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Scripture and the Authority of God by NT Wright

Adam Shields —  May 9, 2011 — 2 Comments

Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today

Takeaway: I do not know any book that takes the reading, study and importance of scripture more seriously than this book.

Purchase Links: Hardback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I am a fan of NT Wright.  Primarily because I so strongly appreciate his pastoral heart for the church and his desire to serve the church.  He can be a controversial figure, in part because of that pastoral heart.  He created another dust up last week because of an editorial about the US and Osama bin Laden.  And I have heard more than a few people complain that Wright needs to focus on scripture, where he has few peers and leave all other areas of social involvement alone.  However, the entire point of much of Wright’s writing and speaking is to help people put into practice the living of their lives as Christians. You may disagree with him over politics or theology, but it is clear that his positions are based on his understanding of scripture and he thinks and acts deeply based not on political maneuvers, but on his understanding of scripture.

Scripture and The Authority of God is a reworking of a 2005 book, The Last Word and I think is the most accessible and best book of Wright’s that I have read.

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Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World by C.J. Mahaney

Adam Shields —  April 26, 2011 — 2 Comments

Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen WorldTakeaway: We should pay attention to sin and spend time thinking about whether we are focusing more on loving the world or loving God.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, christianaudio.com MP3 Audiobook

It is hard to review a book on worldliness.  Not nearly as hard as writing one, but still hard.  The tension is viewing worldliness as not anti-world, viewing holiness as a worthy goal, a desire to avoid legalism, the need to focus on the grace of Christ and the tendency to focus on a fairly narrow set of outward sins makes for a book on worldliness easy to take shots at.

I did not realized when I started this book that it was a series of essays by different authors rather than a complete work by Mahaney.  And that makes a difference.  What I liked so much about Mahaney’s book Humility (my review) was that it was so tightly pastoral.  And that seems to be a bit missing in some of the essays.  It also seems like it might be oriented toward young Christians.  After all the chapters are about media, music, consumerism and how to dress right.  (The chapter, my Mahaney, on dress really was inappropriate, it should not have been in the book and the focus seemed to be blaming women for being attractive.  Guys can lust if a woman is in a Burka.  The sin is the lust.  The women are the victim of the sin, not the perpetrators.  Yes, women can be immodest.  Yes, that is a sin, but having a chapter about modesty without talking about the sin of lust means that you are picking on women without dealing with the root issue.  After all if Adam and Eve were naked, without either shame or lust, then lack of clothing is not the issue.  Unfortunately, the long section on immodest wedding dresses really crossed the line for me.)

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What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?: A Guide to What Matters Most

Adam Shields —  April 22, 2011 — Leave a comment

What's the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?: A Guide to What Matters MostTakeaway: Theology has to be built on the basics.  Everything else, by definition is non-essential.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition

I really like the idea of this book.  Martin Theilen is a pastor.  A man he knows was an outspoken atheist.  They continued their relationship and eventually the man said he had upgraded to agnostic.  A while later the man ask “What is the least I can believe and still be a Christian?”  It was not because he was trying to minimize having faith, but instead was frustrated by variety of things that people add to their faith.

The first ten chapters are very quick looks at beliefs that are non-essential to the faith.  None of these choices are surprising or dealt with in depth.  Thielen in general looks at a view that holds the belief as essential, and a view that dismisses them and then either dismisses them or shows why we cannot really know the final answer.  I wish he was a bit more inclusive in this area.  In some cases, he is a bit harder on some of the more conservative views than I would like.   It is not because I really disagree with him on most things, but because I want to respect my Brothers and Sisters in Christ that believe differently than I do and honor them as we disagree.  He is not mean, just dismisses a bit too easily.  The topics of this section are Problems of Evil, Doubt, Evolution/Creation, Women (in marriage, authority in church and society), Environmentalism, End Times, Salvation of other religions, Scripture, Homosexuality, Judgmental Christians.

