Book Reviews – Page 157

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

January 25, 2012 by Adam Shields

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage | [Ann Patchett] Takeaway: It is really many stories of divorce (her own and those in her family) followed by an almost accidental discovery of an actually happy marriage (so far).

Marriage is both overly prized and distained in our culture. Some think it can do anything, so think it can do nothing. Some people think both.

Patchett wrote this essay for a friend. Her young friend wanted the story of Patchett’s happy marriage. And Patchett does seem to have a happy marriage by her account. She has been married about 11 years to a man she adores and who seems to be right for her and she for him.

Patchett starts not with meeting her husband the how they fell in love and got married and lived happily ever after, but with the story of many divorces in her family. Staring with her grandfather who came to the US and worked for 10 years before saving enough money to send for his family. When his wife wrote back that she wanted to come, but that she had to tell him that there were now three boys instead of two, he rescinded the offer and never saw his family again (even refusing to see the son that came to find him later in life.)

The Resignation of Eve: What if Adam’s Rib is No Longer Willing to Be the Church’s Backbone? by Jim Henderson

January 24, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: The stories of women and their views on women in church leaders, backed by statistical research can be powerful.

Women in church leadership is a touchy subject with me. As I have related in other reviews, I went to the University of Chicago Divinity School for my MDiv. My small class was more than half women, most of whom had grown up in relatively conservative church backgrounds, felt the call to be a pastor and were often quite harmed by the church on their way to seminary. Many had left the denominations that they grew up in and sought safer places to pastor.

Unfortunately, even in denominations that officially ordain and recognize women as pastors, the road is often difficult.

Jim Henderson started this project because he was seeing women leaving the church because they were being restricted by the church.

Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture by Lesslie Newbigin

January 23, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Outsiders can sometimes see us better than we can see ourselves.

Lesslie Newbigin is one of the most important Christian thinkers of the last couple decades. He was a missionary in India for 40 years before returning to teach in England. His work on missiology and culture are very important and I have read some short articles by him and had his work referred to frequently, but I think this is the first full length book of his that I have read.

I really do think that all pastors need to take some classes in cross cultural missions and translation theory. In many ways it is like requiring high school and college students to take a couple of years of a foreign language. Most students will never get enough of the language to really communicate or actually use the foreign language, but they will learn enough of the other language to take a new appreciation and perspective on English.

The Broken Gun by Louis L’Amour

January 20, 2012 by Adam Shields

The Broken Gun Takeaway: A classic western that was actually set only a couple decades ago.

Westerns were a staple of my teenage years. I was not a ‘manly man’. I have never really liked competitive sports, but I like hero stories. I think that is what I liked about the classic westerns. My uncles were big Louis L’Amour fans so I always had a ready supply of westerns whenever I wanted free books. I have read the majority of L’Amour’s books, but The Broken Gun was one I had not. For the most part L’Amour wrote historical westerns or early American settler stories. I have only read a couple of his modern stories.

The Broken Gun is a classic western, man passing through town, a murder, power and corruption beyond the reach of an under-powered but honest law system. There is a strong woman who is single (widowed in this case) that needs rescuing.

Love Walked Among Us: Learning to Love Like Jesus by Paul Miller

January 17, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Jesus did not love in some abstract ethereal way. He loved the people around him personally, physically and in a very human manner.

Love Walked Among Us is a very concrete, personal look at how we can learn to love like Jesus did. I very much enjoyed Paul Miller’s book A Praying Life. And this is very much in line with that in style.

The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl, Book 3) by Eoin Colfer

January 13, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Artemis is up to his old tricks. But this time he is outsmarted and he needs Holly to help get him (and all of the fairy world) out of trouble.

For me, young adult literature is the perfect balance to the heavier books on theology. So I read about original sin, and then I listen to an audiobook on a 13 year old criminal master mind. It is a nice way to reset the brain. Some children’s book series get too predictable (like Pendragon). It requires some good writing and not relying on what has worked before to keep a series fresh.

