Book Reviews Archive
Reviews of Christian books I have read. I generally add a new review every three to four days.
Book Review - The Irresistible Revolution (05/09/08 - 14 Comments)
Love him or hate him, it is tough to accuse Shane Claiborne of being an armchair quarterback. He is not a man who seeks to convince people to do something that he is unwilling to do himself. Instead he calls Christians to live as radicals while he himself lives in a radically counterculture way. Claiborne is one of the founders of The Simple Way, a small but increasingly high-profile ministry among the poor in Philadelphia....
Book Review - Rapture Ready (05/05/08 - 18 Comments)
It is no secret that Christians have a subculture all of their own. It is an expansive subculture that for some people can encompass almost every area of life. From music to television, movies to sports, Christians can enjoy all manner of entertainment, all of it “blessed” by one Christian organization or another. While the majority of non-Christians are generally unfamiliar with this subculture, I have come across some for whom it presents something of...
Book Review - "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan (05/02/08 - 16 Comments)
There are many voices critiquing the North American church today. The voices come from both within and without; from those who love the church and those who hate it. We all know that there is something wrong. But what? In many cases the prescription is the same while the cure varies widely. In his new book Crazy Love, first-time author Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, regular speaker at Passion conferences...
Book Review - Gum, Geckos and God (04/28/08 - 5 Comments)
I don’t think it takes very many years of child raising before every parent realizes that he is in over his head. I am no stranger to this feeling. As I was walking my eight-year-old son to school just last week he turned to me and said, “Dad, why is it that people think killing one another will solve the world’s problems?” My first instinct was that it would be a simple question to answer....
Book Review - "Do Hard Things" by Alex & Brett Harris (04/25/08 - 11 Comments)
I’ve often reflected on an experience I had when I was studying in college. With a busy semester ahead of me, I decided to take “Death and Dying,” an elective that had the reputation of being an exceptionally easy course (a “bird course” we called it back then). On the first day we arrived in the lecture hall, the professor handed out a reading list and what he assured us were the lecture notes for...
Book Review - The Courage To Be Protestant (04/22/08 - 17 Comments)
My interest in reading good books came a little bit too late to read David Wells’ four part series of books as they were released (No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue and Above All Earthly Pow’rs). I now have the four volumes sitting on my bookshelf and have often thumbed through them wishing I could muster up the motivation to dive into the series. The problem is that I am...
Book Review - "Mormonism Explained" (04/12/08 - 14 Comments)
Mormonism seems to be on the rise. I read recently that some estimates suggest that by the end of this century there may be close to 300 million Mormons in the world. With the Mormon obsession with proselytizing and with their skill at winning converts, it seems a given that we will hear more and more in years to come about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Once considered little more than...
Book Review - "Still Growing" by Kirk Cameron (04/05/08 - 8 Comments)
I missed out on the Growing Pains phenomenon. Because my family had no television while I was growing up, the Seaver family largely passed me by. I caught occasional glimpses of the program but little more than that. It was only recently that I learned the show had propelled Leonardo DiCaprio’s illustrious career. The truth is I know more about Cameron’s post-sitcom career than the years he spent as Mike Seaver, one of television’s best...
Book Review - "Instructing a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp (04/01/08 - 7 Comments)
Instructing a Child’s Heart has been a long time coming. It was thirteen years ago that its predecessor, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, was published. It was thirteen years ago that Tedd Tripp published his last book. It was no lost on me that many of the book’s lessons and anecdotes now focus on the author’s grandchildren. Thirteen years is a long time by any measure! Instructing a Child’s Heart is a book that focuses on...
Book Review - Young, Restless, Reformed (03/31/08 - 13 Comments)
Though it is the emerging church that seems to have received so much attention in the past few years, just under the radar there has also been a quiet and steady growth of interest in far more traditional Reformed theology. All across North America (and perhaps beyond) Christians, and young Christians in particular, have been rediscovering the church’s historic theology. These disparate movements seem to have grown from a common source—a reaction against the kind...
