we find him when we go to the margins and see Christ’s crucified face and are reminded that the cross is more than a pretty decoration. “Change seldom occurs at the center (sic), but works its way inward from the margins.” P.144.