Bookwi.se – Page 202 – A few thoughts about books, kindles and Christianity

Send to Kindle App (For Windows PCs)

January 13, 2012 by Adam Shields

Amazon released an app to make getting your documents from your computer to your kindle just a bit easier. It only works on Windows PCs, but seems to work well and I would guess that it will be released on other platforms soon. I frequently use email to send documents to my kindle, which is … Read more

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.

Bookwi.se Reviewed Books on Scripture, Inspiration and Hermenutics

January 10, 2012 by Adam Shields

Bookwi.se Reviewed Books Directly On Scripture Inspiration and/or Hermenutics

I am not at the end of my exploration of scripture and how we should be understanding and using it in our modern world. But I think that I have a better handle on how to proceed. These are very challenging books and I would encourage you to read them in a group because we are all necessarily limited and need the prompting of others to help us work through out scripture issues. If you want to explore scripture and how we should think about it, I would read these books in this order as a way to get started, Scripture and The Authority of God, The Lost World of Genesis One, Incarnation and Inspiration and then The Bible Made Impossible. Each have different issues and come at scripture in different ways. But taken as a whole are a good introduction.

Scripture and the Authority of God by NT Wright (Second Reading Review)

Scripture and The Authority of God is a reworking of a 2005 book, The Last Word and I think is the most accessible and best book of Wright’s that I have read. The basic thesis of this book is that the authority of scripture is completely dependent on the authority of God. So there is no separate authority of scripture apart from God. This seems fairly uncontroversial, but it is important. Overall, this is a book that I think that many should read. It moves far beyond the discussion of “˜literal reading’ of scripture or how we should talk about inspiration. And it does it in a way that is patient and graceful to all sides.

Bookwi.se Reviewed Books on the Holy Spirit

January 9, 2012 by Adam Shields

Since Bookwi.se now has more than 400 book reviews, I felt it was time to start making the back catalogue a bit more useful. Over the next couple weeks I am going to add a series of topical books review summaries that highlight particular book subject areas. This will be a bit subjective and I plan to continually update these posts. At some point I will add a page that lists all of the subject areas to make it easier to browse. I am a topical reader. I tend to read at least 4 or 5 books in an area over a six month period before moving onto another areas. I want to make this useful for people, so if anyone has a suggestion about renaming the category (currently a very boring ‘Book Review Topical Index’) or suggestions for navigation I am very open.

Books Reviews Directly on the Holy Spirit

Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit by Clark H Pinnock

I think that the Holy Spirit is quite neglected, both in my own theology and in general among most Christians. Some Christians seem to have replaced the Holy Spirit with the Holy Scripture as the third member of the trinity. The book started out with one of the best theologies of the Trinity that I have ever read.

If you read one book on the Holy Spirit, this should be it.

Who is the Holy Spirit: A Walk with the Apostles by Amos Yong

Yong uses the paralellism of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles to look at how the Holy Spirit empowers Christians to work in the world. What is most interesting is the use of Luke and Acts to compare the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The biggest problem of the book is that it is a little too wide ranging. It it were a bit more focused I think the argument would have been a bit better. There are times when Yong spends so much time talking about the work that the Holy Spirit is doing through the apostles that the Holy Spirit almost drops out of the picture. That being said, it is well worth reading.

Book Give Away

January 9, 2012 by Adam Shields

I have been cleaning up my house and decided that it is time to give away some books. Most of them I purchased and read before I stared Bookwi.se, a couple of them are review copies.

Here are the rules. Ask for the book(s) you want. Please only ask if you are going to read them. If you ask for more than one book, I would like you to post at least one review on Bookwi.se. Anyone is free to write up a short review (whether or not the book has been previously reviewed on Bookwi.se). I will pay for all shipping.

Here are the books:

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.

Got some books to give away

January 6, 2012 by Adam Shields

I have had a very nice Christmas break. I have not worked hardly at all and I honestly have not read all that much either. I misplaced my kindle somewhere (I lose pretty much everything, and usually it will turn up eventually.) Today my wife and I worked on cleaning out two closets and turning … Read more

Movie “Red”, Spy Thrillers and a Deal

January 4, 2012 by Adam Shields

I watch the movie Red tonight with my wife. I really like spy thrillers, especially the post-cold war spy thrillers. I find it interesting that from multiple angles, different story-tellers are staring to deal with the retirement of those wet-work spies from the late cold war or near term post-cold war. Red is a fun (not all that serious) movie. The bad guys are using the government for their own personal gain. And the retired good guys have to stop them.

It was a decent movie. But if you like a good spy novel that deals with some overlapping themes here are a few I recommend. (Links are to my reviews).

Once a Spy and Twice a Spy – both are about a retired spy that has developed Alzheimer’s. No one know what he is capable of and what he remembers. There is real humor and some real issues with both aging and Alzheimers and spy masters.

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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