Book Review - Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) (03/26/08 - 11 Comments)
“What is this emerging church I keep hearing about?” If I had a dime for every time I have been asked that question or one like it, well, I’d be several dollars richer at least. Emerging is one of the buzzwords in the church these days and one that begs for greater explanation. Unfortunately it is not an easy term to define. To borrow a tired cliche, defining the emerging church is much like trying...
Book Review - "Walking with God" by John Eldredge (03/25/08 - 75 Comments)
If you have been in a Christian bookstore in the past six or seven years, you are undoubtedly family with John Eldredge. Beginning with The Sacred Romance (co-authored with the late Brent Curtis) and continuing with Wild at Heart, Captivating, The Way of the Wild Heart, and others, his books have been constant features on the Christian bestseller lists. His latest effort, Walking with God is poised to be another big seller. In this book...
Book Review - "God's Problem" by Bart Ehrman (03/18/08 - 45 Comments)
Bart Ehrman is a New Testament scholar who chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has both an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary where he studied under the renowned scholar Bruce Metzger. Though he formerly considered himself a Christian and even pastored a church, he is now an avowed agnostic. Much of Ehrman’s career has been dedicated to attempting to prove that history has...
Book Review - "A Tale of Two Sons" by John MacArthur (03/11/08 - 17 Comments)
The story of the Prodigal Son is undoubtedly among the best-known and most highly-favored tales of all time. Even those who do not know the story itself are familiar with its outline or some of the words and phrases that arose from its King James translation. A powerful and heart-rending story, it is unforgettable to all who hear it. John MacArthur, with no hyperbole, says it is “hands down, the greatest five minutes of storytelling...
"The Case for Civility" by Os Guinness (03/08/08 - 3 Comments)
“It would be a safe but sad bet that someone, somewhere in the world, is killing someone else at this very moment in the name of religion or ideology.” Thus begins The Case for Civility by Os Guinness. Every day the media brings us stories of death and mayhem and often religion and ideology are to blame. The bookshelves at your local bookstore are groaning under the weight of books by atheists—Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins—who blame...
Book Review - American Fascists (03/06/08 - 5 Comments)
I’ve read the books of today’s leading atheists—Hitchens, Harris and Dawkins. I’ve read their books and know all about their reasons for hating Christianity and despising the very idea of God. They’ve all sold millions of books and have all traveled the world with their message that God and His followers are what’s most wrong with the world. But I don’t know that anyone of them ever sounded so irrational and so ignorant as Chris...
Book Review - Get Married (03/04/08 - 26 Comments)
Candice Watters’ professor just about blew her mind. “I was sitting in class learning about all the ways our country was slipping from its constitutional foundations. And in a moment of exasperation, I raised my hand and called out, ‘So what’s the solution?’” It wasn’t what she expected. Her professor told her to get married, to have babies, and to do government (and in that order, too). Here she was, in grad school pursuing a...
"Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor" by D.A. Carson (02/27/08 - 18 Comments)
I try not to make a habit of posting book reviews two days in a row, but in this case I felt this book was so special that I needed to bring your attention to it. There are some Christians whose ministries God blesses in extraordinary ways. They preach to thousands and their books are read by millions. But this is the exception far more than the rule. Most Christians labor in relative obscurity, largely...
Book Review - "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana" by Anne Rice (02/26/08 - 24 Comments)
Anne Rice has undergone a radical transformation. A bestselling author, whose novels have sold over 100 million copies, she recently returned to the Roman Catholic faith of her youth, and in so doing abandoned her former subject matter (vampires) and turned instead to a series of books dramatizing the life of Jesus Christ. The first book in Rice’s series, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (released in the fall of 2005) was critically acclaimed and...
Book Review - "Red Letter Christians" by Tony Campolo (02/24/08 - 37 Comments)
There are some people who will probably read no further than the title of Red Letter Christians, the latest offering from Tony Campolo. The reference to Red Letters will no doubt convince people, even before they read the book, that it is a defense of ignoring the black letters of the Bible (which is to say, most of the Bible) in favor of the red words (the words actually spoken by Jesus). While I, too,...
