Adam Shields

Silence: A Christian History by Diarmaid MacCulloch

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Bookwi.se has also reviewed the novel Silence by Shusaku Endo which is occasionally incorrectly linked to the book Silence by Diarmaid MacCulloch.

Silence: A Christian History by Diarmaid MacCullochTakeaway: Silence as an organizing principle can be made to do almost anything the author wants.

Originally much of the content of this book was developed for Gifford Lectures.  I don’t know if the organizational problems of the book can be blamed on that, because there are many books that were originally based on lectures that are very good.

It isn’t that Silence: A Christian History is bad.  There are many fascinating parts of the books.  The problem is that much of it is only marginally connected to Silence.

This book includes everything from discussions of Gnostic heresies to the silence of Jesus before Pilate to silent monks to the silence of those hiding their faith to the silence of those that do not reveal sin like clergy child abuse or slavery or shameful acts.

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A Little Book for New Theologians: Why and How to Study Theology

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A Little Book for New Theologians: Why and How to Study Theology

Summary: A wonderful little books for young pastors, academics and lay leaders on the importance of theology and the humble advice on how to do theology right.

I am a sucker for books like this. I want to be an armchair theologian (I just am not smart enough to be an academic theologian and even if I were, I don’t have the academic background for it.)

But I highly recommend this book. Kapic thinks very broadly about what a theologian is.

Whenever we speak about God we are engaged in theology. The term “theology” means a word (logos) about God (theos), so when anyone speaks about God, whether that person dropped out of high school or completed a PhD in philosophy, he or she is engaged in theology.

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Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries #2)

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Summary: Lord Peter’s brother is accused of murdering his sister’s fiance and Peter has to find the truth.

Dorothy Sayers is best known as an early 20th century crime novelist.  But she was also a well known apologist, one of the intellectual founders of the modern classical education movement (which is popular among many Christian homeschooling groups) and was a friend of CS Lewis, Tolkien and many other better known authors.

Clouds of Witness is the second of the Lord Peter Wimsey books.  It can be read as a stand alone books (and it is in the public domain so it can be found for free or cheap in ebook formats.)

Lord Peter is the middle child in an aristocratic family.  His older brother is a Duke and a Peer of the Realm.  His younger sister is an eligible young woman and engaged to married.  Lord Peter has a hobby, solving crimes, especially murders.  Being a detective is not particularly encouraged by his brother, but once his brother is accused of murder, it is a needed skill.

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Borrowing a Book from Amazon Prime Lending Library

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On twitter I was asked about the likelihood of Amazon getting an Oyster-like feature (all you can read ebooks for a monthly fee.)  I think the ‘all you can read’ system, like Oyster, has a pretty low chance of ever being offered on Amazon.  But Amazon does have the Amazon Prime Lending Library. (Sometime referred to as the Kindle Lending Library or KLL).

Many people tried out the Kindle Lending Library when it was introduced and have ignored it since.  When it started you could not search from a computer for Lending Library Books, and it only had about 5000 books to choose from.

Now there are more than 450,000 book, you can search from your computer (although still have to borrow from your kindle) and the quality of the books has gotten much better.

Here are a few hints and tips that has made the Lending Library easier for me to use.

1) Searching on the computer – it is still far easier to look for a book on your computer than looking on your kindle.  You can see all of the Prime Eligible books from this link.  From there click on the broad area you are interested in. For instance the 49,423 books in the Religion and Spirituality area.  Many of these books have been offered for free.  The biggest contributors to the library are independent authors.  But there are a lot more than just independent authors.

2) Use a wishlist – once you find a book you want (or if you randomly see a book doing another search) save it in a wishlist that you just use for Prime Lending.  I try to always keep at least 5 or 10 Lending Library books in a wishlist so that I do not have to scramble on the last day of the month.

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The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography by Alan Jacobs

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Takeaway: English Christianity has been formed, whether you know it or not, by the Book of Common Prayer.

I grew up Baptist. And I currently attend a non-denominational megachurch. But as I have grown in my understanding of the broader Christian Church and its history, I have been intentionally trying to read more about theology and practice outside of my church community.

