That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis (Space Trilogy #3)

by

That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis (Space Trilogy #3)Summary: A woman starts having dreams about the future, and her estranged husband, a college Don, starts working with a secretive research organization called NICE.

Over the past couple months I have read the CS Lewis’ Space Trilogy (or Ransom Trilogy) for the first time.  And as a fan of CS Lewis, it is odd to me that I have not picked it up before.  Each of the three are quite different both in content and style.  The first feels like an early HG Wells science fiction novel. Professor Ransom is kidnapped and taken to Mars, where he discovers an ancient civilization that has never had sin introduced into it as the Earth has.

The second novel, Perelandra, continues with the same theme of sin being introduced into the world, but this time Ransom is taken to Venus to prevent an Eve-like character from falling prey to a human possessed by the devil and trying to get her disobey God and sin, just as he did with the original Eve on earth.  This book felt less like an HG Wells novel and more directly Christian fiction almost bordering on allegory, similar to a modern Pilgrims Progress.

The final novel of the trilogy includes Ransom, but only in the later part of the book.  Instead a young Don (British professor) and his wife and the main characters.  And from early on this feels like George Orwell’s 1984.  NICE is a secretive government research project that is trying to take over their local community and eventually the whole country.

Read more

How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories from Prominent Evangelicals

by

 

How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership: Compelling Stories ...Takeaway: Stories make a difference. Listening to how people change their mind over difficult issues is a good exercise whether you are interested in this particular issue or not.

I will tell you up front, I am in favor of the ordination of women. The only theological issue that I have with my current church (which I love) is that women are not ordained and do not serve on the Board of Elders (although there are a significant numbers of women staff).

I first heard of this book when John Armstrong blogged about it (he wrote the first chapter.) It has taken me five months to get around to reading it, but I very enthusiastically encourage you to listen to these stories no matter what your position.

Of course it is a bit repetitive (there are 22 chapters by 26 separate people, several couples jointly wrote chapters.) But I think it is repetitive in a good way, because there are many people that have similar stories about how they have come to understand that women in church leadership is a good and appropriate direction for the church as a whole.

Read more

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

by

The Book ThiefSummary: Story of a young German girl during World War II who finds meaning through stealing books.

It is always hard to come to a book with high expectations.  The Book Thief has won a ton of prizes, lots of people list it as one of their all time favorite books.  But it was just not on my radar when it came out in 2006.

The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel, who is 9 years old at the beginning of the story.  The story is narrated by Death, who does not really reveal himself until late in the book, but it is clear who he is.

Death first met Liesel when her brother dies on a train.  Liesel steals a book (that was dropped in the snow) during her brother’s funeral.  That book becomes a totem of her brother and when Liesel is left with a foster family, it is that book (and the love of her foster father who eventually teaches her to read) that brings her through the nightmares of her brother’s death and her mother’s abandonment.

Read more

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins (Underworld Chronicles #2)

by

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins (Underland Chronicles #2)Summary: Gregor leave New York to find his baby sister Boots, who has been kidnapped.

A few months ago, Gregor and his 2 year old sister Boots were sucked into the Underworld.  There giant Rats, Cockroaches, Bats compete, along with Humans to survive and thrive in a vast world of caves, underground rivers and seas.

After rescuing his missing father, Gregor and his sister return to their home in New York City.  But on a sledding trip in Central Park, Boots is kidnapped and Gregor has to go save her.

It is not too long before we find out that Boots was kidnapped for her own safety by the Cockroaches (who are devoted to Boots) to save her from the Rats that are trying to kill her.

Read more

Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic

by

Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical CatholicSummary: Evangelical Philosopher tells his story of conversion to Catholicism.

Over the past 18 months or so I have been reading a variety of books about Catholicism.  This was partially sparked by a friend that became Catholic, but just as much it is about understanding a large segment of the church that I do not have real experience with.

If we take John 17 seriously, then Jesus was praying that the church (universal) be one.  And a church that does not at least strive to understand those that are in different streams cannot be one.  So I read one or two books a month outside of my Evangelical background to better understand parts of the church that are outside of my experience.

I have found that conversion stories are particularly helpful.  In part because people that convert out of the evangelical world still understand it and are well placed to be able to speak in a language that Evangelicals will understand and can act as mediators between the worlds.

Francis Beckwith is a Christian philosopher, former head of the Evangelical Theological Society and current professor at Baylor University.  This is a short book.  I remember the small dust up his conversion caused in 2007.  But I have not actually read anything by him previously and did not really know much about his work.

Read more

New Kindle Fire Tablets

by

New Kindle Fire HDX

Overnight Amazon released three new Kindle Fire Tablets.

The Kindle Fire HD now starts at $139 making it the cheapest of the tablets, just $20 more than the new Kindle Paperwhite.  It will start shipping on Oct 2.  This is a slightly different version of the Kindle Fire HD that was released at $199 last year.  The processor is faster (1.5 GHz dual core instead of a 1.2 GHz dual core).  But the screen has the same specs.  It also comes with a smaller 8 or 16 GB of memory instead of the 16 or 32 GB of Memory from last year’s model.  Presumably to save money, it also has dropped the ambient light sensor, camera and microphone (so no Skype or video conferencing).  The battery is also rated at 10 hours instead of last year’s 11 hours and takes 2 more hours to fully charge.

Read more

The Elite by Kiera Cass (The Selection #2)

by

The Elite by Kiera Cass (The Selection #2)

Takeaway: To work within to transform the system or fight outside the system, that is the question.

I was less than thrilled with the first book in this series, The Selection.  It is a mix between a Hunger Games dystopian-lite and the bachelor with a young adult romance candy on top.  (A prince is required by law to use a bachelor type game show to choose his bride in a dystopian North America.)

But there was enough in the book that I went ahead and got the second book (these are audiobooks from the library, so I am not investing too much here.)  While I was frustrated at the beginning with the ‘why would he like me, I am just a nobody’ vibe, it did get better.

Read more

The Civil War as Theological Crisis by Mark Noll

by

The Civil War as Theological Crisis by Mark NollTakeaway: Cultural blind spots affect our reading of scripture far more than we realize.

There are very few books I have recommended more over the past year or so than Mark Noll’s The Civil War as Theological Crisis.  It has been about over a year since I originally read and reviewed it, so I thought it was a good time to read it again (that and the price dropped.)

One of the clear takeaways from this book is that we often do not see our own cultural blind spots.  For instance, an argument that most pro-slavery Christians did not hear or respond to is that the main difference between American Slavery and the slavery of biblical times was that American Slavery was racially based.  Because civil war era White Christians were so convinced that Blacks as a race were inferior it was inconceivable to most that there could be non-racially based slavery or that free Blacks could or should be considered equal to Whites.  And this was true for the vast majority of Christians whether they were from the North or the South, and whether they were for or against slavery.

Read more