Book Review - "Vintage Jesus" by Mark Driscoll (02/19/08 - 66 Comments)
Vintage Jesus is the first book published under the banner of Resurgence Literature (Re:Lit) which is a ministry of Resurgence (which is, in turn supported by Mars Hill Church). This is also the first title in a series called “Vintage Jesus” that will build on the themes and doctrines introduced in this book. It is one of six(!) new books we’ll see this year from the pen of Mark Driscoll. The book is a collaborative...
Book Review - "The Reason for God" by Tim Keller (02/12/08 - 15 Comments)
There are many people I “know” primarily through their books. I read constantly and find that books allow me to understand the people who write them, especially when the author has written several books. As I read through the corpus of his writings I learn to understand how he thinks and learn to understand what he believes. Even if I have never met an author face-to-face, I often feel like I have met him in...
Book Review - Hollywood Worldviews (02/05/08 - 11 Comments)
Perhaps no area of discernment is more difficult and more controversial than the Christian’s engagement with culture. Are we to be cultural gluttons, immersing ourselves in the culture around us so we can speak to it from the perspective of first-hand experience? Are we to be cultural anorexics, avoiding culture altogether lest it corrupt us? Or are we to take some middle ground where we appreciate aspects of it while rejecting others? In Hollywood Worldviews,...
Book Review - John Adams (01/29/08 - 4 Comments)
I am a little bit late to the party with this book. Released in hardcover in 2001 and paperback in 2002, John Adams is regarded as one of David McCullough’s greatest achievements. This is no little praise for a man who had previously won a Pulitzer prize (for his biography of Harry Truman)—a reward he was to receive again for John Adams. The precursor to 2005’s 1776, this is a stirring biography and one of...
Book Review - Inside Prince Caspian (01/22/08 - 4 Comments)
Inside Narnia was one of the many books published in advance of the most recent movie adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The book has proved a success, going through six printings since its release in 2005. In the book Devin Brown, a Lewis scholar and aficionado, offered a detailed look into the world of Narnia, digging far beyond the surface, and exploring this magical world. As I had just...
"The Shack" by William P. Young (01/15/08 - 72 Comments)
I am certain that there is no other book I’ve been asked to review more times than William P. Young’s The Shack, a book that is currently well within the top-100 best-selling titles at Amazon. The book, it seems, is becoming a hit and especially so among students and among those who are part of the Emergent Church. In the past few weeks many concerned readers have written to ask if I would be willing...
"Culture Shift" by Dr. Albert Mohler (01/08/08 - 4 Comments)
The most surprising thing about Culture Shift is that it is Dr. Albert Mohler’s first book. Though he has been a contributor to edited volumes and though he is a very prolific writer, this book represents his first solo effort. Published by Multnomah and set to his store shelves on January 15, Culture Shift is a book that engages current issues with Scripture’s timeless truths. It teaches Christians how they should think about such issues....
Everything is Miscellaneous (12/22/07 - 2 Comments)
I have a particular interest in books that seek to give us categories through which we can understand this strange new world that is being built around us through the internet. The sheer pervasiveness of the internet has allowed it to impact our lives so deeply and so profoundly and I'm not sure that many of us really understand this. One person seeking to bring sense to it is David Weinberger, a writer, teacher and...
The Death of the Grown-Up (12/18/07 - 15 Comments)
Where have all the grown-ups gone? It’s a question that has perplexed me. Why is it that young people these days seem unwilling, or perhaps unable, to grow up? What is so attractive about youth, about perpetual adolescence, that is so attractive? My wife and I have discussed these things at length, trying to understand why so many of the young people we know (young people who are really not so young anymore) seem stuck....
Book Review - Infidel (12/15/07 - 10 Comments)
Ayaan Harsi Ali is one of Europe’s most controversial political figures, even if she is one who has since relocated to America. One of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, Ali is the author of a bestselling biography and the writer of a controversial movie. When her film Submission was screened in Holland, it led to murder of Theo van Gogh, it’s producer. As van Gogh cycled to work one morning, Muhammad...