The Book of Common Prayer is one of those theological objects that I want to understand, but without a guide it is largely a mystery. Alan Jacobs revealed a part of the puzzle in The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography. This is not a book on how to use the BCP, but a history of how it was developed, changed and how how attitudes toward it changed over time.

Alan Jacobs is an excellent writer and his history of the book is both of solid history and readable.

To me, what is most interesting about story of the BCP, is how it was intended as a tool of unity but from the very beginning that was thwarted. Cranmer, who compiled the BCP thought that a single prayer book with a single service was important both theologically and politically to the unity of the Church in England.  This was not a simple expedient or politically motivated conscription of Christianity but a different world view on how church and state should relate.

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Year Zero: A Novel by Rob Reid

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Year Zero: A Novel by Rob Reid Summary: The universe is listening and may destroy the Earth as a result.

I am a fan of the geek novel.  Because I am a wanna-be geek.  Not an actual geek, but in another life I would like to think I might actually be able to be a real live geek.  (Probably not, but that is another story.)

Year Zero is a geek novel of the best sort.  It is science fiction, involves aliens, has a geeky set up (copyright law), lots of cultural references and is still readable and enjoyable for the general public.

The basic story of the book is that the rest of the universe is in love with Earth’s music.  Starting in 1977 with the interception of the theme song from Welcome Back Kotter, literally billions of aliens have died of joy listening to Earth’s music.

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Malala Yousafzai

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This is outside of my normal posts, but after having watched parts of this several times today I thought I would share. Below is a 3 part interview that Jon Stewart did with Malala Yousafzai, a 16 year old Pakistani girl.  She is an advocate of education and has a new book out.  She first gained … Read more

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions by Rachel Held Evans

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I am reposting this review from 2010 because Evolving in Monkey Town is on sale for $2.99 on Kindle.

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions by Rachel Held EvansSummary: Coming of age in faith as well as years.

I picked Evolving in Monkey Town on the recommendation of John Armstrong.  It is a clever title.  Rachel Held Evans grew up and went to college in Dayton, TN, the home of the Scopes Monkey trial.  The book traces Rachel Held Evans as she is taught to be certain of her faith but eventually begins to question both her faith and God.

In many ways this is a simple book, it is the story of faith growing up from learned from others to owned by the author.  In other ways this is a much deeper book.  The fundamental questions that starts Evan’s questioning is the death of a Muslim woman.  Does God really condemn people that have not ever heard the Gospel to Hell/  This is a question that David Platt explicitly answered in Radical (my review).  Platt’s answer was one of my biggest frustrations with his book, although the practical working out of the results of my answer are not that much different than Platt.  Evan’s answer, on the other hand, doesn’t really seem to get around the answering the question.  Or rather, by the end she re-frames the question.  Although I agree with her answer more, the practical working out of her answer is less satisfying than Platt’s.  I guess I am frustrated both ways.

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And God Said “Billy!” by Frank Schaeffer

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And God Said, Summary: A man leaves his family and heads to Hollywood to direct a film that God told him to direct.

Frank Schaeffer is an acquired taste.  I have mostly enjoyed the three books of his that I have read.  But he has a lot of anger.  And some of it is directed toward valid issues.  Some of it is over the top.

Frank Schaeffer is the only son and youngest child of Edith and Francis Schaeffer.  He grew up at L’aBri, a retreat center in Switzerland that was focused on reaching out to youth.  For a while Frank was one of the best partners in publicizing his father and mother’s work.

But after working to help organize the anti-abortion movement and helping give fuel to new religious right, Frank started working as a Hollywood director and eventually left the Evangelical world, became Eastern Orthodox and has become primarily known as a writer.

After primarily writing non-fiction recently, ‘And God Said, Billy!’ is his first novel since 2006.  The end result is a conversion story of sorts.

We meet Billy after he has been in Hollywood for five years.  Billy Graham (his mother named him after the evangelist in honor of her becoming a Christian at one of his rallies) left his wife and daughter because he felt a call from God to direct a movie about the book of Revelations.

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