Adam Shields

The Civil War as Theological Crisis by Mark Noll

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The Civil War as Theological Crisis by Mark NollTakeaway: Cultural blind spots affect our reading of scripture far more than we realize.

There are very few books I have recommended more over the past year or so than Mark Noll’s The Civil War as Theological Crisis.  It has been about over a year since I originally read and reviewed it, so I thought it was a good time to read it again (that and the price dropped.)

One of the clear takeaways from this book is that we often do not see our own cultural blind spots.  For instance, an argument that most pro-slavery Christians did not hear or respond to is that the main difference between American Slavery and the slavery of biblical times was that American Slavery was racially based.  Because civil war era White Christians were so convinced that Blacks as a race were inferior it was inconceivable to most that there could be non-racially based slavery or that free Blacks could or should be considered equal to Whites.  And this was true for the vast majority of Christians whether they were from the North or the South, and whether they were for or against slavery.

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Amazon Updates iOS Kindle App

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Yesterday Amazon released and update to the Kindle app for Apple devices to go along with the update to iOS 7.  It was more than a visual update.  The update brought the app in line with many of the features of the stand alone ereaders. The main two feature updates are X-Ray – a potentially … Read more

Bonhoeffer, Christ and Culture edited by Johnson & Larsen

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Bonhoeffer, Christ and CultureSummary: A Book summary of the 2011 Wheaton Theology Conference on Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I am always so excited to read the book produced from the papers of the Wheaton Theology Conference, but then I tend to have to force myself to finish the book.

It is not that the papers are bad, there are always some very good essays and a few that are less interesting to me (I am sure mostly because of different interests between myself and the authors more than the quality of the papers.)

Because these books are only loosely connected around the subject I tend to read a chapter or two and then put the book down and then pick it up again quite a while later.  I have been reading Bonhoeffer, Christ and Culture for a couple months now on and off.

Timothy Larsen’s chapter on how Evangelicals have received Bonhoeffer over time was very interesting.  It was a good supplement to the biographies that I have read on Bonhoeffer because it was more about why we read Bonhoeffer than Bonhoeffer himself.  (Makes me want to read Martin Marty’s book on the history of Letters and Papers from Prison).

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Two New Books by NT Wright

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I just picked up NT Wright’s new The Case for the Psalms.  It is a fairly short book about why the Psalms are important to Christian worship and theology.  While the Kindle version has dropped from its initial $12.99 starting price (it is $11.04 right now), it is still cheaper for me to get the … Read more

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (Underland Chronicles #1)

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Gregor The Overlander by Suzanne CollinsSummary: An 11 year old boy and his sister get suck to a world beneath and realize that their missing father needs them to find him.

I first noticed the Underland Chronicles when looking to see what Suzanne Collins had written beside the Hunger Games Trilogy.  I have been trying to spend less money on books lately (I have a baby coming) and trying to check more books out of the library and read more from the To Read Pile that I already own, so I picked this up because it was at the library.

Gregor the Overlander is clearly a middle grade book, one of that in between age that is neither children’s nor young adult.  And yet again, I will say I tend to not like middle grade books nearly as much as young adult books.

But this is one that moved quickly and in spite of the fact that it is over 300 pages (or 6 and a half hours of audio) I finished it in just over a day.  I actually thought I might have missed a section when I realized I was almost at the end (I didn’t).

Like the Percy Jackson and Book of Three and Wrinkle in Time middle grade series, these are based around a quest.  It is a simple structure, no real sub-plots or significant twists.

Gregor is 11 year old.  His father disappeared without a trace two years ago.  Gregor is the oldest of three.  It is summer and his younger sister is going to camp, but Gregor has to stay home to take care of his forgetful grandmother and his two year old baby sister so his mom can work and support the family.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows JK Rowling

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Takeaway: I take it back, this is my favorite Harry Potter

Just like Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, this is the first time I have re-read the book since it first came out.  And I have only watched the movies once in the theater straight through (but I have watched pieces of them on TV a couple of times) prior to watching them this week. (Well I watched the first one, tried to record and watch the second, but my DVR recorded the first one a second time.)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is far removed from Harry Potter and the Sorcerers’ Stone.  They are clearly from the same universe, but one is a children’s book and one is as engaging as any other piece of fiction I have read.  (I am not knocking children’s books, I read children’s books for pleasure, but they are rarely as compelling as adult fiction.)

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Back on Murder by J Mark Bertrand (Roland March Mysteries #1)

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Back on Murder by J Mark BertrandSummary: A police detective that has been off his game finds his way back.

I don’t read a lot of mysteries or police procedurals.  But Back on Murder has been well reviewed by several people I know.  And even more important, it has been used as an example of the potential and failure of Christian Fiction.  Mark Bertrand is the author of a trilogy of police procedural Christian Fiction books.  But he has publicly walked away from his book publisher (Bethany House) because they do not know how to market his books.

Christian fiction is known for Historical and Amish Romance, not dirty cops and murder investigations.  So I do not completely blame Bethany House, I mostly blame Christian Fiction readers for not exploring different genres.

Back On Murder has been well reviewed by a variety of Christian and secular reviewers.  It is clearly a Christian novel, but it is not a ‘hit you over the head’ with the gospel novel.

Roland March is a police detective.  He is not a Christian, if anything he is mad at God.  A personal tragedy several years before (not revealed to near the end of the book), affected him and his wife and threw his career for a loop.  He would have been fired long ago except for the fact that he used to be such a good cop.

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Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle

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Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'EngleTakeaway: I am glad that we have moved past the point where children’s books have to be completely wholesome and teach morals.  Because they can be a bit boring.

Over the last few years I have been trying to read more old books.  Originally published in 1960, Meet the Austins gets counted as an old book because it was published before I was born.

I have read more of L’Engle’s books than just the Wrinkle in Time series as a child, but I had not read Meet the Austins.  Meet the Austins feels like a mid 20th century children’s book.

L’Engle’s Camilia and And Both Were Young were written before this book, but were much more young adult than children’s and they did not feel as dated.

There is just not much that happens in this book.  The Austins are a happy family.  There are four children, John, Vicky, Suzy and Rob.  Wally (the father) is a rural country doctor.  Victoria is the mother.

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