It is only recently that I have realized that many people do not like to read series fiction. I grew up reading westerns, science fiction and fantasy and all three genres are heavily invested in series. Once you create a world, it is hard not to go back to that world and add to it. So while there are many series that get old, I have not given up on series fiction as a category, even if I don’t have time to undertake a long series straight through like I would in high school.

The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun by Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway

January 11, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: The Christian world outside the US is much more important than what we usually acknowledge

Christian biography and autobiography is an important part of any spiritual growth. Whether you are a reader or not, you need to hear about what others have lived before you. This does not need to be in book form; movies, radio interviews, podcasts, conversations all can be part of the way that we hear from other Christians about their own spiritual lives.

Christian autobiography from non-western Christians is desperately needed to round out a vision of the church that is concerned with more than small bits of theological difference or differences in cultural engagement. Christians around the world right now are being imprisoned for their faith.

I first heard about Brother Yun (as I have about so many good books) from John Armstrong’s blog and I went back and read them as I finished up this book. It has been nearly 4 years since I first heard about the book, but I just recently got round to reading it. I should have read it much earlier.

This is a biography unlike I have read. It is reminiscent of the autobiography of Brother Andrew (the bible smuggler) I first read as a comic book as pre-teen. Brother Yun, starting when he first became a Christian at 16, was fervent in prayer. He prayed and fasted for 100 days to receive a bible (illegal and very rare in the early 1970s in China) and after 100 days a man brought him a bible. He did not just read it, he memorized large passages of scripture. Within months of receiving the bible he was asked to come preach to a nearby village. He went, but did not know what to say, so he just recited the whole book of Matthew and then the parts of Acts that he had started memorizing.

His story proceeds to tell of how he became a preacher in the underground church movement of China and how he was repeatedly imprisoned, tortured and eventually escaped out of China. Brother Yun now lives in Germany with his family and works to support the church in China.

Paul: In Fresh Perspective by NT Wright

January 9, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Paul is a formidable character and NT Wright believes he is often misunderstood.

Honestly I am not sure how to review this book. First, it is not new. I originally picked up a copy at a used books store four years ago and never got around to reading it. Christianaudio.com had a site wide sale and I picked up the audiobook.

I listened to this on and off over the past three weeks, so I did not give it the attention it really deserves. But this is really the last books that I have had on my NT Wright list before I start reading Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with NT Wright. I started it last year and felt I needed more background on NT Wright before I finished. Since then I have read 8 NT Wright books.

I Am A Follower: The Way, Truth and Life of Following Jesus by Leonard Sweet

January 3, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: “We have been told our entire lives that we should be leaders…but the truth is that the greatest way to create a movement is to be a follower and to show others how to follow. Following is the most underrated form of leadership in existence.”

I am completely convinced of the basic thesis of this book. The evangelical church in particular, is too focused on leadership, organization and numbers. What we should be focused on is following, discipleship and modeling faith.

Len Sweet gives a good defense of why our focus on leadership actually counters the gospel (that Jesus Christ is King and Lord of all). Sweet does not suggest we should have anarchy, but that we need to focus on Christ (and not any other human) as our one true leader. All others are just ‘first followers’.

One of the metaphors (about how a duck imprints on the first moving thing they see, not necessarily their mother or father) that Sweet uses at the end I think really focuses on the problem of why we need to make sure we are following Christ and not others.

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Not Really a Review of The Origin of the Bible edited by Philip Comfort

January 2, 2012 by Adam Shields

With the new Kindle Lending Library, you can borrow one book from Amazon per month if you are a Amazon Prime Member.

I have decided that I am going to experiment with books that I might not otherwise read. But I am also going to take advantage of the 1 book per month rule and if I have not finished it the book is going back to Amazon.

So I returned The Origin of the Bible at the end of December even though I only read about a quarter of the book. I often spend two or three weeks reading a book because I read between 5 and 7 books at a time. I am going to try to read a few less books at once, but that is just part of my reading style.

I just did not get into this book. I was looking for a traditional defense of the theology of scripture. This book does that, but I was unconvinced. I am convinced that scripture is important and that we as Christians need to be seeped in it. But I think debate over the term inerrency is missing the point. NT Wright’s book on scripture was right, scripture has authority because God has authority, and it is his word.