Summary: Exploration of modern Evangelical history and culture through the discussion of five novels. I am a Christian fiction skeptic. It is not that I don’t think there are good Christian fiction novels, but experience suggests that those Christian novels that are good, are likely not being published, or not being published by Christian publishers. … Read more
Takeaway: Amazingly, there has not been a good biography of Thurman in so long. This is the third book by or about Howard Thurman I have read this year, and I have started re-reading the fourth. Howard Thurman is not as well known as I would like. But he was an influential mentor, teacher, and … Read more
Summary: Memoir and social criticism, mostly focusing on 1963 to 1969, but with excursions to his childhood. Lots of reflection on the deaths of MLK, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and others. I picked up No Name in the Street because it was so heavily referenced in Eddie Glaude’s recent book Begin Again. No … Read more
Summary: American Christianity has slowly adopted a Jesus that looks and acts a lot like John Wayne, and that has distorted Christianity. When I first heard about Jesus and John Wayne, I had it connected to books on Christian Nationalism, like Taking America Back for God, maybe because that is how Matthew Lee Anderson framed … Read more
Summary: The memoir of one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. It was not until last year that I read Their Eyes Were Watching God, the best known of Zora Neale Hurston. Last week, The Zora Canon, a list of the 100 best books by Black women, named in her honor, was … Read more
Summary: A look at how five Christians have used rhetoric to impact the church. One of my goals over the next couple of years is to think more clearly about how people’s minds are changed. I purposely say that in the passive voice, because while you can influence the changing of minds, you cannot as … Read more
Summary: Pop culture connections to the gospel and biography the way it is supposed to be done. I have long been a subscriber to Christ and Pop Culture Magazine. Seeing glimpses of God in art is one of the best ways I know of to communicate about Christ to people who are not Christians. But … Read more
Summary: A flawed but worth-reading argument for pursuing meaning and rejecting hyper-individualism. I was reluctant to pick The Second Mountain up. I watched several interviews with him, and many of those interviews were interesting, but they seemed to be talking about a couple of different books, ranging from a personal self-help book to an extended … Read more
Summary: Provocative and helpful look at how race impacts Theology and Missions. I have been VERY slowly reading Can White People Be Saved. Over the past three and a half months that it took me to work through a little over 200 pages actual text I spent a lot of time thinking and re-reading. I … Read more
Every year I create reading goals and mostly fail at them. My goals are rough guidelines, more than hard goals. This year I accomplished some of them. I had a goal to finish the fiction of three authors. I finished all of Marilynne Robinson and Flannery O’Connor’s fiction. But I still have one more Octavia … Read more