cover image Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace

Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace

Robert Farrar Capon. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, $25 (308pp) ISBN 978-0-8028-4222-0

With wit, humor and exegesis, Capon evokes a bit of C.S. Lewis as he brushes past centuries of dry theologizing on concepts of grace and freedom, law and sin, and actually makes the questions fun. Describing his method as ""theology by way of entertainment,"" he illustrates the radical nature of grace with a ""parable"" about an illicit affair between a promiscuous English professor and a graduate student, both married. Capon, an Episcopal priest, is determined to ""separate the liquor of grace from the mash of mortality,"" and some may accuse him of excessive haste in setting aside the latter. His justification: ""No mistake can hold a candle to the love that draws us home."" Chiding the ""grace-fearing spoilsport in every one of us,"" Capon argues that organized religion too often encourages us ""to act more like subjects of a police state than fellow citizens of the saints."" (Dec.)