Unleashing the Word (11/03/09 - 17 Comments)
When was the last time you read a book about reading? Maybe you have read Adler's How to Read a Book or another like it. When was the last time you read a book about reading Scripture? Maybe you have read a book about how to do better personal devotions and have found there some ideas about reading Scripture in a more effective way. But when was the last time you read a book about...
The Case for God (10/24/09 - 19 Comments)
This is a review I wrote a couple of weeks ago for another site. But I thought it might be worth posting here as well.It is a rare occasion that I find it difficult to point out any redeeming features in a book-when I struggle to find a single positive to write in a review. Unfortunately Karen Armstrong's The Case for God is one of those books-one that is so monstrously bad, so hopelessly awful,...
Book Review - "Counterfeit Gods" by Tim Keller (10/20/09 - 19 Comments)
Tim Keller knows how to tell a Bible story. Like The Prodigal God before it, his latest book, Counterfeit Gods is built around them. And every time I read one of those stories, I feel like I am hearing it for the first time. I find myself lost in the story, anticipating how it could, how it might, end. In the back of my mind I know exactly how it will turn out, but somehow...
Have a Little Faith (10/17/09 - 5 Comments)
I did not ever read Tuesdays With Morrie, a book that has been described as "The bestselling memoir of all time." I find that claim a little difficult to believe, but I suppose that the eleven million copies in print may prove it correct. From the pen of that same author, Mitch Albom, now comes Have a Little Faith, a book that shot straight to the top of the New York Times list of bestsellers...
The Greatest Show on Earth (10/13/09 - 26 Comments)
It has been a couple of years since Richard Dawkins' last major work, The God Delusion (my review). That book was a long-time fixture on the bestseller lists and served to establish Dawkins as the foremost spokesman for the New Atheists. Dawkins has long had two related emphases in his writing and speaking: the non-existence of God and the evidence in nature that evolution is responsible for all that exists. Where The God Delusion emphasized...
Books I Didn't Review (10/08/09 - 15 Comments)
I've been doing a lot of reading lately--an near-obnoxious amount, really. Quite a few of the books have just not been that interesting, but there have been a few exceptions. Here are reviews of three of the more notable books I've read. Each of these titles is currently on the New York Times list of bestsellers. End the Fed Love him or hate him, you probably have an opinion about Ron Paul. He's a guy...
Book Review - Calvin (10/06/09 - 7 Comments)
It is here at last. For years now I have been waiting for a great biography of Calvin--the kind of biography which I would recommend without hesitation for those who would want to learn about the life of the great Reformer. In a year that has seen the arrival of at least half a dozen biographies of Calvin, this one, I believe, stands as the best. Written by Bruce Gordon, professor of Reformation History at...
Understanding English Bible Translation (09/29/09 - 20 Comments)
When it comes to the Bible, we, in the English-speaking world, are profoundly blessed for we have at our disposal scores of translations of Scripture. While they range from excellent to abysmal, in many cases even the worst of them is far superior to the best available in any number of other languages. And, of course, we acknowledge that multitudes of languages remain which still have no access at all to God's Word. Certainly we...
Gospel-Powered Parenting (09/22/09 - 12 Comments)
According to George Barna, there have been approximately 75,000 books on parenting published in the past decade. I sometimes feel like I have read all of them. It strikes me, though, that publishers must feel the same way and that, hopefully, they think hard before releasing yet another book into such a crowded marketplace. I at least wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to P&R with the release of William Farley's Gospel-Powered Parenting....
The Reason for Sports (09/18/09 - 15 Comments)
I have always found it difficult to think about sports in a distinctly Christian way. I love sports (mostly watching, occasionally playing) and want to be able to enjoy fandom guilt-free. But every now and then, when I look at another of the sports scandals or when I hear of the lives of athletes, I wonder if professional sports really is a worthwhile pastime for the Christian. By our participation as fans are we contributing...
