Book Reviews – Page 129

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

October 21, 2013 by Adam Shields

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.

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

October 21, 2013 by Adam Shields

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.

The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography by Alan Jacobs

December 30, 2024October 15, 2013 by Adam Shields

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.

Year Zero: A Novel by Rob Reid

October 14, 2013 by Adam Shields

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.

Malala Yousafzai

October 10, 2013 by Adam Shields

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

October 10, 2013 by Adam Shields

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

Summary: 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.

And God Said “Billy!” by Frank Schaeffer

October 10, 2013 by Adam Shields

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.

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman

October 9, 2013 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Mix of interesting and important questions with a handful of wild unsupported conspiracies.

I picked up The Conscience of a Liberal on audiobook on a whim from the library. I knew from the description that it has a discussion of racial politics after the civil rights era and I thought it might be a good follow up to Mark Noll’s God and Race in American Politics.

Krugman runs through a history of the 20th century in the US as he sees it to illustrate what he thinks is wrong with both US economic theory and history and what is wrong with the state of current US politics (this was written in 2007, so is pretty dated when talking about current politics.)

The history sections are interesting. Krugman’s point is that the liberal periods of 20th century history were the good parts and the conservative periods were the bad. By this Krugman means that liberal periods were the points when the economic pie was growing and income inequality was shrinking. He is telling this story in this method to counter the traditional economic story that says that deregulation and lower taxes expands the economic pie in such a way that everyone is better off, even if some are better off than others.

Simply Christian by N T Wright

October 8, 2013 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: A modern classic of what it means to be a Christian

I am on an NT Wright kick. I was given a copy of Jesus, Paul and the People of God for review (a book of papers from Wheaton College Theology Conference). The whole conference was a conversation with and about NT Wright. I started reading it and realized that while I have read some of the more popular of NT Wright’s books, I have not read some of his more important academic books.

So I read The Challenge of Jesus, Scripture and the Authority of God and I have Paul in New Perspective, which I will read next.

I have read Simply Christian before, but I read it quickly right after it came out and other than the main themes I really did not remember much about it. So I decided to revisit the book. I am violating my rule of reading a book in a different format because I am trying to save a bit of money right now (so I am re-reading on audio instead of re-reading in paper or Kindle format.) The main complaint that I have seen is about Wright’s prose. He can occasionally write the half page sentence or the slightly too obtuse argument. But I tend to listen to Wright first, get the structure of the argument and then read him more carefully later in a print format.

Night Film By Marisha Pessl

October 8, 2013 by All Old Users

Night Film is Marisha Pessl‘s second novel about a New York investigator who gets in over his head when searching for the truth behind the mysterious “œsuicide” of a famous movie director’s daughter. While looking for evidence and an angle on his story, the main character meets and then teams up with two other characters who help him uncover clues as the three go further and further down the rabbit hole toward the “œtruth”. Along the way, the three uncover conspiracies, possible murder, black magic and even find their own lives in danger.