Adam Shields

Most Read Reviews from Nov 2012

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The most read review from November 2012. Click the titles for the full review.

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me by Karen Swallow Prior

I love books.  I love people that love books.  I love books about books by people that love books.

Karen Swallow Prior is an English Professor, writer, and essayist.  She has written a memoir highlighting the books (and poems) that have changed her life and made her who she is today.

Each chapter highlight a book and then uses that book to help tell the story of her life.  Sometimes the book helps her to learn, sometimes the book helps her to explain.  But in each case, it is her as a reader that comes through….

Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God's Everything

Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God’s Everything by Anonomous

Takeaway: Obscurity, humility, smallness.  All undervalued and difficult disciplines in a world of individualism, social media and mixed messages.

I ran across the very interesting book Embracing Obscurity on Tim Challies’ blog.  His review gave a bit of the back story and resulted in the book being put on sale for a couple weeks at Amazon.

An anonymous author decided to write a book about humility.  The author realized that writing a book about humility was in itself an un-humble activity so he (and I think it is pretty clearly a he) decided to write and publish a book secretly.  Even his family is unaware.

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God’s Life in Trinity edited by Miraslov Volf

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God's Life in TrinitySummary: A series of 18 essays about the implications of the Trinity of a variety of areas of a theology and practice.  Compiled in honor of Jürgen Moltmann’s 80th birthday. 

There were two reasons I picked up this book.  One, I am trying to read about the Trinity as part of my annual reading goals.  Two, I am reading it because Miroslov Volf’s name is on it.  I have been hearing about Volf for a while and just have not had a chance to read him.

Volf is a professor at Yale and is best known for his work in the areas of social Trinity and forgiveness (Exclusion and Embrace, The End of Memory and the less academic Free of Charge).  He also has controversial book on Christian response to Islam (Allah) and a well reviewed book on Christianity and the Common Good (Public Faith).

What is interesting to me about Volf is that he is academically responding to real issues around him.  Volf was born and raised in what is now Croatia.  He studied in Germany under Jürgen Moltmann and eventually came to the US to teach at Fuller until moving to Yale in 1998.

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Sound the Holiday Alarm

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A friend of mine is trying a digital experiment with his latest book.  Dan Mayhew is releasing it as a serial.  The first chapter is free and you pay $0.40 for each additional chapter. I strongly recommend Dan’s other books The Butterfly and the Stone (about parenting a prodigal), Sword of Submission (which I have … Read more

Theology of the Body for Beginners by Christopher West

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Theology Of The Body For BeginnersSummary: Very helpful, quick overview of John Paul II’s theology of the body.

I purchased this about a year ago after I read Matthew Lee Anderson’s very good Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to Our Faith (first review, second review).  I was looking a basic introduction to John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and Christopher West has written several books on it.

The book sat on my bookshelf for a year but I read it very quickly once I picked it up. Overall I this was a good book.  I highlighted and marked up the book quite a bit (and then left it with my Dad while visiting for Thanksgiving, who was also interested in reading it.)

So I don’t have the book notes.  From memory, the strong points are Marriage as a divine gift, the strong idea about how celibacy fits into that sacramental view of marriage, the way that God designed the body and the ways that sin and redemption of have affected our subsequent view of body.  All of that really is good, fits well within the Christian (and Evangelical) theology and I think strengthens our theology.

Many place the book was quite beautiful in its descriptions of the body, marriage, sex, and God’s love for us.  I think that beauty is something that is often missing in our Evangelical descriptions of the body.  We get erotic, physical, dangerous; we miss the beauty.

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More Best of 2012 Books Lists

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Slate posted their Best Books of 2012 and then the Most Overlooked Books of 2012.  That along with the New York Times Lists of Best Children’s Books and 100 Notable Books of 2012, The 2012 National Books Award Winners and the Amazon Lists of Best Books of 2012 and Best Children’s Books of 2012.  There are some … Read more