Book Review - "If God Is Good" by Randy Alcorn (09/15/09 - 5 Comments)
It seems a fair question, doesn't it? If God is truly good, as Christians insist, then how can there be so much suffering in the world? Since ancient times this question has led skeptics to believe that God cannot, must not, exist. Even today's so-called New Atheists show how little is really new when they use the existence of suffering and evil as a linchpin of their arguments against God's existence. Quite simply, they say,...
Book Review - Words from the Fire (09/08/09 - 12 Comments)
The Ten Commandments was among the first lengthy passages of Scripture I ever committed to memory. Like most children, I was told to memorize the commandments and did so. Every week they were read in church, ensuring that they remained fresh in my mind. And yet, as I've grown older, I've realized that I think little about these Commandments, usually convinced that I am living by the letter of the law but rarely pausing to...
Undefiled (09/04/09 - 2 Comments)
The summer is drawing to a close. Though I love summer and will be sad to see the days grow shorter and the skies grow colder, fall does bring with it some great benefits, not the least of which is a long list of new books. For that reason I anticipate squeezing in a few more book reviews than usual over the next few weeks. I hope you don't mind! Very often when I do...
Book Review - "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan (09/01/09 - 31 Comments)
Calling the Holy Spirit "Forgotten God" may be a bit of an overstatement. Or perhaps it is an understatement. Some Christians seem to show little evidence that they have any theology of the Spirit while others seem to emphasize the Spirit at the expense of other biblical doctrine. What seems clear is that few Christians have it quite right. In this new book Francis Chan says, "From my perspective, the Holy Spirit is tragically neglected...
Money, Greed, and God (08/29/09 - 13 Comments)
The twentieth century was witness to a great battle between capitalism and communism. Early in the twenty-first century it is clear that capitalism won a resounding victory. Yet many people living in victorious nations continue to be uncomfortable with capitalism. They see it as a system of economics, a way of life that transfers wealth from poor to rich, that exploits the planet, that is somehow inherently biased toward the few at the expense of...
Book Review - Glory Road (08/25/09 - 8 Comments)
There are certain things I never get tired of hearing. I never get tired of hearing Tom Cheek's call of Joe Carter's home run--the one that won the Blue Jays the World Series in 1993 ("Touch 'em all, Joe! You'll never hit a bigger home run in your life!"). I never get tired of hearing the "Hallelujah Chorus" performed by a world-class choir. I never get tired of hearing the laughter of little children (Okay,...
Books I Didn't Review (08/21/09 - 9 Comments)
Here is (yet) another list of books I read that will not be receiving extensive reviews. Shakedown by Ezra Levant. Unless you are Canadian, you have probably not heard of Ezra Levant. Let me fill you in. Several years ago he was publisher of Western Standard magazine and made the decision to print the infamous Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. He did so because they were newsworthy and he wanted to use them to...
The Death Penalty on Trial (08/18/09 - 65 Comments)
That the Bible advocates and even commands the enforcement of the death penalty seems almost like it should be beyond controversy. The dignity God gives to humans, created as they are in his image, demands the utmost penalty for those who would recklessly and deliberately destroy life. Yet controversy abounds with many of those who profess Christ insisting that a God of love and justice would never endorse the use of this ultimate human punishment....
A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church (08/13/09 - 19 Comments)
"My name is Warren, and I'm a recovering evangelical." There are plenty of books today that begin in roughly this way--biographies by Franky Schaeffer and Bart Ehrman come to mind. But Warren Cole Smith is different in that he remains an evangelical, he remains a professed Christian. His recovery from evangelicalism does not involve tossing away the faith, as others have prescribed. His recovery involves reformation, not of the Christian faith but of its evangelical...
The Housing Boom and Bust (08/07/09 - 15 Comments)
At a time of global economic crisis, in all of the talk of a subset of that crisis, the housing boom and bust, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the cause of that bust is so very simple. "Behind all the esoteric securities and sophisticated financial dealings are simple, monthly mortgage payments from millions of home buyers across the country." When the housing payments slowed or stopped, sometimes by necessity and...
