Book Reviews – Page 95

Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans

June 15, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: Roughly based on the seven sacraments of the Catholic church, Rachel Held Evans explores her history of leaving the church, helping to plant a church and then eventually finding another church.

I tend to think that people that do not like Rachel Held Evans’ writing are people that do not need Rachel Held Evans’ writing. This is circular I know, but Evans has a particular audience and I think that audience needs her or someone like her. But many others do not find encouragement from her and do not identify with her story, I think that people that are frustrated with Evans should consider themselves blessed.

Evans is a skeptic and doubter. She is a Christian and loves the church and even loves the Evangelicalism that shaped her (and scarred her). But she also is frustrated by the church and many in the church that have no place for doubt, investigation or marginalized people.

Anyone that knows of Evans is unsurprised that the book opens with her frustration with the church. Through the book, there is a clear arc. Evans grows up in the church, is “˜on fire for Jesus’, becomes skeptical, starts exploring the skepticism, eventually leaves the church because of her frustration with it, then helps to plant a church that attempts to live out what she believes the church should be, that church plant fails and over the next couple of years she slowly makes her way into the Episcopal church.

A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

June 12, 2015 by Adam Shields

I am reposting this 2012 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale as part of the Kindle Big Deal sale through June 28th for $2.99. (Note: I just finished her latest book and will review it next week. It is I think her best book so far.) Summary: I recommend the book, but I … Read more

Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts

June 8, 2015 by Adam Shields

I am reposting this 2010 review because the audiobook is the Audible deal of the Day and on sale for $3.95
Takeaway: The human brains ability to justify and rationalize mistakes is enormous, useful and incredibly dangerous. There are huge implications for every facet of life.

This is a wide ranging and enormously interesting book on memory, retention and and self justification. The basic idea is that our brains are designed to minimize Cognitive Dissonance. Our brains will re-write memory and selectively remember details or give us other means to repress or eliminate Cognitive Dissonance.

Early in the book there are a number of examples of government, journalism and scientists that believe that they did nothing wrong while external evidence suggest otherwise. One of the most egregious, is the first study that showed a link between autism and vaccines. The lead author of the study was being paid on the side by class action lawyers (over $800,000) as an expert witness and researcher into the connection between autism and vaccines. The link was not disclosed and the research study continues to be influential even after it has been widely disproven by additional studies.

Another interesting example are the gifts given to doctors by drug companies. Drug companies know that small gifts are very effective in creating obligation to the drug companies, but large gifts, especially early in the relationship will make the doctors feel like they are being bribed. One of the important insights from this section is that often people do small things that are not wrong, but once they are a situation, end up doing many things that they would not have considered if they started with that action. For instance, Watergate did not start as a break in, but by the time all the players were in the game, it was easy to justify something that most of them would have never participated in had the idea of a break-in and cover-up been originally on the table.

A Dirty Job: A Novel by Christopher Moore

June 6, 2015 by Adam Shields

Reposting this 2011 review because the Kindle Edition is the Amazon Deal of the Day and on sale for $1.99 today only.
Takeaway: Funny, but very irreverent look at the life of a ‘death dealer’.

This is my second Christopher Moore book. I picked up Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, on the recommendation of a friend. It is a novel about Jesus narrated by his childhood friend Biff. You can assume it was irreverent. But I enjoyed the humor and all in all, I thought Jesus was treated fairly respectfully in a satirical novel.

In A Dirty Job, Asher, a resale shop owner becomes a “Death Dealer”. Death Dealers are people that take soul containers (the physical objects that hold people’s souls once they die, usually a beloved possession) and then pass them on to a new person. The theology behind this is an odd bit of Tibetan Buddhism with Karma and reincarnation but unlike any actual religion that I am aware of.

There is some slight overlap between Piers Anthony’s On a Pale Horse, which also deals with a man that assumes the position of death. But in A Dirty Job, Asher is one of many regular people that become death dealers. Of course the concept of death and life are explored. But Moore seems more interested in the concept of the Beta Male, the guy that is never in charge and never stands out, but is always doing what it takes to get by. Asher is a good example of a Beta Male. He is a good father and would have made a good husband, but his wife dies immediately after childbirth which in some way leads to him originally becoming a Death Dealer.

Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture

June 2, 2015 by Adam Shields

I am reposting a lightly edited version of my 2010 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $2.99. This is the first time the book has been on sale since 2013 according to ereaderiq’s price history.

Summary: A look at how the church needs introverts and how introverts can survive the church.

Some books have important ideas but others books are important for a more personal reason. I do think this is an important book, but it is also one that even early on really is causing me to think about my own Christian life. Hello world, I am an introvert. I have been identifying more and more introverted tendencies in my life over the past few years.

The author starts by showing examples of how United States (and in general western culture) and particularly Evangelical culture is oriented toward extroverts. He gives many examples about how participation oriented US churches are extroverted (and why introverts often resist the strong participatory oriented focus.)

One of the strongest points of the book is how much the author relies on his own story and the stories of a large number of people interviewed for the book. The real stories give the book weight that would not be the case with just statistics. On the negative side, I think that for some extroverts and even some mild introverts the stories will occasionally seem like complaining. But that is at least part of the point. Different people have different tolerances for different activities and they are made by God to be that way.

Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness by Eric Metaxas

May 19, 2015 by Adam Shields

Reposting this 2014 review because the Kindle Edition of Seven Men is on sale for $1.99.
Summary: Short Biographies of seven men that Metaxas thinks we should view as role models and heroes.

