Book Reviews

Blessed: The Prosperity Gospel in (and Beyond) America

The United States has a dominant economy and is a powerhouse for exporting goods to other nations. What is America’s most significant export? Answers vary by time and criteria, but most experts point to products related to food or to petroleum. Across all categories, more than $2 trillion in goods and services are sold to foreign businesses each year. But I can’t help but wonder whether history will show that America’s most prominent export in this period of history was …

The Art of Rest

It’s hard to rest—to truly rest. It’s easy enough to be busy or to be lazy, but neither one is synonymous with rest and neither one displaces the need to rest. Rest is a necessity and a skill. You might even say it’s an art. Rest is the subject of a new book by Adam Mabry who admits his own struggles in this area: “I don’t do rest. I do do.” He, like me and so many of us, would …

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Heaven on Earth

It does the Christian good to consider heaven. It does the Christian good to consider what awaits us when we at last succumb to death. It has been the subject of countless books but, interestingly, few that have remained in circulation for very long. For that reason we are served well by new works on the subject. I was glad, then, to find a copy of Derek Thomas’s Heaven on Earth: What the Bible Teaches about the Life to Come …

Kiss the Wave

None of us makes it through life without suffering. None of us escapes physical pain, emotional distress, or spiritual agony. At some times and in some ways, we all suffer. No wonder, then, that so many authors have turned to the subject. As Christians, we are well-served with books to help us suffer well and books that help us grapple with the deeper theological questions that inevitably arise in the midst of our darkness. New to the market is Dave …

Missionary to the Cannibals of the South Seas

There are some figures who tower over the history of the Christian faith. They are marked by their courage, their godliness, and their sheer faithfulness. There are many missionaries in this number and John Paton must rank high among them. Few have carried out a more difficult, costly, or perilous ministry. Few have suffered to the degree that he did. Few have seen so many won to Christ. His story is now told anew in Paul Schlehlein’s John G. Paton: …

What Do We Do with the King James Version?

It’s indisputable: No book has had a greater impact on the hearts of individuals and the course of humanity than the Bible. For much of the history of the English-speaking world, the King James Version has been the Bible. Even today, more than 400 years after its initiable publication, it continues to record a stunning percentage of Bible sales. As time continues to pass and its language continues to age, many have wondered: What do we do with the KJV? …

The Porn Problem

It was just a few years ago that the Christian world was blindsided as it learned about the size and scope of the modern-day porn problem. We learned that a vast percentage of young men, and an increasing percentage of young women, are immersed in porn and have been since their youngest days. We learned that many older men and women are into it as well. This led to a great number of books on the subject as well as …

Love Thy Body

It is always a big deal when Nancy Pearcey releases a new book. It’s a special pleasure when that release is timed for the beginning of a new year. Such is the case with Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality. In this new work she brings her unique voice to some of the most pressing moral issues of our day. “In Love Thy Body,” she promises, “we will move beyond click-bait headlines and trendy slogans to …

PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire

In 1974, Jim and Tammy Bakker founded a little television program they called The PTL Club. It began inauspiciously in a former furniture store, but by the mid-80s had exploded into a bona fide phenomenon and a ministry that reached around the globe. They traveled the world, dined with presidents, and gathered countless millions of followers. They became rich and powerful, owners of a massive 2,300-acre ministry center and theme park. They also became almost unbelievably corrupt. By 1987 it …

Sipping Saltwater

Is there any sin we commit more but admit less than the sin of idolatry? As people who have knowingly and willingly deserted the one true God, we turn our hearts this way and that to find the satisfaction we are meant to find in him alone. We try first one thing and then the other yet never find our thirst assuaged. It is not until we rest in him that we find true rest. It is not until we …