Prayer by Richard Foster (Read Again)

I am reposting this 2014 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $1.99.

Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

Takeaway: If you are serious about learning about prayer and have not read this book yet, you need to.

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.

Read more

Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About God, Dreams, and Talking Vegetables by Phil Vischer

Takeaway: Honesty is refreshing, although a bit surprising in a memoir.

Like pretty much every Evangelical, I have been a big fan of Veggie Tales. I bought them for myself, for others, for my church nursery. I also used to live in Chicago when where Big Idea was based and Lisa Vischer was a Wheaton College alum only a few years before me. (And I briefly met her in the fall of 94, excited to meet the voice of Junior Asparagus.) As Visher rightly discerns, it was not moms of young families, but College students that really helped spread Veggie Tales to the masses.

Vischer’s story starts with his childhood, his early creations, his parent’s divorce and his desire to become the next Walt Disney before diving into the creation of what became Veggie Tales and Big Idea.

The story of Veggie Tales is interesting (although occasionally it is a bit technical and overly detailed.) But what makes this book worth reading and an early contender for one of the best books I read in 2015 is that this is an honest story of failure.

Read more

Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life by James Martin

Summary: An exploration of why joy and humor should be a more important part of the spiritual life.

Donald Kim’s A Down and Dirty Guide to Theology, is the only book on systematic theology that I have read that includes a section on theological jokes. Kim makes the point that too often when we talk about God and Theology, only the dry stuff gets passed on. Instead Kim thought a section on theological jokes was important (in a very short introduction to theology) because it would help the reader remember that theology is not only dry academics, but rooted in a relationship with God and any relationship needs laughter. Not long after that I read David Dark’s The Sacredness of Questioning Everything. One of his chapters was on the importance of being able to laugh at yourself (and your religion).

James Martin picks up both of these ideas and expands them, looking not only at why it is important to be able to laugh at yourself and your religion but why so many of the spiritual saints have been fans of laughter and jokes.

This book caught my eye a couple years ago when it first came out. But it wasn’t until I saw Glenn Packiham recommend it on twitter a couple weeks ago that I decided to pick it up. This is my second book by James Martin, the first, a short book on Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Jesus, and a few others is on the short list of best books I have read this year.

Read more

Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries #1)

Reposting my 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is free today only. The audiobook is $2.99 with the purchase of the free kindle book.
Whose Body? by Dorothy SayersSummary: An amateur detective (and younger brother to a Duke) helps a Scotland Yard officer solve a murder.

In my ongoing quest to read more old literature, I picked up the first book in Dorothy Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey series.  Generally the reviews were mediocre.  Most people agreed that this isn’t her best book and not the best of the series.  The Audiobook review (which is how I read this) were even less kind.  There are two copies of this at Audible, both are narrated by middle aged British women.  (I listened to the sample for the one I didn’t get and both sound very similar.)

Maybe it was the very low expectations that I had coming in, but this was an enjoyable mystery.  I am not a huge mystery fan, I don’t really like the traditional Sherlock Holmes style detective who is just so much smarter than everyone and figures things out.  But Sayers is intentionally writing Lord Wimsey to be an anti-Holmes.  There are several passages about how Holmes is not real and how real police work different than Holmes or most other books.

Although it is a bit of a stretch, this feels more like the TV show Castle than anything else (without the sexual chemistry between the police detective and the amateur sleuth).  Peter Wimsey is a relatively young, single, carefree man that is part of the Nobility, but does not have a particular role to fill.  He is a younger brother, so he is not the Duke, he has not gone into politics or law.  He is well educated, but not a professional.  So he has made a hobby of being a detective.

Read more

Overrated: Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World Than Actually Changing the World? by Eugene Cho

Reposting this review from 2014 because the Kindle Edition is free.
Eugene Cho challenges us to truly pursue justice, and to be willing to make the personal sacrifices that the pursuit will ultimately force us to make. In an age of short-term mission trips and numerous opportunities to change the world, many people love the idea of justice and doing good until it begins to require some sacrifice, and it always will.

Pursuing justice will come with a cost, and it will change us. Change is painful, but if we stick with it, the changes are good. Instead of pursuing justice because the world is broken, we need to recognize we are also broken. By serving others, we begin to get a better glimpse of God’s heart and His character, and we begin to change.

Read more

All is Grace by Brennan Manning

I am reposting this 2011 review because the Kindle Edition is free through Oct 20, 2015. All Is Grace

Takeaway: In the end, all really is Grace.

Spiritual biography and autobiography has a tendency to push the lesson before the story.  That is not all bad.  Since Augustine’s Confessions, Christians have learned much from those that have gone before us.  There are problems when the biography/autobiography verge into hagiography, showing only the good and never the bad.  There is equally problems with the tell-all conversion stories that seem to revel too much in the pre-conversion life and too little in the post conversion reality.  All is Grace does a good job of balancing the real, the history and the lesson.

Manning has had a hard life. This will be his last book.  His ill health has meant that he has not been capable of speaking and writing over the past couple years and this book was only completed with the help of John Blase.  This is the third such last book I have read this year.  John Stott’s Radical Disciple, Eugene Peterson’s The Pastor: A Memoir (probably not his last book, but still in a similar vein of concluding his public ministry) and now Brennan Manning’s All is Grace.  All three are very different, but are quite reflective of the lives that each have lived and the types of ministry they were called to serve.  Stott’s book was more theological and pastoral, prodding us to continue on.  Peterson’s book was reflective, asking us to look and see if we are adopting too much of the attitudes of the world instead of acting like the servant.  Manning’s is another call to understand grace by looking at his own life that was marked by both great grace, and great need of grace.

I have read several books by Manning, but this memoir provides some historical structure that does much to give context to his other books.  Brennan was born to a difficult family, marked by a lack of love and caring and a prevalence of alcohol.  Manning was drinking heavily by age 16.  But he also was a talented writer and started college young.  He dropped out of college, joined the Marines right before the end of the Korean War.  He became a war correspondent, went back to school to become a journalist, dropped out of college again, became a Franciscan, left the Franciscans to become a Little Brother, came back to the Franciscans and served as a college chaplain, participated in a experimental community like the Little Brothers in the US, again became a college chaplain.  Each time it was about 2 years before he moved on to the next thing.  By the last he was a clear alcoholic and was forced to seek treatment.  After some treatment and some success with the treatment he started a new career as a Evangelist speaking about grace and forgiveness as a recovering alcoholic priest.  But the alcohol never really was far away.  Some alcoholics are able to live full lives, clean for the rest of their lives.  Manning was not.

Read more