Adam Shields

Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

by

Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 5)Takeaway: This is one of the classics that everyone should read.

Over the past few years there has been renewed interest in Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  There is a very good documentary (available for streaming on Netflix).  Then two biographies of Bonhoeffer have been published in the last two years (I reviewed Eric Metaxas’s  and have now read but have not read the Ferdinand Schlingensiepen biography, which has been much better received in the academic world and I think is a better biography.)

Much of the interest and resources for Bonhoeffer study is a result of a new 16 volume series of Bonhoeffer’s works.  Previous, to this series that is published in English by Fortress Press, there were only limited editions of Bonhoeffer’s books that had significant translation issues.

I have purchased three of these volumes (they are not cheap, so many people are still purchasing older editions.)  The volume that includes Life Together (Bonhoeffer’s most read book) also includes his book on the Psalms (Prayerbook of the Bible).  I am not reviewing Prayerbook of the Bible here, but will later.  There is a significant amount of extra material in these books to give context and understanding to these two short books.  Life Together is only a bit over 100 pages, but page for page I think is one of the most useful books I have ever read about spiritual growth and the role of community within the church.

The book has only six chapters (Preface, Community, Day Together, Day Alone, Service, and Confession/Communion.)

One of the most useful things that I heard on this reading (I have read this at least twice previously, but not in the last 10 years) was Bonhoeffer’s understanding of the limits and strengths of community. These are two long quotes, but I think shows that Bonhoeffer is not being idealistic about his view of Christian community:

Read more

Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World by C.J. Mahaney

by

Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen WorldTakeaway: We should pay attention to sin and spend time thinking about whether we are focusing more on loving the world or loving God.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, christianaudio.com MP3 Audiobook

It is hard to review a book on worldliness.  Not nearly as hard as writing one, but still hard.  The tension is viewing worldliness as not anti-world, viewing holiness as a worthy goal, a desire to avoid legalism, the need to focus on the grace of Christ and the tendency to focus on a fairly narrow set of outward sins makes for a book on worldliness easy to take shots at.

I did not realized when I started this book that it was a series of essays by different authors rather than a complete work by Mahaney.  And that makes a difference.  What I liked so much about Mahaney’s book Humility (my review) was that it was so tightly pastoral.  And that seems to be a bit missing in some of the essays.  It also seems like it might be oriented toward young Christians.  After all the chapters are about media, music, consumerism and how to dress right.  (The chapter, my Mahaney, on dress really was inappropriate, it should not have been in the book and the focus seemed to be blaming women for being attractive.  Guys can lust if a woman is in a Burka.  The sin is the lust.  The women are the victim of the sin, not the perpetrators.  Yes, women can be immodest.  Yes, that is a sin, but having a chapter about modesty without talking about the sin of lust means that you are picking on women without dealing with the root issue.  After all if Adam and Eve were naked, without either shame or lust, then lack of clothing is not the issue.  Unfortunately, the long section on immodest wedding dresses really crossed the line for me.)

Read more

Eastertide: Prayers for Lent Through Easter from The Divine Hours

by

Eastertide: Prayers for Lent Through Easter from The Divine Hours (Tickle, Phyllis)Takeaway: One of the few books where I am more disappointed by the publisher than the book

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition

I like fixed hour prayer.  I think more Christians should participate in it.  But I am far from a regular user of it.  I am a nanny for my two nieces and having a 3 and 2 year old running around the house 8 to 12 hours a day makes fixed hour prayer difficult.

So I viewed Lent as a time to try to get back on track again.  It did not really happen during Lent either.  I was definitely an occasional rather than regular user of this book.

But I do love the prayers and choices that Tickle uses.  No prayer book is perfect and there are always some things that I would not choose.  But I think the variety and choices of prayers and scriptures I would not choose is on of the benefits.

Read more

Sacred Unions Sacred Passions Chapter 3

by

Chapter 3 has three basic points as there is a shift in the book to a more positive description from a reactive teaching model.

