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 - 73 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...
"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 - 7 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...
The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism (11/06/07 - 3 Comments)
The doctrines that together form what we call “Calvinism” have always been controversial. Since the time of the Reformation, they have brought out both the best and the worst in Christians. Critiques of Calvinistic theology tends to focus upon certain areas, certain questions that continue to confuse and continue to cause people to insist that Calvinism cannot be biblical. In The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism, a short book published by Ligonier Ministries, author Craig R....
The Dawkins Letters (10/21/07 - 5 Comments)
(I apologize for all the book reviews - I've had a bunch stacked up here and wanted to clear out the queue! I suppose I shouldn't apologize, really, as these are all good books and I know someone will benefit from the reviews...) David Robertson, a Free Church of Scotland pastor who lives in Dundee, wanted there to be an intelligent Christian response to Richard Dawkins' bestselling The God Delusion. To that end he wrote...