Seven Men is the third books I have read by Eric Metaxas. I liked Metaxas Bonhoeffer biography (although even I as a non-Bonhoeffer scholar caught several mistakes.) But I really was not a fan of his William Wilberforce biography. Mostly that was because it felt more like hagiography.

But after reading Seven Men I realize that the Wilberforce book was his first biography. Bonhoeffer was significantly better than Wilberforce. And Seven Men I think corrected several of the problems of the Bonhoeffer biography.

The men included in this book are George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, Pope John Paul II and Charles Colson (presented in historical order). I am pleased that Metaxas included John Paul II. Too many Evangelicals want to ignore Catholics. I definitely view that as a point in Metaxas’ favor.

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy With God by Tim Keller

May 18, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: It is much easier reading about prayer than actually praying.

I have read a ton of books on prayer. About a year ago, some book that I don’t remember suggested that we as Christians should stop reading about things we are not prepared to put into practice immediately (because it can inoculate us against actual change.) So I have tried, somewhat successfully, to lay off of Christian Living books and focus on Christian history, biography, informational non-fiction and fiction. Roughly 2/3 of the books I have read this year have been either fiction or Christian History/Biography.

But after virtually universal 5 star reviews, when I saw Prayer by Tim Keller as an audiobook on Scribd’s subscription program I picked it up. It would have been a very different read if I had not just read Rowan Williams’ book on CS Lewis and Narnia. Williams was such a good example of generous reading that I really was conflicted about how often I was frustrated by this book.

I want to start positively. Toward the end of the book there is a significant section about prayers of repentance and confession. I do not think I have ever read a general book on prayer that also spent time on confession and repentance, and Keller did it well. I was convicted, but also I think Keller did a great job helping to illustrate what it means to truly repent.

That was followed up by an even better practical section on how to actually pray and put into practice the theological reflections of the majority of the rest of the book. It was practical, still based in theological understanding of what we are doing and why we are doing it, and I think what many were probably looking for when they picked up the book. The problem is that many of the people that were looking for the practical prayer suggestions, probably did not make it to the end of the book.

So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church by Leonard Sweet

May 14, 2015 by Adam Shields

Reposting this a lightly edited version of this 2009 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $2.99.

Takeaway: Christianity is about a life lived, more than beliefs understood.

If you don’t know about ChristianAudio, then you are missing out on at least a half dozen really good free audiobooks a year. They give away one audiobook a month free. Most people will be interested in a least some of them. Other books that they have given away this year that I downloaded are Crazy Love by Francis Chan, Desiring God by John Piper, Just Courage by Gary Hougen, The Mark of a Christian by Francis Schaffer, Jesus of Myth and History by NT Wright (a lecture), and Spiritual Disciplines for a Christian Life by Donald Whitney.

While I am glad I listened to this (I have never read a full book by Leonard Sweet as far as I can remember), his writing style in this book makes audio a less than ideal format. There is a ton of great content here. The quotes alone are worth the book, but there are so many quotes and so many asides it is hard to follow the main train of the thought. (Although it may be that listening to it while doing data entry late at night is not the best time and situation either.)

Clearly Sweet is a smart guy. He is quoting from all over the place (and defends quoting from all over the place in a brief aside, where he quotes Augustine saying, “A person who is a good and true Christian should realize that truth belongs to his Lord, wherever it is found, gathering and acknowledging it even in pagan literature.’) But part of my attraction to him and my frustration with this book in its audio form, is that is take a wide range of paradoxical and disparate lines of reasoning and recreates them in line of reasoning that is full of (intentionally) continued paradox.

Sweet wants us to see the Christian life not as a series of beliefs but as a life. He uses the acronym MRI (Missonal, Relational and Incarnational) as a way to show exactly how our living is changed when it is based around ‘channeling’ Christ.

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography

May 13, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: Neil Patrick Harris plays with the old choose your own adventure format while telling his own story.

I like Neil Patrick Harris. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and for the most part, this book makes me like him even more.

I listened to the audiobook (it was part of my Scribd subscription). So I did not really get choose my own way through the book. The audiobook runs straight through, with a few hints to the format (it introduces the next two or three sections at once in a teaser format.) True to the format there are lots of fake death scenes and as a good celebrity bio, it is funny. (Everyone that I know that commented on this prior to my reading it, read it straight through anyway.)

It was occasionally a bit tedious, I was a bit bored through the description of the fourth time he hosted the Emmy’s after good descriptions of the previous three. But I was engaged for most of the book.

The Next Story by Tim Challies (Summary Review)

May 12, 2015 by Adam Shields

I am reposting my 2011 review of The Next Story. There is now an expanded and revised version of the book, so it may have addressed some of my criticisms, but I have not read the revised version yet.

Takeaway: Technology is too important to not think about deeply. If anything can become an idol, then the things we spend most of our time and effort interacting with should be examined.

Normally, I write a review immediately after I read a book. And often will takes some notes about what I want to write as I read the book. Some books just have so much material that it is hard to deal with in one 400-500 word review. By the time I finished the book I already had about 1600 words written and no one really wants to read a 1600 word book review.

So I am going to write a summary review now. Then I am going to write two more posts to round out my thoughts about the book.

First, I think that while there are some issues I disagree with, I think this is a book that worth reading by many that want to think seriously about how we as Christians interact with culture, technology, transition and faith. Even when I disagree with him on some issues, I think he is respectful of the subject, is consistent theologically and he is pastorally and practically focused.