I think the first point is the weakest and least helpful. The chapter opens with a description of the changes in social understanding of inter-racial marriage. This is interesting and I have just finished reading about the same thing in the book Committed. Committed, I think actually makes the argument of the changes better. When the Supreme Court decided Loving vs Virgina, overturning the Virginia ruling and allowed inter-racial marriage, 70% of the US disagreed with the ruling. But just a generation later, you will be hard pressed to find anyone that would say that inter-racial marriage should be prevented by law.

But the argument by really does not make a difference because friendship is not marriage and race is not gender. Yes, social conventions change. But the church, nor sin, is bound by societal convention.

Read more

What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?: A Guide to What Matters Most

by

What's the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?: A Guide to What Matters MostTakeaway: Theology has to be built on the basics.  Everything else, by definition is non-essential.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition

I really like the idea of this book.  Martin Theilen is a pastor.  A man he knows was an outspoken atheist.  They continued their relationship and eventually the man said he had upgraded to agnostic.  A while later the man ask “What is the least I can believe and still be a Christian?”  It was not because he was trying to minimize having faith, but instead was frustrated by variety of things that people add to their faith.

The first ten chapters are very quick looks at beliefs that are non-essential to the faith.  None of these choices are surprising or dealt with in depth.  Thielen in general looks at a view that holds the belief as essential, and a view that dismisses them and then either dismisses them or shows why we cannot really know the final answer.  I wish he was a bit more inclusive in this area.  In some cases, he is a bit harder on some of the more conservative views than I would like.   It is not because I really disagree with him on most things, but because I want to respect my Brothers and Sisters in Christ that believe differently than I do and honor them as we disagree.  He is not mean, just dismisses a bit too easily.  The topics of this section are Problems of Evil, Doubt, Evolution/Creation, Women (in marriage, authority in church and society), Environmentalism, End Times, Salvation of other religions, Scripture, Homosexuality, Judgmental Christians.

Read more

The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement

by

The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of EntitlementTakeaway: Narcissism is a serious and real issue in the modern world. May be even more important spiritually.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Edition

First admission, I got bored with this book.  I started it in January and read about the first third in a day.  But then I started something else as I often do and I just had a hard time reading more than a little bit at a time.

The first section, which talked about the definition, myths and some of the benefits of Narcissism was very interesting.  I sped through that and spent a lot of time talking about it to anyone that would listen.

The next section talks about why there is an epidemic.  The chapter on parenting I thought was incredible.  I was convinced that there really is a big problem with the way that the US thinks about parenting.  Then the book started talking about the rise of celebrity culture, digital natives and web culture and school and I was less impressed.  It is not that I do not think that Narcissism is not a big deal and it is not that I do not think that celebrity, the web and ‘everyone wins’ is not a problem.

Read more

Till We Have Faces…A Myth Retold by CS Lewis

by

Till we have faces;: A myth retoldTakeaway: An unusual re-telling of a greek myth.

I have never heard of this book before I stumbled across it on Audible.  I was in the mood for some fiction and wasn’t really interested in any of the books that I had in my wishlist.  After surfing around a little while I found that this book.  It was the last real fiction book he wrote.  It was written and published during his early relationship with Joy Davidman.

Till We Have Faces

According to Wikipedia and the book’s introduction, this was a book Lewis was thinking about from his early days in college.  It is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche.  (Although I had no idea what the myth was till after I read the book.)

The basic story is that a princess, Orual, raised her sister after the death of her step mother in childbirth.  The sister, Psyche, was the most beautiful girl anyone had ever seen while Orual was very ugly.  The sisters were separated and the younger sister was married to a God.  But the Orual was convinced that the God was not real or that if there was a husband, it was actually a man that was wrong for her sister.  She convinces Psyche to violate the conditions of the marriage and the God leaves.  But Orual and Psyche are not reunited.

Read more

Amazon Announces Kindle Library Support

by

According to Amazon (I first saw the announcement on Kindle Review), Amazon will support the ability for Kindle to ‘check out book’ from the Overdrive Library system.  I am a fan of Overdrive and have written a review of its Android and iPhone/iPad apps. Overdrive is something that your library has to subscribe to, but … Read more