Book Review: 100 Views from This Seat

Author: Leroy Seat

Publisher: 4-L Publications, paperback, x, + 200 pages

Reviewed by Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

The Author 

The Rev. Dr. Leroy Seat served as a Baptist pastor, he earned his PhD in theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and was a Baptist missionary in Japan from 1966 to 2004. His doctoral dissertation was titled “The Meaning of ‘Paradox’: A Study of the Use of the Word ‘Paradox’ in Contemporary Theological and Philosophical Writings with Special Reference to Søren Kierkegaard.” He was full-time professor at Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan from 1968 until his retirement in 2004. Professor Seat served as Chancellor of Seinan Gakuin from 1996 to 2004. He also taught as an adjunct professor at Rockhurst University from 2006 to 2014. In his retirement years, since 2009, Dr. Seat has been a blogger at: The View from This Seat: Reflections about Life, Love, Light, and Liberty (the 4-Ls).

Contents

100 Views from This Seat contains a selection of 100 out of his 800 blog posts, with a wide variety of topics, dating from 2010 to 2020. Indeed, as a blogger myself, that is how I came upon Professor Seat’s blog, occasionally leaving comments on his blog posts. The book is divided into the twelve months of the year, each month includes eight or nine blog posts that were not chosen in any particular order. The blog posts address serious religious, ethical and political subjects. 

In Appreciation

One of the factors that has always annoyed me about the academic world is, among some academics—certainly not all of them!--a sense of superiority and snobbery. In reading Professor Seat’s blog posts, I have been delighted to learn that that is not the case! I truly appreciate his clear, concise and hospitable prose, which reflect his academic learning as well as his faith. Even though he, at times, addresses controversial issues, he avoids engagement in character assassination and other disrespectful commentary. 

In this review, I have chosen to focus on three blog posts, which hopefully stimulate readers to purchase this volume, and/or visit Professor Seat’s blog. 

One of his blog posts is titled Baptist with a Small “b,” (pp. 29-30). He cites the Schleitheim Confession, which, among other things, referred to a rejection of violence and capital punishment. Over the years, Dr. Seat grew increasingly uncomfortable within the Baptist denomination because of their movement further to the right politically. In July 2012 he and his wife became Mennonites. 

A second, informative blog post, titled In Praise of Toyohiko Kagawa (pp. 101-102), is one of my favourites. Even though I have previously read about Kagawa several years ago, I found it interesting that he, among other things, developed trachoma while living among the poor, was involved in founding the first Japanese labour unions, and visited the U.S. in 1941 as a peace activist, attempting to avert war in the Pacific. 

The third blog post I appreciated was titled, Remembering Søren Kierkegaard, who influenced Professor Seat. He mentions Vernard Eller’s book, who “emphasized that real Christianity must include “radical discipleship,” to use Eller’s words.” (p. 170) Professor Seat highly recommends Charles E. Moore’s book, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard, which highlights Kierkegaard’s thought, is a compilation of certain exerpts and aphorisms, and enlightens readers on the practical living out of the Christian faith. 

Conclusion

As a “retired” pastor and professor, Leroy Seat continues to be an active blogger, writing about a variety of contemporary issues. I encourage readers of this review to purchase this volume at Amazon for the reasonable price of $5.95, and to visit his blogsite here.