Book Reviews

Summary: A classic book of advice for young pastors and theologians.

I have previously read A Little Book for New Theologians: Why and How to Study Theology, which is intentionally an update of Helmut Thielicke’s classic.  I saw that the original was on kindle for less than $5 and decided to read the original as well.

A Little Exercise for Young Theologians is short.  I read it in two short sittings.  Most of the chapters are only 3 or 4 pages long.  Much of it is advice of a similar sort to the updated version I had already read. (I would advice reading both, but with some time between.)

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Takeaway: What we believe and how we act is important to who we are as Christians. (Just wish the book was more about that.)

I really want to like this book more than I did. I agree with the main point, that in order to live a holy life, and to have strong church, we need to pay more attention to catechesis (the teaching of the faith.)  And I am encouraged that Packer rightly treats teaching as broader than knowledge to include teaching toward right action as well.  This right action includes a good explanation of the sacraments of baptism and eucharist.

The problem with the book isn’t the ideas (or the actual content of the teaching), the problem is that Packer spends a lot of the books sounding like a grumpy old man complaining about those kids on his lawn.

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Takeaway: Pregnancy, as spiritual discipline and holy work, is often not as valued in the Evangelical world as it should be.  This book does much to rectify that.

A couple week ago, while Paraclete Press was having a $2.99 sale on all of their kindle books I picked this up.

Regular reading of this blog should know by now that I read in large part to process.  I read fiction both to relax, but also get different perspectives on how the world works.  I read theology and biblical studies to work through issues of faith, believe and understanding.  I read history to process how the world has come to be and how we have and have not learned from our mistakes as a society.  I read economics and social sciences to process how human behave, interact and work.

So it is only natural that I start reading about pregnancy as an expectant Dad.

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Takeaway: A perfect book to read Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

Silence is a difficult book.  It is not difficult to read but it is difficult because of the complex picture of Christianity that it presents. I can understand why so many people love and many others find it near heresy.

Silence was written in 1966 by Shusaku Endo.  Shusaku Endo was a Japanese Catholic and wrote this historical novel about the 17th century persecution of Christianity in Japan.

The story follows a Portuguese Jesuit Priest that sneaks into Japan to minister to the local persecuted Christian community and find out if it is true that his former mentor Father Ferreira has committed apostasy (denied Christ.)

Japan is one of the historical examples of where the ‘blood of martyrdom’ was not the ‘seed of the church’ as Tertullian put it.  The Christian community in Japan grew quickly after Francis Xavier (founder of the Jesuits) first brought the message of Christianity there in 1549.  There were several hundred thousand Christians in Japan by the time the first persecutions started.

In 1597, 26 Christians were crucified.  Later persecutions occurred in 1613, 1630 and 1632.  But after the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638, where a peasant revolt was put down (many of whom were Catholic Christians), the ban on Christianity was strongly enforced.

Silence is set in 1638 just after the Shimabara Rebellion. Father Rodrigues and his companion Father Garrpe find a village of Christians and secretly minister to them.  But soon they are discovered and escape so they will not bring problems to the village.  Their escape is too late and several villagers are tortured and killed.  The priest split up to reach more people and hopefully be harder to find.

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