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

by Robert Farrar Capon

Book Overview

Picture a college town in the mid- 1970s. An English professor who has become an expert in extramarital dalliances is smitten by one of his graduate students. They meet for lunch around noon, and before three they make declarations of love. Is it possible that their subsequent affair could ultimately teach us something about true forgiveness and the radical meaning of grace? Only Robert Farrar Capon would have the audacity -- and the authorial skill...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802842224
• ISBN13: 9780802842220
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

a book as surprising as life

We have clear conceptions of important abstractions that we have heard named, but not defined, since we were children. We live with misconceptions born while we wait to understand when we are able. Unfortunately, these images take on a life of their own, and crowd out any possibility of there ever being any real understanding. Grace is one of those concepts. We hear the word repeated in sermon and song, we use it ourselves in characature. The image of what we think Grace is limits our access to its reality in our lives.Enter this annoying book. Capon twists and tweaks and disturbs our sense of what is right and wrong. OUR sense.Only when the shocking first section is trumped by the final section do we realize what is happening to us. Even though he warns us repeatedly along the way, and taunts us into dialogue.I admit the central section merely annoyed me without enlightening me ... yet. Maybe I will get it later. Sacred adultary, a mafia hit, and a coffee hour give-and-take seem unlikely parables to expain Grace. It works. With style and grace. Anyone who has tried to live a life of faith honestly in the midst of the contradictions of life will feel this book resonate within their soul.No wonder it is subtitled "Romance, Law, and the OUTRAGE of Grace."

Grace, Grace and more GRACE

Capon continues to tantalise, entice and stimulate with this revised edition of Between Noon and Three. Capon captures the incredibly lavish Grace of God through a combination of wit, exegesis, and a carefully crafted story. This book is a real shock to the "grace-fearing spoilsport in every one of us". Capon confronts the menacing ugliness of legalism and drags it screaming into the light of the lavish Grace and Love of God. Capon expounds the Grace of God in such a way that one can't help salivating at the beauty of God made complete in his glorious Son. Throughout the novel one is continuously shouting AMEN (I Love you) to the Father who so loves his children that he does not give grace so that they will feel "much obliged" but rather extends totally free, unconditional, absolutely radical, all encompassing Grace. This is the grace for Dead people, and as Capon eloquently describes: all that is required of a dead body is to stink. I Love my God who makes the little, least, lost, last, losers and the DEAD - ALIVE! FREE and all this is GRATIS!

A great theological novel on grace

This was my first Capon book and it made me fall in love with his writing and the way he uses stories and dialogue to expound the meaning of grace.I think almost all of his books are on grace and that's because he has been captivated by the grace of God. This novel, like most of his other books, may not be that simple a read but once you get what he's getting at, then you start to stand in awe of the amazingness of God's grace. Capon is pretty lutheran in his view on law and gospel and it shows clearly in his books.This particular novel is interesting in the way he tries to convey God's grace to us. It's about two people who are married but carries on with an affair together. This story is meant to outrage us, but Capon uses this storyline to show us that God's grace is like that. Despite the sins we do, He still loves us and accepts us in Christ.Has Capon gone a bit far in illustrating grace to us? Well, i don't know. All i can say is that he's at least half right! A good book to read and ponder about God's grace

Turns your world upside down

If you thought you knew about the scandal of God's Grace, then read this book and it will turn it all upside-down (as it should be!) Written and published in three separate parts in the 70s, this book is timeless. Its depth and daring surpass anything I have read in recent memory. Capon deliberately uses the parable of a love affair between two already married people just to push you a bit closer to the edge of discomfort. Actually, I think he pushed me over that edge. This book makes you want to raise your finger and say, "Yeah, but..." - then it silences you because you know that he is laying bare the scandal of God's love and grace, resurrecting us from the death of sin. Not "because of..." or "as long as...." not "only if you...."; there are no conditions, no promises of a changed life, no cost to ourselves and even no choice for us to make. Capon is clear that God's grace is entirely "In Spite Of"; no, perhaps thats too weak because you don't resurrect someone "in spite of death"...you just do it and give them life. God gives life out of Love...sin just doesn't come into play beyond the fact that it brought death in the first place. God just doesn't see it anymore. As Capon says, he only sees, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." Wow. There are few books that have made me want to shout to everyone the truth about Grace, the scandal of God's radical Liberation, Resurrection and Love. It is so radical as to be offensive. Yes, this book offends; may I be so offended more often by God's irrational Love for us!

An old message brings fresh renewal

If you thought you knew about the scandal of God's Grace, then read this book and it will turn it all upside-down (as it should be!) Written and published in three separate parts in the 70s, this book is timeless. Its depth and daring surpass anything I have read in recent memory. Capon deliberately uses the parable of a love affair between two already married people just to push you a bit closer to the edge of discomfort. Actually, I think he pushed me over that edge. This book makes you want to raise your finger and say, "Yeah, but..." - then it silences you because you know that he is laying bare the scandal of God's love and grace, resurrecting us from the death of sin. Not "because of..." or "as long as...." not "only if you...."; there are no conditions, no promises of a changed life, no cost to ourselves and even no choice for us to make. Capon is clear that God's grace is entirely "In Spite Of"; no, perhaps thats too weak because you don't resurrect someone "in spite of death"...you just do it and give them life. God gives life out of Love...sin just doesn't come into play beyond the fact that it brought death in the first place. God just doesn't see it anymore. As Capon says, he only sees, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." Wow. There are few books that have made me want to shout to everyone the truth about Grace, the scandal of God's radical Liberation, Resurrection and Love. It is so radical as to be offensive. Yes, this book offends; may I be so offended more often by God's irrational Love for us!