Adam Shields

Bookwi.se Reviewed Books on Theology of Technology

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Since Bookwi.se now has more than 450 book reviews, I felt it was time to start making the back catalogue a bit more useful.  Over time I am going to add a series of topical books review summaries that highlight particular book subject areas.

From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology

From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology by John Dyer

Our world is changed by technology and in many ways we look to technology to make us better, give us more, solve our problems.  God created us with the ability to create and use technology, but technology is neither all good nor all bad.  Technology is both shaped by us, but also shapes us in often unexpected ways.  Cell phones give us the ability to leave our homes, go to the park with our kids while we are on-call, but then we often spend the time talking or texting instead of playing at the park.  If you are going to read just one book about how to think Christianly about Technology, this is it.

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Our Triune God: Living in the Love of the Three in One by Philip Ryken and Michael LeFebvre

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Our Triune God: Living in the Love of the Three-in-OneI am way behind in my 2012 reading goals.  I am reading about the Trinity this year.  I started out with this book to read with some friends in a little informal email reading group.  Because we all graduated from Wheaton College and Ryken is the current president of Wheaton we though we would read this book together.

After 3 months we are only half way through (and probably won’t really finish).

This not a bad book, but there are several theological and editorial decisions that I disagree with and make it so that I would recommend this only as a supplemental book on the Trinity.  On the good side, it is only $1.99 for Kindle.

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For Men Only: A Guide to the Inner Lives of Women by Jeff and Shaunti Feldhahn

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At this point I would recommend reading Great Sex Rescue and once you are done with that, then maybe you can find value in For Men/Women Only.
For Men Only: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of WomenTakeaway: Women and men are different. Using interviews and surveys can show some differences, only conversation will work them out in your life.

I first heard about For Women Only when I saw an interview with Shaunti Feldhahn when  that book first came out.  All the women in the audience received a copy.  So I read my wife’s copy to see if it was any good and then highly recommended that she read it.

A couple years later Shaunti and her husband Jeff co-wrote a men’s version of the book.  Both books take fairly large surveys of men or women and a lot of focus group data to try to build a case for the important differences between men and women.  There is no discussion about nature vs. nurture, just that these are the real differences that actually exist between men and women right now in the US.

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The Atlantis Complex (Book #7) by Eoin Colfer

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The Atlantis Complex: Artemis Fowl 7Summary: Some of the ramifications of Artemis’ past life of crime (and his guilt) come back to haunt him.

This is the penultimate book of the series and it is clear that the disparate stories line of the previous books are coming together.  But I have no idea how they are going to wrap up in just one more book.

In this book Artemis is going mad.  He has (probably in part because of exposure to magic) has developed a fairy mental illness.

Again, the fairy world is in danger and this time Artemis does not seem capable of helping because he is in danger of going mad himself.

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The Trinity (Life Changing Series) by Burton Rager

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The Trinity (Life Changing)Summary: Basic ideas of the trinity in a short pamphlet form.

One of my reading projects this year is to read about the trinity.  I am currently (very slowly) working through a book on the trinity with some friends.  And I have several more lined up when that is done.

But this book came up free last week, and it was short, so I thought I would read it.  It is part of a series, about half of which have been temporarily offered for free, but they are all currently $2.99.

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Sacred Friendship Gathering

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Last March, Bookwi.se hosted a blog discussion of the book Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions by Dan Brennan. I also listed it as one of my books of the year.

cropped-jesusmarywpheaderv2-6Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions has the counter cultural idea that cross-gender friendship is actually important, should be encouraged, and should be championed by Christians.  I whole heartedly agree with the main thesis of the book, which is why I hosted the blog discussion and frequently talk about the book.

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Unity by Q. Apelles

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Takeaway: I have no idea This is one of my Prime lending library books.  I went out on a limb and the limb snapped off underneath me. This is a book on ontology, the meaning of things.  It is short.  I read it in about 90 minutes.  But I did not understand what in the … Read more

Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Anglicanism

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Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and AnglicanismSummary: Stories of conversion from Evangelicalism to Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism and from Catholicism to Evangelical

I am a big proponent of story. I think that personal stories are often more valuable than discussion based purely on rationalism. I believe this because we are not purely rational creatures. There is something else that is important to us and story often communicates in a more well-rounded way than pure rational discussion.

The structure of this book is that an author discusses their move from one branch of Christianity to another. Then there is a response by a third party and then a response to the response by the original author.

In general, this allows for the story to be the main subject of the first section. Then the response can bring up rational/theological issues and then the original author can deal with theological objections.

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