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The Butterfly and the Stone by Dan Mayhew

Adam Shields —  April 19, 2011 — Leave a comment

The Butterfly and the StoneSummary: Whether you have a prodigal child, were a prodigal child or know a prodigal child, this books on the heart break of loving a prodigal and what it teaches us about God loving us is a must read.

Purchase Links: Paperback from Createspace, Kindle Edition, Smashwords Edition (DRM free with choice of .mobi, .epub, .PDF, .rtf, .txt or online .html)

Right up front I have to disclose that I know Dan Mayhew (the author) and his wife Jody.  I have been aware of the roots of what this book is talking about for the past decade or so since I first met them.  I have not ever met their son, but I have frequently prayed for him and the family.

So maybe I am tainted in my opinion, but the reality of a parent writing about their love of a child, and the corresponding pain of watching a child struggle through bad decisions, addiction, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (after serving in Iraq), homelessness, suicide attempts, etc., is powerful stuff.

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The Private Prayers of Pope John Paul II: Words of Inspiration

Adam Shields —  April 7, 2011 — Leave a comment

Words of Inspiration: The Private Prayers of Pope John Paul IITakeaway: One of the most inaccurate titles ever. Actually a series of letters to lay Christians working around the world.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Audible.com Audiobook

This is a book that I picked up because it was free on Audible (I think it was given away to commemorate his death.)  Obviously I did not get right to it.  I stumble across it when looking back through my audio archives.

It is very short, just over 2 hours of audio (did not realize until now that it is an abridged audiobook).  The full book is actually a collection of 150 letters (fairly short blog/newsletter length) that were written to the Secular Institutes.  My understanding from the introduction is that these are people that live and work in the secular world, but take on vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.  Mostly they are lay people (not ordained) and unlike monks or nuns (which are also often not ordained) live alone outside of a community.  I had never heard of this status before, but according to Wikipedia, there are about 60,000 people that live as ‘consecrated persons’.

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Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Adam Shields —  March 26, 2011 — Leave a comment

Christianity: The First Three Thousand YearsTakeaway: It is hard to discuss 3000 years of history.

Purchase Links: Hardback, Paperback,Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook (The price has dropped in all formats so it closer to reasonable).

You may have seen the first 8 posts I made about this book (see bottom of review for links).  It is a very good book for the most part, but it was exhausting to post mini reviews and probably more exhausting to read them.  So about half way through I gave up reading the book and gave up writing posts about the book.

After a couple months I have come back and finished up the last 15 hours of the book and am ready to be done.  Not that it was not a very good book, but a book of this length and depth is not one I want to attempt again soon.

I appreciate the goal, placing Christianity in a historical context and then using the tools of history to give understanding to the whole of Christianity.  MacCulloch is not a theologian (or even a practicing Christian.)  But he does have a very wide and deep understanding of Christianity that he pushes to new depths.  In general, I think the goal was a good one.  Too often we want to look at bits and pieces of history and not look at it as a whole.  But with any attempt, there will be weaknesses.  And I think, some of MacCulloch’s tools were one of his weaknesses.  He is a historian and while using the tools of a historian gave some very impressive insights in some areas, his treatment of pre-Christian influences I thought seems needlessly antagonistic toward faith in general.  And unfortunately, that is the very beginning of the book.  Several Amazon reviews said they stopped in the first couple chapters, which is unfortunate.

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Prayer by Richard Foster (Read Again)

Adam Shields —  March 18, 2011 — Leave a comment

Prayer: Finding the Heart's True HomeTakeaway: If you are serious about learning about prayer and have not read this book yet, you need to.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I have read this book at least once previously (and I think twice.)   It would not be the first book I recommend to someone that want to start out learning about prayer.  But it is one of the more important modern books on prayer.

Prayer is one of those topics in Christianity that is hard to write about.  It is something learned best by doing and by being mentored by others.  Surrounding yourself with people that pray is much better than surrounding yourself with books on prayer.

