Book Review: Psalms for All Seasons

Psalms for All Seasons by John F. Craghan

John F. Craghan has written Psalms for All Seasons to help the reader pray the Psalms in our current, high-tech age. The world of computers and jet planes and television seems so far removed from the time the Psalms were written. How can modern people relate to the content of the Psalms and the thoughts, aspirations, frustrations, and elations found in writings dating over 2000 years ago? Being a scholar, Craghan develops a methodical approach.

The book is organized according to a pattern of human life described as "orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation or new orientation" [p. 5] following the method of Psalms scholar Walter Brueggemann. Often we find our lives to be placid and predictable; harmony rules for the most part. This is what Craghan calls "orientation." Often this comfortable place is lost, either through a sudden shock/trauma or through a slow but inevitable slide into chaos. This state is "disorientation." The person (hopefully) is able to let go of the past and allow new solutions or understandings to "reorient" their life. Eventually this reorientation becomes natural, the new normal, and becomes "orientation." The cycle begins again.

Craghan organizes the psalms this way. Under "orientation," he puts "psalms of descriptive praise (chapter 2), psalms of trust or confidence (chapter 3), wisdom psalms (chapter 4), and certain royal psalms (chapter 5)." [p. 5]  Disorientation psalms are the laments and fall into the sixth chapter. Reorientation psalms are characterized by thanksgiving or declarative praise and also have a chapter devoted to them. All of these chapters look at the psalms from a personal or individual perspective and from a communal perspective. This overall approach does not neatly divide up the psalms but rather provides a helpful approach and an aid in praying the psalms.

His chapters follow a typical pattern. First, the type of psalm is described. Various psalms in that category are presented in full with commentary. The commentary points out the historical context of the psalm, provides a line by line analysis, and finally an application to contemporary prayer life. At the end of the chapter are one or two readings from the New Testament related to the type of psalms with the same commentary and application.

While this system of presentation has the trappings of a scholarly and spiritually rewarding reflection on the book of the Psalms, it too often falls into obvious minor errors. He claims at one point that Psalm 104: 27-35 is a "prayer for rain," which is clearly false from reading the text.

More troubling is dubious theology that permeates the commentaries. Consider this description from the set up for the Wisdom Psalms:

With our great preoccupation with heaven we have been instructed to be dropouts from life. Living thus becomes the condition for the hereafter where accounts will be settled and "genuine" living will begin. We have been taught to put up with life, to make deals with life, so that we may get on with the real business of preparing for our eternal bliss. The heaven symbol has often cheated us out of the possibility of living and thereby out of the opportunity to acknowledge the Living One as the giver of gifts. With an overemphasis on the beatific vision we can no longer see beatific humans and their gifts. [p. 55]

The author condemns the dour piety that consists only of prayer and withdrawal from the world that does not help to attain eternal bliss. Surely we do need to be active in the world, to interact with other people and support each other materially and spiritually in our individual journeys through life. Living in a Christian way is being in this world but not of it. Craghan creates a false dichotomy between this life and the next. He should show the line that connects living well in this world to living well in the next. How we live this life foreshadows and prepares us for living well in the next. Instead, he gives us the dubious beatification of our fellow travelers. When we see God in others, I think that means we see them as persons with dignity and value granted by God, giver of gifts that are beatifying. Not that they are in any way equivalent to God in splendor and majesty.

Craghan's Christology is at best confused. Commenting on Psalm 22 ("My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?") and Mark's gospel account of Jesus's death, he has this to say:

Disorientation is all too evident in Jesus' experience of pain and frustration. The cry of dereliction is the prayer of lament that the Father now make Jesus' problem his problem. On the other hand, the reality of the cross is that Jesus must make the Father's problem his problem; he must achieve redemption through his suffering and death. Thus Jesus is bidden to let go, to relinquish the old securities, to accept the paradox of Calvary. Reorientation is the embrace of the Father at Easter. The resurrection is the clearest sign that Jesus is on a new level of being. [p. 133]

According to Craghan, whom is it that Jesus is redeeming? Himself? As a reward for letting go of his old securities, Jesus gets a new level of being? Does Craghan consider Jesus to be Divine, i.e. the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity? He writes quite strangely if he does believe. If Craghan had couched this in terms of Jesus providing us an example to follow, it would be easier to accept. We do need to accept the paradox of our own crosses and can be raised to a new level of being by grace. But Jesus is more than a man.

The book is riddled with small and large errors that do not make it worth reading for spiritual reading or for scholarly edification. It is a shame, because such a project would be quite valuable and rewarding if done right.