Adam Shields

3 Giveaways

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There are three giveaways the I thought readers of Bookwi.se might be interested in. Sarah Beesley one of the bloggers at a Deeper Story is giving away five copies of her new book Jesus Feminist.  I have a copy and will review it later this year.  It has had very good reviews so far. GoodEreader, … Read more

Embracing Shared Ministry: Power & Status in the Early Church and Why It Matters Today

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Embracing Shared Ministry: Power and Status in the Early Church and Why It Matters TodayTakeaway: Shared Ministry (not single head pastor) is both the biblical model and a more healthy form of leadership.

Embracing Shared Ministry: Power and Status in the Early Church and Why It Matters Today is a long title.  But it is very descriptive of both the style and point of the book.

Embracing Shared Ministry has three parts.  The first part is background on Roman culture and society.  The main point is that Roman culture was very focused on status and honor.  It was not a mobile culture, people that were born low status, stayed low status.  People that were born high status mostly stayed high status.  And not completely unlike today a very small portion of the society controlled a very large portion of the wealth.

In today’s culture, efficiency and wealth creation are highly valued.  But in Roman culture it was honor.  Government was small and rich individuals donated much of the infrastructure and entertainment to the cities (aqueducts, fountains, stadiums, festivals, etc) not to generate common good, but to produce honor.  If you gave away the most stuff to the city, you had the highest honor.  And nothing was done anonymously, everything had long inscriptions giving all of the titles and honors of the one that donated it.

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Most Read Reviews in October

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The six most read reviews in October The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography by Alan Jacob Divergent by Veronica Roth Year Zero by Rob Reid The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman The Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism by Molly Worthem Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Comparing Versions)

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Ender's Game by Orson Scott CardSummary: A comparison of the difference in storyline between Ender’s Game and Ender’s Game Alive.

After I listened to Ender’s Game Alive last week (a radio-styled audio drama) I decided to re-read Ender’s Game in print.

Ender’s Game is a story that has had lots of versions.  It was originally a short story.  Then Card expanded it into a full length book.  Then Card revised it to the ‘Author’s Definitive Version’.  And now there is Ender’s Game Alive and the Ender’s Game movie.

In addition there have been a number of short stories that have expanded on scenes from the book or provided background.  There is a whole book that was falls between the last two chapters of Ender’s Game and a whole series that starts by telling this same story from a different character’s perspective.

So when I listened to Ender’s Game Alive and commented on my disappointment with the abridgement I got a little push back.  I was going to re-read Ender’s Game anyway.  But I read it with an eye to see the places that were handled differently.

Having read both within a couple days of each other, I agree, Ender’s Game Alive is really a different version of the story more than an abridgement.  But I stand by the fact that I think it does not give enough character development to Ender.  (Stop reading now if you don’t want any spoilers.)

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4 Kindle Tools You Should Use: Dictionary, Wikipedia, Translation, Content Errors

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Obviously I am a fan of ebooks.  But I am a fan, not just because they are portable, are sometimes cheaper, or because they don’t take up shelf space.  I am a fan of ereaders because of the tools that they bring to reading.

There are three in particular that most ereaders have that everyone should use.

bDictionary – almost every ereader now has a built in dictionary.  For kindle all you need to do is touch the word (on touch screen kindles) or move the cursor to the word on non-touch screen kindles.  That will either pop up a dictionary or bring up an entry along the bottom of the page.  Everyone needs a dictionary at some point, so you might as well get used to using it.  The new Kindle Paperwhite also has a flashcard game that uses the words that use lookup in your dictionary to help teach vocabulary.

Wikipedia – Everyone knows that Wikipedia should not be used to write papers.  But it is a good enough system to give a good overview of almost anything.  On the new Kindles the wikipedia is a tab on the dictionary popup.  So if there is not a good definition in the dictionary then you should try wikipedia.  It is particularly helpful with names and places.

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Is the Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment by Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom

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Is the Reformation Over?: An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism

Summary: A very clear and balanced look at how the Evangelical and Catholic churches are moving closer but still have theological issues that hold them apart.

I have read a lot of Catholics (or Evangelicals that have converted to Catholicism) lately.  So Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom’s book is a different take at Catholicism.

There are some great parts of this book and some weaker parts of this book.  The weakest part is the back and forth discussion of the many discussions between Protestant denominations and Catholics.  This was interesting, but repetitive; it seemed to just keep going on and on.  Many of the issues between Protestants and Catholics keep coming up again and again.  However, I do not know a better way to present the data, and it needed to be presented.

The discussion of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together statements were more interesting.  For one, there were a number of interviews with the participants.  These were mostly high profile and interesting people.  I was disappointed that Noll did not speak specifically of his involvement narratively.  (He was one of the original signers.)

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Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism by Molly Worthen

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Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism by Molly Worthen

Takeaway: The strength and weakness of Evangelicalism as a movement is its attachment to culture and it flexibility around authority.

Evangelicalism is my tradition.  I grew up Baptist, often going with a friend to an Evangelical Free Church youth group.  I participated occasionally in Young Life.  I went to Wheaton College and I now attend a non-denominational mega-church.  I am solidly Evangelical.

Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism is a history of modern Evangelicalism. And like hearing about your family as an adult, you hear things you thought you knew about, but from a different perspective than what you thought you understood as a child.

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