That being said, when you have spent time learning to pray with others, it is good to spend some time reading about the why and how of prayer.  No book will fully explain that, of course.  But Richard Foster does a very good job showing the different ways that prayer occurs within the Christian faith.  Few modern authors are as widely read and as fluent in different streams of Christianity as Richard Foster.  That is both helpful, and the primary reason I would not suggest this to someone that is new to prayer.   There is just too much here for someone that does not have a good grounding and idea about what type of pray-er they are.
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Churched: One Kid’s Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess by Matthew Paul Turner

Adam Shields —  March 2, 2011 — 1 Comment

Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy MessTakeaway: If you want a recovered fundamentalist version of David Sedaris this is a good attempt.

Purchase Links: Hardback, Paperback, Kindle Edition, Free Audiobook

I am a regular reader of Matthew Paul Turner’s blog.  I am not a fan of everything there, but I think his is a voice that needs to be listened to.  He is not afraid to poke fun at the church or himself or others.  But there are times when his humor and sarcasm can be a bit mean.  This is not all that frequent, but it is fairly regular.  In spite of that, I continue to be a regular reader, because there is a community there that would not happen in other places on the web.

I have had this book on my ‘To read someday list’ for a while.  I read his more recent Hear No Evil about a year ago.  It is a similar book but focused on how Turner related to music in spite of his fundamentalist upbringing.  I thought it was decent, especially the later chapters after he was an adult.

Churched has a different feel.  I am listening to this on audio (still free right now) and maybe that is the difference.  This feels much more like a David Sedaris book.  I like David Sedaris in very small doses.  But too much and I just get bored.  I haven’t finished either of the last two books of his that I have started.  The stories have a bit too much detail and feel a little too forced.

Some of them are funny, but Churched seems a bit less kind to his parents, family and community than Hear No Evil was.  It is a book that probably needs written because there are church worlds like this that still exist.  But I am more saddened by the reality of the distortion of Christianity than I am humored by ‘those silly fundamentalists.”

I want to like it more than I do. I don’t hate it.  And some will like it a lot.  But much like Hear No Evil, I like the end the best.  The afterward was the best chapter.

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Short rant on pricing.  I am sure that Turner does not control the pricing of his book.  And I do appreciate that he is offering Churched free on audio. But it is still odd to me that publishers think that the Kindle Edition is worth more than the paperback and the paperback should be priced higher than the hardcover.

 

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Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard

Adam Shields —  January 28, 2011 — Leave a comment

Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with GodTakeaway: Classics are classics for a reason.  If you are serious about trying to follow after God, this is a book that will challenge you no matter what your maturity.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

Finding God’s will is a common desire.  Often people can be paralized because they are afraid of not finding God’s will.  Hearing God is a classic.  This is the third copy of the book I have owned (one given and two purchased) over the years but the first time I am actually reading it.

I like that Willard starts by moving the pressure down a notch.  He has a good illustration of the fact that no parent wants to tell their children everything that they should do.  Parents want to teach their children how to do something, and expect that they will do it.  If they are supposed to make their bed in the morning, they should make it every morning.  Children complaining that the parent did not tell them this morning to make their bed will only incur the parent’s wrath.  So Willard starts telling us we should listen to what scripture says and do that.

Another good point that I have never really thought of, is that we should always read scripture assuming that the people of scripture were much like us.  They were not particularly special people, they were sinful, afraid, made bad decisions, etc.  If we see them as much like us, then we can assume that we to should be hearing from God and seeking to follow God’s will in relatively similar ways as the biblical characters.  Since reading that section, I have been more aware of the large number of Christians that actively resist thinking of biblical characters as ‘like us’.  I think it shows one area that we have far to go to move Evangelicals into historical Christian Orthodoxy.

There is a good illustration about what it means to live in Christ and hear from the Holy Spirit.  My shortened, weakened version is that Cabbage is alive.  But Cabbage is dead to the world of movement and play.  A rabbit might be able to move and play in some form, but it is dead to the world of art and ideas.  It is not that Christians that do not hear from the spirit are dead in Christ (not saved), but rather are some are blinded to the plane that the Holy Spirit is speaking to them on.  He spends several pages developing it and it is much more impressive than my few lines makes it seem.

