Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues by NT Wright

by

Summary: Wright at his best tells a new narrative about an old story. In this book too many issues cut short the narrative.

I am an unabashed fan of NT Wright.  I have read most of his popular level books (except the commentary series) and a few of his more academic oriented books.  I appreciate his focus on calling people to a fresh look at scripture and his ability to take scripture seriously while maintaining real academic quality.

But on the whole I was disappointed by this book.  It is a re-working of articles that have previously appeared elsewhere.  Most of them were commissioned by US journals or from chapters in books that were for US audiences, so as a Brit, he is most of the time consciously writing for the North American Evangelical audience.

His basic argument, like most of Wright, is that given historical realities of the original writers and audience, we modern readers tend to be missing the intended point of the original writers.

As with most Wright he needs to go through a fairly long narrative to be able to help the reader understand his point.  And I think that is why his full length book treatments are better than these shorter issue based chapters.

The problem is not so much the individual chapters, but that in almost every case, he has a better response in a full length books (and he frequently tells the reader that there is more to the story if you want to pick up another one of his books.) So his first three chapters on science and religion, the historical Adam and the resurrection were all better handled by his book Scripture and the Authority of God.

Read more

Slavery of Death by Richard Beck

by

slavery of death cover imageSummary: Differing perspectives on theological issues allow us to see other views and approach our views with more clarity.

I have recently started reading Richard Beck’s blog Experimental Theology. I was briefly introduced to Dr Beck 10 or 12 years ago via a mutual friend at a conference, but only recently have I started reading him.

The Slavery of Death is an attempt to explore the way that the Christus Victor model of the atonement* interacts with the way most western Christians view the relationship between Sin and Death.

The Eastern Orthodox tradition does not reject the Penal Substitution model of atonement, but they tend to emphasize the Christus Victor model as more in line with their theological positions. So much of what Beck is doing in this book is telling the story of Christianity again (for us Western Christians), but through the lens of Orthodox views.

The traditional Western story is that death was introduced to humanity (and maybe the whole world) after the sin of the garden.  But…

“According to the Orthodox, the real issue at the heart of Genesis 3 “the biblical story of “the fall” is not focused on establishing a causal model regarding the sin/death relationship and how we inherit a moral stain from our ancestors, but is mostly concerned about the etiology of death and who is to blame for introducing death into the world. In other words, the Eastern Orthodox tradition understands Genesis 3 to be more about theodicy (a story about where death came from) than soteriology (a story about where sin came from).”

Read more

The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi

by

Reposting this 2012 review because the Audiobook is today’s Audible Deal of the Day and on sale for $3.95 today only (June 7)

The Android's DreamSummary: Two trade representatives die during an interstellar trade negotiation creating an interstellar incident.  If Harry Creek does not find a particular type of sheep there might a war, one that Earth will not be able to win.

I enjoyed reading Agent to the Stars so much that I picked up another John Scalzi book.  And since it had Will Wheaton as narrator I picked up the audiobook.

Both of Scalzi’s books that I have read so far have not been primarily concerned with the science.  Instead the are science fiction settings, there are aliens, it is in the future, but it is really just the setting, not the main concern of the book.  So people that do not traditionally like science fiction might like these.

Android’s Dream is more of a spy book than a science fiction book.  Harry Creek is a former cop, a former war hero, a computer specialist and currently works for the State Department giving aliens bad news.

Read more

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis (Movie/Book Review)

by

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS LewisTakeaway: You do not need long books to tell big stories.

The thing that keeps striking me as I read through the Chronicles of Narnia recently is how short these books are. In my imagination, these are big books, maybe not Harry Potter length children’s books, but fairly weighty tomes.

The reality is that the Chronicles of Narnia are short children’s books.  The single volume of the whole series is shorter than just Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  So it seems a bit odd to me that the movies are so long.

The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe is just over 4 hours on audiobook but 2 and a half hours as a movie.

The 2005 movie is faithful and good. But it loses some of the childhood wonders of the book.  I have been reluctant to read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe as I have been reading through CS Lewis because it is such a familiar story to me.  I choose to listen to it on audiobook (in part because I ran across it at the library) but also because I wanted to re-capture being read to.  This is one of the earliest books I remember being read to me.

Read more

Behind the Candelabra by Scott Thorson and Alex Thorleifson

by

Behind The Candelabra is a memoir about Scott Thorson’s life with Liberace.  Scott recounts how he met, came to live with, love, work with, and got rejected by Liberace. Liberace was known as Mr. Showmanship as he gave extravagant performances on the piano.   While he never admitted to being homosexual, according to Thorson, Liberace led a very flamboyant life within the gay community and often would maintain homosexual relationships by hiring them onto his staff. Thorson’s memoir about their relationship and how it ended abruptly in 1982 was published in 1988 and was written after Liberace died of AIDS in 1987.

I have very mixed emotions about this book. The book itself did not feel like an act of revenge.  The book seemed to simply tell about the relationship that was a huge part of Scott Thorson and Liberace’s lives. I don’t feel like Liberace was bad mouthed or slandered.  I don’t feel like Thorson was taking pot shots at his former lover, even though he could have as Liberace was not around to defend himself.  The novel paints Liberace as a very passionate man who loves with his whole being. Unfortunately, it seems that his love fades and can be transferred quickly and become just as fierce towards the next lover.  For me, it was interesting learning about how Thorson became enveloped in Liberace’s life and came to love him deeply.  Thorson describes his relationship with Liberace (who was 40 years Thorson’s senior) as if it lasted a lifetime, but in reality it started when Thorson was 17 but was over before Thorson reached 23 years of age.

Read more

Sun Stand Still: What Happens When You Dare Ask God for the Impossible by Steven Furtick

by

I am reposting this 2010 review because Sun Stand Still is part of the June 2014 Monthly Sale. It will be $3.99 until the end of the month.

Summary: God can answer big prayers.

This book is about praying the big prayers that show that God is really in control, not us.  The kind of prayers that allow us to worship God because we know that it is only through his power that things are accomplished.

The book is a long meditation on the story of Joshua, when he prays to ask God to hold the sun so that they army of Israel will have time to finish defeating the 5 armies it was coming up against.

Read more

In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore

by

Reposting this 2011 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $1.99.

In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed (Plus)Takeaway: A bit repetitive, but the basic idea, that slowing down, enjoying life, and doing things well instead of fast is a good reminder.

Efficiency and speed are part of the world we live in.  With computers and other tools, fewer people can do more than ever before.  But instead of using the extra time, most people tend to either just do more instead of enjoying the additional products of our labor.

In Praise of Slowness is a book I first heard about from Anne Jackson.  I purchased it then (it was only $5 at the time) and it has been sitting on my shelf for a couple years.

I started reading it last week and enjoyed the basic thesis that faster is not necessarily better.  The book starts with the author seeing an ad for 1  minute bedtime stories.  He was both interested in getting the book and horrified that he had gotten to the point of efficiency that he was actually interested in being efficient in the amount of time he was spending with his child.  This started a long term investigation into speed and backlash of slow advocates.

Read more