My Top 7 Books of 2007 (12/13/07 - 13 Comments)
A few days ago Tullian Tchividjian published his list of his favorite books of 2007 and asked me if I’d do the same. I had, in fact, already worked up a list, and thought that, now that the year is drawing to a close, I’d publish it. So these are my 7 favorite books that were published in 2007 and which I read in 2007. So this is the top 7 in 07 of 07....
Greek for the Rest of Us (12/08/07 - 11 Comments)
I do not know too many serious students of the Bible who do not wish, at one time or another, that they were proficient at Greek (or more proficient at Greek). But few of us have had time or opportunity to study the language in a formal, academic setting. Basic Greek and Exegesis by Richard B. Ramsay and published by P&R Publishing is a newly-published attempt to increase the accessibility of the Greek language. It...
Book Review Updates (12/04/07 - 0 Comments)
We had a busy week over at Discerning Reader and I thought I’d fill you in one some of the new reviews you can find there. Along with my review of Thabiti Anyabwile’s The Decline of African American Theology (which I posted here yesterday), I’ve also added a review of Edward Gilbreath’s Reconciliation Blues. Both books deal with racial issues and both are well worth the read. From Mark Tubbs comes a review of the...
The Decline of African American Theology (12/03/07 - 4 Comments)
Thabiti Anyabwile’s new book is one where the title really says it all: “The Decline of African American Theology: From Biblical Faith to Cultural Captivity.” This is a book that traces the sad decline of the broad stream of African American theology from its orthodox past to its increasingly unorthodox, irrelevant present. The book makes what is, to my knowledge, a unique contribution to the study of African American theology. “What should be studied as...
Family Worship for the Christmas Season (12/02/07 - 5 Comments)
I was raised as part of a Christian tradition that did not place a lot of emphasis on the religious component of the Christmas season. Christmas was a time for family and for friends and for being grateful for all the blessings given us by God, but did not include a lot of distinctly Christian traditions. It is with some interest, then, that I read of advent and the traditions of other people around the...
Book Review - Election and Free Will (11/27/07 - 14 Comments)
Election and Free Will: God’s Gracious Choice and Our Responsibility is what I believe to be the first volume in a series called “Explorations in Biblical Theology” (at least I could find no mention of previously published volumes). This book is written by Robert A. Peterson who is also serving as the Series Editor. The series is to include two types of books: some will treat biblical themes while others will deal with the theology...
"Escape" by Carolyn Jessop (11/24/07 - 6 Comments)
Escape is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre memoirs you are ever likely to read. It is small wonder that it quickly made its mark on the New York Times list of bestsellers. Written by Carolyn Jessop, a woman who was born into the Fundamentalist Lattery Day Saints (FLDS), the book describes what it is like to live as part of this cult which is distinctive primarily for its beliefs about polygamy. The FLDS, which...
Slandering Jesus (11/20/07 - 4 Comments)
Though many people use the name of Jesus in our day, it often seems that one Jesus bears very little resemblance to another. While almost everyone claims to love Jesus, few seem to know the real Jesus. It is to this problem that Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, addresses his new book Slandering Jesus. The format is a simple. An opening chapter introduces the problem and the author’s rationale for addressing it....
Running Scared: Fear, Worry and the Rest of God (11/13/07 - 9 Comments)
I do not generally consider myself a worrier. I am more the easy-going type--the kind who is generally carefree and and does not succumb to fear. Or so I like to think. But even then I have to admit that I can be fearful--I can give in to the temptation to worry. Even if I worry about the things I consider "big," I prove to myself that I am still a worrier at heart. And...
John Piper's "The Future of Justification" (11/06/07 - 10 Comments)
Mark Tubbs, who writes reviews for Discerning Reader, has just posted his review of John Piper's newest book, The Future of Justification. Here are a few quotes: A certain friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) attended a certain pastoral training institute (which shall remain nameless) where he was once advised by a certain staff member (who shall remain nameless) of said pastoral training institute that Dr. John Piper (D. Theol. From the University of...