Overall what I am most impressed by, is the biblical balance that Willard attempts to strike.  When you discuss hearing from God there are lots of places to veer into shaky ground.  And I know that some are of the opinion that even discussing hearing from God goes too far.  But Willard attempts to keep the desire to hear from God, the ways we hear from God, the reality of the power of God, and the limitations of our own understanding all front and center.

This is not a new book, but I think it would be good to read along with Bill Hybels’ Power of a Whisper (my review).  Hybels spends more time talking biographically (and telling other people’s stories), which I think is helpful to put hearing from God in context of a life lived.  And Hybels probably is a bit more directive in how to hear from God.  But Willard is more theologically and philosophically oriented.  I think the balance between them is useful.

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The Grace of God by Andy Stanley

Adam Shields —  January 21, 2011 — Leave a comment

The Grace of GodMy Takeaway: Grace really is the central message of the Gospel.

Purchase Links:  Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I have been meandering through this book for a while.  I bought it pre-release when it was sold at church (I go to Buckhead Church, Andy Stanley is my pastor, this is probably not going to be a balanced post.)  Then Thomas Nelson gave away the ebook if you signed up on the facebook page.  So I waited for the ebook to come out.  Thomas Nelson only distributed it in PDF (they really should know better).  So I tried converting it to kindle format using Calibre and it did not look that great.  So I moved to my iPad and finished it up there, which wasn’t a bad experience.

This is my first of Andy Stanley’s explicitly theological books.  I have read some of his leadership books and I think leadership is where he really shines.  He is a great preacher and having attended the church for a while I can hear some of the sermons this was based on.  It is not a sermon series turned to book form.  There are a few things that I recognize from earlier sermons.  But I think there is just as much that will be in future sermons.  In fact, I recognize a couple quotes from the book as being in the last two week’s sermons and the book has been in my house for the past couple months.

I think the best revelation of the book is “God’s law is never given to establish a relationship; God’s law is given to confirm an existing relationship.”  I think this is the root of much misunderstanding in the Christian world.  Too often we want people to act like Christians that are not.

Another quote from the book is about fairness. “Fairness is a tricky thing.  Here’s something I’ve noticed: I only complain about things being unfair when unfair works against me.  When unfairness works to my advantage, I call that answered prayer…Fortunately for us, the kingdom of God does not operate according to the principles of fairness.  At least not the way we measure fairness.”

This is a good book on grace.  Grace is the central message of the gospel.  Any gospel that is not essentially about the grace of God is not really the gospel.  Because this is the central message of the gospel there are a lot of good books on grace.  That is good, because as different people we need different messages on grace in order to help us where we are at.  For some reason, Brennan Manning‘s Ragamuffin Gospel has always been my ‘go to’ book on grace.  I think ‘The Grace of God’ is a good book on grace.  I think it is particularly good for people that grew up in the church but have strayed from it.  That seems to be a group that Andy Stanley is particularly good at reaching out to.  This book follows along with that focus quite well.

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I want to do a short little rant about a habit of Andy’s that drives me nuts.  He refers to Jesus referencing Jonah in the book.  And says, “Apparently he (meaning Jesus) thought Jonah was a historical figure and that the events recorded in the book of Jonah actually happened.  So that’s my view.  I always side with Jesus on debatable matters.”  But it is unclear to me that Jesus’ reference to Jonah really means that Jesus thought that Jonah was literally true.  It really doesn’t matter to me whether you think Jonah was literally true or not.  But I think that this type of claim does not really show anything.  People refer to stories all the time and refering to a story does not mean that a person believes that the story was literally true.  It just means that they refered to a story.  Jesus refering to creation does not mean Jesus thought that creation happened in 7 days.  Jesus refering to Noah does not mean that the entire world was covered in water for either 190 or 187 days (depending on whether you follow the calendar references or the count of days in the Noah story).  I think we can know many things about scripture, but I do not think that we can know the ‘literal’ meaning of things just because those events were reference later in scripture by someone else, whether it was Jesus or Paul or someone else.

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