Book Reviews

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Reposting my 2014 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale this week.

Summary: An Exploration of the life of Jeremiah as a model for excellence in the Christian life.

I have long appreciated Eugene Peterson’s writing and model of ministry.  But it has been a couple years since I last picked up one of his books.

Run With the Horses was on sale a couple weeks ago but wasn’t one of his books that was really on my radar.  My tendency is to resist books that are about finding a better life or excellence or leadership.  Not because I think those ideas are not biblical, but because that type of language rarely speaks to me.  I am not a leader; I am strongly anticompetitive.  Some of this is my own sin and weakness coming out.

I believe that excellence is over blown in our culture and in our churches.  Eugene Peterson is not someone that I think of when I think of calls toward excellence.  He is more of a mundane Christian. So when Peterson speaks of excellence, he is mostly redefining the terms.

As a pastor I encourage others to live at their best and provide guidance in doing it. But how do I do this without inadvertently inciting pride and arrogance? How do I stimulate an appetite for excellence without feeding at the same time a selfish determination to elbow anyone aside who gets in the way? Insistent encouragement is given by many voices today for living a better life. I welcome the encouragement. But the counsel that accompanies the encouragement has introduced no end of mischief into our society, and I am in strenuous opposition to it. The counsel is that we can arrive at our full humanness by gratifying our desires. It has been a recipe for misery for millions.[4] The biblical counsel in these matters is clear: “œnot my will but thine be done.” But how do I guide people to deny self without having that misunderstood as encouraging them to be doormats on which others wipe their feet? The difficult pastoral art is to encourage people to grow in excellence and to live selflessly, at one and the same time to lose the self and find the self. It is paradoxical, but it is not impossible.

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