Book Reviews

Summary: Good idea. The world biggest comic book fan becomes a superhero.

In general I read a lot of Christian non-fiction and very little Christian fiction. Part of that is choice, most of the fiction I read is spy, young adult, science fiction or fantasy. All of which are pretty rare on the Christian fiction market. Part my lack of reading Christian fiction is that there is so little that I have been really excited about in the past.

But I like to experiment. So when Tales of the Dim Knight was offered for free on kindle books I picked it up. When I noticed that there was an audiobook that was discounted to $1.99 on Audible because I had already ‘purchased’ the free kindle book, I bought it.

I listened to it all in three days. I really did want to find out what was going to happend and I liked it enough that I will probably read the second book in the series.

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Summary: First of a trilogy of books about Jesus written by Pope Benedict XVI written after he became Pope.

I have heard repeatedly and from various people how good the Pope’s trilogy on Jesus is.  Since he was stepping down, I figured I should try reading one of his books.  I did not finish it before he stepped down, but I did finish it before the next Pope had been chosen (barely).

This is clearly a book worth reading for people looking for theological content about Jesus.  Benedict is focused on teaching about Jesus as God and Savior.  While he acknowledges the importance of research into historical Jesus and the culture of the 1st Century and other methods of exploring Jesus, primarily, this is an exploration of Jesus as a theological teaching tool.  Primarily he is using the Gospels as his starting point.

Part of what is impressive to me is that it is clear that he has academic chops, but this is a very readable book.  A lot of academics have important things to say.  But we need others to interpret and popularize their content so that the average person can understand.

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Takeaway: The Trinity is who God is, not just how God reveals himself.

I am glad there is a new interest in the Trinity among the Evangelical world.  Like most things, the current revival of interest in the Trinity among Evangelicals reflects the increased academic interest in the trinity over the last 50-60 years (Barth, Rahner, Grentz, etc.).

What I find odd about the renewal of interest in the Trinity among Evangelicals is that they seem to want to not talk about recent academic writing about the Trinity.

So when I read Ryken’s book on the Trinity he wanted to talk about the Trinity as a purely individualistic issue and ignored the Trinity as a social theology (which has been the primary focus of modern Trinitarian writing.)  Ryken also primarily seemed to talk about the Trinity not as who God is, but what the Trinity means to who we are as Christians (why we need the Trinity for salvation).

Sanders does not fall into quite the same problems.  He explicitly says, “We have seen that God is triune at the deepest level, at the level of who he essentially is rather than merely at the level of what he does.” and later “God is Trinity primarily for himself and only secondarily for us. One of the consequences of this is that the Father has always been the Father, the Son has always been the Son, and the Holy Spirit has always been the Holy Spirit.”

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Reposting review because the book is now available in a Kindle Edition

Summary: The wonderful story with a new comic book feel in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Late every Christmas Eve my wife and I go over to her cousin’s house and we act as elves.  We put together all the toys, make sure all of the batteries are in (we cart away all the empty boxes and wrapping because Santa does not buy toys at the store.

As the kids have gotten older there are less complicated things for us to put together and we have more time to talk.

I was talking to my wife’s cousin’s husband and he was saying that over the past year he has rediscovered his love of comic books because of the iPad.  With his iPad he now is back to buying all kinds of comic books and rediscovering the joy of the comic in a new form. (Note: Marvel now has an unlimited subscription option for ipad comic books.)

I never got into comics.  I just didn’t have a community of friends that read them and so there was no one that shared them with me and my local library did not carry comic books (although I am sure some do.)

I have been paying more attention to factors in children’s reading.  Why is it that some kids read and some do not.  I am convinced that part of it is the community that they grow up in.  If everyone around them reads, then they probably will read as well.  One educator interviewed kids at her school that were readers and she found that the kids that were strong readers were closest to the local library and were encouraged to use it. (There is probably a causality problem with her research, but access to books is certainly one influence.)

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Kindle book dropped to $5.99 so I am reposting the review.

Takeaway: Funny memoir, and surprisingly insightful discussion about the role of women in entertainment.

Tina Fey is a great writer.  I have never watched that much Saturday Night Life.  It is past my bed time (I usually wake up between 5 and 6 even on weekends.  Yes I am an old man.)  And I have never watched 30 Rock (although I am going to try it out after reading this book.)

But I have seen enough of Tina Fey that I was interested.  My Sister-in-Law passed on the hardcover months ago after she read it, but it was a hard cover and I never got to it.  Last week I picked up a free audiobook in a promotion (the promotion is dead now) and decided to listen to it as a change of pace.

I finished it in less than 24 hours.  It is not long, less than 6 hours unabridged.  But it is read by Tina Fey and she does a good job acknowledging that she is performing an audiobook, not just blandly reading the text.  There is even the audio clip of her first Sarah Palin SNL skit.  I love authors that read their own audiobooks.  The vast majority of the time it is so much better than a random narrator.

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I am reposting this review because A Life Together is on sale for $2.99 for Kindle until March 1.

Takeaway: Community, like all great Christian paradoxes, is both here, with what we really experience, and potential, with what we might imagine.

I have been thinking about our theological isolation as I have been reading the two books For Calvinism (my review) and Against Calvinism (my review).  It is interesting to interact with other Christians that cannot comprehend thinking about a theological issue in any other way than the way they conceive of it.  It is not that it is wrong to be sure of our faith.  But if we are sure of our faith because we have never thought of our faith or understood that there are other ways to think of our faith, then are we really sure of our faith?

So I think it is important to read works outside our theological comfort zone.  If you are a Calvinist, you need to read John Wesley.  If you are a Baptist, you should read Pope John Paul II.  If you are Methodist, you should read Bonhoeffer or Barth.

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I am reposting this review because How (Not) to Speak of God is on sale for $2.99 for Kindle until March 1.

I have read one other Peter Rollins book, The Orthodox Heretic.  My opinion of How (Not) to Speak of God is very much the same. Rollins is very bright.  He knows what he is talking about (although I don’t always understand), and in this book where he is more directly talking about philosophy and epistemology, he is way beyond my ability.  I consider this one of those books that I read outside my comfort zone (both theologically and philosophically) to help expand my horizons.

I am not alway sure what he is talking about, and even when I am, I do not always agree with it.  But there are three ideas that I pulled out of this book that I do think are useful and/or are a different way of approaching how to speak of God.

His first tack is to take on the traditional idea of idolatry.  Not many modern people literally worship physical stone or wood idols.  But Rollins wants to move away from a concept of idol as thing.  That is common.  We have all heard sermons about turning money or security into idols.  But Rollins takes it a step further.

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